From: Kansas City, MO
Favorite animal on the farm: dairy cows generally, but right now it is Camillo, the black lamb
Hobbies: reading, writing, knitting, drawing, painting, building cob houses, playing guitar, walking
Every new student brings a certain energy to the farm, but I think most would recognize that Erin Coughennower, 24, is at a whole new level!
Just look at her list of hobbies, shown above. “I have a very rich life!” she said with a smile.
Customers of Lane County Farmers Market may recognize Erin because she worked in our market booth for more than a year. Now, after having been a farm hand and market representative, Erin is happily ensconced in Junction City as a residential farm student helping to raise the animals, learn the business and keep the community running.
Erin grew up in Missouri and found her way to Eugene by following a boyfriend here. He was working in farming and it piqued her interest, but she had trouble finding a job given her lack of experience. Instead, she got a job with the NW Youth Corp working on meadow restoration, clearing, removal of invasive plants and wildfire reduction.
“It was such a wonderful program,” she said. “Something like that and like this [Deck] educational program are so important because all the other educational opportunities you have to pay for. But in both of these circumstances I was working and getting paid and learning. The pay’s not that good but the education makes up for it.”
She is particularly excited about learning to build cob structures, of which there are a few on the farm. Erin, who was a ceramics major in college, said it feels like creating functional art. She didn’t finish her degree, mostly due to COVID and to feeling that ceramics is not a sustainable art form.
“Professional ceramics is very unsustainable,” she said. “It’s really hard to succeed professionally and the materials are very invasive on the planet requiring giant mines and a lot of waste.”
One of her professors exposed her to cob and natural building, using materials like willow to make walls and installations.
“I was not a potter, I was more of a sculptor. I was super into making these grand things and big installations. That was this dream I had that I was always chasing but it wasn’t until I came here and saw the cob houses and thought, oh my gosh this could be a reality!”
Erin took a course with local cob artisan Allie Maggio at Cob Cottage Company in Junction City. Maggio has collaborated with the Deck family for years. Having taken the course, Erin is ready for projects. She and Jacob Struble, another student who has an architectural background, recently proposed some work on the farmstead.
“I love working with mud but I don’t love destroying the planet,” said Erin. “So to have this way of working that uses what’s in the environment and enhances the environment feels really good to me. It’s the best performance piece someone could make because someone is going to be living in it!”