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The urban farm outside the Department of Biology’s Greenhouse is in its second summer of production. The farm is the brainchild of Alan Trimble, a Biology lecturer, and Alan and Keith Possee, gardener and curator for the Medicinal Herb Garden, spearheaded the garden’s installation and recent expansion. The intent, Keith explains, is to give students a practical education about where food comes from, how much work is involved in producing it, and how to garden properly and sustainably.
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The project explores the notion of sustainability by looking at what can be done with the small footprint available. Last year tomatoes, basil, lettuce, cucumbers, and chard overflowed from beds and containers. This year the farm was expanded to include many woody species such as raspberries, gooseberries, apricots, plums, kiwis, grapes, mulberries, and pomegranates.
Since the farm’s inception, Keith says at least 40 or 50 students have come to volunteer their time planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting. Many of these students are recruited when Alan teaches Foundations in Ecology and their gardening experience is quite variable. Students who have never seen many of the fruits and vegetables growing on the farm outside of a grocery store have shown up to lend a hand and expand their knowledge of growing food.
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Early this summer Biology lecturer Evan Sugden placed a hive of honeybees near the farm to assist in pollination and (this reporter hopes) produce some honey. The hive is just another piece of the farming puzzle that provides students eyewitness accounts of concepts they read about in textbooks.
In addition to growing food, members of the urban farm also built a cob oven to bake bread, pizza, and other tasty foods. The oven was fired up for the first time in early September for an inaugural pizza bake. While neither the cheese or dough were produced on the farm, you can bet the veggie toppings for the pizzas were all harvested within minutes of being put in the oven.