Category: Sustainable Food

Community Supported Agriculture

I was set to pick up my portion of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) from The Daily, a small eatery just North of the King St. overpass, but trouble with the past weekend’s thousand year flood led to a rough start to the Fall season for Pete Ambrose of Ambrose Farm. He and his farmhands worried constantly as to whether they would be able to weather the storm. Luckily, to his benefit the clouds eventually cleared, and the sun once again shown on his field of crops. With the delay, what would have been a Tuesday afternoon delivery turned into a Friday afternoon delivery, but I was no less appreciative of the bounty of produce that would be awaiting me.

 

As I pulled into The Daily’s parking lot I happened to run into Ambrose’s delivery driver Nick, we chatted briefly about the past weekend’s events, and it seems that the farm suffered minimally in comparison to the Peninsula and other parts of the state. The marshes that exist throughout John’s Island (where the farm is located) aid in diverting the water away from land. This is a natural filter many areas in the lowcountry lack, due to previously beneficial marshes being filled in for land development.

 

When I entered The Daily, I was delighted to find a wall full of brightly colored reusable totes filled with a fresh harvest. On the bags was the Ambrose logo of a tomato and the question of “Who’s your farmer?” It’s an interesting question to pose in today’s society with most food exchanging upwards of a hundred hands in its life span. The hundreds of thousands of miles that food travels in today’s food system leaves many consume’s with a laundry list of questions about where it comes from, and the methods that go into its growth. This is why a CSA is such a beautiful thing. You have the ability to meet the person who is growing your food, find out how they’re growing your food, and make sure every penny that you spend on produce is going directly to them. Its a wonderful system.
In this weeks bag I received a plethora of goodies including: malabar spinach, bell peppers, shishito peppers, red radishes, okra, green peanuts, white sweet potatoes, and string beans.

 

As of yet, my plans are to roast the peanuts, which requires that I soak them in a salt solution overnight, and bake them. I hope to mix up a salad with the spinach and red radishes, and pan fry the okra. As for the bell peppers and white sweet peppers, I’ll use them in a breakfast hash, and the string beans will work nicely as a side dish to my next potluck.

 

-James Mulhern, Sustainability Intern 
James is a senior at the College, majoring in International Studies with a concentration in Latin America and the Caribbean
James is a senior at the College, majoring in International Studies with a concentration in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The C.U.B.E. and the Office of Sustainability Take On Beatty!

The Cougar Undergraduate Business Enterprises (ENACTUS) and the Office of Sustainability at the College of Charleston are striving to promote a healthy and environmentally friendly lifestyle for students of the Beatty Business School. If you didn’t know there is now a COMPOST BIN next to the receptacles by CUBE. Also CUBE will be switching over to more natural and organic products in the upcoming months such as healthier alternative snacks, Sugar in the Raw, and fair trade/alliance organic coffees.
The CUBE is a student-run non-profit business that proudly serves coffee and other refreshments with perfectly paired snacks all under $3.00. Why stop at Starbucks to get robbed on coffee when you can help support fundraising for multiple great causes? The CUBE helps charitable projects such as: Water for Africa, LemonAid Stand, Oyster Reef Building, and many more ENACTUS programs.
If you didn’t know ENACTUS is an international organization that aims to use entrepreneurial pursuits to create a better world here and now. The main goal of ENACTUS is promoting positive impact through entrepreneurial action, involving a variety of projects to raise funds to support social change.The ENACTUS Chapter at the College of Charleston offers projects including: Low Country Goes Green, CUBE, Cougar Apprentice Program, Kick It Forward, A Global Affair, Public Relations, Recruitment, and a Presentation Team.
If you would like to get involved with ENACTUS please email Shannon Caulk (caulksn@g.cofc.edu), if you would like to volunteer for shifts at CUBE please email Laura Berros Pradas (berrospradasl@g.cofc.edu).
CUBE Hours (may vary):
Mon/Wed/Friday- 8:00am-1:00pm
Tues/Thursday- 9:00am-1:00pm
-Graham Massell

Dixie Plantation and Will Allen

dixie-plantation-trees
Dixie Plantation provides students with the opportunity to experiment with organic farming techniques.

This past Saturday I joined the Office of Sustainability on a tour and workday at the Dixie Plantation student garden. This wasn’t my first trip to Dixie Plantation, but the remarkable beauty of the plantation never fails to surprise me. If you have never been to the plantation, I would highly recommend a visit. Our tour guides, Carmen and Nolan, allowed us to get our hands dirty in the garden while also providing a great overview of the various sustainable agriculture efforts at the student garden. Projects in the garden ranged from commonplace herb gardens to the bizarre, such as vermiculture (earthworm culture) and apiculture (bee-keeping)

The most exciting part of Dixie Plantation and the garden is the potential for the future. The garden has already expanded from its original size to include experimental land plots for independent student projects, and it is very possible that this growth could continue. Potential projects such as an aquaponics system (which harnesses a natural symbiosis between fish and plants for food production) as well as a black fly larvae composting system may also be implemented at Dixie plantation. Dixie plantation is also home to many other fledgling program such as student research stations, forest management programs, nature trails, and fundraising to name a few. A major question for the future of the College of Charleston is how Dixie Plantation will be utilized.

These exciting agricultural projects at the Dixie garden echo the work of the internationally recognized urban farmer—and former professional basketball player—Will Allen. In Allen’s recent visit to the College of Charleston, he gave the audience at the Sottile Theater a walkthrough of his work in urban farming and how sustainable food production improves the health of disadvantaged communities. This improved health includes both physical and societal health, resulting from education and exposure to sustainable agriculture as well as an increased sense of community. In the words of Will Allen, “We cannot have healthy communities without a healthy food system.” This same principal holds true in Charleston and is addressed in part by some community gardens and organizations that are already in place, such as the Greenheart project and the Chicora Place Community Garden.

Although the College of Charleston is not the same as the disadvantaged communities that Will Allen normally works with, the College could also benefit from expanding its sustainable agriculture efforts. Although there are many competing interests at Dixie Plantation, as a student, I believe some priority should be given to expanding the current sustainable agriculture efforts to a scale that could provide a reasonable amount of food for the college itself in a sustainable way. In a program such as this, not only could students, faculty and staff enjoy the benefit of healthy food, they could also learn about sustainable agriculture and use the program for outreach programs in much the same way Will Allen has done with his organization Growing Power. Although a project like this at Dixie Plantation would be far down the line, it is exciting for me to think of what the College of Charleston and Dixie could become.

-John Brooker

In the Garden with Lexa Keane

Spicy Flowers and Bean Sprouts

I think I’m in love.  Our relationship is so fresh and new, I can’t help but get excited thinking about Friday afternoons, and all the other random chances I get to spend time with them.

‘Them’ you ask?? Yes, all the little vegetable and fruit sprouts within the political science urban garden that are pushing so eagerly to meet the sun’s rays.  I find myself retreating to the garden any chance I get, making sure they are watered and nourished.  I’m borderline ‘helicopter mom,’ but their youth calls for extra reassurance and devotion!

One of the many great things about the garden is the constant interaction of people and the natural world, as the garden is a centerpiece in which people gather and exchange stories, thoughts, and a sense of community.  The garden demonstrates not only the physical potential of yielding produce for the local community, but the potential within each of us to flourish and help each other grow as individuals and as a community.  If you think I am romanticizing this garden experience, you might very well be correct in your assumption, but I would argue that this newly cultivated plot of land is something worth celebrating.

Yesterday, after a hectic day and a long week, I retreated to the garden to harvest some lettuce, spinach and basil for a tasty salad to share with a good friend of mine.  After plunking my heavy book bag down, I assessed the growing sprouts, and watered them while talking with some faculty members.  The conversations extended past the garden, and into realms of personal interest and funny stories of the week.  The garden is a platform for uplifting experiences, whether gathered around the actual garden, or sharing the vegetable goodness for dinner with a near and dear friend.