During the spring semester of 1997 Common Ground invited Dr. Michael Hamm, the faculty advisor of Rutgers University student run organic farm we modeled ourselves after, to speak at UVM on their farm and other community fresh-food initiatives he was involved in. Students were energized by Dr. Hamm’s visit and they made contact with his former students. Indeed, at dinner in Burlington they were out numbered by two to one by Rutgers’ graduates.
Jon Hartland managed the CSA farm during the summer of 1997 with the help of Stacey Schuster (Environmental Studies), Caitlin Brady (PSS) and Christina Fabrey (PSS). The cliental expanded to 9 shareholders and shares increased in price to $120 with delivery to campus. Thirteen Vermont Youth Corp high school students spent an afternoon at the farm this summer to learn about vegetable production. They weeded corn and counted and ID’ed beneficial and pest insects.
Jon develop intensive record keeping to help the Common Ground determine how much needs to be grown and when transplants need to be started in the greenhouse to get the crops desired. He developed a system to remove the field heat from vegetables, which improve quality, and recorded the amounts of produce grown and given to each shareholder client. Our estimates were at least 200 pounds of vegetables. Jon also experimented with growing cover crops to control weeds a major problem on the site. He built cold-frames, learned how to use the grain drill and experimented with different grains to increase his hands-on education.
