Against a backdrop of papery corn husks – leftovers from a recent harvest – six Bentley undergraduates stand in the mud at Waltham Fields Community Farm and contemplate their assignment: germinate a plan to help spread the word about sustainable farming.

The Waltham Fields Community Farm (WFCF) project is a fourth-credit service–learning option in the Science of Sustainability course. Rick Oches, associate professor of geology and environmental sciences, began teaching the course in September 2008. His inspiration for the project was a community service day at the farm, held as part of the university’s Green Week initiative last fall. Eighteen student, faculty and staff volunteers spent a morning weeding a cauliflower patch and loading a truck with squash and potatoes.

“I saw the potential for my students to do a great service and learn about sustainable farming practices at the same time,” explains Oches, who discussed the budding idea with Shawn Hauserman, assistant director for academic programs at the Bentley Service–Learning Center.

A brainstorming session with WFCF Executive Director Claire Kozower identified a likely project for students to tackle: developing a self-guided tour of the farm. Course participants would gain on-the-ground knowledge of sustainable farming, while WFCF advanced its mission of public education.

Located on 7.5 acres just a few yards from campus, the farm has long cultivated partnerships in the area. Each year, WFCF hosts more than 1,000 visitors: students from elementary school to university level, members of churches and community organizations, and 400 local “shareholders.” All comers lend a hand with weeding, harvesting and other tasks; drop-in volunteers are also welcome during the warmer months. In addition to providing fresh, sustainably grown produce to community shareholders, WFCF commits a minimum of 20 percent its harvest to local hunger relief programs.

Growth Shares
Volunteers’ generosity is only part of what sustains WFCF in the era of big farming. As Oches observes: “Our students learned how community-supported agriculture has saved this small farm, and many others like it, from going under.”

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) came onto the scene in 1985; some 1,300 farms have adopted the model, according to data gathered by the Robyn Van En Center at Wilson College. For WFCF, the practice involves selling shares of the upcoming harvest season to Waltham area residents. The up-front investment eliminates most of the risks that drive small farms out of business, as the income covers necessities such as seed, fuel and staff. Shareholders, who buy into the chance of a poor yield and enjoy any excess bounty, collect a weekly portion of the harvest from June to October.

The 350 shares that the farm sells each January are snapped up quickly by dues-paying members. Kozower notes that some buyers split their shares, knowing they can’t eat all those vegetables by themselves. A WFCF share for 2009 cost $550.

“Divide that over 20 weeks of harvested lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and other organically grown, fresh vegetables, and you see it’s a good deal,” says Oches. “And this food has a low carbon footprint. It’s right in your backyard, while the food in a typical grocery store travels about 1,500 miles to get from where it’s produced to where it’s consumed.”

The CSA model intrigued David Stenhouse ’10. “What the community farm is doing seems very unusual and interesting,” says the Economics–Finance and Liberal Studies major, who has a concentration in Global Perspectives. “I could see the benefits economically and environmentally, so I wanted to be part of the project.”

Recycle this Tour
As Stenhouse and his Bentley classmates considered their assignment, they were determined not to produce a standard tour brochure likely to end up as litter. Instead, they planned a set of laminated cards clipped to rings. Some cards explain essentials such as the CSA business model and community value. Others feature a map of the farm and describe activities at 12 to 15 stations that students identified, including crops, greenhouses and compost areas.

“We chose half a dozen crops for write-ups,” Oches explains, noting that descriptions include the crop’s nutritional value, organic farming techniques used to grow it, and a relevant recipe. Students have assigned a station number to each plant. “As the plantings rotate, numbered stakes can be easily pulled out of the ground and hammered into the appropriate patch of land.”

Visitors find a basket of laminated card-sets to use in making their rounds of the farm stations. Other baskets, strategically placed at the tour’s last stations, collect the borrowed guides.

“The project piqued my interest because each of us could choose a role based on our interests,” says Jordan Coleman ’11, who majors in Information Design and Corporate Communication. She worked on card copy layout and tone “to get the messages across as clearly as possible.”

Other students on the service–learning team developed a map of the farm, or conducted research for summaries of sustainable agricultural practices such as mulching and water and energy management.

Oches and Kozower hope to see future teams fully implement and expand on the self-guided tour. For example, in-person exploration of the farm could be supplemented by Internet-based visits, featuring interviews with the farmers and photo galleries of weeding, harvesting, and other central activities.

“This first project can kick-start a long-term partnership,” says Kozower. “The tour that   they developed to educate the general public also taught the students, through the design process. Any time you have a closed loop, you gain sustainability.”