Life at Calypso Farm & Ecology Center

As most of you know and maybe some don't, I ended up changing my plans shortly after arriving in Alaska. Initially I was set to be guiding ATV tours in the Denali National Park area but after a brief stint with that job, I decided to return to Calypso Farm and have spent the summer living and working on the farm. It is perhaps the best decision I have made in my life and has been an incredible fit for me as well as for Nellie! Since I have been a slacker on this whole blog deal, I am going to try to squeeze a whole summer’s worth of farm life into this single blog post. I apologize if it seems to drag on at all but I’ll compensate with a shorter post to follow this one. Anyway here goes…

Calypso Farm and Ecology Center is a small organic farm located about 20 minutes outside of Fairbanks in a little community called Ester.  Located on a south-facing slope, Calypso gets the majority of the sun that is seemingly ever present in the short 5 month growing season of Alaska. For this reason, the hillside turns from snow-covered empty beds to lush, thriving fields in just a matter of a couple weeks. When we first arrived on the farm in late April, nothing was planted as the soil was still frozen just a couple of inches below the surface.  Inside the greenhouse and seed-house; however, things were well underway. In February, my boss, Susan, starts planting seeds in small soil blocks in wooden trays. Because it is too cold (still below 0 some years!) in February to seed outside, these soil blocks are placed in the solar and stove heated seed-house until they sprout. By the time we arrived in April, these "starts" had already been moved on to the next stage and into the greenhouse, where they remain until the ground thaws out. Then without delay, they are thrown into the ground, watered daily by drip irrigation lines and voilà! A farm is created. Of course there is much more that goes into it, but I will spare you the details. :)

The Upper Field and greenhouse in early May

Starts taking off in the Seed-house

Trays ready to be put in the ground

My position on the farm is what Calypso calls a "Farm and Education Apprentice". Essentially what that means is that my job is to learn the ins, outs, ups, and downs of owning and operating a small farm. The interesting part about Calypso though is that their mission is not just to grow and share delicious food for others, but also to provide hands-on education about that food and the environment surrounding the farm. This is where the education part of the apprenticeship comes in.  Every week from Spring into Fall, groups of kids come to Calypso to learn about farm life as well as a myriad of other topics ranging from insects to tie-dying and of the crowd favorite- pizza making.  In a normal week the farm sees roughly 140 kids from the Fairbanks area. Not a bad way to start to make a difference in the lives of these youngsters!

The wood fired pizza oven ablaze

Our stand at the Fairbanks Downtown Market

Nellie and I live in a canvas walled tent which used to be an old field research tent. From the front porch of our tent we have regular views of Denali, 150 miles away, shining back at us with its radiant, pink alpenglow. One of the great things about the farm is that often it really just feels like an extended camping trip. We spend all day working outside and then at night we retire to our tent and enjoy the crisp night air.  The difference is we are able to sustain ourselves as we catch our own water and grow most of the food we eat. I always tell kids on the field trips, “It really is such a rough life!”

Our tent, The Denali View Lodge

There is no running water on the farm. This is our wood fired sauna, aka shower

Most of our free time, when we are not busy transplanting, weeding, or building compost piles, is filled with a wide assortment of crafting and cooking.  Rarely will I walk into the kitchen (our hangout) and not find one of the other apprentices busily knitting, carving, felting, drawing, or at least writing a post-card.  Every one of the girls has knitted herself a headband and with a little prodding I finally caved and am in the process of knitting myself a hat. As for cooking, we eat a mostly vegetarian diet but seeing as how I could never give up meat entirely, I try to throw in some bacon and a little hamburger every now and again. The neat part of cooking for us at the farm is when one of us wants to cook something, we just walk right out the kitchen door into the adjacent field and pick whatever it is that’s going to be for dinner. It’s hard to beat dinner made with freshly picked veggies. Of course we eat tons of sweets too. Chocolate is like gold on the farm and cookies are the most precious commodity around.   Beyond crafting and cooking we spend a lot of time reading. Most of the books that I owned and have always wanted to read I finally found the time to read.  It’s really incredible what one can do without the constant distraction of TV and the internet.

There is so, so much more to what has been going on at Calypso this summer but I fear I will lose your interest were I to continue. That being said I hope you enjoyed hearing about this utopia that exists just outside Fairbanks, way up here in Interior Alaska. If you ever wind up in this part of the world, I urge you to drive up the hill to the farm. Tell Tom and Susan I sent you and enjoy a warm welcome from some of the most friendly people you will ever meet!

More pictures to come!