Hello all! It has been a long time since our last update and we have lots of news to tell.

The summer has been wonderful to our garden, lots of rain and heat have made our plants grow big and strong. This year we continued with the experiment started last summer-- 3 plots planted with compost and 3 with organic fertilizer. In keeping with last year, our main crops are potatoes, squash, and pumpkins. However we have expanded a bit on the sides and pathway to our garden, and now have popcorn, white pumpkins, tomatoes, scarlet runner beans, black turtle beans, basil, rosemary, lavender, cucumbers, and lots of flowers growing. Everything looks great and will taste wonderful too.

The garden managers this year are Lena Afridi '08 and Ariel Kagan '11. Lena majored in Politics with a concentration on urban planning. She was an active member in the Garden Society her senior year, helping to coordinate the Pangy Day festivities and 5 college pot-lucks. She attended the Real Food Summit at Yale University in November of 2007. Her summer research, a continuation of what she learned at the Real Food Summit is a comprehensive comparison of other liberal arts colleges' garden and farm programs. It will be an asset to the Garden Society and the Crops for a Closer Community project, and will help with future planning of the MHC garden.
Ariel grew up in a community garden in St. Paul, MN where she learned about dirt, bugs, and vegetables. She worked as a horticulture teacher last summer for Farm in the City, a youth program based in the community garden. She has brought her skills to the MHC garden and has seen them evolve over the course of the summer. Her summer research is in conjunction with Nuestras Raices, in Holyoke MA, and focuses on the effect that community gardens and greenspace have on crime in urban settings.

We have been busy with the garden, and also volunteering with other farms in the area. We have been graciously hosted by Nuestras Raices farm, Gardening the Community, in Springfield MA, and Red Fire Farm. These opportunities have allowed us to learn more about community supported agriculture, and has created links between Mount Holyoke and the surrounding community. We hope to keep these bonds strong throughout the academic year.

You can also check out our new website on the MHC Center for the Environment page at this link : http://www.mtholyoke.edu/ce/19629.shtml

Any questions or comments can be sent to lpafridi@gmail.com or kagan20a@mtholyoke.edu