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Darice
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Yale College Voices podcast, where we dive deep into the lives and experiences, and also journeys of Yale College staff. So for those of you who don't know me, I'm Darice Corey, and today I have the pleasure of welcoming Jacqueline Munno, who is the Programs Manager for International and Professional Experience at the Yale Sustainable Food Program.
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Darice
So, Jacquie, thank you so much for joining me today. I am so excited to have you here.
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Jacquie
Thank you so much for having me.
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Darice
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I'm just really excited to learn more about your journey and all of the meaningful work that you do here at Yale College. So, so, Jacquie, before we get started, I want to read your bio, and I love how I asked you to share your bio with me, and I loved it. So I'm just going to share exactly what you shared with me.
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Darice
so, Jacquie Munno, she/her pronouns, again is the Programs Manager for International and Professional Experience for the Yale Sustainable Food Program. Jacquie has been firing the hearth, processing the harvest and curating conversations under the Lazarus Pavilion at the Yale Farm since 2009. And for those of you who don't know, the Yale Farm is located at 345 Edwards Street here in New Haven and I've actually visited the farm a few times and loved it.
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Darice
So by engaging students in place-based embodied work, she aims to create spaces where everyone feels a sense of belonging and call to stewardship of the farm. Jacquie develops and manages a range of extramural programs, particularly international and pre-professional experiences for students across academic disciplines. She co-directs Camp Yale HARVEST, facilitating trips for groups of incoming first years to camp and work on Connecticut farms as part of their Yale orientation.
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Darice
Before coming to Yale, Jacquie worked at Navdan- Navdanya, a network of seed keepers and organic producers in New Delhi, India, where she was an assistant to Dr. Vandana Shiva. Jacquie received a Masters in Food Culture from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Parma, Italy, and a Bachelors in French Studies and International Affairs from the University of New Hampshire.
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Darice
Jacquie also served on many boards, including the National Young Farmers Coalition and the New Haven Food Policy Council. She is also a proud fellow of Pearson College. Jacquie lives on a community farm with her husband, two kiddos, a barn cat and a bunch of hens. I want to hear about the hens. She is a home cook with Armenian roots who loves feeding people.
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Darice
So again, welcome to the podcast, Jacquie.
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Jacquie
Thank you so much. It was fun to hear that read back to me.
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Darice
It's so awesome. And so I'd love to hear more like, you know, if you don't mind sharing more, just maybe starting off with your early years, like was farming kind of how you grew up or what environment did you grow up in?
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Jacquie
Yeah, so I grew up in rural upstate New York in the Adirondacks. My grandparents did have a space that we called the farm in the Catskills where we would, you know, hang out in the summers. But it was mostly sort of hade and there was a vegetable garden, but food was always really central to my life. My mom, as I mentioned, is Armenian and my dad is from Australia.
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Jacquie
And the thing that really brought them together and sort of sanctioned their marriage was my dad was the lamb guy. So he was sort of, yeah, really enthusiastic about all of these lamb recipes. And it kind of made my grandparents feel at ease that he wasn't also Armenian. And then growing up in a rural area, there wasn't a whole lot of sort of new or different foods around.
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Jacquie
And so I was sort of the the funny kid that always had the, like the Armenian things. And people loved coming to our house to eat. So food was really central to who I was cooking and just, you know, having huge family gatherings. And then when I began to study at university, I was the first person in my family to graduate from college.
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Jacquie
And I was a French major. And my family had no idea what that meant, like, was I going to be a a French teacher or a diplomat? They didn't really understand. They maybe still are confused about what that was. But for me, it opened up this whole world of food culture. Part of being a French major is studying all of the different revolutions of France and they mostly are agrarian in nature.
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Jacquie
There are all of these peasant uprisings that I was learning about, and it really connected the sort of beauty of French food culture to the underly- underlying power dynamics that were happening in French society over time. And so as I began to really draw those connections, I actually graduated. I was, I was done just as I started to connect the dots, which is what spurred me to first travel around to work on some farms across Europe and finally land at a graduate school in Italy, where I studied food culture.
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Darice
my gosh, that's amazing. Yeah. I'm curious, like, if you could tell me a little more about you mentioned, you know, just having lots of folks over for dinner and were like, what was that like in terms of, you know, just having that community and, you know, people coming together? And it sounds like it was a lot of fun, too.
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Jacquie
Yeah, it was. It was a lot of fun. We, the house that I grew up in was on a lake. And so it was a really wonderful place to gather, especially in the warm weather when you could go swimming. And there was just there was always so much food in our house. We had like three refrigerators and nothing very extravagant.
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Jacquie
But my mom was just adamant that everyone ate and so is my dad. Both of them cooked and both of them still cook. So it was really fun to just make sure that, like, people would love to come over just to have dinner at the Lewin House.
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Darice
Oh that's amazing.
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Jacquie
And it's kind of still that way.
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Darice
Really. Yeah. It's so funny you say that because, you know, my mom, my mom's 80 now, but she she doesn't cook as much as she used to, but same, same idea. Like she still has about three refrigerators. And it's like, Mom, slow down. Like stop cooking for 20, you know? But yeah, it's so true. Like people, of course, food brings people together.
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Darice
Right? But, you know, it's like people gravitate towards, you know, just that, that feeling of family and, you know, I don't know, just the connection. Right. so what's a, did you have favorites? Like were there certain favorite dishes?
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Jacquie
Ooh. I think to this day my I, the favorite thing that my mom makes is probably fossil yak, which is a lamb and string beans stew. I just adore that. It's like an ultimate comfort food. And we serve it over pilaf. Rice pilaf and rice pilaf is actually something that is served, like with every meal at my family's household and the sort of the rice pot has its own lore.
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Jacquie
And the way that we make rice is really specific. Really. So yeah, it's been a fun to sort of grow up and find my own ways of cooking all of the things, but really never stray at all from the pilaf recipe.
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Darice
Interesting, that's awesome. So growing up, do you have like, you know, as you're sharing this with me, where there was there any kind of like specific memorable experience that popped into your head during that time?
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Jacquie
I think one of the things that I, that stands out about childhood, particularly around food, is they're just always being parsley in our garden. My parents worked retail and so they were really, you know, sort of glued to this clock and collectible store that, that they owned. And my dad still to this day, repairs clocks, but there is always at least parsley, but usually also tomatoes and a few other things.
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Jacquie
So I just remember being a kid and our garden being pretty small, but like having specifically the things that we needed and that we knew would just taste better, you know, from the garden as opposed to from the store. And that really stood out to me. And I think, you know, I certainly carry it with me today.
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Darice
Oh interesting. Do you, do you garden a lot now or. Well, you live on a farm, right?
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Jacquie
So yeah.
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Darice
Silly question, right?
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Jacquie
Marrying an organic vegetable farmer means that I actually garden a lot less than maybe I would have always imagined because I have this amazing, you know, barn that is full of vegetables all the time that I did not myself grow.
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Darice
Interesting. That's so cool, though. Yeah, I'm fascinated by that because I. Well, I'm not. Let's see, how would I put this? I would love to cook more if I had it just readily available, you know? And instead of having to go out to the store and, you know, pick items out. But, but yeah, I just find it fascinating just to have, first of all, just living on a farm and then, and then having it there and it's like, okay now, now figuring out what do I do with it and how do I make it taste good, you know? Let's see.
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Darice
Do you while you were growing up, did you have, you know, in addition to your parents, were there other like role models that sort of guided your early years and, and even, you know, with cooking or, you know, farming or anything like that?
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Jacquie
Yeah, certainly my maternal grandparents, Alice and Leon, they were really a big part of our lives and a big part of the sort of cooking and eating culture of our family. So Grandma Alice's Foods and, and Grandpa Leon's foods were really central and yeah, I definitely tried to emulate the spirit of care in the kitchen that she had or that both of them had.
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Jacquie
My grandmother was allergic to a bunch of things, including red dye number 40. And so that felt like something that was like this throughline, like we don't really eat at restaurants, we don't buy processed food, we don't need a microwave like we cook. And because it was the safest way for my grandmother to be able to eat. And so I think that that shaped a lot of sort of, you know, the way that we ate in our household because Grandma and Grandpa were, were mostly always around.
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Darice
Yeah, yeah. And that's, that's interesting to know because you don't realize how, how many foods have all, you know, these things in it like red, red dye and certain foods and if you have a serious allergy like that, yeah, you'd have to prepare naturally, right?
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Jacquie
Yeah. And I think labeling has come a long way since, you know, those days and years. But it's, you know, still just something to be concerned about, especially when eating out. And I think that we're so much more attuned to the different dietary needs that exist today. But if you're someone who has specific dietary needs, then you really have to be thinking about it.
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Jacquie
Quite often.
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Darice
Right? Right, Do, And I hope you don't mind if I ask, like, do you also experience food allergies or?
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Jacquie
Luckily, no. I eat everything.
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Darice
Really? Awesome, awesome. And what so, kind of leading into your college years, Like what, And I'm sure, like you said, your parents had the same question, but what, what did make you pursue a degree in French Studies?
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Jacquie
Well, I think I was mostly escaping math and science. Really. I thought that I wanted to be a meteorologist. I loved Earth sciences in high school and I enrolled in a program for meteorology and quickly found that the sort of calculus in physics was pretty rough and I just wasn't enjoying it as much. And I got an A-plus in my my first college French class, and I just adored it.
00;13;37;18 - 00;14;01;25
Jacquie
I loved the language, I loved speaking it, reading it, watching the films. I just went straight for it. So I wound up sort of doing a shift like most students do. Yeah, we all think we know what we want to do in college, but I just sort of let that interest guide me and it brought me into the French major and I wound up being able to study abroad a couple of times.
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Jacquie
I really wanted to use my education in the sort of privilege of being a student as a way to learn about the world and get out and see the world.
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Darice
Yeah, that's awesome. And how did you know? You brought up a great point and it's come up in in other episodes where students who had an opportunity to or some of my guests who actually had opportunities to study abroad kind of change their, you know, their view of the world and view of global issues. And did that happen for you as well?
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Darice
Like like you just said.
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Jacquie
Yeah. Living abroad, certainly as a younger student and then throughout some of my twenties and for grad school, I mean, it was just formative for my entire worldview and it's pretty central to the spirit that I bring to the Old Acre or the Yale Farm, which is that I learned that there are many different ways of knowing in the world and the way that I know the world is not necessarily the way that someone else knows the world.
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Jacquie
And being able to sort of live a little bit in that messy gray area and understand that I don't understand was just an important part of sort of being humble to what's out there, which I think makes life really exciting and really rich. If I knew everything already, then it might be a little bit boring.
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Darice
Yeah, that's awesome. And were there like certain experiences where you sort of tied in and you mentioned this earlier, touched on this earlier, your, your interest in French Studies but also, you know pulling together, pulling that into your, your experience at home with farming and how did that all tie together in your college years.
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Jacquie
Yeah, well one of the things that happened I went to University of New Hampshire and I was leaving a party and I heard a rooster crowing in a dumpster and I pulled it out with my friend Ian, and we took it back to the off campus house that we were living in. And it happened to have a really decrepit chicken coop.
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Jacquie
And the rooster was so mean.
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Darice
Oh no.
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Jacquie
It was the meanest. It would chase joggers down the road. And so we decided that we would have to get this rooster some hens to protect.
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Jacquie
Because it clearly needed something to do. And I, I feel like in that moment, I like my agrarian spirit. Just, it awakened. I was a senior in college. Suddenly I was kind of a farmer. Yeah, at least from a student perspective. And from there, I really started thinking much more intellectually about, about farming and about sort of the ties to agrarian society, particularly in France.
00;17;09;22 - 00;17;16;18
Jacquie
And that sort of opened my worldview into sort of what's happening with peasant movements globally.
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Darice
Wow. And can can you tell us a little more about that, Like, in terms of, you know, some of the, the movements that, that either you, you experienced or came across like what, what was that experience like for you?
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Jacquie
Yeah, So a lot of my experience in both Europe and then traveling in India and learning about different peasant movements worldwide was really rooted in meeting farmers, working alongside them, understanding farmer livelihoods and what it means to be a smallholder farmer and how, how each farmer has a different way of caring for the land that's rooted in their histories, their cultures and and sort of coming away from that.
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Jacquie
And I think it was again, the sort of humbling of, wow, there are people out there who really know how to take care of the land and feed people. And there are not very many pathways to success for these folks who's who, you know, they're being dispossessed of land, dispossessed of knowledge, dispossessed of seed and still working so hard and celebrating and feeding people every day.
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Jacquie
So I felt really inspired by all of the interactions I had with producers around the world. And, you know, farmers are definitely my heroes. I married one.
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Darice
Right right, oh that's amazing. And it reminds me of years ago and this was probably in my early twenties. I worked for a nonprofit called TechnoServe, and they served countries and farmers in different developing countries that, you know, just wanted to sustain their communities. And, you know, it's like there were all sorts of businesses like alpaca farming, coffee, coffee beans.
00;19;30;16 - 00;20;02;05
Darice
I'm trying to remember the others. But, but what was really interesting was hearing the stories and the impacts that they made on their communities, like amazing, you know, changing lives, basically. Can you tell me a little bit more about, you know, some of the challenges that you may have faced, during your college years, like where there, it sounded like you kind of in a way sort of knew what you wanted to do early on.
00;20;02;07 - 00;20;17;08
Darice
You know, you mentioned that you didn't, you found that, okay, the science part, maybe not so much, but. But you enjoyed the French Studies. so how did you you know, where there some challenges along the way and how did you overcome those?
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Jacquie
Yeah, I think, the biggest challenge that I faced was one that I was forced to face, which is I had lived abroad for several years. I was in grad school in Italy, traveling all around, living on farms, working in different spaces. And I wound up landing in New Delhi, India, where I lived for about a year. And I was trying to sort of figure out my place.
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Jacquie
I was really passionate about working with farmers, but I also was beginning to realize that as a person from North America, I wasn't really sure what my role was in India. I was working for a really progressive grassroots organization with a woman who Dr. Vandana Shiva, who has this teaching farm and runs a grandmother's university and is working, you know, really closely on the ground with farmers.
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Jacquie
And aside from being, you know, really great at sort of administration and, you know, keeping up with emails and helping to train other interns and things like that, I was like, what? What is my role here? Do I belong in this space? And sort of, yeah, challenging some of my own assumptions about what my role could be in the international context.
00;21;46;25 - 00;22;15;25
Jacquie
And I, a friend of mine, unfortunately passed away in an accident and that brought me, that brought me home. And while I was here for the funeral, I applied to two jobs and one of them was the sustainable Food Program. At Yale. And so, and I somehow got the interview and, and I had no prior connections to Yale, so I didn't really know what I was getting myself into at all.
00;22;15;27 - 00;22;35;26
Jacquie
I didn't really think of Connecticut as a place that I would want to call home. I didn't think I'd stay in the United States, but I was in a little bit of this internal crisis facing this challenge of what is my place and I landed on, I need to be closer to my home community because I think that's where I belong and where I can make the most impact.
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Jacquie
And somehow I got the job. And so I, I packed up my life in India and started here in September of 2009.
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Darice
Wow. that's so interesting. And what was that like? Like, was it a huge transition just from, I don't know, like just daily life in India to coming to Yale? And like you said, you you hadn't really done any work here at Yale prior to that. So was was that a huge change?
00;23;07;28 - 00;23;26;22
Jacquie
Yeah, it was. It was quite a change. And it took a little while to get used to just sort of being in a place, first of all, that where most people were speaking English all of the time. But I quickly found that there were all of these Italian markets and I could just speak Italian with the owners.
00;23;26;25 - 00;23;42;11
Jacquie
And that there were international students, someone who I had actually met as a part of a youth climate coalition in New Delhi, had started at the then forestry school, and we crossed each other on the street. And I was like, oh my gosh!
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Darice
All the way from across the world, right?
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Jacquie
So yeah, I kind of quickly settled in and although I had come from New Delhi, which was a big city, I had never really lived in a big city before and New Haven felt big at the time. And so I felt like there is a lot to explore. There's so much great food culture, things to do, things to see and experience in New Haven, and just being a part of the Yale community and trying to sort of make it to every talk and performance and all of the things that I still tried to do today.
00;24;18;14 - 00;24;20;15
Darice
I know it's it's never ending, right?
00;24;20;15 - 00;24;39;26
Jacquie
Yeah. So there is an adjustment. But I should also say that having moved around a lot, I also feel very adaptable and I think that that's a great thing for students to think of in terms of reasons to study abroad, to sort of testing your adaptability of landing in new places and spaces and being able to operate there.
00;24;39;27 - 00;24;42;04
Jacquie
Yeah, so I'd had a lot of experience with that.
00;24;42;06 - 00;25;14;07
Darice
that's so awesome, and I'm curious, you know, when, when you join the Sustainable Food program, what, you know, you spoke earlier about like figuring out like, what's my role or what's my place in all of this? And, but did you initially have an idea of what that would be or was that still kind of in, you know, in progress or in development when you joined the program?
00;25;14;09 - 00;25;37;24
Jacquie
So this is a fun question because it's not something I've been asked before. But the thing that comes immediately to mind is that I landed here and my very first day I was being trained to operate the Yale Farms Pizza Oven with the new team. It's great.
00;25;37;27 - 00;25;39;08
Darice
Yeah.
00;25;39;10 - 00;26;00;17
Jacquie
I was being trained to operate that and sort of take it over from someone named Anastasia Curley, who had had run it before me. And I got to meet my team of students who had already been hired. And we had sort of the very first day together, the students and me, even though I was, you know, their their director.
00;26;00;20 - 00;26;54;02
Jacquie
And I just I'm a I'm a host. I love cooking for people. And so that introduction to the Yale Farms' hearth and the Lazarus Pavilion, where people gather, it just helped me, like very naturally step into this role. And I feel I mean, I feel so comfortable there now. Obviously it's been quite a long time, but probably the one of the great joys of my career in life is being able to operate that space and make sure that it is a warm and welcoming space that has wonderful food for people to enjoy while digging in to sort of difficult, complex issues about, about food and sustainability and the way that we connect with the
00;26;54;02 - 00;27;02;12
Jacquie
land. So luckily, it wasn't too difficult. It was it was really natural. And it's probably why I've been here for so long.
00;27;02;15 - 00;27;35;17
Darice
That's so amazing. And it's, you know, as you were sharing that and thank you for sharing that. it made me think so. I started at Yale and, oh boy, now I'm losing track of the years, but around the same time, like a 2000. Let's see, this is my 17th year, so 2007. But I worked with AYA and one of our staff outings was at the Yale Farm, and that was like my first sort of introduction to just the Yale community.
00;27;35;17 - 00;27;58;08
Darice
And I first of all, I was just amazed. I'm like that Yale has a farm, you know, So but that was one of the activities that we had was was having pizza and, you know, just just to have stuff together and, you know, sit and chit chat and you know, it's like a beautiful day outside. And it was really, it was really nice.
00;27;58;08 - 00;28;07;16
Darice
And I don't, I don't know if a ton of people know about, you know, just having that as an option for, for staff gatherings.
00;28;07;19 - 00;28;09;07
Jacquie
Well, it's not really an option.
00;28;09;13 - 00;28;13;02
Darice
Oh it's not an option. Oops, I misspoke, sorry.
00;28;13;04 - 00;28;16;11
Jacquie
That is okay. Well, so here I can leave the record straight.
00;28;16;11 - 00;28;18;05
Darice
Okay, yes please.
00;28;18;07 - 00;28;22;06
Jacquie
The so the pizza oven takes 4 hours to heat up.
00;28;22;07 - 00;28;22;29
Darice
Really?
00;28;23;05 - 00;28;46;08
Jacquie
And I if I'm going to serve, you know, 30 or 40 or even 100 people, then I usually need around eight students for about 6 hours total to make the whole thing happen. So while I would love to run a catering operation at the Yale Farm and I think it would be very lucrative, yeah, it might not be the best use of my time.
00;28;46;08 - 00;28;47;12
Darice
Interesting, Yeah.
00;28;47;14 - 00;29;22;02
Jacquie
We you know, early on, when the YSFP was first getting started, we really wanted to get as many people onto the acre as possible and just figured out ways to make a lot of pizza. Probably like, more than we should have. And once we start, I sort of arrived here and sort of got to understand the rhythm of what it really takes to pull off, especially a larger event, which is mostly most, is what most folks are looking for, you know, feeding 30 or more people.
00;29;22;02 - 00;29;26;04
Jacquie
I realized pretty quickly that it was just not sustainable. Yeah.
00;29;26;04 - 00;29;27;26
Darice
Yeah, no pun intended.
00;29;27;28 - 00;29;47;22
Jacquie
And while we're not an event space on campus, it's really important to me that the space is open and available for folks to use so we don't ever lock the gates. If folks want to have events or parties. They're from within the Yale community, then that's totally fine. They just shoot me an email.
00;29;47;22 - 00;29;48;11
Darice
Oh really?
00;29;48;14 - 00;30;10;00
Jacquie
Not, you know, a formal event process. If you email me, I will say if you want to have an event here, you have to steward the space. It might include things like, you know, taking out the trash or turning on the water or finding a breaker for the electricity, things that are not just like walking into any classroom at Yale.
00;30;10;01 - 00;30;24;26
Jacquie
Yeah, So it's a little more complicated, but it's important to me that the space is really available. And we do have events every Friday afternoon. They're free and open to the public. Anyone can come.
00;30;24;29 - 00;30;28;03
Darice
So maybe that's what I was thinking of, but go ahead. I'm sorry.
00;30;28;03 - 00;30;53;11
Jacquie
Yeah, no worries. So from 2 to 4 p.m. on Fridays, we have what's called an open work day. So our Yale College Farm managers will welcome whoever walks onto the farm and wants to get their hands in the soil and do some work. And then at 4:15, once the tools are put away, we have what's called a knead 2 know, N- KNEAD.
00;30;53;14 - 00;31;20;02
Jacquie
So students who had been at the oven since noon that day will, you know, be getting ready to serve pizza. And one of our fellows, a global food fellow or someone who did our Lazarus summer internship or someone from the broader Yale community who's studying food and AG in some way will give a ten minute colloquium about whatever topic they are working on in the food system.
00;31;20;04 - 00;31;53;15
Jacquie
So it's meant to be a sort of bite sized presentation where folks can get introduced to a topic. And what we ask our speakers to do is actually talk about their approach to the topic. We don't we're not looking for solutions. We're not looking for anyone to sort of solve a particular problem in the food system, but actually talk about the way that they addressed a complex, messy problem using the academic frameworks that they have from their classroom studies.
00;31;53;17 - 00;32;05;00
Jacquie
And so students will present and then we start serving pizza and we have a live band play, and that's every Friday. So we hope to see you all there.
00;32;05;05 - 00;32;29;14
Darice
Yes, absolutely. So. So maybe, you know, I'm trying to think back to what you know, the more I think about it, it was more like a, volunteer, you know, service day kind of thing. So we might have, I recall pulling weeds at some point, but we went. So I remember being on the farm and then we, you know, my favorite part is the pizza.
00;32;29;14 - 00;33;06;06
Darice
So yeah, Yeah, I'm a pizza person. I'm sorry, but. But no, that's amazing. And that's great to know. Like you said on Fridays, I think that's a great way to get people, you know, away from their desks and and, you know, hear more about the farm. So thank you for sharing that. During your time with the Sustainable Food Program, was there like, is there a particularly rewarding experience that comes to mind when, when you think of your work with a program?
00;33;07;01 - 00;33;09;00
Jacquie
There are so many. I have to pick one.
00;33;09;06 - 00;33;12;23
Darice
That's awesome. You could tell us, you know, tell us a few even.
00;33;12;26 - 00;33;48;14
Jacquie
Well, one of the things that I'm excited about right now is that the right before the pandemic, a student of ours was really interested in tracing, tracing her own West African roots through the study of Indigo. So this color blue that comes from a plant and she asked if we could plant some indigo at the Yale Farm so she could try this aqueous extraction, which gets into some of the sciences and chemistry that I was trying to escape in my youth.
00;33;48;17 - 00;34;17;02
Jacquie
And so she really loud, laid the foundation for the farm to begin exploring in color and textiles in a way that we hadn't before. And then, of course, as the pandemic sort of, we dug into it, we were still allowed to gather at the farm because it was outdoors and we could follow all of the protocols quite readily, but we couldn't necessarily eat together because we were all masked.
00;34;17;05 - 00;34;47;17
Jacquie
And so we got to begin exploring plant based dyes and we were just, we were in the perfect position to do so when the pandemic came up. And so it's been really fun first, starting with this student inquiry and then soon as professors got wind that we were planting indigo, suddenly there was an entire exploration of, of color in material culture with Professor Ned Cook.
00;34;47;17 - 00;35;17;15
Jacquie
And so we've sort of written, you know, visits to the Yale Farm into his, his courses. There's a Yale College seminar called Matters of Color. Color Matters that traces color and sort of imperialism through, through history using a lot of archives from the Beinecke and then coming up to the Yale Farm to harvest Indigo and sort of go through these chemical processes.
00;35;17;17 - 00;35;51;18
Jacquie
So it's been really fun to see what kinds of actual seeds can be planted at the farm and how they can weave their way into the academic, academic fabric at Yale and how it can really enrich these different courses and, you know, get students thinking about the plants that surround them, the plants that are a part of their histories and cultures, the different ways of knowing those plants and how they have shaped our world.
00;35;51;21 - 00;36;02;07
Jacquie
I think that we we're not always sort of attuned to the ways that those plants are, that we're connected to them.
00;36;02;09 - 00;36;19;29
Darice
Yeah, oh my gosh. That is really neat and interesting. So do you, does that have infrequently were students, you know, have an idea or something that they have a particular interest in and they just come to you and ask for permission to to use the farm for, for whatever that purpose may be?
00;36;19;29 - 00;36;59;22
Jacquie
Yeah. There are you know, there are different things being woven into the crop plan all of the time. My colleague Jeremy is sort of it's this huge spreadsheet and it's constantly shifting and we only have an acre, but it's really our goal to work with students and faculty members to sort of help their visions come to life. And so we've, we've talked a lot sort of publicly about wheat and rye on the Yale Farm that had all started with Professor Maria Trumpler. She was working on sort of understanding women's connections to Rye in this women food and culture class that she was running.
00;36;59;22 - 00;37;34;09
Jacquie
And so we were growing the wheat and threshing it and then baking it in the oven. And then the Russian literature department was like, Wait, we want to thresh wheat, because there are these scenes in Anna Karenina that we want to emulate. And it's important for students to understand the embodiment of, you know, what it was like for the, for the peasants to be doing this work and like, you know, just sort of connecting all of these different pieces that are being taught in the classroom and being able to, to share them with students and make for a really memorable classroom experience.
00;37;34;09 - 00;38;07;01
Darice
Yeah, that's amazing. That and that was actually going to be my next question was just, you know, the concept of, of place based embodied work and how did it foster sort of a deeper connection, right, for students? And, and can you tell us a little more about that? Like, how did, how did that change or did it change your connection to students when you think of, you know, the first time you started working with the program to now?
00;38;07;03 - 00;38;31;25
Jacquie
Yeah, I think that sort of students interest in food and their approach like why they're interested in it has evolved a lot over the course of the last 15 years. So I think early in my time here, there were a lot of what we call like epiphany moment, moments where you pull a carrot out of the ground and you're like, wow, a carrot.
00;38;31;25 - 00;39;05;29
Jacquie
Which is still, by the way, amazing every time I do it. I'm excited. And people are definitely, you know, excited as well. But there are a lot of students who are arriving at Yale with a much more complex or deeper understanding of, of the systems that feed us already and are sort of ready to be examining things a little more closely, really exploring the connections to whatever it is that they study.
00;39;06;01 - 00;39;37;03
Jacquie
And so that has been fun because for me, I'm never bored. You know, I had been here for more than a decade when suddenly I was introduced to the whole world of plant based dyes that I could spend another career really, really just starting to understand. And so, yeah, I think it's it's impossible to get old and there are just too many threads to pull on.
00;39;37;05 - 00;39;48;16
Jacquie
So, yeah, I've been totally inspired by the different kinds of projects that students bring and the different kinds of connections that they make when they're working in the field.
00;39;48;18 - 00;40;11;09
Darice
Oh that's so amazing. And I love that. Like you said, you're never bored like that. That's, that's probably, you know, it's one of the things that keeps us working at Yale for so long, right? Like to come in every day and not know what you know, what person you may meet or what project you may suddenly be pulled into.
00;40;11;09 - 00;40;40;09
Darice
And you know, all of these fascinating things. and so and I love what you shared earlier about the student with the indigo project and I'm curious about, if you could tell us more about how the programs work in terms of creating that sort of inclusive space for students or anyone like you said, to, to feel that you can, you know, approach the program to work on a project like that.
00;40;40;09 - 00;40;42;02
Darice
Can you tell us a little more about that?
00;40;42;05 - 00;41;11;05
Jacquie
Sure. So I think that the Yale Farm strives to be a really open, warm and welcoming space. It's really important to us that folks set foot on the acre and feel a sense of belonging and the students that work on the acre are really committed to that vision as well. So when someone comes through the farm, they should be greeted, welcomed.
00;41;11;07 - 00;41;31;25
Jacquie
Some people just want to walk through and don't really want you to talk to them because they're, you know, just there to enjoy, enjoy the plants. And others are curious and, want to engage. And so we're really ready with with that spirit Whenever someone comes to the farm, I mentioned that we don't lock our gates and that's really important to us.
00;41;31;25 - 00;41;52;13
Jacquie
We don't want it to feel like you can't walk through. We want folks to come and see what's growing and check out, you know, check out our chickens and, you know, maybe see the way that the compost is decomposing, like all of the things that can be discovered on this one acre is, there's just so much to see.
00;41;52;13 - 00;42;32;21
Jacquie
So we hope that folks are feeling really like they belong when they set foot there. And then we also are working really closely with some of the cultural centers at Yale. So I think maybe about ten years ago, an indigenous student came to us and wanted to plant the three sisters, beans, corn and squash. And so we were gifted some seed from an avid-, Abenaki seed keeper, and we've since been stewarding those seeds alongside our NACC liaison students.
00;42;32;24 - 00;42;59;17
Jacquie
This has been going on for quite a few years, but it's a way in which students can connect with and see what agriculture looked like in pre-colonial times at the Yale Farm. So it's really easy to read agriculture as being this very linear thing, right? You see rows and rows and you look at that landscape and you say, aha, that is cultivated land.
00;42;59;19 - 00;43;29;29
Jacquie
That's land being cared for by someone. And there is a different way of knowing and seeing when you are planting the three sisters, they, they are connected to one another. They, the corn grows quite tall and has sort of a nice stalk for the bean plant to grow up and spiral up. And then the squash is like this amazing ground cover.
00;43;29;29 - 00;44;19;19
Jacquie
Those big broad leaves, keep moisture in the soil and they crowd out the weeds and make sure that they don't get a whole lot of sunlight. But it doesn't look like the agriculture that that the settlers would have recognized when they, you know, entered New Haven or Connecticut or, you know, the North America upon arrival. So there are ways in which agriculture can tell stories and show these different ways of knowing that are still important today, still being practiced today, and help students sort of figure out their place as a caretaker of the land, whether or not they're indigenous.
00;44;19;19 - 00;45;08;24
Jacquie
Knowing these stories is really important and being able to connect back and think about your own ancestors and how they cultivated land and what their connection to food and the soil might have been like. And students are really interested in making those connections and thinking about them in terms of what they study quite often. So it's been a real joy to be gifted that seed and to steward that seed and to work with Professor Hi'ilei Hobart, who teaches this Indigenous food sovereignty class and brings her class to steward the sisters as a part of, of the course.
00;45;08;27 - 00;45;13;16
Jacquie
So I hopefully that answers the question.
00;45;13;19 - 00;45;44;00
Darice
That's amazing and I would love, you know, I don't get to hear about things like that, you know, in my little world of IT. And I think that's an amazing story, an example of, of the work that is being done here and how it all ties into the courses and, you know, students and, you know, students feeling a sense of belonging and inclusivity.
00;45;44;02 - 00;45;59;17
Darice
That's amazing. Do you think that? Do, do you do any programs with, with actual Yale College staff in terms of, or do you maybe you've had ideas of how we could pull more staff into some of this work that you're doing?
00;45;59;20 - 00;46;28;25
Jacquie
Yeah, we're primarily student facing, but are able to work with staff in lots of different capacities. Indigo is one of the ways that I think coming up, so the professors who teach the Matters of Color course one of them is a librarian at Yale. It's a, it's a seminar. And she's really excited about getting all of the librarians out to the farm to do a dye session.
00;46;28;28 - 00;47;03;29
Jacquie
So that will be coming up this summer. They're kind of things that pop up and happen organically. Yeah, based on the different connections that we have across the university at this moment. I mean, I've been here for so long, there's probably a zillion examples, but we don't have a specific program, but it's really fun to see what emerges from the collaborations that we have and our staff is quite dedicated to sort of being out and collaborating across the campus and across New Haven.
00;47;04;01 - 00;47;25;14
Jacquie
We have a, you know, like one of our like rules is that we, we don't do anything alone, always in collaboration, always in connection. And so if we're hosting a speaker, if we're, if we're really just doing actually anything, planting a seed, then it has to be something that we're doing alongside partners.
00;47;25;16 - 00;47;57;02
Darice
That's amazing. I love that idea too, because it brings, it brings people together, right? It's again, kind of pulling, you know, that sense of belonging and including people, including other groups. I think that's amazing. I'm curious about, you know, if you share, some of my questions, you kind of answered her in terms of, you know, maybe we'll take a shift in terms of, you know, your responsibilities on the farm.
00;47;57;05 - 00;48;16;05
Darice
How do you, how do you balance that? We were talking earlier before we started the recording, and you have young children and, you know, so I can only imagine that it's a, you know, a juggling act. So how do you how do you balance that with, with just, you know, your home life, your work on the farm.
00;48;16;05 - 00;48;18;06
Darice
Because you live on a farm, right?
00;48;18;09 - 00;48;45;15
Jacquie
So, yeah, it's a good question. And it's changed a lot since having children. So I have a six year old and a four year old and I quickly learned that I mostly need to be doing work during working hours or when daycare or school is in session, which was not the way that I operated before having kids. If there was an evening event at the Yale Farm, I was there, not because I felt like I had to be, but because I truly wanted to be.
00;48;45;15 - 00;49;13;10
Jacquie
And it's actually been neat to have a shift where I can't always be there because it means that I am truly then handing this space over to someone else and saying, You are the steward now and these are the things that you need to know to take care of the space while you're here. So it's been a practice of letting go that I think has been actually quite positive for the people experiencing it and for me.
00;49;13;11 - 00;49;41;12
Jacquie
And you know, I'm happy to say that, you know, there's always too many things to do. Of course there are too many emails, and, you know, but I have been doing the work for long enough that I know how to prioritize what there is to do. And there are seldom very many like boat rocking surprises. And so I feel like I can plan for things pretty well.
00;49;41;14 - 00;50;04;23
Jacquie
I know exactly when I can count on students and I know when they're going to be buried under midterms. And so the rhythm of the farm, the rhythm of our programing all coincides with the rhythm of the students and the faculty members and their needs. And so it's actually been quite natural and not too difficult.
00;50;04;25 - 00;50;05;00
Darice
Not too difficult.
00;50;05;07 - 00;50;34;26
Jacquie
Yesterday, I, I spent the day, rather than tackling the pile of emails and reading many, many fellowship applications, I, there's a construction project happening kind of near our office. And so I just did a call out to students and we were digging up all of these daffodil crocus and tulip bulbs that were going to get plowed under, and then we transplanted them all at the Yale Farm.
00;50;34;28 - 00;50;46;28
Jacquie
So, you know, there are no real big boat rocking surprises, but sometimes there are surprises that get me away from my computer and outside it on a beautiful day, even when I at least expected it.
00;50;47;00 - 00;50;55;29
Darice
Yeah, there was. It was, was it yesterday? It was really nice out yesterday. So it was like a, you know. Yeah, I can imagine it was nice just to be outdoors and.
00;50;56;05 - 00;50;57;19
Jacquie
Perfect day for a bulb rescue operation.
00;50;57;19 - 00;51;12;08
Darice
Yeah. Yeah. Bulb rescue. And so how do you, like how do you, are your kids sort of being indoctrinated into the, you know, farm life and so on? Like how, how did they enjoy it?
00;51;12;10 - 00;51;21;12
Jacquie
Yeah. So growing up on a farm is definitely a part of the identities of both of my kids. That does not necessarily translate to their vegetable eating.
00;51;21;13 - 00;51;27;13
Darice
Okay, I get that part.
00;51;27;15 - 00;52;01;00
Jacquie
Sometimes, it does. You know, it varies by the day. I would love to say my kids are amazing vegetable eaters, but that would not be truthful. But both of my kids have spent a lot of time on the Yale Farm and at Massaro Farm, where I live, and with Yale students. So they really identify as like farm kids and they, because the Yale HARVEST Program operates at Massaro Farm, both for May training and for our August trips.
00;52;01;00 - 00;52;24;23
Jacquie
And these are trips that send incoming first years out to farms all over Connecticut, including Massaro Farm, which is actually how I met my husband, through that program. So there, you know, are multiple times a year when, when there are our Yale students out on the farm at, at Massaro and the kids just like, are these the Yale Farmers?
00;52;24;25 - 00;52;36;05
Jacquie
Okay. And then they want to give them tours and show them everything they know. And they've been doing it, you know, since they were wee. So it's been a fun and important part of of their lives for sure.
00;52;36;05 - 00;53;02;14
Darice
It's amazing. And I'm wondering, like, you know, you mentioned your Armenian background, so I'm wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about that, like just in terms of the culinary traditions that you follow. You mentioned how you cook rice is very specific. And what are some other, I guess, methods or traditions that you incorporate in your cooking?
00;53;02;21 - 00;53;28;11
Jacquie
Yeah, thank you for asking that. So yeah, I grew up in a very Armenian household, but we moved away. My mom grew up in New Jersey and we sort of moved away from that community when I was pretty young, I think I was five. And so my main connection was really through my grandparents who were speaking Armenian and always sort of being very culturally Armenian.
00;53;28;11 - 00;53;56;07
Jacquie
There's always someone playing in Erde and the, you know, record player with this Armenian music. So that was sort of the backdrop of, of parts of my childhood and of course, all of the rugs everywhere, there's always rugs like Turkish and Armenian rugs. And in terms of the foods, I mean to this day any meal or gathering starts with Meze.
00;53;56;10 - 00;54;18;22
Jacquie
So my mom makes yalanchi, which is a rolled grape leaf and she forages for all of the grape leaves around the neighborhood and she even has some of her own like vines in their small garden. And I to this day can't eat anyone else's grape leaves because they just taste like citric acid to me. That's the way they preserve the grape leaves.
00;54;18;22 - 00;54;42;26
Jacquie
My mom has this very specific method of planting each individual leaf, laying it flat, freezing it, and then being able to, you know, roll it, rice and allspice and there's a pine nut fight. Whether or not there should be pine nuts in the yalanchi, I say yes, my sister says no. My sister always wins. I'm sore about it.
00;54;42;29 - 00;54;45;16
Darice
Do you, do you have a lot of siblings or?
00;54;45;22 - 00;54;46;08
Jacquie
I have one sister
00;54;46;08 - 00;55;00;10
Darice
One sister. Got it, got it. Oh interesting. And, and do you both sort of carry on that tradition? Like you said, you try to stick to the the cooking methods and so on.
00;55;00;17 - 00;55;13;28
Jacquie
Yeah. My sister is also, also a big cook and loves to cook all of the things that we grew up with. Though she lives very close to my parents still, so I think she's still leaning on my mom's cooking more than exploring her own.
00;55;13;29 - 00;55;23;00
Darice
Yeah. Do you, do you tend to cook, like for the students on the farm too, or have they, have they tried out some Armenian dishes?
00;55;23;07 - 00;55;39;06
Jacquie
Ooh, I don't know if I've made them. Well, everyone who is not allergic to nuts and who has known me at Yale has probably tried my mom's baklava at some point. My mom can only make baklava in a huge, huge quantity for some reason.
00;55;39;06 - 00;55;40;15
Darice
Yeah. Yeah.
00;55;40;15 - 00;56;05;01
Jacquie
The recipe she follows, that's what it is. And so I always have plenty to share. So they've definitely tried that. Most of what I'm making with students is pizza. And because of the very limited sort of kitchen ability that we have on the farm, I have kind of specific things that can be made and not made. Pilaf we haven't done yet.
00;56;05;03 - 00;56;12;09
Jacquie
But I do have a really great rice cooker and rice and beans at the Yale Farm is, it's a staple. It's so much fun.
00;56;12;09 - 00;56;36;26
Darice
Yeah. Nice, nice and kind of, you know, taking a step back when you talked about, you know, just the importance of community and connection in, in your work and in your personal life. Can you tell us a little bit more about just why that that, you know, I just in speaking with you today, I can tell that it's, it's like that's your core.
00;56;36;26 - 00;56;40;01
Darice
So if you could share a little bit more about that, too.
00;56;40;03 - 00;57;12;23
Jacquie
Yeah I, I think that the thing that I love about agriculture and food is that it is a really clear way to be connected to the place that you live and where you, where you come from. And, you know, we're pretty disconnected these days from, you know, the ecosystems that we are actually a part of. And so I, I just get a great sense of fulfillment from it.
00;57;12;25 - 00;57;39;07
Jacquie
Yeah. Actually, one of the things that people say to me so often is, wow, you're bringing your kids up on a farm. They're growing up in nature. That's amazing. But the first thing I think is like, this is not a natural surrounding. A farm is actually human disruption of nature for our own, for our own purposes. We have moved the soil.
00;57;39;07 - 00;57;50;14
Jacquie
We have actually very intentionally cultivated it in a particular way so that we can get the plants to do what we want, so we can eat the thing that they have to offer and so.
00;57;50;15 - 00;57;51;21
Darice
I never thought of it that way.
00;57;51;23 - 00;58;18;02
Jacquie
It's sort of this reminder that, you know, we are a part of nature and we disturb nature in order to, to farm, to make our, to make our homes and our livelihoods. And that sort of constant connection to the place reminding myself of my place in like on this planet and in my environments feels really important and feels really grounding.
00;58;18;03 - 00;58;46;06
Darice
Yeah. that's amazing. How do you, you know, just with all of that, how do you continue to stay motivated in that? And like I said, balancing, you know, work with, with home life, you know, are there any particular challenges that, that you come across that sort of, you know, you wish you had a magic wand to to change or?
00;58;46;09 - 00;59;26;07
Jacquie
I mean, I think it's I always just wish there were, there was more time available. And I also am really happy to slow down and, and like, share spaces. There's no way that even one small acre can be, you know, cared for by just a few people. It's really important that there are a lot of, a lot of different caretakers on any piece of land and that those folks are maybe taking care of different aspects of a space.
00;59;26;09 - 00;59;53;12
Jacquie
And so I feel really lucky to be able to share and absolutely necessarily share work with my colleagues, with my students, and with the people at my home farm who are amazing caretakers and farmers. So I really think it all sort of like wraps up into that, that connectedness not only to the land but also to the people who you depend on.
00;59;53;15 - 00;59;56;07
Jacquie
Yeah.
00;59;56;09 - 01;00;31;28
Darice
that's excellent. and I was curious like, you know, when you were speaking about, you know, having certain days where, you know, you may have a ton of applications to look through and all of these things like how do you, going back to and I lost my train of thought for a minute there, but, but I was thinking about the students who are applying for fellowships, to.
01;00;32;01 - 01;00;47;07
Darice
Are these fellowships that are specifically through the sustainable program? Or, you know, like, do you just get random, you know, folks who are interested in becoming part of, you know, working on the farm or what, what does that entail?
01;00;47;13 - 01;01;29;12
Jacquie
Yeah, So the Global Food Fellowship, which I founded in 2014, right around the time of our 10th anniversary, was founded basically to help foster student inquiry about the food system outside of Yale's gates. We were finding that students who wanted to pursue careers in, you know, medicine or international affairs or something, they kind of have these pathways that are well-trodden and pretty clear about how to, you know, eventually work at the State Department or become a physician.
01;01;29;15 - 01;01;58;17
Jacquie
But if you wanted to work in food or food systems, it was just a little less clear. And there weren't necessarily specific pathways to be able to go and, you know, be a part of an internship or an organization that was, you know, doing the kinds of work that the student was interested in. So the Global Food Fellowship is for anyone at Yale.
01;01;58;19 - 01;02;27;10
Jacquie
So we have funded undergraduates, graduate students from many of the different schools and Ph.D. candidates from across disciplines as well. And while most of our programs are undergraduate facing, the Global Food Fellowship is a place where I'm so excited to sort of build community around food, like the different kinds of projects that students apply with are, it's just amazing.
01;02;27;10 - 01;02;53;04
Jacquie
It's like anything that you can imagine related to food, students are interested in studying it. And then they bring all of that back to the Yale Farm and start conversations. And so I'm yeah, I'm so grateful for the donors who have made that possible and for the sort of creativity that the students bring to these application cycles.
01;02;53;07 - 01;03;05;15
Darice
That's amazing. And do you tend to, do you also do like community work with community partners here in New Haven, like some like high schools or other nonprofits or things like that?
01;03;05;17 - 01;03;33;12
Jacquie
Yeah. So we have so first of all, we we used to be at the Wooster Square Farmers Market for many, many years, since 2003, when the market first started. And during the pandemic, we actually pivoted to work with mutual aid, hunger relief. So all of the food that's coming out of the Yale Farm fields are going directly to either mobile, mobile markets or free fridges across New Haven.
01;03;33;15 - 01;04;07;03
Jacquie
So we have a number of community partners that we work with on making sure the food is getting into the right spaces. And we also run, actually one of my favorite programs. I haven't believe I, I can't believe I haven't mentioned it yet. It's called Seed to Salad and it is a cumulative curriculum for second graders. So we're working with Celentano School this year. We'll have four visits from second graders as hele-, Celentano School to come to the Yale Farm.
01;04;07;03 - 01;04;37;12
Jacquie
And Yale students and actually any community members. We also have volunteers from all across New Haven will lead this curriculum for 35 little kiddos to come through the garden, learn about pollinators, the parts of the plant, decomposition, erosion, all of those different kinds of things. And that program runs in the spring and in the fall.
01;04;37;14 - 01;04;39;26
Jacquie
It's really exciting. Yeah, they're super cute.
01;04;39;26 - 01;04;40;22
Darice
And, and it's brand new?
01;04;40;25 - 01;04;43;11
Jacquie
No, this has been going on since 2008.
01;04;43;13 - 01;04;49;03
Darice
Oh wow. So a while. How do schools get involved or is it something they have to apply for?
01;04;49;06 - 01;05;20;25
Jacquie
So our capacity is that we can really just work with one or two schools a year. And so we work closely with the Office of New Haven and State Affairs to select the schools that they're working with and Celentano School we've worked with specifically because they're there just a short walk from the farm. And so we don't have to sort of deal with the logistics of bussing, which in the past has been kind of difficult and limiting in terms of timing and things like that.
01;05;20;27 - 01;05;32;24
Jacquie
And the Celentano kids are great. It really matches up with their curriculum. And so it's been really fun to, you know, have them sort of walk down the hill. You can hear them coming.
01;05;32;26 - 01;05;43;08
Darice
That's so cute. And I was curious, too, like, do you, do work with high schools or, you know, local organizations?
01;05;43;13 - 01;05;43;23
Jacquie
Yeah, so.
01;05;43;23 - 01;05;44;21
Darice
Or pantries even?
01;05;44;21 - 01;06;12;28
Jacquie
Yeah, over the summer, especially, and I guess to some extent on Fridays during the school year, we'll have lots of different groups come from high schools to work on the farm alongside our students for, you know, for our open work days. So those are happening on Fridays and also on Sundays. And yeah, there is a youth works program.
01;06;13;00 - 01;06;25;14
Jacquie
The kids at Squash Haven come and there are lots of different programs that are visiting. Solar Youth used to come. I don't think that exists anymore. There, there, there are bunches and.
01;06;25;17 - 01;06;26;29
Darice
Common Ground?
01;06;27;01 - 01;06;59;03
Jacquie
So Common, Common Ground High school students don't come to us, but our interns actually do go to Common Ground and, and they're summer interns that are not high schoolers, but are it's an adult internship program. They come and actually share a lot of our programing during the summer. I'm dear friends with all the farmers there, and our programing has done a lot of sort of overlap and we try to share as many opportunities as possible, you know.
01;06;59;03 - 01;07;20;04
Jacquie
So our summer reader, for example, sometimes we'll have discussions with the, the Common Ground interns. We go there to work for a day and learn about their program, and then we also contribute to their mobile market, which is one of the main outlets for the food that we harvest.
01;07;20;12 - 01;07;53;03
Darice
That's amazing. Wow. There's so many things. I mean, you're a busy, busy woman. Let's see. As you could see, we're coming up on our hour. So it went by like that, right? So now I just kind of want to take a step back and talk about first, are there any upcoming initiatives that you're really excited about and how, or if our listeners can get more involved or, you know, participate?
01;07;53;05 - 01;08;05;23
Jacquie
Sure. So I'll mention a couple of things. Okay. The farm's first Friday pizza will be for the spring is starting the first Friday after spring break and we'll go.
01;08;05;23 - 01;08;06;08
Darice
Perfect timing.
01;08;06;10 - 01;08;26;06
Jacquie
Through the last day of classes. So all through the month of April, come on up to the farm. You can show up at 2 if you want to work, you can show up at 4 if you just want to listen to the presentation, eat some pizza and hear some music. We don't you know, we don't mandate that anyone works necessarily.
01;08;26;06 - 01;09;07;24
Jacquie
So come on over any, any time. We also will on April, I want to say it's 10th, but it could be 13th, it's a Wednesday. We'll be hosting our Melon Forum, MELON. So this is our sort of riff on the Senior Mellon Forum where they all sort of workshop their theses together. Our Melon Forum or like, you know, Watermelon Forum has seniors who have done their theses related to food all come together and present and so we'll be doing that in HQ and you can find it on the YSFP's newsletter or as a part of our social media.
01;09;07;26 - 01;09;31;23
Jacquie
But if you're interested in sort of seeing the breadth of things that students are studying related to food from across so many disciplines at Yale, then it's a really, it's a really neat event to come to. And I'm also working with these Indigenous staff affinity group to host a mid spring celebration on May 1st.
01;09;31;26 - 01;09;32;21
Darice
Nice.
01;09;32;23 - 01;09;53;11
Jacquie
So we'll they'll be doing some, some blessings, we'll have a fire and a bunch of food and so that will be a wonderful event for anyone who is ready to usher in spring and really think about their connection to to the land as the sort of warm season approaches.
01;09;53;12 - 01;10;17;16
Darice
Awesome, awesome. Thank you. So, so now I'm going to try to wrap it up. I just find this fascinating to, to talk to you because number one, what's great about, you know, we were talking about, you know, how this podcast came about. And, you know, we've, we've crossed paths many times, but, you know, I never really had a chance to get to know you.
01;10;17;16 - 01;10;47;01
Darice
So it's really interesting hearing about all of the, you know, projects you're working on. And, and even just, you know, about your background, like, I had no idea. And one of the things I wanted to talk about as we wrap up is coming back to just, you know, Jacquie and like, what you know, do you have some favorite things that you do for, for your own self care as you're juggling all of these many things?
01;10;47;03 - 01;10;53;04
Jacquie
Oof, self care as a parent is so difficult.
01;10;53;06 - 01;10;55;15
Darice
It's tough, right? It's like what's that? Right.
01;10;55;20 - 01;11;27;07
Jacquie
Yeah. So I think that increasingly I'm having be really intentional about carving out time and space for self-care. One of the things I have been trying is journaling. So even just if it's a few sentences a day, I bought a journal that is also like a day planner and make sure to write even a little bit every day about my observations or whatever it is.
01;11;27;09 - 01;11;53;24
Jacquie
And so that's a quiet moment to myself. And the other really important thing for me is just getting outside and walking. I walk around my neighborhood. There's also a nature trail behind my house and I walk there and try to notice what is happening. I try to get to know the names of all of the trees, which I'm still totally don't know all of the names of the trees in my own backyard.
01;11;53;24 - 01;12;26;02
Jacquie
And I feel ashamed of that. I was at a talk by a farmer named Leah Penniman recently, and she said something along the lines of if you said that you didn't know the names of any of your neighbors in your neighborhood, like someone would say, like, you're not like enough community. You have to connect with your neighbors. But what if we thought of our trees as neighbors and all of the plants in our yards as neighbors?
01;12;26;04 - 01;12;38;19
Jacquie
If you don't know their names or what they're about, are you being a good neighbor? Are you connected to those plants? And it really hit me hard. And so I'm, I'm on a tree identification mission.
01;12;38;22 - 01;12;57;24
Darice
That's amazing. I love that. You know, it's funny you say that because, and I'm horrible, I my mom tries to give me plants and I'm horrible. I don't I'm not good about taking care of plants, but I love plant. You know, I'm like I love seeing them. I love them around me, but I'm horrible about taking care of them.
01;12;57;26 - 01;13;26;21
Darice
But, you know, I've been trying to get better at it. And, I'm always like, Mom, you know, I send her a photo like, what is that? Is that a, you know, is this good or bad? So I came across an app that will, you take a picture of it and it'll tell you, like whatever that plant is and what, you know, if, if it's invasive or, you know, all of these different things and you know, so I didn't download the app yet.
01;13;26;22 - 01;13;50;12
Darice
I was like, you know, I may do that because I'm always asking her, you know, should I pull this or, you know, should I leave? But it's so, yeah, like because I came across this one, you know, long story, but I came across this one plant that was really it was growing crazy. But I found out that people use it for some sort of t to, for inflammation or something.
01;13;50;12 - 01;14;29;21
Darice
But I was like, I don't know if I would pick it to do that, but it was interesting. You know, it's interesting to know, right. Going back, you know, again, talking about Jacquie, right. When you think of your journey between, you know, your childhood into your college years and you know, your study abroad and then finally here to working with the Sustainable Food Program, is there any advice that you would give your younger self, like, just in terms of that journey or, you know, anything that you would say your younger self?
01;14;29;23 - 01;15;14;10
Jacquie
Yeah, let's see. I think this is, this is also advice that I give to students all the time. So I think that really just trusting yourself and your instincts and allowing for, for just the emergence of things that are unexpected is really important. I, you know, I'm a planner, I like to know what's happening. You know, I'm very organized and still leaving space for the universe to surprise me feels really important.
01;15;14;12 - 01;15;41;22
Jacquie
And when I've stepped back and sort of allowed that to happen, I've always been humbled and surprised and been able to sort of hang out in this space of wonder which I think is really important to to self-care, but also to really knowing and trusting the path that you're on.
01;15;41;25 - 01;16;08;29
Darice
That's amazing. And, and it's true. Like, you can do all the planning in the world, right? But but there's always the unexpected. And then it's kind of like how you react or how you deal with it. Even if it's a negative, you know, something that negative that comes up. Even then, it can in some ways, you can find positive or positivity in the experience.
01;16;09;00 - 01;16;43;05
Darice
So. So yeah, I love how you said that. Last few questions and then I'm like, I'm fascinated by the farm. And of course the pizza is. Pizza's my favorite, but no, I have a couple more questions for you. Like when it comes to our DEIB initiatives and you mentioned how, you know, the farm is always open and, you know, welcoming to anyone who wants to stop in.
01;16;43;07 - 01;16;51;07
Darice
Do you have a hope for Yale College? Like in terms of our DEIB initiatives for staff and students?
01;16;51;09 - 01;17;26;21
Jacquie
Yeah, well, firstly, I'm so happy that Yale is and the Dean's Office is paying close attention to inclusivity and belonging. I think that it's so important to create that culture and really set an expectation very high for all of the students and all of the people who are connected to Yale, that we recognize our places, our privileges, our neighbors.
01;17;26;23 - 01;17;57;19
Jacquie
And so I've been really happy to see the ways that that the Dean's Office and Yale's addressing things like this. The book on Yale's connection to slavery that just came out and the plans to sort of deepen some of that study. And Yale's commitments to the black community and also to communities, other other underprivileged communities or historically marginalized communities.
01;17;57;21 - 01;18;25;24
Jacquie
And I feel constantly pushed by and inspired by the students that I come in contact with when it comes to inclusivity and belonging. And I think that that actually, it connects so deeply to the plants like everyone is coming. And this very farm based, but everyone is coming to the farm with their own story in history either that they know very well.
01;18;25;24 - 01;18;49;20
Jacquie
Or that have not explored it all. And I love that the farm can be a space where students like figure that out. And I shouldn't say just students, I think that anyone who walks through the gates has that opportunity. So I'd like to see more of it. I'm excited that it's happening and really want to be a part of those initiatives.
01;18;49;20 - 01;19;28;05
Darice
Awesome, awesome. And thank you for sharing that. And yeah, I would love to talk to you longer. This has been an awesome conversation and, and I just want to thank you for sharing your story with me today. It's just been a pleasure. And, and one thing that stood out or many things stood out for me, but coming back to that community part like where we started off earlier, when you spoke about your family and your Armenian background and just that, you know, food sort of brought everyone together.
01;19;28;12 - 01;20;00;15
Darice
And I love what you mentioned earlier about, knowing your neighbors. I think at least for me, you know, you know, running this podcast and talking to staff is really just given me a different perspective of in terms of how I work with others and how I, just how I approach my work, my IT stuff, you know, and it's important, right?
01;20;00;17 - 01;20;32;01
Darice
Like you said, knowing, knowing your neighbors, knowing their names. And, you know, when I really sat back, I literally thought about them like, how many of my neighbors do I know, you know, here at work or at home? And I think that's a great point to to sort of leave off on. It's just getting to know each other and having conversations and, you know, having this, you know, outlet or venue with the Yale Farm to be able to do that I think is wonderful.
01;20;32;03 - 01;20;37;01
Darice
So, Jacquie, just thank you so much for, for sharing, you know, your journey with me today.
01;20;37;04 - 01;20;44;03
Jacquie
And Darice thank you so much for the really deep and thoughtful questions that you asked.
01;20;44;06 - 01;21;26;28
Darice
My pleasure. And this is, you know, we'll wrap up our conversation today. You know, again, I'm just, I was really moved by some of the things that you shared about your, you know, your childhood and your background and and, you know, your early experiences. And so on. I think your your story just again, it, it, you know, it resonated for me just in terms of your commitment to sustainability, but just not you know and I admit when I when I thought of sustainable, you know, the Sustainable Food Program, the first thing that came to mind was, okay, the farm.
01;21;26;28 - 01;21;39;21
Darice
But, you know, it's all of these other, it's not even layers. It's it's, you know, like a tapestry, you know, it's all of these, like you said, the threads and you're pulling all the different threads and.
01;21;39;23 - 01;21;54;16
Jacquie
And it's a, it's all a process so sustainability and diversity and inclusion work, these are all processes that we are a part of and have to keep working at and that we never arrive at. And so.
01;21;54;20 - 01;22;08;19
Darice
It keeps going and that's amazing. And I, you know, and not to be cliché, but it's a, it's a seed and it keeps growing. Right. And it and then, you know, there are other seeds that come from, you know, whatever plant is planted. Right. I'm not a farmer, but.
01;22;08;25 - 01;22;16;17
Jacquie
We love all of the nerdy agricultural puns and all of that silly clichés. So someday we'll write a book or a wiki on it.
01;22;16;19 - 01;22;47;11
Darice
Right? I know you need, like, a Yeah. A wiki, a wiki. So Yeah. Your your journey, you know, again, and I'm using all of the clichés here, but, but it does remind, you know, us of just the importance to stay true to your your roots, you know, and embracing diversity and just working together. And, you know, again, I just want to express my gratitude to you, to, you know, for sharing your story with us today.
01;22;47;13 - 01;23;13;22
Darice
So, Jacquie, you know, I'm just going to end on again just to remind our, our listeners to, to sort of bottle everything that you shared with us today, you know, And, you know, I hope that, we continue to have these conversations and yeah, stop out by the farm on Fridays, Fridays 2 to 4, did I get the time Right?
01;23;13;25 - 01;23;17;14
Jacquie
Well, 2 to 4 is the work day, 4 p.m. is the pizza.
01;23;17;14 - 01;23;41;00
Darice
Is the pizza. Okay. Okay. And you know, I'm good for pizzas, but no, I, I find it fascinating. I wish. And again, I don't have a green thumb, but. But I would love to learn more about, you know, working on the farm or, you know, get some sort of, attend the educational talks and things like that.
01;23;41;00 - 01;23;43;24
Darice
So I'm going to try to make it a point to do that.
01;23;43;27 - 01;23;44;17
Jacquie
I'll hold you to it.
01;23;44;17 - 01;23;48;13
Darice
Yeah, Yeah, I know. Now, like, okay, I said it on recording, so now.
01;23;48;16 - 01;23;49;12
Jacquie
I'm going to pin it to your calendar.
01;23;49;12 - 01;24;09;09
Darice
Yes, yes. And but really, I mean, I would love to bring my son out there and yeah, you know, just to have him experience that and yeah, just thank you so much again, Jacquie. And, yeah, until we meet again, you know, have an awesome day and I, and again, thank you for joining us on the podcast today.
01;24;09;09 - 01;24;11;00
Jacquie
So thanks. See you on the farm!
01;24;11;00 - 01;24;11;29
Darice
All right, See you on the farm!