It’s a place to put learning into practice, a place to see how our food takes root and a place to cultivate something for the future. The Agroecology Education Farm at NC State University offers students and the greater NC State community an opportunity to get hands-on experience with gardening, growing and harvesting crops, and learning how to use the herbs, vegetables and fruits they grow.
With 1.14 acres of bed space along with hoop growing houses and a small food forest, the farm, located within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratory, provides a space where students can learn and practice agroecological principles in real production spaces.
“The primary goal is to teach students how to operate a market garden,” says Ann Bybee-Finley, director of the Agroecology Education Farm. “It’s very different than learning agriculture from a set of PowerPoint slides sitting in a classroom, right? You’re actually getting your hands dirty. Students learn about agroecological methods that they could apply to their own farms.”
Sara Snyder, farm manager, says students work to grow a variety of crops, including muscadine grapes, Swiss chard, spinach, beets, potatoes and herbs, among many others. Much of what is harvested is used at NC State’s dining halls.
“We work closely with the chefs at the dining halls to decide which vegetables and varieties of crops to grow,” Snyder says. “We try to provide specialty crops that might be harder for them to source from their other providers, and this is a way for us to be able to provide local, organic healthy food for the students while also being a space for students to see firsthand where some of their food is coming from.”
The NC State community is invited to share in this year’s harvest on Oct. 25, when the Agroecology Education Farm hosts its annual Harvest Fest, which will include a farm Olympics, cooking demonstrations, crafts and more.
That sense of place and opportunities for finding friends have made the farm special for agroecology and sustainable food systems major Moriah Bollman.
“I think my favorite part of the farm is just the community that it builds and the opportunity to take everything that we’re learning through the major program and apply it in real life,” Bollman says. “It’s also so great to see people want to come out and help at the farm, and even if they have no experience, they want to come see what it’s like, and I think that’s great for getting more people into agriculture.”
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