St. Cloud State University Garden Marks 22 Years Growing Minnesota Vegetables For Community

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The St. Cloud State University Community Garden is wrapping up its 22nd growing season.

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Director Tracy Ore says they grow a lot of the typical produce you'd expect to see in a Minnesota garden, like tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, and beets.

But we also grow a diversity of all those things, so we have 95 different kinds of tomatoes, 96 if you count the Husky Tomato, over 30 varieties of eggplant, over 20 varieties of okra.  We try to grow a diversity of vegetables so our community, no matter who comes in, sees something familiar.

The garden is on a relatively small piece of property along 5th Avenue South in St. Cloud. Ore says they are able to offer so many varieties because they do a lot of vertical plantings, and they grow the plants closer together than what would typically be recommended. She says that's possible because they've done a lot of work to make sure the soil is healthy.

Where to find the Garden's produce

Volunteers have put in hundreds of hours of hard work again this year in the St. Cloud. Ore says those who contribute to the work get their share of the harvest.

After that, we also sell at the farmers market on campus; we sell at other farmers markets, and we've sold at the Pantown Pickle Fest.  We also deliver to six area restaurants; we contribute to our campus food shelf, and I deliver to our campus food service.

Ore says she also does a lot of food preservation, so there's very little waste.

She says she does sell products to individuals in the community as well. You can find her on campus on Mondays from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. at the farmers market on the Husky Plaza. Or, her contact information is on the Community Garden website for personal delivery.

The future of the SCSU Community Garden

She says she has been focusing on a succession plan recently, because she is hoping to retire one day. However, she also has big dreams for the future of the garden.

SCSU Community Garden

There's a single house that sits right in the middle of the garden. Ore would like the university to partner with the St. Cloud Technical & Community College to turn that home into a food preservation/food education center with a cafe-type atmosphere.

Where the culinary program could run that.  It could be a career pathway for students at the tech college, with all kinds of opportunities.  I've probably been talking about that for 10 years.  This year I gave the right tour to the right person, and we've made a lot of progress. I've been meeting with the Small Business Development Center on how to turn it into a productive space.

Ore says she has met with SCTCC President Lori Kloos, who has come to the garden for a tour and has begun preliminary conversations.

The garden is self-sustaining, with the university contributing no money to fund it. It costs about $10,000 to $11,000 to run the garden each year. It typically earns $15,000 to $20,000 annually in sales and other kinds of revenue-generating activities.

Ore does a lot of educational events in the garden throughout the season and calls it "the cheapest PR the university has."

Coming up next week, WJON News will give you an update on the plan to create a Husky Tomato.  We told you earlier this year that this is the first year of a field trial in the garden.  We'll see how that's going.

Read More: Field Trials Begin For The Husky Tomato In St. Cloud [AUDIO] |