Down on the (sustainable) farm!
by Mary, GGGE Summer Intern
You may notice a new name at the top of this page, and that’s because the GGGE team has expanded! I’m Mary, the new summer intern for GGGE, and a rising junior at Saint Mary’s College (Go Belles!). I want to write today about the Sustainable Farm that we have at SMC and the importance of finding community in sustainability. Along the way, I am hoping to inspire more people to join in the sustainable farm/gardening movement!
Together we can learn, do, and participate in everyday environmental actions that make our community more healthy, more beautiful, and more environmentally friendly for all.
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Community and Farming and the Free-Will Market (Oh My!)
I was lucky enough this year to be selected as one of the student leaders for our Sustainable Farm team, a role that consisted of hands-on farm work, as well as spreading messages of sustainability across campus, recruiting and managing volunteers, and working with community partners to ensure our food was helping our South Bend neighbors. Our farm at school is on a total of 5 acres of land, of which 3 acres is buffer space between us and the conventional agriculture that surrounds us, and a total of ⅔ of an acre is the actual growing space.
St. Mary's Farm has a wide variety of crops, and since our site is quite windy, last spring we added a “permaculture perennial windbreak” (which is basically just a fancy way of saying that we planted a whole bunch of elderberry plants and other woody perennials to help protect our beds from the wind). In the spring of 2023, we welcomed the addition of a flock of 150 chickens to our farm, who help with pest control, carbon cycling, fertilizing, and crop cleanup! Not to mention, the fresh eggs are beloved by many across campus and throughout South Bend. We were also thrilled to build a hoop house this October, which is a more energy-efficient version of a greenhouse that will help us begin our growing season earlier in spring and extend it later into autumn.
One of my favorite parts of working on the farm — aside from the actual growing process — is the community that has formed. Sustainability is something that can bring so many different people together, and it’s really wonderful to see just how many gaps we can bridge by spending a morning together planting blueberry bushes or pulling weeds.
As a Catholic college, many aspects of the Saint Mary’s College Sustainable Farm are rooted in the principles of Catholic Social Teaching and the mission of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, who actually donated the land to us for the farm. One of every eight Americans faces food insecurity, and produce is often out of reach economically. Each week during the harvest season we would set up a few tables in the back parking lot of a church in Downtown South Bend and offer fresh produce (picked and washed just that morning!) and eggs to people passing by. One of our wonderful pro staff members, a woman known by all as “Pastor Carrie” runs a nonprofit in South Bend that we would partner with each week to ensure produce was going to families that needed it most. Thanks to her help, we were able to be a consistent and reliable source of fresh and nutritious produce and eggs for 30 families each week, plus any walk-up customers that would come by.
We aptly named the event “Veggies on Main,” and I grew to cherish these afternoons, learning more about the wonderful people with whom I share a city, meeting the adorable kids that would come by, and hearing about all the delicious meals people planned to make with produce they might not otherwise be able to access. I have many stories from these Thursdays, including the time a man living in a halfway house brought me a peanut-butter and green onion sandwich… which was honestly better than I expected. But that’s a story for a different newsletter.
Somehow, despite us literally sending each person home with more tomatoes, squashes, and peppers than they could carry, each week we ended up with produce leftover and plenty still left on the plants to be picked. That meant that we were able to run a second market for the SMC community (faculty, staff, and students) on Fridays! This market was set up similarly, and we promoted it as a “free-will market,” where there were no prices and everything was free, but there was a basket for anyone who wanted to donate to the farm. These markets were lots of fun for those of us on the farm team, as we got to chat with professors, grounds workers, maintenance technicians, and even occasionally the college’s President, sharing our expertise and love for sustainability.
How can I create a community through sustainable farming/gardening?
As I mentioned earlier, one of my favorite parts about the farm was the way it exposed me to people who I otherwise would have never met. Though this community was formed by the unique environment of a college-campus-run farm, it is certainly not isolated to that situation. Here are some ideas for things you can do to help build a strong community in sustainability:
Connect with people via social media! Many local towns including Glen Ellyn, Warrenville, and Wheaton have Facebook groups dedicated to gardening, and you may even end up with some free plant cuttings from a new friend.
Work with a local community garden! The Glen Ellyn Park District rents plots at Village Green community garden, and Wheaton has a community garden as well. Glen Ellyn Park District will introduce another community garden next year on Lenox Ave near Ackerman.
Donate your excess! The Glen House Food Pantry would be happy to take your excess produce. Sometimes local residents set up a table in their front yard, so be on the lookout!
Resources for implementing sustainable gardening practices at home:
