Campus, your produce is ready! First ‘farmers market’ is today
The first SLO Food Alliance produce sale of the season is today (Thursday, Aug. 11) at the hallway alcove near the Dean of Students Office in the Student Services Building. Hours are noon to 2 p.m. or until everything is gone. The student organizers say they can’t easily make change (it’s a large and well-stocked cash box they’re lacking, not math skills), so small bills and exact change will be much appreciated.
Today’s fare:
• Patriotic Potatoes (reds, whites and blues) • Onions • Cherry tomatoes • Eggplant • Beets • Basil (green and purple) • Zucchini • Okra • Beans • Strawberry freezer jam
History of SLO’s garden, and farewell to a woodchuck
In 2009, UW-Green Bay students with counsel from faculty and staff members took the lead in creating the SLO Food Alliance. (The acronym stands for “sustainable, local, organic.”) The University provided support via temporary greenhouse use, heirloom plant donations, water service and mulch delivered to the formerly overgrown planters atop the Student Services plaza. The student-run fee allocation committee approved seed money for the project. Volunteers replaced the shaggy ornamental plantings with the organics, and the first harvest of vegetables and fruits was available for sale in July.
Last year’s sales topped $1,000 and helped fund an East Coast trip on which students toured and worked in some of the nation’s leading organic farm cooperatives. This year’s weekly sales are getting a late start because of cool early weather, but should extend into September.
Finally, a bit of garden-specific news: The SLO gardeners are celebrating today because of last night’s capture and “forcible relocation” of the rogue groundhog that had been terrorizing the garden.