As a sophomore at St. Lawrence University, I participated in the Adirondack Semester. This program offers an immersive place-based learning campus located in the Adirondack Park. With sustainable living in mind, a group of 10 students paddled via canoe to lake Massawepie’s Yurt Village. In our village, we had no running water, no technology, and our main mode of transportation was a canoe or kayak. We got weekly installments of fresh produce from Kent Family Growers located in Lisbon.
And as ten novices in the kitchen, our semester quickly adapted to utilizing every part of a vegetable. As students, we were accustomed to running to the supermarket for a spice you could not find in your pantry or fresh lettuce in the dead of winter. This was a luxury. These past few months our group meals were shaped around fresh, in-season vegetables. There was no “running to the market.” We ate what we had, and what we had was local. As a part of this program, once it gets too chilly to live in a yurt, the students move on to Capstone Internships. Read more Finding (And Using) Your Roots