Notes From Ireland

Call me a proud papa. My son Daniel just graduated from Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, N.C. a small mountain town just east of Asheville.

Never heard of Warren Wilson? You will soon.

The 800-student school is dedicated to putting the “liberal” back in liberal arts. One recent survey ranked WWC students first in the category of “Most Nostalgic For Bill Clinton.”

At a time when all eyes are focused on global warming and green technologies, Warren Wilson is turning out a bunch of optimistic tree huggers. Their mission, should they decide to accept it: save our desperate planet.

The Mission of Warren Wilson College is to provide an education combining liberal arts study, work, and service with a strong commitment to environmental responsibility and experiential opportunities for international and cross-cultural understanding in a setting that promotes wisdom, spiritual growth, and contribution to the common good.

Warren Wilson started life in the 1890s as the Asheville Farm School and even today is a working farm with an emphasis on organic and environmentally friendly agriculture. All resident students must work at least 15 hours a week on one of 100 work crews that help run and maintain the college.

Daniel got a double major in biology and environmental science. While living on campus he worked on the garden crew, and he has developed an interest in organic farming. To that end, he is spending a good part of this summer working as a volunteer on an organic farm in southwest Ireland, near Sneem.

The 40-acre farm is an incubator for energy alternatives, with wind, hydro and solar power. The owners’ goals are to “develop ways of living, eating and consuming that can co-exist with the 21st century…. We think about the effects our lives have on the planet.” The farm serves as a teaching center, with courses such as “Living Off The Grid” and “Homemade Hydro.”

Here’s Daniel’s first dispatch, which happily arrived on Father’s Day:

Sorry I haven't emailed earlier. The Internet has been down at the farm and the closest town only has Internet a few hours a day when the women's resource center is open. The farm is great though. It's run by a British couple with two children, aged 15 and 10. There are three other WWOOFs at the farm. They're all French, one guy and two ladies…. The farm is beautiful. It is set in one of the prettier areas I've ever seen. There are mountains all around with sheep grazing everywhere, including along the main road by the farm. The wife is a baker and so there is a surplus of good bread and pastries. The work has been pretty laid back so far. We start work around quarter to nine and then take a tea break around 11:00. I've become fond of dark British tea. Lunch is around 1 and then we get back to work around 2 and stop at 5. It really feels like a feed lot where they force gourmet food on us every two hours with exercise in between to build muscle. The work so far has consisted of a lot of weed-whacking and weeding as would be expected. It's really wonderful though and I've been spending no money which is very nice. The couple are hilarious and cuss more than I could have imagined possible…. I think I'm going to work on another farm in the early part of August and then head to France.

Call me a proud papa.