Hi! I'm Reece, and I am '28 from Northern California! I hope to study Government, Policy, and Religion in college but come winter, I'll just be hoping to survive the snow. Outside of classes, I love to read, crochet, and journal, and can't wait to expand on my interests this year. I love the outdoors—but hate hiking—and I can't wait for my first spring on the Green! I hope my blog can help answer your ungoogleable questions, and please follow along for chaos that is bound to ensue!
A cool thing about Dartmouth is that we have our own Organic Farm (O Farm). The Dartmouth O Farm is a subsidiary of Dartmouth Sustainability, and as a student, there are many ways to get involved.
There is a Farm Club that hosts weekly work days, beehives for the Beekeeping Association, and maple trees for Sugar Crew to tap in the winter. Oh, and how could I forget? There is a pizza oven! This past week, a group of friends and I went over to the O Farm to make pizza with the Farm Club, and I want to take you along on our mini-adventure!
Our night began at around 5 p.m. last Friday when we all met up on campus. There were about twenty of us who signed up for this trip, so we took two vans to get to the farm.
Located less than four miles away from campus, the farm is a quick ten-minute drive from the heart of campus. If you ever sign up for a farm activity, such as our pizza dinner, the farm club will always provide you with transportation.
Once we arrived at the farm, I immediately knew I was in for a night of good food and great views. The Dartmouth O Farm is located on the Connecticut River, so throughout the night, we were able to look out and see the sunset on the water.
A Sunset over the Organic Farm
Exploring the O Farm!
After a very brief exploration of the farm, my friends and I went to the picnic area, where we would start making our pizzas. They handed us the ingredients, told us to find a partner, and then we got to work. I was paired with my good friend Zach.
Our setup!
When I was younger, I used to play the iconic video game, "Papa's Pizzeria," on coolmathgames.com, so I felt very prepared for the task ahead of us. Once we were given our pizza dough, we hit the ground running.
We started by stretching out the dough to fit on our pizza pan. Some of the more daring groups chose to throw theirs as they do in the movies, but we decided to play it safe and stick to using just our hands.
Then, once the dough was stretched to fit the pan, we added our sauce. The Farm Club provided two sauce options—marinara and pesto—and we added both! I know, shocking!
Pesto + Marinara! A match made in heaven.
We then added our first layer of mozzarella cheese and our toppings: bell peppers and mushrooms.
Toppings galore!
Then, another layer of cheese to glue it all together, and the finishing touch, purple onions!
Zach showing off our prized possession—our pizza!
Once it was complete, we put it in the hot pizza oven and then waited.
The beloved Dartmouth pizza oven
In "Papa's Pizzeria," it only takes around a minute to bake a pizza, but in our version—real life—we had to wait a bit longer than that. After about four minutes, our pizza was ready to take out and eat!
Freshly baked pizza hot from the oven!
We wanted to dig in right away, but then we saw that we could add basil to the top of our pizza, and couldn't resist. We almost decided to add arugula, but then we chose just to eat it on the side like a salad. Finally, we cut the pizza into eight slices and then began to eat!
In less than five minutes, the entire pizza was gone, and within the hour, we had cleared up our area on the farm and were headed back to campus. I really enjoyed my time at the O Farm and will definitely be going back. I feel so accomplished, and I think this outing was a realization that I need to play "Papa's Pizzeria" more often!
Walking around the Wellelsey campus, it's clear that it was built with intentional incorporation of the surrounding nature. The architecture of many buildings were also mindfully crafted to support Wellesley's unique principles.
From orientation week to your classes, you can easily find community at Dartmouth! Read on to know how I met my Dartmouth family and where you might also find yours.
