Welcome to Beech Hill Farm!

COA is committed to preserving Beech Hill Farm as a working, sustainable organic farm that provides fresh produce for the COA campus and continues to serve local customers through wholesale accounts and the retail farm stand. COA students, staff, faculty, and farm managers work collaboratively to meet the farm's threefold goal of local and sustainable food production, education, and good land stewardship.

The Farm and College of the Atlantic

COA Students have the opportunity to design and participate in independent studies, group studies, and final projects that involve the Farm. Beech Hill Farm work study positions are available along with ongoing volunteering opportunities.

The COA kitchen, or Take-A-Break , is known for providing wholesome, delicious food to students, faculty, staff, and community members. Collaborative work and planning between Beech Hill Farm and the kitchen is helping COA to "close the loop", forming a more sustainable system of food production and consumption.

Upcoming Events at the Farm

April 14: Apple Pruning Workshop 10–2
Interested in trees? Orcharding and Permaculture? Climate change? Get outside to help prune in this freakish spring weather. Bring your short shorts and your Down jackets and learn about tree health, while trimming water sprouts. Phil Norris, our champion tree care teacher from Clay Field Farm (Blue Hill, ME) is back to help us learn and work in our orchard. Some of our trees are over 100 years old and need your help so come out with us! There will be a $10 fee for this workshop and scholarships available so please contact us at beechhillfarm@coa.edu to get your name on the list, the early bird gets to go free! Followed by a Farm Potluck Picnic. Bring food and a blanket, share it with the group!

April 25: Mushroom Log Inoculation, 3:30–6:30
Log Culture is one of many avenues for gourmet mushroom cultivation. Lead by our own Jerzy Skupny (’10), we will discuss the fungal lifecycle in the log, from inoculation to fruition, along with fungal ecology and environmental requirements for healthy mushroom logs. Come help us rot some logs! Followed by a Farm Potluck Dinner, bring food and good stories!

April 28: Grafting Workshop with Tim Seabrook
Tim, Farmer of 5 Star farm and Orchard, will be teaching us the important art of grafting trees that will be planted at a nursery this spring and planted out to COA’s farm land in the coming years. This is an important skill! Tree crops help diversify farm land, can be planted to reduce erosion and sequester carbon.  Time: TBD

April 29th May pole celebration!
Come out and get sassy with ribbons and the local community. May Day is not only a pagan ritual to usher in the spring, it is International Workers Day and promises to be an important event this year as the Occupy Movement grows. It is also an opportunity to bring together the community and talk about self-reliance, energy use and sustainability. Anna Demeo and students will lead groups at the farm to look at how to reduce the energy footprint of an existing facility and show off the amazing work done over the last year that has been made possible through grants and hard student work! Time TBD

Potato Planting! — End of April/First week of May
This is time for Potatoes! Join the crew and the march of Maine’s History to put those spuds in the ground! Potatoes are one of the State’s biggest agricultural crops and we love ‘um at Beech Hill. Time TBD — who knows this spring! Keep in touch!

May 6: Permaculture Workshop, 2–6
Creating a polycultural system a diversity of plants are working together to create a “Guild” is an important element of permacultural design large and small. From a thimble size Urban back yard, to a large scale 10-100 acre Agroforestry site, these ideas can be used to promote holistic health in the garden/farm/orchard setting. Join us for a day of learning and working. Beech Hill staff and Guest lecturer will lead this workshop from 2-6 followed by a Farm Potluck so bring food!