Though the campus seems to clear out over the summer, many students choose to stay in Northfield, either working at Carleton or with one of the many summer opportunities sponsored by the college. One hub of activity that remains summer-long is the effort to locally and sustainably feed these students, as well as the community members and visitors that use the college and the resources while the majority of the student body is away.
The Carleton Student Farm is perhaps the only part of the college that scales up over the summer. Run by two Carleton students for year-long terms at a time (from winter to winter), the Farm Interns work full-time over the summer, experiencing life as a farmer running an independent business. As summer is prime season for many of the crops they grow, interns Molly Ross ’17 and Sarah Goldman ’17 are kept busy harvesting and selling to Carleton’s food management service, Bon Appétit, who use the farm’s produce to make up a significant portion of the summer meal plan’s fresh vegetables. Additionally, farm produce is served at summer events and programs, such as the annual college reunion in late June. The interns, however, cannot focus all of their attention on the summer produce, as they also must be planning and planting for the fall harvest season, when they will grow enough produce to supply both of Carleton’s dining halls at peak capacity. Amidst all this, Ross and Goldman work to build community around the farm, hosting regular work days so students, professors, and community members may come together and volunteer, trying their hand at harvesting, planting, and especially weeding! For their efforts, volunteers are rewarded with the satisfaction of positively contributing to their local food system, or even one of Ross’s homemade burritos.
Another active food project on campus, Eat the Lawn, makes significant impact in the summer. For students living on campus or in Northfield, but not on the meal plan, access to fresh, local vegetables can be cost prohibitive. Playing off the “Food Not Lawns” movement, Eat the Lawn was established to change over a portion of the college’s unused green space into a community vegetable garden, providing produce to all who care to pick it. A small, student-run project, Eat the Lawn nonetheless has significant impact, especially in the summer months when it is highly productive. Seeking to make it more than a material resource, student managers host weekly visiting and volunteer times. Some students stop by to learn about what vegetables are growing at Eat the Lawn and how to cook them, such as spicy arugula or spinach-like Swiss chard. Others stop by to lend a hand with weeding and swap gardening tips, continuing to grow the local food systems community on campus.
Soon, the full student body will be back on campus, and the food systems community will be ramping up for the busy fall season. Much of the prep work for the fall, however, happens over the summer, and provides a steady stream of local, fresh produce to students on campus over the break.