Dining

Despite COVID, Dilmun Hill Still Found a Way to Feed the Community

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Following the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, many on-campus organizations, programs and facilities were forced to close their doors. Cornell’s student-run organic farm, Dilmun Hill, was among these many organizations heavily impacted. Each year, four to five student managers are hired to prepare for the planting season in early spring. They stay through the summer and fall to grow, harvest and distribute food produced on the 12-acre farm plot near the Cornell Orchards on Route 366. Unfortunately this year, because of the sudden undergraduate hiring freeze and other newly-introduced COVID-19 restrictions, Dilmun Hill stayed silent for many of the normally hectic growing months.

farm to table

Dig In | “Bog-to-Table” Cooking: Our Adventures in Nature and the Kitchen

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In my last column, I wrote about my adventures at Dilmun Hill Organic Farm, a student-run farm that practices sustainable agriculture on Cornell University’s campus. That afternoon, my friend (and a student farmer at Dilmun) Teddy Matel introduced me to the paw-paw, scooped me wild-bee honey and gifted me a batch of their produce. We left Dilmun on a mission: To make a delicious meal of out these ingredients — and, more broadly, out the terroir of New York.

Agriculture

Dig In | Paw-Paw Ice Cream, Dragon Beans and Wild Bee Honey: Treasures and Lessons from the Farm at Dilmun Hill

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Teddy asks me, “These are paw-paw trees. Have you ever seen them before?”

“No, but they are super cool. Is it a kind of fruit?” I respond.

“Yes. Native to Kentucky. It grows like it is native to New York. Plant it and it grows. We are going to try to make some paw-paw ice cream.”

This is my introduction to Dilmun Hill Student Farm, a 12-acre student-run farm that has been practicing sustainable agriculture on Cornell University’s campus for more than a decade.