Meet Elizabeth! She graduated in 2020 with a double main in French and Francophone Research and Studio Artwork with a Meals Research Certificates. She has all the time had an curiosity in meals and sustainable agriculture. She joined us as a pupil farmer within the fall of her sophomore yr and continued her involvement all through her time at Dickinson.
Elizabeth has fond recollections from her time as a pupil farmer. She significantly remembers the summer season between her junior and senior yr the place she joined the Summer time crew and had the chance to “co-run” the livestock operation with Lindsay Hutchinson, one of many apprentices on the time. One among her favourite DCF recollections had been sheep upkeep days, the place she went via the entire herd to clip their nails and test for worms. It was arduous work and nerve-racking, she says, however she loved working carefully with every particular person animal and getting a really feel for the herd, as entire. Elizabeth beloved working each veg and livestock, and says she discovered a lot working underneath Matt, Jenn, and Will.
Following commencement, she accepted a 6-month apprenticeship at Ridge to Reef Farm on St. Croix, a permaculture farm and the one USDA licensed natural farm within the USVI. She then briefly bartended at a neighborhood brewery in St. Thomas, after which returned to Ridge to Reef as an Assistant Supervisor till right this moment. She manages farm operations with a crew of round 10 individuals (varies from month to month) and their CSA program, which includes working with and sourcing from different native farmers to provide issues like goat cheese, honey, and different fruits to their members. She can also be working with the Timber that Feed Basis on a small tree nursery venture to provide the area people with Breadfruit bushes as a technique to cut back meals imports and meals insecurity on the islands. She loves tropical fruits and sharing her ardour with different farmers. In her phrases, “it’s actually particular to work collectively to feed our small group as a result of it actually seems like we’re making a big effect.” Future final targets embrace beginning her personal farm within the USVI with the intention to proceed feeding her group and enhance meals safety and meals entry.
A enjoyable truth about Elizabeth is that she lives and works utterly exterior. There aren’t any partitions or something like that in her “home” – it’s all open air, so when it’s scorching and dry, she’s scorching and dry, and when it’s wet and moist, she’s additionally wet and moist. She’s actually embraced dwelling this manner as a result of it’s related her together with her crops by fairly actually sharing the identical dwelling circumstances.
