Located on the outer edges of the Indiana University-Bloomington campus and plotted on roughly 11 acres of land, sits the new IU Campus Farm. The farm was established just a short time ago, in October of 2017 when it broke ground. Off an idea by some interested students and professors there to help, the farm was founded off of a $50,000 grant paid for by Indiana University Bloomington’s Sustainability Innovation Fund. Getting to the point where the group finally received the grant took a long, painstaking process, according to the farm’s manager Erin Carman-Sweeney.
The main goal of this was simple: add another outlet for the university to get its produce from to feed the 50,000-plus students and faculty, but do it in a sustainable way. However, there is more to it than just that. It was also created to give experimental learning opportunities for different programs around the university. Those learning opportunities come by way of farm volunteers. Anyone is welcome, but for the most part, it is students who need to fill a requirement for class or community service, or just someone that want to get their hands dirty and help out.
Already, the farm has made its impact. In the past year, it has produced roughly four tons of food for the university, which is just a minute percentage compared to other outlets that it gets fruits and vegetables from, but every bit helps. The farm does more than just provide healthy options for IU. A percentage of the crops, whether it is lettuce, spinach, carrots or so on, gets delivered to the local shelters in the Bloomington community, such as Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard. Every part of the farm can be used as some source of food, even the maple trees.
As the seasons change and the weather takes a turn towards colder temperatures, the farm can still harvest. Due to their high towers, located down the hill from where they grow outside, the covered structure gives the farmhands the opportunity to make sure there is something that can be grown year-round. Although there are no hanging lights in the high tower, it still allows enough sun light, when it is available, to keep the harvesting plants warm.
The area has more to it than meets the eye. Where the farm is located, it is actually on the Hinkle-Garton Farmstead. The farmhouse, which was built over 120 years ago, in 1892, by John Henry Hinkle, a well-known farmer at the time whose farm stretched over 80-acres. After the Hinkle’s passed, their daughter, Daisy, married music performer and teacher Joseph Garton and they moved into the farmstead in 1943 until their death. In her dying will, Daisy had placed that the home be preserved, which is now in the hands of Bloomington Restorations Incorporated.
The building is used for office space most of the time for those working on the farm, but on the last Saturday of every month, the bottom half of the house opens up as a museum for people to come tour and for some, according to Steve Wyatt, Executive Director of Bloomington Restorations Inc., it’s a time to reflex on the days they spent in that farmstead.
