The Gardens: A Farm Club Introduction
Above: Carleton students visiting the Farm Club table during the annual Activities Fair on the Bald Spot, Fall 2003.
About the Organization
Farm Club is an organization founded in the late 80's by Carleton students
interested in sustainable agriculture. Students active in Farm Club maintain
an organic fruit and vegetable garden on campus located near Farmhouse, a
campus theme house focused on sustainable living. The garden serves two main
purposes: it is a source of locally grown organic produce and an outdoor classroom
where students and community members learn the values and practices of organic
gardening. During each academic year since its founding Farm Club members
have met regularly to discuss matters of the garden and to tend it in the
fall and spring. Meetings are held at Dacies Moses House for discussions,
planning, and seed ordering while during warmer weather members work in the
garden on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. "Membership" in Farm
Club is a loose term as anyone who shows up for a meeting or Saturday in the
garden is considered a part of the Farm Club family.
Each summer Farm Club offers internship positions to members interested in tending the gardens over the summer months. Carleton's Environmental and Technology Studies (ENTS) Department has been very influential in keeping sustainable agricultural practices on the Carleton Campus by providing a stipend to some of the Farm Club summer interns. Without funding from the ENTS department during the spring and summer of 2003 the significant expansion of the Farm Club Garden would not have been possible. Thank you ENTS! Farm Club is currently looking for an intern for the summer of 2006!
About the Garden
The Mystery Onion Garden, Farm Club's original garden built by the club's
founding members, was bulldozed by Carleton College in 2001 to make room for
athletic field expansion. In compensation, the college donated two raised
beds the following spring. Early this spring members of Farm Club worked especially
hard to sucessfully expand the garden to a new home in the lawn just east
of Farm House. This new garden, tilled in the shape of a large boot, provides
Farm Club with the opportunity to grow significantly more produce (see the
About
Our Plants and Growing Methods page for more information). The
Farm Club Garden now consists of two wood-framed raised beds, a modest squash
patch, and two apple trees just off the woodchip path near Farmhouse and the
newly added larger production garden built in the spring of 2003. All of the
hard work and dedication from Farm Club members in 2003 paid-off with a plentiful
harvest.
Our current president is Jake Gold.
The Garden's Evolution in Photos
Above upper: The Mystery Onion Garden before its destruction in 2001 (photo Loren Holmes).
Above middle: Carleton donated beds the season BEFORE garden expansion; note the empty lawn that is the current site of the expanded garden .
Above lower: AFTER garden expansion in 2003, the raised beds are located outside the picture frame to the left.
All produce grown in the Farm Club gardens are cultivated using organic methods. Growing food that is healthy for the planet and the consumer is the foundation of our organization.