Dilmun Hill Student Farm

Welcome to Dilmun Hill! We are a student farm that fosters community and empowers students through active engagement in ecologically-based agriculture. Dilmun Hill has been serving Cornell and the Ithaca community since 1996 and has thrived off the creativity, diversity and commitment of the people that connect with it. Explore our website to learn how our farm provides a home for collaborative learning, student leadership development, and community building through food and farming at Cornell. 

Dilmun Hill provides: 

  • Practical, hands-on experience in small-scale, organic farming practices: Student farm managers guide on-farm decision making to produce fresh produce for the campus and Ithaca community.
  • An outdoor classroom for experiential learning: Class tours and projects, student clubs, and workshops turn the farm into a laboratory for learning through any lens we want to imagine  –  sustainable agriculture, soil science, local food systems, engineering, landscape design and more.
  • Student-led, applied research and demonstration: Collaborative research ideas and concepts are tested across a range of disciplines, including urban agriculture, organic production, bio-circular economy, agroforestry and more.
  • Connection to community: Passionate student leaders work to cultivate community around farming through active partnerships with other student groups and programs across Cornell.

Farm highlights

Shiitake Cultivation

Many hands work in an assembly line to inoculate 100 three-to-four-foot-long hardwood logs with shiitake mushroom spawn. After an incubation period, logs managed under the shade of the farm’s windbreak will provide a supply of fresh mushrooms for several years.

We initiated the log-grown mushroom production with inspiration from related coursework and visits to local farms. 

Traditional Indigenous Crops

Indigenous communities are some of the most food insecure populations in the USA and are often geographically separated from their traditional foods. This project uses container-based gardening and freely available fertilizers, such as human waste, fish effluent, and black soldier fly frass, to grow culturally relevant foods and ceremonial tobacco. Seeds are returned to members of the Haudenosaunee through the American Indian & Indigenous Studies Program.

Pawpaws

Have you ever tasted the bright-yellow flesh of a perfectly ripe pawpaw? We harvested over 150 lbs from our 25-year old pawpaw trees this year. Pawpaws are native to the eastern US and have been used by Indigenous Peoples and early settlers alike. For the past two years we have been working hard on restoring the overgrown pawpaw grove at the farm, and now get to enjoy and share the abundant harvest with the wider Dilmun Hill community. 

Circular Bionutrient Economy

One of the high tunnels is dedicated to a research project that seeks to recycle nutrients from human and agricultural waste into fertilizer. Connecting sanitation and agriculture in this way can add valuable nutrients to the soil where they are needed.

Produce Production

From planning which crops to grow and tending them throughout the season, to harvesting – growing food is our passion. We love to experiment with novel crops and methods, and to share our abundant harvest with the Cornell community. 

Look for our produce at Anabel's Grocery, visit our market stand on campus, or check out our CSA and u-pick options. 

Many students work on logs
Two young people holding harvested ceremonial tobacco
A hand holding a pawpaw cut in half
Students work with pots and a sensor system
Person with a broad simle harvesting cherry tomatoes

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