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On the Santa Monica College (SMC) main campus nestled between the Art Department and Theatre Arts is a narrow strip of campus known as the Organic Learning Garden (OLG). Here students from all majors can de-stress from their academic demands, and students in related majors can consider organic and sustainable ideas. Every Tuesday from 11:15 – 12:30 Club Grow meets in the OLG to try a new activity. Students with majors ranging from Conservation Biology to Japanese to Sustainable Technologies, and ranging in age from at least 22 to 55, meet together to try activities like making fava pesto or composting with cover crop.
The OLG website states, "We, the students of Santa Monica College, want to learn to grow our own food so that we can make our communities self-sustaining, have access to fresh and healthy food, reconnect to the earth, our food, our traditions, and experience the happiness that comes from being connected to the beauty and wholeness of nature and each other as we work together in our gardens." In addition to Tuesday workshops, SMC students can apply for their own plot in the garden and grow crops of their choice.
Anthropology major Alex Sonnenschein, 29, of Montrose, Calif., grinds fava pesto in a mortar and pestle at Club Grow in the SMC Organic Learning Garden on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Sonnenschein says he finds the Organic Learning Garden a relief from the stress of his academic studies. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)
SMC Organic Learning Garden leader Dana Morgan, a master gardener from University of California Cooperative Extension, (UCCE) and a retired SMC English professor, and Nick Glover, a 25-year-old English major from Houston, Texas, work on fava pesto at the weekly Club Grow meeting in the Organic Learning Garden on SMC main campus on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)
Nick Glover, a 25-year-old English major from Houston, Texas, makes fava pesto at the weekly Club Grow meeting in the Organic Learning Garden on SMC main campus on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Behind Glover SMC Organic Learning Garden leader Dana Morgan, a master gardener from University of California Cooperative Extension, (UCCE) and a retired SMC English professor, explains pesto making to the group. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)
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SMC Organic Learning Garden leader Dana Morgan, a master gardener from University of California Cooperative Extension, (UCCE) and a retired SMC English professor, teaches members of Club Grow how to make fava pesto at their weekly meeting in the Organic Learning Garden (OLG) on SMC’s main campus on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Club Grow meets in the OLG every Tuesday. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)
SMC Organic Learning Garden leader Dana Morgan, a master gardener from University of California Cooperative Extension, (UCCE) and a retired SMC English professor, and Madlyn Spence, a 27 year-old Conservation Biology major from Chicago pass out tasting samples of freshly made fava pesto featuring ingredients grown in the SMC Organic Learning Garden (OLG) on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Spence has been participating at the OLG since 2010 and says that the garden has really influenced her major. Attending SMC on and off, Spence noted that the friends she started SMC with are all gone now and that she too has started to apply to a few University of California campuses to finish her education. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)
Fresh fava pesto with sliced almonds on a cracker. SMC students picked fava leaves grown in the Organic Learning Garden on SMC’s main campus on Tuesday, March 5, 2019, and then ground the leaves in a mortar and pestle. SMC Organic Learning Garden leader Dana Morgan, a master gardener from University of California Cooperative Extension, (UCCE) and a retired SMC English professor commented that "Every household should have a mortar and pestle. The Cuisinart just turns it to mush."
SMC Organic Learning Garden leader Dana Morgan, a master gardener from University of California Cooperative Extension, (UCCE) and a retired SMC English professor explains the "Composting with Cover Crop" activity to members of Club Grow at the Organic Learning Garden on SMC’s main campus on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Morgan pulled a few stalks of fava and asked students how they would best chop them into one inch pieces for composting. The group arrived at the idea that it would be easier and faster not to pull the stalks but to chop them in place. Morgan noted that to think like a farmer is to think in terms of the most efficient way of achieving your goal. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)
Eric Newton, 55, a sustainable technologies major from Los Angeles chops fava stalks into one inch pieces as part of Club Grow’s "Composting with Cover Crop" activity at the SMC Organic Learning Garden on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. The Sustainable Technologies major is part of SMC’s Recycling and Resource Management. Newton says the the Organic Learning Garden has helped in developing his college program. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)
Madlyn Spence, a 27-year-old Conservation Biology major from Chicago chops fava stalks in the SMC Organic Learning Garden (OLG) on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Spence and other members of Club Grow are chopping the fava stalks as part of Club Grow’s "Composting with Cover Crop" activity. Club Grow meets every Tuesday in the OLG. Spence has been participating at the OLG since 2010 and says that the garden has really influenced her major. Attending SMC on and off, Spence noted that the friends she started SMC with are all gone now and that she too has started to apply to a few University of California campuses to finish her education. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)
Anthropology major Alex Sonnenschein, 29, of Montrose, Calif., and Biology major Kelly Hayashibara, 26, of Mar Vista, Calif., chop fava stalks in the SMC Organic Learning Garden (OLG) on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Sonnenschein, Hayashibara, and other members of Club Grow are chopping the fava stalks as part of Club Grow’s "Composting with Cover Crop" activity. Club Grow meets every Tuesday in the OLG. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)
Katrina Preiss, a cultural anthropology major from Santa Monica, chops fava stalks in the SMC Organic Learning Garden as part of Club Grow’s "Composting with Cover Crop" activity on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Preiss holds a 2017 associates degree in Pastry from the International Culinary Center in San Jose, Calif. Her "10-year-plan" for her cultural anthropology studies at SMC is to travel the world to study international bread making cultures. Among other things, Preiss wants to know, "how cultures make their bread when they don’t have access to wheat? Or to rice?" Preiss said, "Every culture has a carb." The culmination of her travel-filled 10-year-plan is to come home and open her own international bread bakery. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)
English major Nick Glover, 25, from Houston, Texas, chops fava stalks in SMC’s Organic Learning Garden (OLG) as part of Club Grow’s "Composting with Cover Crop" activity on Tuesday, 5 March, 2019. Club Grow meets in the OLG every Tuesday. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)
Madlyn Spence, a 27-year-old Conservation Biology major from Chicago, and Ariana Kidd, a 22-year-old English and Japanese major from Los Angeles, prepare chopped fava stalks in the SMC Organic Learning Garden on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Spence, Kidd, and other members of Club Grow are preparing the fava stalks as part of Club Grow’s "Composting with Cover Crop" activity. Club Grow meets every Tuesday in the OLG. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)
English major Nick Glover, from Houston, Texas, and cultural anthropology major Katrina Preiss, from Santa Monica, Calif., pour compost over just chopped fava stalks in SMC’s Organic Learning Garden on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Glover, Preiss, and other members of Club Grow are working on the club’s "Composting with Cover Crop" activity. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)
Members of Club Grow at work in the SMC Organic Learning Garden (OLG) on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Club Grow meets every Tuesday in the OLG. Today they are working on their "Composting with Cover Crop" activity. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)