Dr. Art Trese talks to visiting students about the OHIO Student Farm operation.
Students and faculty piled into buses and made their way down West State Street to enjoy the beautiful evening outside. For some, this was their first visit to the OHIO Student Farm, while others were more familiar with the wonderful spot just a mile from campus.
Dr. Theresa Moran, the new Sustainable Living Hub Coordinator at Ohio University, spoke April 16 about her sustainability initiatives. After her presentation, the seminar concluded with a trip to the OHIO Student Farm.
The farm visit during the Sustainable Living Hub Seminar included an in-depth tour given by students, a container gardening workshop, and an opportunity for attendees to pick their own salad mixes, harvesting lettuces, spinach, and arugula. The first-time farm goers were in awe of the vibrant and peaceful atmosphere at the OHIO Student Farm. Once someone visits for the first time, they are likely to return again and again to the farm.
This was a great opportunity to show more students and faculty the OHIO Student Farm, and ]Moran hopes to continue to bring more people out to the farm, which provides a hands-on learning experience for students, models what sustainable food production and consumption looks like, and serves as a sustainable food operation for students to participate in. Most importantly, the OHIO Student Farm engages students to think about where their food is coming from, and see the tangible connection between people and the earth made every time we grow or eat food.
A variety of greens grow in the high tunnel at the OHIO Student Farm.
The farm always has several students interning there each semester, with additional students who come and volunteer from time to time. In addition to the interns and volunteers, the Sustainable Agriculture class (PBIO 2600), taught by Dr. Art Trese, Associate Professor of Environmental & Plant Biology, spends class time at the farm throughout the fall and spring semesters as students in the class receive their own garden plot to tend.
Other students go out to the farm just to enjoy the scenery or to purchase student-grown produce, sold at the farm on Friday’s during the warmer months of the year. The farm is frequented and operated by a diverse group of students, with new students becoming involved each semester and many students who stay involved throughout their college careers. Yet, there are still numerous students at Ohio University unaware of the farm’s existence, and Moran hopes to change this.
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