易胜博官网

Emily McKeen 鈥�14, a student in the Food Production Field Experience course, harvests greens grown by the class for the 易胜博官网 Dairy Bar restaurant.

Order a salad at 易胜博官网鈥檚 popular Dairy Bar restaurant, and you join a closed loop of sustainability: The greens were grown on campus, less than a mile away, by students in the sustainable agriculture and food systems major. And that salad got its start in compost created from food waste from the Dairy Bar and other university dining facilities.

The course, Food Production Field Experience, borrows from the structure of community supported agriculture for its 20 undergraduate students to get their hands dirty 鈥� literally 鈥撎齜y planning, growing, marketing, and delivering food crops as well as managing the operation鈥檚 finances. For the full farm-to-fork experience, students supplement in-class time with work hours tending their 鈥渃urriculum鈥� in two new greenhouse-like high tunnels located on the university鈥檚 agricultural land.

鈥淲e鈥檙e learning a lot about transplants, seedlings, greenhouse management, irrigation, and soil,鈥� said Emily McKeen 鈥�14, a sustainable agriculture and food systems major from Plymouth, Mass., as she harvested leaf lettuce and mustard greens recently. 鈥淭he hands-on experience definitely helps me remember it all.鈥�

With academic topics like soil science, integrated pest management, and plant pathology amplified by hands-on work in the high tunnels, the course prepares students to launch and manage their own small-scale horticultural enterprise. 鈥淲e wanted to follow as closely as possible the year for a horticulture producer here in this area,鈥� says instructor Andrew Ogden, noting that the spring-semester course, with its focus on planning and planting, is part one of two; students are encouraged to return for the fall semester so they experience the harvest season as well.

Key to the success of the class was the recent construction of two high tunnels, season-extending temporary greenhouse-like structures covered in two layers of clear plastic, adjacent to the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center. 鈥淭he high tunnels allow us to grow vegetables here in 易胜博官网 while students are actually here,鈥� says Ogden. He notes with pride that the use of high tunnels for season extension was pioneered at 易胜博官网 by retired professor Otho Wells.

Several times each week, those vegetables 鈥� for now a mix of leafy greens, spinach, and kale plus other cold-tolerant crops like radishes and carrots 鈥� are delivered to the course鈥檚 primary customer, the Dairy Bar. The restaurant, operated by 易胜博官网鈥檚 Dining Services in a historic train station (Amtrak鈥檚 Downeaster train still makes five stops a day), focuses on fresh, local, sustainable dining, making it an ideal outlet for the fruits and vegetables of the students鈥� labors.

鈥淲e鈥檙e getting the freshest product possible,鈥� says Jon Plodzik, director of Dining Services, 鈥渁nd we鈥檙e teaching a whole generation how to harvest and grow greens year-round right here in 易胜博官网, which is really exciting.鈥�

Closing the loop, food scraps from the Dairy Bar and all 易胜博官网 dining facilities go to the university鈥檚 composting operation several miles away on Kingman Farm. Once the waste becomes rich, nutritive compost, it returns to the high tunnels to help grow the next crop of greens or, as the weather warms and days lengthen, summer crops like tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and peppers.

To Ogden, who works closely with horticultural production coordinator Jake Uretsky 鈥�12G, 易胜博官网 provides the ideal environment for this full circle of sustainability education, food, and practices. 鈥淲e have this unique combination of an administration that鈥檚 very much in favor of all this, a dining service that鈥檚 making buying local, sustainably-raised produce a priority, and this farmland right here on campus,鈥� says Ogden.

The new course and the new facilities are the result of a collaborative effort between the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, the 易胜博官网 Agriculture Experiment Station, 易胜博官网 Dining Services, and the Tuttle Foundation.

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