Fresh Focus

This fall, Itzel Villagran will be busy. As a 4th year in Sustainable Agriculture and Development and Lead Student Farmer in the Market Garden program, she is a PEAS fellow, conducting field research in soils, and a Green fellow, building community through growing, sharing and teaching about foods important to her and her family.

This summer, Olivia Henry, UC Cooperative Extension Regional Food Systems Advisor, collaborated with the Student Farm Ecological Garden to help us learn more about value-added products, on-farm processing, and the blue elderberry that grow in many places across the farm and that are historical part of California's cultural and ecological systems. Alongside Ecological Garden lead, Julia Schreiber, UCD student Taylor Jones was Olivia's partner in this project. You can read Olivia's report below. Find Taylor's insightful report linked in the bullet point.

The Student Farm will help host a land-based component of this important course, AAS192: Agriculture, Race & Justice in Black California, offered this coming fall (CRN: 20025). Please share with students and groups who might be interested. Reach out to [email protected] with questions.

Fresh Focus Year-in-Review 250417.pdf

Fall 2024 brought with it lots of new faces to the Fresh Focus team, including a new Lead Student Farmer, three new College Core Fellows, and many new interns!

 Fall was also a busy quarter for the Fresh Focus team, as we established a new seed saving bed to grow and collect seed from indigenous heirloom plants. Students also stretched their event planning muscles and collaborated with a seed saving library to host a dinner utilizing the crops we grew from heirloom indigenous seeds. 

The Fresh Focus team had an exciting and abundant summer, full of new community connections, friendship, delicious food, and an almost never ending supply of cucumber and squash!