Haverford College started with a dream of creating an institution to educate a generation of young Quakers to live up to their religious and social values. Haverford College also started with a piece of farmland. Much has been said about the dream: countless speeches, essays, and emails sent about how the campus can properly embody “Quaker values.” However, this article is about the farmland.
Long before Haverford College, the Lenape people lived on and cared for the land now known as Eastern Pennsylvania. This area has been the homeland of the Lenape people for over 10,000 years, where they planted corn, beans, and squash, gathered fruit and nuts, and built their communities. Permaculture methods practiced by the Lenape and other indigenous people of the region are still used and appreciated to this day.
In 1833, a group of Quakers purchased nearly 200 acres of this land from European farmers. They purchased it in large part due to its scenic qualities and easily cultivated soil.
In the first years of the college’s existence, the students took advantage of this soil, with each student receiving their own 20-by-5-foot garden plot. Cultivating this plot was looked upon as an important moral and intellectual activity by the school founders, and prizes were even awarded for the best plots. Money was soon raised for the creation of a 40-foot-long greenhouse and adjacent garden, where fruits like strawberries, cherries, and raspberries were grown, in addition to flowers. In 1855, a fire destroyed the greenhouse (rumor has it, from students engaging in unQuaker like activities, such as smoking or playing cards, although the official explanation is more benign) and countless plants. However, the farmers of Haverford were not discouraged, and many greenhouses have since been built at the college. Initially, campus buildings only occupied a small portion of the land, with much of it being used for crops, like corn, and cows, which were pastured around campus.
In the 20th century, farm operations began to cease as profits declined. Still, gardening continued on campus, in addition to the ever-present arboretum. During World War I, many community garden plots were cultivated on campus. Throughout World War II, 15 acres of land were designated as victory gardens, where faculty and community residents grew vegetables to supplement their food rations. During the 1950s and 60s, there were around 500 garden plots on campus. The Community Garden was an important nexus of the African American community in the Ardmore area. The Garden once stretched all the way down from facilities into the south parking lot but has since been scaled back as the college expanded.
As the 20th century came to a close and the 21st began, students began to express a desire to explore sustainable farming on campus. This desire for sustainability and a location to practice and learn about ethical and organic farming leads us to the crux of this history: the modern Haverfarm. In the early 2000s, students (especially those involved with E-Haus, Haverford’s former environmental community housing group) began informally gardening at the Haverford College Apartments (HCA). In 2010, students Fay Strongin ‘10, Peter Block ‘11, and Andrew Bostick ‘12 (all former Center for Peace and Global Citizenship (CPGC) interns) created the Haverford Garden Initiative to raise interest in and begin a prototype garden at the HCA. Andrew Bostick put together a proposal for an expanded and permanent gardening program at Haverford. The students received the funding, and the HCA Garden as we know it today located behind Apartment 19 was born. Students built raised beds, planted and cared for herbs and vegetables, and threw lots of garden parties.
However, students wanted more land to farm. Many students taking the 2013 Environmental Studies Capstone were involved in the garden initiative. As part of the course, under Professor Helen White, students designed a proposal to be presented at the February 2014 Board of Managers meeting for the Agricultural Center for Environmental Studies (ACES), described as “a year-round educational space designed to integrate agricultural education into the academic and extracurricular lives of Haverford and Bryn Mawr (Bi-Co) students, faculty, staff, and community members…Located on the southwest side of campus, ACES will feature a greenhouse, classroom, and outdoor seating space.” In 2013, the golf US Open was held in the area, and the Community Gardens were turned into a temporary parking lot/service area. The Environmental Studies Capstone project advocated for the parking lot to be turned into farming space for students adjacent to the Community Garden plots. In 2014, students broke ground at the Haverfarm and haven’t left since.
When I sat down to write this article, I could have just started then. With the founding of the “official” Haverfarm. However, the Haverfarm is more than just a plot that students started farming in 2014. The Haverfarm is all the time and care that has been put into the soil by the people committed to the most vital aspect of human life: eating and sharing food. So, how has this practice continued in the years since 2014? In the summers of 2014 and 2015, one CPGC-sponsored student intern cared for the farm, and students volunteered to work on the farm during the school year. Despite the support of the Environmental Studies department and Arboretum Director Claudia Kent, the Farm Club recognized the need for expertise and additional skilled labor to keep the farm running year-round and advocated for the creation of the Farm Fellow position, a paid staff position to guide the students and manage the farm. Aubrey Delone was hired at the end of the summer of 2015.
In her role, Aubrey collaborated with numerous students to create the Haverfarm foundations and traditions that are still active to this day. One notable program designed by students was the Haverfarm Physical Education program, which teaches students the basics of organic agriculture while they help at the farm. The farm hosted Sunday workdays where students would help with weeding, planting, harvesting and much more, often aided by farm consultant Adrian Galbraith-Paul. In 2015, over 130 students were served at the first farm dinner, held in collaboration with E-haus (Haverford’s former environmental community housing group). A weekly summer farm stand was started and an end of season potluck. Notably, in the Spring of 2015, the farm gained two beehives, supported by local apiarist Eli St. Amour. The 2015-2016 academic year also saw many connections between the Haverfarm and various classes, especially those in the environmental science program. Affirming the farm’s commitment to food justice, specifically in the local community, produce was donated to Saint Mary’s food bank. Four more bee hives were added in the spring of 2016. The Haverfarm also began partnerships with schools and service organizations that continue to this day.
In the summer of 2016, Alison Love ‘18 and Jahzara Heredia ’16 worked as summer interns when the first summer Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program was launched, providing students and faculty weekly produce for a fixed rate, or two hours of work on the farm per week. In the fall, Heredia began her work as the Farm Fellow, a position she would hold until 2018. During her time, the Haverfarm provided produce for weekly E-haus dinners and worked with Bricolage, a student environmentalist co-op, to construct a cob oven in the HCA commons. The Haverfarm partnered with the student group Ethos Food Initiative and the Real Food Challenge by selling produce to Haverford College Dining Service. The Roots of Unity program was launched in the fall of 2017 and used the Haverfarm to educate first graders at the Community Partnership School on food sovereignty and holistic wellness. That fall also saw the first Fall CSA program, in addition to the summer CSA. In the Winter of 2018, Haverfarm put together a Student Farmer Symposium where local students compared “notes on running community gardens, farming skills, permaculture techniques, how to seek funding, local opportunities, personal research, and more.” It included three keynote speakers, two panels, postering, and a dinner, and was attended by students from all around the area.
In the fall of 2018, Madison “Tilly” Tillman ‘18 became the new Farm Fellow. During her tenure, the farm saw great expansion, both physically and in terms of new initiatives. In 2019 alone, the Haverfarm hosted 23 workshops and events, attended by 260 members of the campus and larger community. In 2019, the farm had 165 volunteers contributing 876 hours during 22 workdays. By August 2019, the Haverfarm earned $4,046 from the CSA, the farm stand, and workshops to fund two student workers. The farm also redoubled its efforts to combat food insecurity on campus. During Fall Breaks, the farm donated produce to the Multicultural Center Kitchen to help provide for students when the dining facilities are closed. Haverfarm student worker Shaleia Thompson ‘20, responding to student concerns about food insecurity on campus, worked with other student farmers to create an on-campus food pantry, now called the Nest, which opened in February 2020. In an additional effort to combat food insecurity and expand the Haverfarm’s reach, summer student workers Ellis Maxwell ‘20 and Luigie Febres ‘22 along with Tilly, created the Haverfarm High Tunnel Proposal, which advocated for the creation of a high tunnel to expand the growing season and farm programming during the winter months which was constructed in the summer of 2020.
Of course, 2020 also marked the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Haverfarm was closed from March to June. Still, student workers came back to campus in the summer of 2020. Summer worker Kenyatta Golson ‘20 described the experience by saying, “I had just written my thesis and the world was full stop. So, what did I do? I got to the farm at 6 in the morning and stayed there all day. This was literally the safest place I could have been…We’re six feet apart. We’re wearing masks. We’re outdoors all day…It was a safe place. And it was an entertaining place. I’m literally watching babies grow into massive plants…That was magical. Learning the wildlife and the nature out there. It was such a beautiful place to be at such a difficult time.” After the summer, the farm hosted various virtual and in-person events. For the 2021-2022 school year, it was understood that simply having a Fellow to run the Haverfarm was not enough and that the farm needed a full-time manager. Tilly became the new Farm Manager, continuing her initiatives to address food insecurity and bring Haverfarm programming to the community.
In the Spring of 2023, Cassandra Brown became the new Farm Manager. She has worked on various initiatives like building a brand new fence to protect the farm from pests, to continuing the farm’s commitment to addressing food insecurity by donating produce to the Nest and other local food pantries, to hiring me as one of the student workers over summer and encouraging me to work on this project. Over the summer and the course of this semester I have interviewed more than 20 people involved with the farm throughout the years, spent hours reading Annual Farm Reports, and done the ultimate Haverfarm Google Drive deep dive. It’s hard to synthesize everything I learned about the farm into a few sentences but I guess I’ll give it a shot.
Many of the people I spoke to described the farm as a grassroots project that challenged the college, pushed up against it, and forced it to be better. Madison Tillman said, “At the farm, students develop the critical thinking skills, confidence, and emotional intelligence that are so necessary to lead a life that defines success beyond the capitalist definition — Success in terms of personal and community wellbeing in every sense, and leading a life of honesty and fearlessness, and passion for the things we believe in.” To me, that’s better than any Quaker dream.
