Chewonki is a place of breath, in and out, a tapestry of looped threads. A place of repetition, and of cycles. I notice this morning one. It is barely bright and we overturn soil. It steams with a hundred million microbes scurrying through the stages of decomposition- our food will become rich dirt spread …
The farm was the second place I explored when I first arrived at Chewonki for Semester 58. A couple of my new cabin mates and I didn’t want to sit around in our cabin so we sauntered down to the farm beginning to get to know each other. We introduced ourselves and unearthed basic facts …
With seeding starting this week, here’s a quick list of what is being planted on the farm in the next month: Seeding Date Seed, Direct Seed, or Transplant? Crop Variety name 20-Feb S Alliums Lincoln leek 20-Feb S Alliums Megaton leek 27-Feb S Alliums Ailsa Craig onion 27-Feb S Alliums Patterson onion 27-Feb S Alliums …
At Chewonki, we start our day with morning chores. Everyone is assigned to a specific area on campus and we all do our part to help keep communal spaces clean and functioning. But one cabin’s morning looks a little bit different. For two weeks every semester, each cabin does farm chores, which involves waking up …
Warm days and cold nights have triggered the sap flow in the maple trees on Chewonki Neck and semester students are setting taps and hanging buckets to collect this magical, sticky stuff. Then we boil it down to produce what James Kary, our science teacher and sugar-master, describes with tongue-in-cheek as “small-batch, artisanal maple syrup.” The …
When I got out of the car after six hours of driving from northern New Jersey to Maine on a rainy and droopy Wednesday morning, I immediately felt a flush of apprehension and fear surge through my body. I was still coping with the idea of moving away from my parents, friends, and school for …
The culmination of a Maine Coast Semester student’s academic work is an independent research project called a human ecology capstone, or HEC. Last week, Semester 58 students met with their advisors to choose their capstone topic and map out how to begin. HECs give students a chance to venture deeply into a subject that interests …
We were very proud to co-host the 3rd annual “Local Food, Local Hunger” forum on food security on March 2nd. The forum, co-hosted with the Morris Farm Trust, a Wiscasset nonprofit devoted to community, education, and agriculture, attracted over 120 attendees including, farmers, program administrators, interested citizens and students from Coastal Studies for Girls in Freeport and Cultivating Community in …
Maine Coast Semester students spent the weekend of February 25-26 out in the snow and the sunshine at Chewonki, learning about sustainable forestry practices. Six teams rotated through three activities: Walking in the woods with forester Harold Burnett, who manages Chewonki’s forest resources Splitting wood and twitching with Sal, our faithful workhorse, an essential part …
A stretch of clear winter weather has allowed us to bring down several large oak trees as part of Chewonki’s ongoing forest management plan, with the the newly thinned areas opening the way for more light on the farm gardens. The farmers are happy. “This will make a tremendous difference in our production,” says Assistant …
Tree Harvest at the Farm Creates a Mighty Pile of Benefits Read More »
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