The HampshireCollege Farm Fall Newsletter, 2007
The Farm as Classroom
Family and Friends Weekend
Friday, 10/12 3:30–4:30 p.m.
East Lecture Hall Franklin Patterson Hall
In this panel presentation, faculty, staff, and students will talk about how the Hampshire Farm features in their research and teaching and the student group ‘Friends of Fermentation’ will talk about what the farm means to them. Panelists include Associate Professor of Public Health Elizabeth Conlisk, Farm Manager Leslie Cox, Professor of Linguistics Mark Feinstein, CSA Program Manager Nancy Hanson, Assistant Professor of Physiology Cynthia Gill, Assistant Professor of Evolution and Cognition Sarah Partan and Associate Professor of Entomology and Ecology Brian Schultz.
The Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA) provides fresh, nutritious, local food to the campus and local community. Many students also enjoy the learning-while-working experience. (#) students are employed as work-study on the Farm.
The Farm and NS217 welcomed 120 RenaissanceSchool students for a day-long September workshop. The middle school students will sell vegetables all season to support
a Springfield-area food bank.
Sampler of courses that use the Farm:
NS107 Sustainable Living
CS123 Animal Communication Across the Senses SS130T Farming In America
NS142 The Unknown Microbial Majority
NS150 Agriculture, Ecology, & Society
NS163 Biomass Energy
NS170 Kitchen Ecology
CS179 Field Methods in Animal Behavior
NS195 Pollution and our Environment
NS217 Agriculture, Food, and Human Health
NS218 Plant Biology
NS221 Comparative Animal Physiology
NS257 The Microbial Farm
NS276 Elements of Sustainability
CS279 Cognition Behavior, Domestic Animals
SS287 Meeting Lacan: Couch,Arts, and Farm
NS292 Stream Ecology
NS294 Sustainable Agriculture & Organic Farming
NS369Sustainable Agriculture Seminar
ENTOMOL 597A (UMass) Insect-Plant Interactions
Research at the Farm
Profile: Brian Schultz, Assoc. Professor of Entomology and Ecology. Brianuses the farm for both research and teaching and mixes the two often.He says, “I do summer and fall organic pest management experiments at the farm with staff and students, and teach courses (NS150, NS294) that involve research and production according to the seasons”. Brian has been doing research on the potato leafhopper insect for several summers, finding that an organic pyrethrin spray keeps the insects’ numbers below the so-called economic thresholds without hurting natural enemies. Many students also do research on the farm as part of independent or Div III projects.
Mounds of SAGA compost turning into soil. Hampshire can be proud of sustainability practices such as composting our food waste. Careful of messing up the mix with your forks, though!
Brian and Nancy Hanson, the farm CSA manager, got a SARE grant last year to study organic methods to control cucumber beetles in squash. They’ve found that borders of blue hubbard squash reduce beetle entry into a main crop of winter squash, that the microbial pesticide Entrust is better than vacuuming for border control, and that a clay-based pest repellent reduces pest numbers in the main crop.With Farm Manager, Leslie Cox, Brian is also working on a biofuel grass experiment, with the idea of seeing how yields can be affected by various cutting schedules modeled after rotational grazing practices.
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