Lettuce turnip from head to (toma)toes

HALEY BAAS

HBAAS@BUTLER.EDU

It’s Thursday, and the kitchen is bare.

Instead of crisp, gleaming produce, the grocery store only offers a collection of fruits and vegetables that is days old.

But located across the canal, next to the intramural fields is the Center for Urban Ecology Farm Stand. This stand provides a variety of fruits, vegetables and flowers that are grown on-site and freshly harvested nearly every morning.

The CUE Farm also sells produce to restaurants and members of the Community-Supported Agriculture program and hosts school groups for tours.

Director Tim Dorsey said the farm stand is thriving financially.

By the end of the year, it will be ready to compete with the restaurant sales and the CSA memberships in terms of revenue, he said.

When it first came to be, the farm stand didn’t see much student or community interest, but that has quickly changed.

“For the first couple years, we didn’t have a lot of traffic,” Dorsey said, “but this year has really blown me away.”

Senior Becky Pokrant has interned at the CUE and promotes local produce.

“It is so good for you to eat food from where you live,” Pokrant said. “It can even help with things like allergies.”

Her favorite part of working at the stand was harvesting.

“It takes a whole new level to where your food comes from,” she said.

The stand offers fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers as well as “unusual things or unusual varieties of things that people aren’t used to,” Dorsey said. They promote a special product that changes weekly.

Junior Kayla Nienhaus has been visiting the farm since she first read about it in The Butler Connection earlier this year. She said she supports the stand because “it supports Butler and their efforts to become more sustainable.”

Dorsey’s said his personal favorites from the stand are the cantaloupes and sweet peppers, while Nienhaus said she is a fan of the summer squash and zucchini.

The stand is open from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursdays from June through October.

The stand only accepts cash or checks and is open to the public as well as Butler students and faculty.