BI74 - Biology of Food Experiment by Chelsea Mingrone'14

During the spring semester, Dr. Tod Osier, one of the two advisers for the Fairfield University Garden, teaches the course ‘Biology of Food’. This course is a biology elective that many students are able to take to fulfill their science core. A part of the class is a component that included utilization of the garden to observe plant growth. In early March, the students planted seeds in the laboratories to grow the ‘Black Seeded Simpson’ lettuce. The picture below is the growth of the Black Seeded Simpson today.

Dr. Osier explained "we were growing lettuce in that case just as an experience for the students to plant and observe the growth of a plant (and lettuces are one of the only things that grow well at that time year)". He went on to say that he grew them under the covers to serve as mini-greenhouses to help the soil warm and let the lettuces grow. Trish Doheny, a sophomore majoring in Communitcation, took part in the experiment and used this lettuce for her cooking show called “Nutrishus" featured on the HAM channel.

Fairfield University’s Garden excels at being the perfect outdoor laboratory. While appreciating the beauty of nature, students are guaranteed hands on learning that cannot be achieved in a classroom.

Written by Chelsea Mingrone'14

We're Back!

Hello Friends!

We are finally back for another Summer of agricultural fun! We have done a number of things since I stopped writing, so let's get this going:

First of all, we recently had a really cool honey bee event in the Cafeteria. We informed people on the incoming bees on campus. Thanks to numerous faculty and staff support, this project will actually be happening pretty soon! I will write in a future posts about their arrival and how they're doing. But we have to be patient!

We've had a number of work parties. They consisted of mowing, weeding, and pruning our plants. Thanks to Trish Doheny'14, Julian Myer-Smith'15, and Chelsea Mingrone'14 for helping us out in the last few work parties of the semester. We got a lot done!

Trish doing her thing!

Julian doing what I strongly dislike the most: Mowing

Thanks to garden co-director Dr. Tod Osier (my boss), we have new shelves for the shed! When I saw how neat and (somewhat) organized the shed was I burst into frantic tears of joy. Here is a graphic representation of this event below.

That's it. I'll probably be posting stuff from earlier in the year since a) I never did and b) It's going to be a rainy week.

~ jesusnunezx