As the fall comes to an end in Ithaca, so too does another successful season at Dilmun Hill Student Farm. Dilmun Hill is Cornell’s student-run organic farm located on Route 366, just west of Cornell Orchards.

Even if you have not heard of Dilmun Hill until now, you may have tried some of its produce already. Throughout the year, Dilmun provides produce for Cornell Dining and Manndible Café. Also, Dilmun volunteers just wrapped up the last of their bi-weekly campus farm stands, where they would sell produce on Ho Plaza and in front of Mann Library.

“Many of my favorite memories are of harvesting vegetables, towing them to the market stand on a biker trailer, and setting up our weekly farm stand,” said Davis Archer ’11, a natural resources major. “Even though it repeated each week, that experience was just the culmination of all our hard work and made me feel really great.”

Archer worked at the Market Garden — the primary project of Dilmun Hill since it began in 1996 — as a manager over the summer. The Market Garden encompasses about 1.5 acres of land, and it is here that a variety of produce is harvested. The focus here is on experimental learning and exploring methods of sustainable agriculture.

Dilmun Hill also relies on volunteers from both the Cornell and Ithaca communities to help run the farm. As Dilmun’s mission statement explains, its goal is “to provide students, faculty, staff and community with opportunities for experiential learning, group collaboration and research.”

During season, Dilmun holds volunteer “work parties” where students and community members can go and work in the field. This gives almost anyone an opportunity to get involved, even with no prior farm experience. Archer actually started as a volunteer at Dilmun before working his way up to a Market Garden Manager — a valuable experience for Archer. Davis Archer ’11 and Alex Chen ’13 sell produce at the Dilmun Hill produce stand outside of Mann Library.

“I got the opportunity to manage a market garden and engage in all of the other components of a running a farm,” he said. “In this way, Dilmun Hill is a really unique and outstanding opportunity for experiential learning and personal growth.”

An architecture major who is also pre-med, Alex Chen '13 gives what little free time he has left to be one of the other part-time managers on the farm. Chen got involved at Dilmun by working at the farm over the summer to “explore sustainability and the environment.”

“I have always liked gardening,” Chen said, “and I thought getting more extensive experience would not only help me in finding my future career goals but I would also be able to experience the joys of growing food. However, I do not expect to be a farmer.”

As the staff and volunteers close out another rewarding harvest at Dilmun Hill, remember that you, too, could have a role in producing organic and local produce at Cornell.