A few weekends ago, I found myself waking at 7 in the morning… on a Saturday. While in high school, waking up pre-eight am would not have given me pause, in college, such an early wake-up call is daunting to even the most well-rested student (myself included). However, every fall, the Yale College Council and Yale Dining team up to offer farm tours throughout Connecticut, giving Yalies a chance to see where exactly their food comes from. As 2011 Farm Tour participants, my suitemate Helen, my friend Linda, and I roused ourselves from bed, piled onto a bus, and voyaged into the wilds of rural connecticut. After we enjoyed a sumptuous breakfast at Rose’s Berry Farm in Glastonbury, we embarked on a wild afternoon of produce picking, bringing home bags filled with nature’s bounty - mainly peppers, pears, apples, eggplants, and tomatoes. A week after returning from the farm tour, the three of us joined forces with the triple threat of Amelia, Angela, and Alex (a few other farm tour participants) to cook a family dinner, transforming our bevy of raw materials into a three course meal of stuffed peppers, eggplant parmesan, and pear tart. College kitchens are a key part of every residential college, and are usually stocked with most everything you might need to cook a well-balanced meal, while they vary between college to college in terms of equipment and size. My personal favorite kitchen is Davenport’s, due to it’s proximity to my room (I can get there without going outside) and the fact that the kitchen renovations (as commemorated by a small plaque on the kitchen wall) were paid by none other than John S. Pillsbury Jr. ‘35, of Pillsbury and Co. fame.