St. Olaf students eating very fresh food

To gardeners, harvest time is a little like a holiday.

Dayna Burtness is a junior at St. Olaf College and an owner of a large scale garden project at the college, "It's kinda like Christmas. Every time you come out, it's like, Whoo!"

Dan Borek is a senior, "Wow! these are getting huge!" he exclaims as he walks into the field.

The two got this idea to grow fruits and vegetables organically, and sell them to the college food service. They call it St. Olaf Garden Research And Organic Works or STOGROW. So far, they've harvested, among other things, 34 pints of raspberries, 506 banana peppers, and 225 pounds of summer squash.

Peter Abrahamson is the Executive Chef at St. Olaf, "It keeps you on your toes because you never know what they're going to show up with."

Executive Chef Abrahamson says most of the veggies get prepared and served the same day they're received.

Hays Atkins is the Manager of the Bon Apetit Food Service, which runs the cafeteria, "The first products we received this year were lettuce... baby lettuce. And they were outstanding! I've never had such good lettuce and we couldn't keep up literally! I mean we ate everything they could produce in about three days."

It brought more flavor and freshness to the food service and to the students.

Borek is pleased the initial crops have been so good, "Y'know, this is kind of a pioneering project. I don't think there're many colleges that are producing their own food for their own cafeteria on their own campus."

Burtness says working on the farm has made her more aware of what she eats, 'You can't have lettuce in the middle of summer because it's too hot, and you're going to eat a lot of squash because that's in season, so I guess it's really connected me with where my food comes from."

The students have learned more than they ever imagined.

The STOGROW project is only part of St. Olaf's effort to "turn green". The college has also begun composting all of its waste food, including meat, and it's building a wind turbine to generate some of the electricity used on campus.

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