New Life, the Welsh Harvest, and the Dormant Winter

By Pearl Wetherall

Cerridwen is a pre-Christian Celtic goddess, worshipped for centuries by the people of Wales. She is represented by the three stages of the cycle of life, appearing as a maiden, a woman, or a crone stirring a bubbling cauldron. The Welsh people spiritually observed the fertility of life, in its different guises, through her image.

The name Cerridwen, chosen democratically earlier this year, is fitting for the Green Mountain College farm. Not only is Poultney located in an area rich with Welsh heritage, the College also keeps the Welsh tradition alive on campus. The annual Welsh Harvest Festival took place on Saturday, October 16th this year. The Gorge was filled with people listening to speeches and live music, bobbing for apples hanging from strings, racing in burlap sacs, and waiting for wagon rides that featured Welsh story telling, lasting into the twilight of the autumn night.

The prominent set up at the festival was a presentation by this semester’s Biodiversity in Agriculture class. The class broke up into several groups that each cooked or baked a traditional Welsh recipe and served it to the public during the festival. This project was a joint venture by the class and Cerridwen Farm, focusing on the use of local, traditional Welsh ingredients. Cerridwen Farm provided produce such as potatoes and leeks, as well as a male Black Mountain lamb that the Cerridwen Farm Crew decided to cull from the Farm’s herd.

Cerridwen Farm products have also been featured in the menus of the College’s cafeteria service (Chartwell’s) this fall. In recent years, students at GMC have been actively advocating a Farm-to-Cafeteria project at the College. This involves establishing a consistent commitment by the cafeteria food service to use local and/or certified organic products, as well as utilizing food ingredients produced by the college farm.

Thanks to the cooperation of Dave and Cindy Ondria of GMC Chartwell’s, the progress of the project looks promising. In addition to other featured local/organic offerings in the cafeteria, Cerridwen Farm has provided head lettuce, fresh herbs, hot peppers, squash, and cooking greens for good local eating in the dining hall this semester. This supply will hopefully expand as time goes on and communication continues. Food Committee Meetings are held every other Wednesday, at 11:30am, in the back of the dining hall. Free lunch in provided if you are off the meal plan, and the current meeting is on the 27th of October (mark your calendar for dates after that).

Chartwell’s began consistently featuring Cerridwen Farm products by using chicken eggs from the Farm in the Spring 2004 semester. Unfortunately, a fox killed most of the Farm’s flock (a mix of Barred Rocks and Dominiques) this past summer. At the end of the spring semester, the farm purchased 50 chickens of the Rhode Island Red variety, which was planned to be an expansion of the Farm’s current flock. TheRhode Island Red flock is now the primary flock, with a recent addition of 50 Silver-laced Wynadotte pullets (baby chickens). This coming spring another flock will be purchased, culminating in the largest overall flock that Cerridwen Farm has ever had. Hopefully, we can look forward to a consistent supply of free-range, organic eggs in the dining hall when the flocks begin to lay eggs regularly and abundantly.

Take a stroll to check on the daily growth of the pullets, or lay a hand in putting the gardens to sleep for the winter. As annual crops are being pulled, next year’s garlic harvest is being planted. Another pair of hands is never taken for granted.