In the Field: Milkweed Farm
By Holden Turner ’21
Introduction to Environmental Studies capped off its food and agriculture unit by paying a visit to a local farm. Compared to our discussions about global commodity chains, Milkweed Farm, in Brunswick, offered a much shorter route from soil to table.
Lucretia Woodruff, a local farmer and parent of a Bowdoin student, speaks to students of ES 1101 and answers questions about her work. She employs biodynamic techniques to improve soil and human health.
Milkweed Farm is a five acre family-run farm filled with vegetables, fruits, and trees. It was late October when a class of seventy students and two professors stood facing a farmer. All were listening as she spoke about the pleasures and pitfalls of nurturing the land. A few students watched as a cat slipped between their ankles. Each member of our class ate a carrot directly from the ground, and many reported that it was one of the best carrots they can remember eating.
Students venture into the vegetable patch and pick carrots from the abundant harvest growing in rows. The longer they remain in the soil, Woodruff says, the sweeter they taste.