Now
Available: Fresh Produce from the Smith Community Garden
Smith Community Garden volunteers pedal their wares. |
After spending months
tending seedlings, nurturing their plants’ growth and overseeing their maturation to consumable
readiness, volunteers at the Smith College Community Garden
are sharing the fruits—uh, vegetables—of their
labors.
Every Thursday throughout the
summer, from noon to 1:30 p.m. outside the Campus Center
on Chapin Lawn, Community Garden representatives
will sell their vegetables, herbs and flowers raised at the
facility.
, located near the Center for
Early Childhood Education on Lyman Road, is a student initiative
begun two years ago as a resource to provide
practical experience in organic vegetable gardening and environmentally
responsible food cultivation. Meanwhile, the garden provides
an ongoing supply of food.
“Food is the most essential component in our lives,” avers
Elisabeth Wolfe ’10, manager of the Smith Community
Garden and an organizer of the garden’s Thursday farm
stand. “What could be more important in terms of environmental
sustainability than knowing how to produce your own food
in an environmentally friendly way?”
Garden crops soon to be available at the garden farm
stand. |
The farm stand
will feature a range of edibles, says Wolfe, depending
on the weeks’ harvests during the
summer. Current crops include a variety of greens, such as
arugula, buttercrunch bib and red oak leaf lettuce, radishes,
kale and collards. Also available are seedlings for lettuce,
Swiss chard, oregano, thyme, rosemary and other herbs.
“We have garlic, tomatoes and sweet and hot peppers
in the ground,” notes Wolfe, “and a lot of beautiful
flowers that we will be selling as well.”
The entire proceeds from the farm stand sales support garden
endeavors and planting more produce, says Wolfe. Current
projects include a rainwater collection device, a drip irrigation
system and composting bins.
The Community Garden, which
was chartered as a student organization in April, keeps about
30 volunteers busy.
For Wolfe, participating in
the Smith Community Garden fits well with her interests in
environmental sustainability. She also manages the
Bike Kitchen, a student-run bicycle-rental facility. Wolfe
has designed her own major in environmental biology and
sustainable development, and hopes to provide people with
the skills and knowledge to carry sustainability theories
forward and incorporate them in their lives.
“This is very close to
my heart,” she says of
the garden. “I would love to see gardens of the near
future be at least as vital in local food production as Victory
gardens were during World War II. I would love to see children,
teenagers and adults knowing how to plant a seed. And knowing
how powerful food production is.”
Wolfe invites people in the
Smith community to check out the garden farm stand every
Thursday, and experience the quality of the products.
“Produce tastes much better when it’s been produced
by people who are really passionate about growing food,” she
says.
|
