Farm to Fork Profile: Minnesota’s Campus Farms

 

A group of five young men and women stand together in a field.

Students from the Carleton College Organic Farm and St. Olaf College’s Garden Research and Organic Works (STOGROW) pose together during a visit.

About an hour south of the Twin Cities, Northfield, MN is home to Carleton College and St. Olaf College, liberal arts institutions set against the backdrop of the state’s rolling farm country. 

For over a decade, students at both colleges have worked in collaboration with Bon Appétit and faculty advisors to build leading campus farms, which serve as models for other colleges and universities across the country. The St. Olaf College Garden Research and Organic Works (STOGROW) and the Carleton Student Organic Farm employ rotating summer student interns each year, who grow thousands of pounds of produce, all of which is purchased by Bon Appétit for the schools’ respective cafés. The farms, which are both just 1.5 acres, have an outsized impact, serving as hubs for experiential learning and community-building. 

The Carleton Student Organic Farm

A young man stands in front of a table of recently harvested Swiss chard.

Carleton College student Aley Zimmerman-Comas stands with freshly harvested Swiss chard at the Carleton Student Organic Farm

The Carleton Student Organic Farm dates back nearly 100 years to when a community of Carleton students converted a dairy farm into a diversified vegetable operation. Each summer, a new group of student interns take over the farm’s operations. While many of the students have no prior farming experience, they are supported by long-term stakeholders like David Hougen-Eitzman, senior lecturer of biology at the school, as well as Carleton’s sustainability office and the Bon Appétit team.

Each year, Carleton’s fledgling farmers get up to speed: they read organic agriculture books, learn from previous student farmers, and immerse themselves in the world of small-scale food production. After this crash course, the students operate the farm independently, making day-to-day decisions and learning the many skills that farming requires, each becoming an amateur biologist, meteorologist, soil scientist, and small business entrepreneur for the spring and summer. 

This growing season, rising sophomores George Perry and Aley Zimmerman-Comas oversee the farm. Each group of students who steward the farm have their own unique priorities and interests, and George and Aley are no different. Both brought prior gardening and farming experience with them to campus. Recordkeeping has represented a major focus for George and Aley, given the need to pass along clear archives to the next students who will steward the farm. 

The Bon Appétit team on campus, led by General Manager Charles Schwandt, meets with the farmers each year to strategize about the growing season ahead and purchases as much produce as the students can grow and harvest. “Charlie and Mike (Executive Chef Mike Carlsen) take whatever we grow, and we do drop-offs after we do our harvests,” says Aley. “One thing that I really like is that the team is flexible –they know summer isn’t busy in the dining hall, so they process tomatoes into sauce and make pickles.” This close relationship means that the farmers always have a buyer for their produce, providing stable revenue and funds for the farm’s operating budget from year to year. 

St. Olaf’s Garden Research and Organic Works 

Three young women stand together wearing yellow rain ponchos.

St. Olaf College students Asia, Aria, and Soli pose together at STOGROW during one of the summer’s persistent rainstorms.

STOGROW was founded in 2004 by Dayna Burtness Nguyen, a former St. Olaf student and later, a Bon Appétit Fellow. In those early days, STOGROW’s operating budget stemmed from grant-funding, though it quickly grew into an institution of sustainability on campus, receiving funds directly from St. Olaf. Last year, the farm produced over two tons of produce from its raised beds, hoophouse, and berry bushes. 

Like the Carleton Student Organic Farm, STOGROW’s success has been due, in part, to long-term support by faculty, staff, and the Bon Appétit team on campus. Charles Umbanhowar , junior professor of biology and environmental studies and Director of Natural Lands, hires students each winter, helps to onboard the novice farmers, and manages the farm’s finances from year to year.  

Like campus farms across the country, STOGROW was impacted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which halted operations in the summer of 2020. But by 2022, students were sowing and harvesting again, including Grace Mennerick ‘23, who was recently hired to serve as Bon Appétit’s Midwest Fellow, following in the footsteps of Dayna Burtness Nguyen. “STOGROW really allowed me to get outside and learn how to farm, while learning business management,” says Grace. “Bon Appétit encouraged us to grow whatever we wanted and to try anything, which was fun.” 

This summer, three student farmers have taken the reins at STOGROW. Aria, Soli, and Asia are members of St. Olaf’s class of 2026. Despite persistent rain for much of the early summer, the trio planted tomatoes and potatoes, and sowed half of STOGROW’s fields in the “Three Sisters,” an intercropping of corn, squash, and beans. They’ve also worked to establish cover crops to protect STOGROW’s soil, a fundamental resource that will be passed down to new farmers for years to come. 

Bon Appétit has always been committed to supporting the campus farms of college and university partners across the country. The Carleton Student Organic Farm and STOGROW stand out as examples of how experiential learning and collaboration can intertwine to provide a cascade of benefits for campus communities.