Center for Ecological Living and Learning (CELL)
The Evergreen State College Center for Ecological Living and Learning (CELL), provides students and the broader community with experiential opportunities, linking theory to practice through the development of evolving models of sustainable agriculture practices, ecological design, and holistic living in the Pacific Northwest Bioregion.
The Organic Farm
The Evergreen Organic Farm became a vision for students the year the school opened in 1971. Students in the class "Environmental Design" learned that on the west edge of the school property there was an old farm out on Lewis road available for all those that wished to use it. The Organic Farm became Evergreen's "diamond in the rough" when it was formally instituted in 1972. The Organic Farm is the oldest working model of sustainability that Evergreen is lucky enough to have and share with the community.
Ecological Agriculture, Farm to Table and The Practice of Sustainable Agriculture are just a few of the programs at Evergreen that utilize the Farm as an educational tool. Growing food has been a self-sustaining practice and also very empowering. These programs teach the fundamentals behind sustainable, organic agriculture and its consequences over a local, national and global scope. These programs bring new faces and contributions to the farm and its community each year. Many of the interns on the Farm are either concurrently enrolled in one of these programs or are returning because they loved the agrarian values practiced there. The students and staff on the farm consider themselves a family. They are working on polishing up the farm and really making it shine.
The Organic Farm promises to preserve the land it uses for future generations so that they, in turn, can grow food in a sustainable and healthy way. Creating diversity on the farm is one of the cornerstones of sustainable agriculture. Diversity provides non-toxic, sustainable crop protection against plant diseases and insect pests. Crop rotation is one method the farm uses to maintain diversity. Other methods employed include the use of under sown ground covers, inter-cropping different types of vegetable crops, and animals. In the fall of 1972 the chicken coop was established on the farm in order to produce and sell eggs in the future. There are currently sixty hens, one rooster, one laying duck, two cats, and a pup on the farm. They have had other animals including the late great free-range pig and the very first animal donated to the farm, a pregnant cow. There are two student caretakers who live in the farm house and pay rent by taking care of the farm animals as well as the general upkeep of the farm. One thing the farm has been in need of for awhile is a full-time manager. Melissa Barker, although _ staff with no benefits, is not only the current ring leader of this biodiversity circus, but she is planning the future of the Organic Farm as well. She hopes to expand the farm soil limits which hopefully in the future could provide for enough food to feed the entire campus. Melissa also wants to see alternative energy and eco-design on the farm.
Every Tuesday and Thursday during the growing season farm interns head up to Red Square to sell organic farm produce to students, faculty and other passers by from the campus produce market cart. This is the point of interaction that bridges the gap between grower and consumer. The produce is inexpensive and products range from fresh salad greens, eggs and veggies to fresh or dried flowers, herbs and pumpkins in the Fall. All of the extras are given to the Thurston County Food bank and local charities, or composted. All sales go straight back into the farm to finance projects and purchase seeds and equipment. Two of the greenhouses, the cooler, compost shed, farm fencing and orchard are just a few projects made possible from farm sales.
In September 1972 the first Harvest Fest was conducted and over 800 people showed up in support of the Organic Farm, every year after the farm has held a Harvest Fest. We celebrate the bounty of life each fall with food, live music, drum circles, workshops, presentations, tours, and face painting for the kids. This along with potlucks, starter-plant sales, the produce market cart, and the community gardens involves the community and raises awareness about the farm.
The Farm House
In the spring of 1975 Evergreen acquired a permit to begin construction and Service and Activities Board allocated $15,000 dollars to the construction of the new farmhouse. It now houses two full-time live-in caretakers and provides classroom space for agriculture students and extracurricular activities such as banquets and festivals. The farmhouse serves as a meeting place for faculty and student retreats, seminar facilities and as a classroom and community kitchen. The self-contained kitchen sports two ovens, a six-burner range, a wood-burning stove and a separate washroom and facilities. In 1980 on February 14 (Valentines Days) the new farmhouse, built by eco-design students, was officially opened. At the Thurston County Fair the following August those Evergreen students won an award for the most outstanding educational exhibit.
The Community Gardens
The Community Gardens is an area of the farm designated to bring together students, alumni and community members who wish to have a place where they can grow their own organic produce. This allows people to be directly in touch with the food they eat and encourages individuals to learn, teach and grow together. During the spring of 1981 the community gardens area was in such high demand that they expanded the area with 22 new beds for community members to use. In the spring of 1985 two acres of land were cleared to allow more sunlight into the garden and some other trees were removed through out the farm for various reasons. A portion of the trees were given to the logging company that helped and allowed us to use the log cutter, while the rest were used for the construction of the long house. GRUB (garden raised bounty), a community based organization that teaches the inner-city poor how to raise a garden by providing the garden plots for their families, used part of the community gardens before eventually expanding their land in the inner-city. The community gardens were cut in half as a result and new organic research plots for faculty, staff, and students were created.
Biodiesel
The Evergreen Biodiesel Project's mission is to build and establish a permanent, safe, and user-friendly bio-diesel infrastructure. The infrastructure of the Biodiesel Project includes: a processing unit (located on Evergreen's Organic Farm), a collection barrel (located in the basement of the CAB), and a transit barrel. By converting spent vegetable oil into useable biodiesel, the Biodiesel Project will supply Evergreen's Organic Farm tractors with a renewable fuel. In addition, the Biodiesel Project aims to be a model for other schools and state institutions that aspire to produce biodiesel on-site. Of the various diesel vehicles at Evergreen, the Organic Farm possesses two four-cylinder Kubota tractors. The two tractors consume roughly 10 gallons of diesel fuel per week. On a weekly basis the cafeteria at Evergreen disposes of roughly 20 gallons of spent vegetable oil, at a cost of $50 per month. By transestifing the spent vegetable oil, the Biodiesel Project will be able to produce roughly 500 gallons of biodiesel annually and fully suffice the Organic Farm's diesel requirement. The 500 gallons of renewable fuel will displace 17 percent of the campus's annual petroleum diesel consumption. In 2005, the biodiesel project created enough fuel for the entire season to function for the first time.
Compost
The compost facility is the product of a student's vision and the cooperative effort of Facilities, Housing and Student Activities to recycle nearly the entire organic waste stream from the College. The compost facility was designed and built almost exclusively by Evergreen staff and students around 2003. Composting recycles organic material to produce a beneficial, nutrient- and microbe-rich soil amendment. It is a very old technique that combines different organic feedstock's to provide an appropriate substrate for thriving microbial populations. This reduces and stabilizes organic refuse. In the presence of water, unstable and complex organic compounds are transformed into more stable forms, which slowly mineralize in a soil environment releasing nutrients and plant growth stimulants. The first step breaks down the organic materials in an in-vessel aerated reactor. Then the compost is put into the vermiculture finishing bins. The worm castings are collected in large, removable trays that are placed under the vermiculture bins. The Organic Farm and the Community Gardens then use the finished compost as a soil amendment, greatly increasing productivity on the sites. The farm can even sell this organic compost to other local farms. Composting organic refuse keeps the most readily biodegradable portion of the waste stream from entering the landfill, where anaerobic decomposition of organic materials can create methane, an odor-causing greenhouse gas. Composting also prevents the point-source contamination of groundwater from mineral nitrates and phosphates contained in food scraps and yard waste.
Organic Farm Manager Melissa Barker http://www.evergreen.edu/cell