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“To better understand these issues, we conducted field research and interviews with restaurants, farmers, government officials, and high school students. Shaun Ingraham was instrumental in helping us set up interviews with high school students, and it was really interesting to hear first-hand why many teenagers aren’t interested in farming. One of the paradoxes we discovered was that almost no students were interested in farming as a career, but many reported eating local food and expected food production on the island to stay the same.

We also toured farms around Eleuthera.  One of the main issues with farming on Eleuthera is that many farmers use a lot of fertilizers and herbicides while removing organic matter from their fields, which prevents the creation of new soil.  Josh Shultz at CEI has been working with local farmers, trying to spread knowledge of these practices—a crucial step to improving agricultural productivity.

Ironically, many of the traditional practices on the island work better than the current, chemical-dependent practices. For example, Joseph, who gardens at The Island School, uses pothole farming, which effectively traps water and nutrients and also makes bananas easy to harvest. With these techniques, he’s able to get good crop yields without chemical inputs. Josh has also been working on developing organic fertilizers from the byproducts of aquaponics, which he distributes to farmers to help reduce their dependency on chemical inputs.

We also researched expanding markets for farmers on the island, speaking to numerous chefs and restaurant buyers. We also spoke with Emery Long, a new Island School cook, who’s hoping to increase the Island School’s local purchases. We were all very impressed with his pumpkin soup made with pumpkins grown on the island. It was great to see how our recommendations for buying could actually be put into action.

But this isn’t to say that we had all work and no play. We participated in Island School morning exercises and surprisingly, we (most of us!) managed to drag ourselves out of bed every morning to go running, biking, or swimming – something that we’re pretty sure our classmates at Williams won’t believe. Josh, who co-led our group, had great ideas for fun afternoon activities, ranging from snorkeling to cave exploring.

We also got to meet many of the CEI staff, as well as the other groups doing research at the school. Another cool part of staying at The Island School was learning about sustainability by living it. Williams has sustainability as one of its goals, but hasn’t made nearly as many strides as The Island School. Living simply on Eleuthera helped us appreciate more fully the benefits we have at Williams, as well as showing us that sustainability isn’t as difficult as it first seemed.

Overall, it was a fantastic learning experience. We mostly loved meeting Eleutherans and talking with them, and learning so much about agriculture and how the system could work better for everyone: farmers, restaurants, markets and residents.  Our final report and PowerPoint and film will be linked to the CEI website.  Hopefully we’ll see some of our recommendations implemented – it’s a great excuse for us to go back and check!”

To learn more about Williams College and their Center for Environmental Studies, visit their website here.

Not wanting to be overshadowed by the goats and gobies, The Island School’s resident ducks have added a dozen new faces to the farm this morning. The ducklings are enjoying their new home between the badelynge of females and the flock of chickens. At the moment of writing an ugly duckling has not been discovered in the brood.

Did anyone else learn a new word from this post?

Introducing The Island School Farm’s six newest residents. In the past ten days six baby goats were born to three different mothers, increasing the number of goats living on the Cape to 11. Two were born little over a week ago with another two born last Saturday and the youngest two born on Monday. The kids are all doing well and adjusting to life on Eleuthera. Pictured are Moon, Shadow, Eli, Sunday, Flapjack, and Bonnie along with CEI staffers Al, Eric, Kelly, and Whitney as well as IS farmers Joseph and Noel.

As the song lyrics suggest, we had quite a beautiful surprise on the farm this morning.  After spending a little over a month protecting and caring for seventeen little duck eggs Mama Duck finally gets to relax.  All of her eggs successfully hatched between 4:30 p.m. yesterday and 8:00 a.m. this morning.  We gently moved Mama Duck and all of her ducklings into the repurposed chicken house where they were given a clean plate of food and a dish of water.  The ducklings wasted no time getting wet and as each awkwardly hopped into the water mother gently washed them off.  This is the second successful brood that Mama Duck has brought into this world, the first having hatched on Thanksgiving Day last year.  As the day continued groups of students and faculty made their way back into the farm area to catch a glimpse of the new additions to our community.

Raising ducks is a part of the sustainable food systems here on campus as they create a good source of rich fertilizer and have a voracious appetite for flys and insects.  The females are raised for their rich large eggs which will help supplement our weekly egg consumption once the flock has grown.  Several of the males will be selected for future breeding and the rest will provide a delicious and healthy meal for the community.  We also raise goats and pigs for their manure in plant culture and their protein in dining culture.  And speaking of pigs, one of our sows is going to be giving birth to a litter of piglets in the next couple of weeks if everything goes well.  Spring is in the air!