FARM Staff - Julie Olson, Farm Manager

Hi! I'm Julie Olson and I am the Farm Manager here at The FARM Institute. I have been here for awhile now, working with and learning from the animals and people. I have worn many hats here, first joining the farm as the farmhand and moving on to Livestock Coordinator, Farm/Education Liason, program teacher, and have now settled on Farm Manager. I have fallen in love with the island (growing up on Cape Cod, I never thought that would be possible) as well as The FARM Institute and can see myself sticking around for awhile.

My farming career started when I was a wee youngster helping out at a small feed and grain store in Harwich, MA with an attached farm. Although I was 12, I was often left alone to run the store, tend to the animals and give people the wrong change. Living this farm lifestyle thrilled me and I chose to pursue agriculture in college.

So.....I then spent 4 years at Sterling College in Northern Vermont learning and working on the school farm as well as other farms in the area. Nothing says fun like milking cows at 4am before class in minus-20-degree temperatures. I spent my summers on various farms in various states in various time zones hoping to learn lots about farming and sometimes I did. After graduating in May of 2007 with a Bachelors Degree in Sustainable Agriculture, I traveled far and wide from California to Iceland before realizing the Massachusetts coast was where I belonged.

I am excited about building relationships and partnerships with other Island farmers and families and continuing to acquire knowledge and skills from the experts. Some day I will have a small, horse powered dairy farm that makes it's own ice cream and sells it at an on site ice cream parlor. Some day pigs will probably also fly.

My likes include: cheese, eating cheese, making cheese, thinking about cheese, talking about cheese, bowling, swimming, dancing, karaoke, welding, things that are awesome and free, my dogs Usah and Eli, farming with draft horses and oxen, sledding, ice skating, music, and teaching people about agriculture.

My dislikes include: stickers, crabs, ginger, being left out, runny noses, cornish rock chickens and seafood.

The FARM Institute - Post Office Box 1868 - Edgartown, Massachusetts 02539 - (508) 627-7007