It may still look like a work in progress, but there are big plans for the Dartmouth Organic Farm's new greenhouse. Since breaking ground at the end of July, crews of student volunteers have already completed the foundation and frame.
The 1,200 square-foot greenhouse, is designed to use only solar energy and will enable the farm to operate 10 months out of the year, according to Chris Polashenski '07. Polashenski helped design the solar energy system as part of his Engineering 192-90 sequence and explained that the construction will only take six to eight more full days of work, spread over Fall term. Polashenski went on to call the greenhouse "a showcase of what's possible to local growers."
"The concept of eating locally all year round is wonderful," Rossman said.
The extended growing season will also keep the farm in production when the most students are on campus, instead of reaching its peak yield during the summer, when only sophomores are able to help harvest.
"We don't have a projected finish date," said Polashenski, adding later that the construction looks promising.
Farm Manager Scott Stokoe agreed, adding that while the structure is currently vulnerable to high winds, it should be "weather-tight" by the end of November.
At the farm's open house last Saturday, Jessica Rush '10, a summer crew member, said she was surprised by how many new students the greenhouse attracted. Rush, who was on-site the day the volunteers poured the foundation for the greenhouse, said that the amount of work completed Saturday was also impressive.
"It was great to see so many '11s working with us on the glazing," Rush said. "A lot of them were really handy."
Hannah Rossman '08, who served as farm chair when the construction was approved, said that the greenhouse will increase production and generate fresh crops much longer than is currently possible.
Although there is no set finish date, Rossman said that the greenhouse will be a welcome addition to the farm, located three miles north of the central Dartmouth campus. The greenhouse will enable the farm to grow cold-weather crops, such as chard and spinach, at the end of the fall. Those crops, which would not survive the winter frosts outside, will thrive in the greenhouse over the winter.
The structure will also allow the farm to take aquaculture to the next level. Aquaculture is a process already in use at the old greenhouse that creates what Stokoe called "a closed nutrient loop." In the current greenhouse, three five-foot-tall cylindrical tanks house gallons of algae-colored water and fish, which serve as "thermal mass" to retain heat when the sun goes down. The tanks take up valuable space, though, and Stokoe said that the idea for the new system came from trying to maximize the greenhouse's potential production.
In the new greenhouse, the fish will be housed in another five-foot-tall tank, but in this case waste mass and water will be pumped to plants in the ground, serving as both an irrigator and a fertilizer. These benefits will be in addition to the current thermal benefits. The inedible parts of the greenhouse plants -- leaves, stems and roots -- will be fed to worms, which will then be used to feed the fish inside the tanks.
With the details of the aquaculture loop finalized, Stokoe said, the only thing the farm lacks is funding.
"I'd love to form a partnership between the recreational and educational sides of the College," Stokoe said. "This year is the farm's 11th season, and it's time to start connecting with the rest of the community."
Once construction on the greenhouse is completed, it will serve as a model of environmentally conscious growing to the entire community, Polashenski said.
Rush said she was pleased by the extent to which the greenhouse also shows what can happen when students band together.
"It's an amazing project, and it's entirely student-designed and constructed," she said. "They're setting a great example for the rest of the Dartmouth community."
