a river within a jungle. there are big round rocks throughout the river and on the edges, there are thick dense trees. the sky is blue with some clouds on the periphery.

Reece Sharp

Class of 2028

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 vast green farm takes up the bottom half of the image. Above it is a river, and bound the river bed is a tree line. A blue/orange sky takes up the top half of the image. It is clearly sunset.

A Sunset over the Organic Farm

The sun is setting through the sparse treeline. Two teenagers, one wearing a green puffer jacket and the other wearing a black and white checkered sweatshirt, stand in the foreground of the image. There are trees on the left and the edge of a wooden shed

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.

A group of twenty people gather under a wooden roof. Some sit on wooden picnic tables while others stand. The background is a green hill.

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.

A girl wearing a green sweatshirt stands in the center of the frame. She is stretching out pizza dough over her knuckles. In the background, other people are doing similar things.

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!

Pizza dough is rolled out on a pan. Red marinara is evenly spread on top of the dough. There are eight dollops of green pesto scattered onto the marinara. The white spoon that was used to spread the marinara still touches the pizza and is on the right

Pesto + Marinara! A match made in heaven.

We then added our first layer of mozzarella cheese and our toppings: bell peppers and mushrooms.

An uncooked pizza is on a silver pizza pan. The pizza has red marinara sauce, mushrooms, red bell peppers, and mozzarella cheese on top of it. On the lower right-hand side, there is a small plate with a blue pattern on top.

Toppings galore!

Then, another layer of cheese to glue it all together, and the finishing touch, purple onions!

A tall man with blond hair is wearing a black and white checkered sweatshirt. He is standing in the middle of the photo, holding an uncooked pizza. The pizza has bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, cheese, and sauce on it.

Zach showing off our prized possession—our pizza!

Once it was complete, we put it in the hot pizza oven and then waited.

A girl in a cream-colored sweatshirt stands in front of a small pizza oven. The oven is on a wooden cart with a metal roof. The oven itself appears to be made out of clay.

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!

The pizza is the center of the image. The pizza is slightly charred, really orange-looking, and has black spots throughout

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!

A cooked pizza is cut into eight slices. On the left of the pizza, there are two plates holding some arugula. One plate is white with a blue pattern, and the other is clear. The plates and the pizza are all sitting on a wooden table with a dark stain.

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!

Posted 10/31/2024 at 9:00 AMAll Text Posts