Farm to Table

Because of Olney’s location and history, the easiest part of eating locally is growing the food. 

This year, we have raised enough beef, potatoes, cucumbers for pickles, green and dried beans, and winter squash to supply us for an entire year.

Every year we gain on our goal of raising most of our food. We are beginning to add the equipment, storage, and staff needed to transform raw product into a delicious meal in a way that is efficient and meets US Health Department requirements. 

Farm beef is the community’s favorite farm-raised food. We have breeding cows and are saving the heifers so that our herd will continue to grow. The cows and calves are kept together and can graze on over 80 acres of pasture every day of the year; in the winter, they eat hay that was made on our farm.

Students know that our grassfed beef is healthy for them and grown in a sustainable caring way, but they eat the beef because it tastes wonderful. In blind taste tests, 100% of students — both ours, and visiting students — prefer grassfed farm beef. We raise enough beef for an entire year of meals.

Our vegetables are grown without pesticides or herbicides in a nine-year rotation and are fertilized with our own compost.

Potatoes are the most popular vegetable we grow. We plant with a refurbished 1906 potato planter; we cultivate and hill with a 60-year-old FarmAll Cub tractor. Our new (1940s) potato harvester digs the potatoes and shakes off the dirt before dropping them on top of the ground. The Farm Team picks up the crop and washes the potatoes before bringing them into the kitchen. We grow enough potatoes for an entire year. 

The Olney Friends School kitchen staff still makes the most delicious mashed potatoes from scratch and regularly uses our potatoes baked or roasted, in stews and soup.

Vegetarian options are available at every meal.