Farm & Food Program
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Tucker Andrews and Jennica Stetler, Farm Managers
Tucker Andrews draws his inspiration from friends and spaces. He likes breathing deeply and listening. He loves building things, watching things grow, and finding new tools. He grew up in West Bolton. As a child, Jennica Stetler loved playing in the woods, snorkeling, and putting on plays. She is an artist and a grower. She has a powerful feeling of the world that she channels into her work as a farmer. She enjoys the connections with people that come from growing food for neighbors. Tucker and Jennica have been working together on vegetable farms since 2003 when they met at Goose Creek Farm in St. George, Vermont. By sheer coincidence, they attended Bard College in New York State together and each summer returned to Vermont to work and learn from the master growers at Goose Creek. In 2009 they formed their own operation, Notch Farm, in the hills of West Bolton. Notch Farm continues to exist as a venue for experimental techniques and new ideas, for growing vegetables and pork, marketed on a very neighborly scale!
They are excited to be a part of Monitor Barns Farm, which has allowed them to work towards their mission of providing fresh, healthy food to community members, regardless of income. They view Monitor Barns Farm as an opportunity not just to grow great food, but also to build a sustainable resource for other young growers.- 802.434.3969, ext. 145
- farm@vycc.org
Lucy Parker, Farm Intern
Lucy grew up on a small family farm in Starksboro, but the VYCC might be considered her second home as she returns for her sixth season this year. Lucy graduated from Sterling College in 2007 with a self-designed major in Ecotourism. As part of her studies, she worked at Merck Forest and Farmland Center for a summer. Post-graduation, she traveled for seven months around Scotland and Ireland and worked for a year in a Camphill Village in Minnesota; the following year she through-hiked the Appalachian Trail. When not exploring other cultures and wilderness areas across the globe, or growing food in her backyard, she is probably not far from a ball of yarn and knitting needles. Lucy is excited to join the Monitor Barns Farm team to grow vegetables and raise chickens.
Aaron Hull, Farm Intern
Aaron was born in the Year of the Dog, as the Water Bearer merged with the Fishes. He was raised on what was once Ho-Chunk land, bounded by lakes and rivers - happy for the abundant water, but longing for mountains. In college, Aaron read widely, changed majors habitually, edited the campus newspaper, and studied in Europe. His post-graduate interests have centered on experiential aesthetics and applied poetry, particularly the Oliverian advice to "be beholden to what is tactile, and thrilling." As field research, Aaron spent two seasons maintaining trails with the Northwest Service Academy, first along the Pacific Crest Trail, then as a crew leader in the Mount Hood National Forest. Next came Maine where he sold books and explored and photographed the coastline. A crew leader position with the Green Mountain Club drew Aaron to Vermont where he quickly fell under the spell of the land's Shire-like quality. Following stints as a GMC summit caretaker and boundary crew member, then as a Christmas tree peddler in Harlem, Aaron hunkered down in Huntington for the winter and ran ski lifts, affording plenty of time for writing, bread-making, and learning to ski. Now in his second year in Vermont, Aaron is happy for the chance to get versed in country things in such an inspiring place. Since joining the farm program, Aaron has become a serious chard enthusiast and, though he'll eat them, has found the chickens pretty fowl. When his time is his own, Aaron enjoys, among other things, sauntering, splitting wood, drawling, plunging into icy waters, and - when he can get to one - combing beaches, where he inevitably dreams of being a sailor.