Bergen Pickett

The Bowdoin Organic Garden (BOG) operates on two plots: the main one at 52 Harpswell Rd. and a smaller one behind Osher Hall and West Hall, called the South Street Garden. It is managed by Organic Garden Supervisor Lisa Beneman, a Mainer from Scarborough with extensive experience in education-based agriculture and environmental studies.

“For me personally, the act of getting to share [farming] and teach people about growing food is really fulfilling,” Beneman said.

Beneman discovered her love of farming at a young age through helping her dad with his vegetable garden. Her interest took off in high school, when she attended the Maine Coast Semester with the Chewonki Foundation, whose farm is a part of the curriculum and open to students who want to volunteer more. In college, she studied environmental studies and pursued agriculture-related summer jobs and extracurriculars. She then went on to farm professionally, completing apprenticeships in Italy and the Pacific Northwest, before returning to Maine in 2015 to farm full time at Chewonki once more.

At Bowdoin, Beneman manages the main plot, which focuses on high-value, organic crops. Because space is limited, the BOG prioritizes items that offer higher quality or greater freshness than commercial suppliers can provide. These include herbs and the leafy greens found at the salad bar in the dining halls.

The peak growing and harvesting season is coming to an end, so the staff is preparing for winter by removing frost-damaged plants and applying compost or planting cover crops to protect the topsoil and add nutrients. During harvesting season, the BOG hosts open work hours on Mondays and Thursdays from 3 to 5 p.m. to encourage student involvement.

“I wanted to not only bring more people to the garden, but also it’s a … low effort to show up. You don’t have to have done anything special. You don’t have to know anything,” Beneman said.

Student leaders help carry out that mission. Sophie Miller ’28, one of the BOG’s student leaders, previously worked at a pollinator garden as part of a summer internship. During that summer, she gained skills working with the land. At the BOG, she realized moving from growing flowers to growing something good to eat was an exciting learning experience.

Each student leader normally leads an event or two each semester. This semester, Miller co-led a make-your-own-pickles event with Sol Eisenbeis ’28, and the pair enjoyed guiding participants through the process.

“I think this year’s turnout was also one of the biggest we’ve had,” Miller said. “I think people were getting really excited about pickles.”

Because the growing season covers only a small part of the time students are on campus, the BOG also hosts events such as Do-It-Yourself tea bags, flower bouquets and dried flower-stamped ornaments.

“One of my favorite things is collecting the flowers that are going to be dried for all the different dried flower craft events that we have, because then you’re getting something ready for the winter when people can’t be in the garden,” Miller said.

For Miller, the best part of the role is following the produce from garden to dining hall.

“It is really cool getting to see it go from a seed to a bigger plant, but then also to the dining hall, and then saying, ‘Wow, yeah. That’s something that the Bowdoin community together grew,’” Miller said.

The Dining Service works hard to make that connection happen. Assistant Chef Tom Bohan has cooked professionally for 17 years, including jobs as executive chef at Eataly’s rooftop restaurant in New York City and sous chef at Nina June in Rockport, Maine. Now, in his fourth year at Bowdoin, he brings the local-farm, seasonal approach of his previous kitchens to the dining halls.

“[Beneman] and her team grow some great produce. It’s amazing to have so many beautiful things available to us. Both dining halls have herb gardens right outside our back doors. It’s awesome,” Bohan wrote in an email to the Orient.

To plan meals, each dining hall team can usually swap the ingredients they would normally get from larger local vendors for the “delicious and fresh” ones from the BOG. This year, the Thorne team has developed go-to recipes for BOG produce, including fondant kohlrabi, green tomato chutney, pickled green coriander, chili-mint dressing and habanero hot sauce. The Dining Service tries to highlight as many seasonally appropriate dishes as possible.

That farm-to-table effort has drawn attention from other schools.

“We’re ranked the number two dining program in the U.S. by the Princeton Review. I’ve gotten to know several chefs at other schools, through events the Princeton Review invites us to. They’re jealous of the Farm-To-Table program we are able to have here at Bowdoin,” Bohan wrote.

Above all, Bohan wants students to appreciate what the garden gives them.

“[I want students to know] just how special our garden is. Having amazing produce available most of the year makes our jobs in the kitchen easy,” Bohan wrote. “When you start with high quality, delicious vegetables you don’t need to do much to make the final dish amazing and memorable.”