The History of Sustainability at Saint Martin's

Saint Martin's University has a rich history of sustainability and continues to aim at sustainable practices today.  This video gives a brief overview of that history.  Also check out  Saint Martin's Insights Magazine, which comes out the third week of December.

Winter Garden

It is time for another garden party in the Learning Garden!

Growing your own food can save you a lot of money and help you eat well.

Local expert gardener, Lynn Villella, will lead a workshop on how to winterize your garden. Lynn will show us how to prepare the garden beds for the winter and what kind of crops to plant.

Drop by for a free hands on “Winter Garden” workshop in the SMU Learning Garden.

Tuesday, Nov 15
Between 9:30 and 1pm (drop by any time, stay as long as you like)
The Learning Garden (outside of the dining hall)

Be prepared to pull radishes, plant garlic, have some hot cider and more!

FYS students planting our own Kale seedling and put up cloche

We plant our own transplants into a Garden bed and put a cloche over to protect them.

Heirloom Tomatoes

ripe in the garden

Food Summit

Sustainable South Sound is putting on the Food Summit.

"The goal of the Food Summit is to bring our community together to celebrate, network and develop an action plan for a safe, local and sustainable food system."

Read more about it here.

October 14 community potluck and activities are all FREE! The keynote speaker, Mark Winne is the author of Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin’ Mamas: Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial Agriculture and Closing the Food Gap.

Art in the Garden

Olympia artist David Scherer Water will be holding an art workshop in the SMU garden next Tuesday, July 19 from 1:30-3:30pm.

Join the Anthropology of New Urbanism class and help make beautiful garden art out of found and recycled objects.


Please seek out and bring any plastic, metal or non-food lightweight junk you may find, acquire from housemates, family. Broken toys are great.

David Scherer Water enjoys making things out of junk. He's the artist responsible for "The Flat Win Company" which sells neatly packaged found materials back to people. Products include empty beer cans, burnt toast, twigs and small bags of gravel. David got his first "big break" as a visual artist when he was given permission to decorate the lobby and halls of a small apartment complex in downtown Olympia, The Martin Building.

A New Service Program - Grow Gardens in Schools

Wondering what to do after you graduate next year? Take a look at this awesome new program. It's like Americorps but all about growing gardens.

"The vision for FoodCorps is to recruit young adults for a yearlong term of public service in school food systems. Once stationed, FoodCorps members will build Farm to School supply chains, expand food system and nutrition education programs, and build and tend school food gardens.

The ultimate goal of the organization is to increase the health and prosperity of vulnerable children while investing in the next generation of farmers and public health leaders."

This seems like a great opportunity to participate in the new garden revolution. And there are other perks too. Participants receive the following benefits:

A biweekly stipend totaling $15,000 for the year
Health insurance, if not covered under another policy
Child care, if necessary
Student loan forbearance
A $5,550 Education Award for past or future education
Career mentoring, professional development, and strong work experience

Garden Visitors

Garden Parties should always start with lunch in the sun.
for more pics go here

There was a new visitor squatting on the side of the shed - a wasp. She didn't bother us.

and another one, lounging on a mint leaf - a lady bug with no dots.

we built a trellis, planted some lettuce and weeded and fed the strawberries.

Thanks to Tanya from Bon Appetit for feeding us with iced tea and treats!!

for more pics go here

Garden Party #2 2011

The sun is finally out and the weather report says that it should get up into the 70s this week. Come garden with us tomorrow Wed May 18, 12-1pm. We will be planting, weeding and building stuff in the garden. Bring your lunch and eat outside!

First Garden Party 2011

Wake up the Garden!

Come to our first Spring garden party this Friday, April 8 from 2-4. Get the soil ready, plant some seeds, pull some weeds. It's your garden too!

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Subscribing for a CSA share is a way to buy your veggies directly from the farmer. Most CSAs have a pick-up location where you can pick up your box of produce weekly. You sign up for a season and whatever is ripe and ready, arrives in your box on a set day of the week. You never know exactly what will show up. There is an element of surprise each time you open the box. Sometimes you get to try out something you've never had before.

Some things we like about CSAs are that they support local farmers; we get the freshest seasonal and local food; and less fuel is needed to transport the food since it goes directly from the local farm to a nearby pick-up site to our kitchens. It's good for us, the farmers and the environment.

The Sustainability Committee has been working with Bon Appétit and Full Circle Farm to set up a pick-up location for such a CSA on the SMU campus. Imagine being able to pick up a fresh box of organic, seasonal veggies while you're at school!

There are many CSA options in the area and you might pick one based on price, pick-up location, seasonal options, frequency of delivery, etc. Take a look here to see what farms are offering CSA shares near your home.

A few of us who live on Olympia's east side have been pretty happy with Rising River Farm's shares.

Sustainable Business

Are you interested in sustainable business practices? You might find this new book by Zingerman's co-founding partner Ari Weinzweig, an interesting read. During my days as an undergrad at the U of Michigan, I sampled many of Zing's tasty treats. Over the last 30 years, the small Jewish deli has turned into an impressive instution with a bakery, creamery, roastery, restaurant and a candy store that supports local farmers, values good food and practices sustainability.