Harvest leaders are Yale sophomores, juniors, and seniors. They come from a wide range of backgrounds, but all share a love for having fun and learning about farming in the great outdoors.

Bonnie Antosh, a junior in Pierson College, was born and raised in sunny South Carolina. Since migrating northward to Yale, she’s learned a thing or two about jello wrestling, Incan ruins, and guerilla musical performances in dining halls. As a young child, Bonnie frequently planted tulip bulbs, gave impromptu dance recitals, and sometimes asked passing strangers for their autographs. Nowadays, as a Theater Studies major, she spends most of her time rehearsing for plays, and more recently, writing and directing them. Her favorite days include eggplant, Shakespeare, hiking in the mountains, and reruns of Arrested Development.

She aspires to one day play the harmonica in a bluegrass band, and more immediately, to share copious amounts of delicious food with this year’s Harvesters.

William Koh is a junior in Jonathan Edwards College. He grew up in New Haven and plans on majoring in either History or Architecture. His interests primarily include music, movies, cooking, photography, cycling, and traveling. Harvest was the best way Will could have imagined beginning his freshman year. He immediately felt accepted into a community of interesting and fun people. Their love for food and the environment was perfectly in sync with his own passions. Will grew more excited for college than ever before. The best part was that Harvest experience didn’t end with pre orientation. He stayed good friends with both his leaders and many of the other members of his trip.

Richard Miron , a rising Branford junior, comes from the hills of Marietta, Georgia. He has always enjoyed feeding and eating plants and feeding (not eating) animals. His first Harvest trip (last year) inspired him to view and taste food in a whole new way, and he can’t wait to pass that along as a leader. He doesn’t quite know what he’s majoring in yet, but he thinks it’ll be related to literature, film, or psychology. He writes, sings, and plays original music (and has a rock band at Yale), and he sings in the all-male a cappella group The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus. This summer, he’ll be recording some new music in Atlanta and studying Japanese cinema in Tokyo. Richard is looking forward to farming, learning, playing, and eating with his very own group of new Harvesters this August. He also enjoys writing bios in the third-person.

Yasha Magarik is a junior in Calhoun College, hailing from Brooklyn. He enjoys growing abnormal basil plants, harvesting kohl rabi, and cooking borscht, as well as pottery, poetry, and pie-making. A Yale Farm intern this summer—with the part-time work of stuffing envelopes and roasting lambs (neither of which he still eats)—he finds Harvest to be the single most transformative experience at Yale (so far). So he is really excited to meet, farm, and eat with Harvesters this August!

Sarah Larsson , originally from Excelsior, Minnesota, is in Branford class of 2012. When asked “What is your major?” she usually switches between answering “Everything” and “Anthropology.” Considering for how much of her life she has loved playing in the dirt, it is no surprise that Sarah derives some of her greatest joy from experiencing the beauty of the Harvest farms and community. When away from the veggies, Sarah still wears bandanas and tall socks, but also enjoys playing the French Horn, tutoring elementary schoolers, Swing and Blues dancing, and exploring world music and dance. This August she will dive into Harvest after a summer learning about and working in global education with the Yale global development group “Haba na Haba” and a women’s group in Kenya.

Laura Blakeis a sophomore in Jonathan Edwards College. She enjoys environmental activism, snuggling, and really good chocolate milk. Laura’s favorite word in the English language is Lozenge, followed closely by Bog People. She was a Harvester on Riverbank Farm last year, where Joe Satran was her leader.

Rachel Payne comes from Williamstown, Massachusetts. She plans to call her Harvesters her “little babies,” “farm babies,” or “baby farmers,” but expects that freshmen will answer to any and all terms of endearment she might create during the program. She can speak about environmental activism at Yale, Shakespeare, and Chekhov, and can recite chapter and verse from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. It is pointless, however, to ask her about the location of the registrar’s office, the number of Yale’s distributional requirements, and changing one’s system preferences on Macbook.

Arturo G. Aguirre is a rising sophomore in Davenport College. He grew up in three different countries (US, Mexico, England), but now proudly calls southern California home. As a prefrosh, he decided to give Harvest a try as he had never lived or worked on a farm–all about trying new things right? On his trip, Arturo met some of his closest friends at Yale. At school, he plans to study economics, is a member of Sigma Chi, and revels in the bitter New Haven winters. His interests include music, film, and bro-ing out.

Jensen Reckhow is a proud sophomore Stilesian from New York City. She enjoys The Beatles, making lists, and updating the wet bird collection at the Yale Peabody Museum. On campus, she can be found photo petitioning and tabling for YSEC, tutoring students at New Haven Academy, and eating. Although she had never even seen a cow before her freshman year harvest trip, Jensen has since developed a profound love for farming and sustainable agriculture. She spent five weeks this summer working on a farm in southern Spain, but she still struggles sometimes to tell the difference between fat pigeons and chickens.

Zeke Blackwell is rumored to be a native Texan in Branford 2013. He is also rumored to be the reigning monarch of Wales. It has been heard to be rumored that Zeke enjoys improvising with his “improv group” the Purple Crayon, and that he also enjoys making theater with his “theater association” the Dramat. Zeke is rumored to play Quidditch at Yale, and one rumor even reports that he had two assists in Yale’s crushing 60-20 defeat of Harvard. One malicious rumor says that Zeke makes up rumors himself, but, you know, you can’t believe everything you hear.

Sarah Armitage is a rising junior in Pierson College. She grew up in Concord, Massachusetts, and credits her decision to major in history to the many times that she dressed up in a colonial costume for the annual Patriot’s Day parade. At Yale, she spends lots of time in the Center for British Art, works with the Dwight Hall SRI Fund, and discusses dishes she has recently cooked or eaten with anyone who is willing to listen. After living in Copenhagen this summer, she is happy to report that she can now talk about her food in Danish, too.

Anna Rose Gable is a rising sophomore in Pierson College from Decatur, GA. She’s been working at Crystal Organic Farm in Newborn, GA, where she just mastered the art of plucking okra from the plant sans clippers and has been promoted to Chief Chicken Wrangler. She is a proud member of the Yale Women’s Slavic Chorus (weird, right? Ask her about it.) and is trying to figure out how to major in Agroecology at Yale, which is looking like a combination of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies. She also likes anything to do with wool. She is looking forward to meeting all the new Harvesters this year — agriculturally-inclined and otherwise.

Rachel Kauder Nalebuff grew up one block away from New Haven’s prime Italian deli, two blocks away from New Haven’s prime pizza parlor, and four blocks away from New Haven’s prime (and only) cheese shop. She would like everyone’s help in reducing her cheese intake. Rachel is a sophomore in Silliman college, located across the street from a coffee shop that has yummy hot chocolate and a great grilled cheese lunch special. She is a lover of food, fonts, and her dog, which she hopes to introduce you to at some point. All music sung in large groups is good music to her. She will spend her life searching for a Bee Gees song that she can sing in her range and that other people will want to sing too. Rachel can’t wait to meet you and wants you not to worry about pronouncing her last name. Also, she’s sorry for this running joke about cheese but seriously recommends the game: http://www.cheeseorfont.com/

Sam Huber is a rising sophomore in Morse and therefore considers himself to be just-barely-more-of-a-Yale-expert than this year’s Harvesters will be, but he’s excited to pass on whatever meager advice he’s stumbled upon so far. Sam is a Yale Farm intern this summer, which has made him a considerably more competent farmer and a slightly more competent chef, but he’s still a novice at both and looks forward to learning to do each a little better with the incoming freshmen this August. Sam will most likely be an English major and pours all of his waking hours not spent in class or on the farm into WYBC Yale Radio and the Yale Literary Magazine. When asked for his favorite vegetable, Sam always wants to say garlic but isn’t quite sure if it counts, so he usually just goes with kale.

Brigid Blakeslee is a rising sophomore in Saybrook College. She enjoys the varied cultural exchanges at Yale and contributes such fine gifts as fist pumping, Taylor Ham (like Canadian Bacon, but better!), conversations about “dawgs” and “cawfee”, and “the poof” from her home state, New Jersey. Despite its nickname as the Garden State, Brigid had never encountered farming before her freshman Harvest trip to Local Farm, lead by Hannah Zornow and leader emeritus, Lee West. This summer while working at CERN in Switzerland, Brigid hiked in the Jura Mountains and had to exercise extreme restraint not to make friends with the cows grazing on the mountain. Unlike her
cow buddy at Local Farm last year, it was unlikely that these cows were trained in vocal commands. Brigid is planning on majoring in Electrical Engineering, with a healthy dose of literature. In addition to cows, soldering, reading short stories and poetry, physics, and all things New Jersey, Brigid enjoys bagpiping. She’s looking forward to meeting you all this August!