On January 6, 2014, below-zero temperatures in the double-digits swept into western Pennsylvania and bitter cold winds blew over the plastic film covered “high tunnel” at Chatham University’s Eden Hall Farm.
But inside the unheated movable greenhouse, beets, carrots, broccoli, and Swiss chard grown by Eden Farm’s Director of Sus-tainability Allen Matthews ’71 and his students were thriving.
“I had never grown anything at minus 12 before,” Matthews told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I emailed the dean and said we had survived. It was exciting.”
It was a turning point for Matthews and his program’s efforts to provide a model for local farmers to profitably extend their growing season and to give consumers the option of eating local year-round.
The Wabash Phi Delt and psychology major took another leap forward later last year. The 3,000 square-foot Eden Hall Solar High Tunnel—with solar panels that heat water for radiant floor heating in winter—was completed in June. The bountiful harvest of lettuce, arugula, tatsoi, spinach, claytonia, and radishes was delivered to the Eden Hall campus’s dining hall throughout the winter, with more variety coming in early spring.
Chatham’s 388-acre Eden Hall farm is home to the Falk School of Sustainability, which was founded in 2010 and offers master’s and bachelor’s degrees in sustainability and food studies.
A multi generation farmer with more than 20 years experience in sustainable agriculture, Matthews offered this definition of sustainable agriculture: “Sustainable farming means reduced use of off-farm inputs. It’s farming that’s profitable for the person doing the growing, environmentally and socially responsible.
“It’s working in partnership with nature to the greatest extent possible—I call it ‘regeneration.’”
WM will feature Matthews’ family farm in the Fall 2015 edition. Read the Eden Hall Farm blog at edenhallfarm.wordpress.com