Cecilia Luce is a Thetford Academy student working with the Underground Workshop, a network of student journalists across Vermont partnering with Community News Service.
How do young farmers balance student life and farm life?
“That’s what I wrote my college essay on,” Ben Mattern said.
Mattern, a senior at Thetford Academy, lives and works on Mt. Pleasant Farm in Tunbridge, Vermont. As the youngest of 14 children (and the only child still living at home), he takes on many responsibilities at the farm — especially during growing season. He estimates that he works about five hours a day on weekdays during summer break.
“I put on the boots and then go wherever the heck [my dad] wants me to go for the day,” Mattern said.
Mattern said that Mt. Pleasant Farm grows “anything [his] dad feels like growing that summer.” That includes tomatoes, cucumbers and potatoes. However, it is best known for its homemade pickles, which are sold every Saturday from May to October (and every other Saturday from November to April) at the Norwich Farmers Market.
“Everything points to Saturdays,” Mattern said.
On mornings of the farmers market, Mattern wakes up at 6, loads up his dad’s Toyota pickup truck with pickles and produce, drives to Norwich, and works at the farmstand from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. He doesn’t usually get home and finish unloading everything until 4 p.m. On Farmers Market days during the school year, Mattern said that it’s hard to find motivation to do schoolwork after working all day.
“Who doesn’t love a weekend?” Mattern said. “Well, I automatically don’t get Saturday [off] and by the time we get home I’m too tired to do homework well.”
However, Mattern considers himself a good student, and recently committed “just across the river” to Dartmouth College. Since Dartmouth is only two miles away from the farmers market, his dad has suggested that Mattern can still help out next year.
“My brothers and sisters have chastised me about that,” Mattern said. “They’re like, ‘What, you didn’t want to get away as fast as you can?’”
Ninth grader Sarah Marshia’s farm in Chelsea (called “Libbyland” after her mother’s prior surname) is also a “family thing.”
Libbyland has been in the family for generations. The A-frame sugarhouse where Marshia’s grandfather sugared as a child still stands in the woods, although it isn’t functional anymore. The current sugarhouse is fully equipped with electricity.
Marshia said that sugaring is her favorite part of Libbyland. She taps trees in the early spring, along with doing various tasks in the sugarhouse.
“We all gather in the sugarhouse and we all help out with things,” she said.
Marshia described the rest of her family’s land as a “classic farm.” It has chickens, pigs, cows, dogs, cats and a Christmas tree farm in the works.
Like Mattern, Marshia said that work on the farm occasionally interferes with her student life. She said that she sometimes misses school to stay home and help with farm work or sugaring work.
While she doesn’t usually get paid for helping with the family operation, Marshia finds value in the work. She said that she might consider having her own farm or going back to Libbyland in her future.
“It’s work, but it’s fun,” she said.
While Marshia and Mattern’s farms have a focus on produce and animals, Oliver Ransom lives on the type of farm that has come to define Vermont: a dairy farm.
Ransom, a junior at Thetford Academy, lives on Rockbottom Farm in Strafford. His family’s land is also the headquarters of the Strafford Organic Creamery.
“We have about 80 cows, milked twice a day, 365 days a year, all around the clock,” Ransom said.
Strafford Organic Creamery exports whipping cream, various types of milk and “a whole bunch of ice cream” to outlets in Vermont, New Hampshire, and (rarely) Boston and New York.
Ransom’s jobs on the farm include tractor work, moving feed and milking.
“Most of the stuff involves either cows or hay,” he said.
During winter months, Ransom works on Saturdays and Sundays for eight or nine hours. He said that his farm responsibilities don’t usually have an impact on his school or social life.
“If it’s just normal, everyday farm work and normal, everyday homework, then they don’t really coincide,” he said.
Ransom said that the work sometimes gets monotonous, but he doesn’t mind. His favorite task is tractor work, since it means that he can listen to music all day.
One of Ransom’s older brothers is planning on taking over Rockbottom Farm. However, Ransom still plans on helping his family during school breaks once he goes to college.
“I don’t know how things are gonna shake out after college, but [going back to the farm] might happen. It’s kind of a thing to fall back on,” he said.
Ransom hopes to do something in the field of engineering. He doesn’t plan on pursuing a career in farming, though — like Mattern and Marshia — he enjoys knowing how to work on a farm.
Mattern specified that he appreciates the lessons on efficiency and hard work that he has learned from working at Mt. Pleasant, but doesn’t enjoy the actual work.
“Getting cut up by zucchini plants with the little prickles on ‘em and then sweating all day … it gets really itchy and awful,” Mattern said.
However, Mattern said that he wants to have his own garden as an adult. He urges readers to support their local farms.
“It’s very beneficial to have fresh, good food,” Mattern said. “It’s just so healthy.”
In this month’s installation, our reporters showcase the evolution of farming in Vermont. From environmental adaptations to overcoming racial barriers to young farmers learning from their families, the Underground Workshop’s March 2024 stories show a spectrum of people and places that take part in the Vermont tradition of agriculture. To learn more about the Underground Workshop, visit our website or check us out on Instagram @undergroundworkshopvt.