Following my First-Year Trip at Dartmouth’s Organic Farm, I considered myself a near-expert agriculturalist. In the handful of days I spent at the O Farm, pulling the occasional weed from the rows of squash — or more often snacking on ripe cherry tomatoes — I felt nature-bathed and rejuvenated before the start of the year.
Small farms in New Hampshire or Vermont are instrumental to Dartmouth and the Upper Valley, from supplying Dartmouth Dining with fresh produce, to selling at local farmers markets to hosting events — like fall festivals — throughout the year. Dartmouth students visit local farms for the quintessential fall experience, but this week I decided to highlight some of these local agricultural destinations.
Produce is deeply tied to the Dartmouth community, which is encapsulated by Patch Orchards in Lebanon. According to Barbara Patch, the orchard, which has been in her husband Matthew Patch’s family since 1775, specializes in maple syrup and cider.
Patch Orchards has strong ties to the College as well. I spoke with Barbara Patch as she was counting apple cider donuts for a reunion event hosted by the Tuck School of Business. As both a produce supplier and the mother of two alumni, Patch said that “Dartmouth has been very good” to her family’s company.
“We’ve been doing business with Dartmouth, with maple syrup and apples for probably 10, 15 years,” Patch said. According to her, the farm also receives visits from several sports teams and graduate programs on autumnal outings.
Josh Patch ’09, an eighth-generation Patch family farmer, added that it was “always nice to get [to the farm] off campus … [to] get away from the bubble in Hanover,” during his time as a student.
According to Josh Patch, every fall, his family’s orchard hosts apple picking, an autumnal farmstand and a corn maze. The farm attracts students and tourists alike for its picturesque view of Vermont’s Green Mountains during peak foliage, he added.
Thirty minutes from campus in Plainfield, N.H., Edgewater Farm plays a similarly important role in the Dartmouth community as a produce distributor.
According to Raymond Sprague, whose parents purchased the land in 1974, the Sprague family initially treated Edgewater as a part-time asparagus and pick-your-own-strawberry business. After 50 years of running Edgewater, though, the Spragues have expanded operations and become a produce supplier to Dartmouth Dining. The Spragues’ business partnership with the College was years in the making, Raymond Sprague said.
“Dartmouth came out [to the farm in] 2000, right when I got back from school, maybe 2005,” Sprague said. According to him, the Upper Valley nonprofit Vital Communities approached him with a program to get local foods into “cafeterias, colleges, hospitals, all that stuff” — a word-of-mouth relationship that Dartmouth has “really supported … since the inception of it.”
While Sprague added that Edgewater’s relatively small size compared to other wholesale farms restricts the scale of its crop, there are clear benefits to buying local produce, he explained.
“[N]ot everything translates from a small, diversified farm to a large cafeteria … but there’s things that they can use that we’ve figured out … reduces packaging, reduces travel time, fresh…Why not just get it from your local farmer, you know?” Sprague said.
Though Edgewater does not receive many student visitors, Sprague still feels appreciation from the broader Dartmouth community.
“I used to come up [to Dartmouth], and people used to come up and say, like, ‘we really like having your tomatoes,’ like students and stuff, and that’s … really nice to hear,” Sprague said.
Dartmouth’s relationship to local farms can also prove to be symbiotic. Ralf Carestia ’18, who serves as vegetable production manager at Cedar Circle Farm & Education Center, said he credits the Dartmouth Organic Farm as the place where he “caught the bug for farming.”
According to Carestia, the current version of Cedar Circle began after owners, Will Allen and Kate Duesterberg, acquired the property in 2000, transforming it from a traditional farm into an education-focused agricultural space — a “farm with a social impact mission,” as Carestia described.
“I think … [Cedar Circle] became a nonprofit, just to kind of solidify all those things that the farm had been doing … for the education side of things,” Carestia said. “More recently, we’ve been really trying to rework the programming side of things — so a lot of workshops range in topics from how to start your own garden, birding, there’s a whole list… trying to cover that, the spectrum of learning abilities.”
Cedar Circle provides visitors with an interactive experience, allowing them to wander the fields and use the farm as a workspace — including at a recently held pumpkin festival. According to Carestia, those interactive elements are essential, and he is always “super excited to talk to Dartmouth students,” to fuel their curiosity in agriculture.
While their missions may vary, a number of farms across the Upper Valley seek to attract Dartmouth students. Situated near Edgewater Farm in Plainfield, N.H., Riverview Farm offers a variety of produce, from berries to squash.
According to Riverview co-owner Paul Franklin, his family founded the farm over 40 years ago, just five miles away from the farm on which Paul Franklin grew up. Since then, Franklin said he has mostly dedicated the farm to a pick-your-own produce style.
“[W]e focus our property [for] families and friends [to come] and pick-your-own products,” Franklin said. “Most, 95% of what we sell, is either through the roadside stand we have or pick-your-own.”
With its apple orchard and pumpkin patch, Riverview Farm is also a hub for Dartmouth students’ “fall experiences” in the Upper Valley. According to Franklin, the student visitors are “great kids … very interested in what we’re doing …very genuine.”
Franklin hopes that visitors, including Dartmouth students, will leave Riverview with an understanding of the history of the farm and the surrounding area to deepen their appreciation for the produce beyond just an aesthetic fall experience.
“Everything has a story,” Franklin said. “It’s important to know the context of where we’re living – what and who came before us.”
