Campus Garden Final Harvest Statistics

🌱 A season to celebrate in the campus garden 🌱

Last week, we delivered the final harvest of the 2025 growing season to Sodexo, officially closing another incredible year in the campus garden. While the garden beds may soon rest, this season leaves us with full hearts — and some impressive numbers to celebrate.

This year’s garden was rooted in diversity, curiosity, and care. From tiny seeds to thriving plants, we intentionally grew a wide range of crops that allowed students to learn, experiment, and witness the beauty of variety in action.

This season, we grew:
🍅 82 tomato plants spanning 32 different varieties
🌶️ 102 pepper plants across 16 varieties
🎃 16 hills of butternut squash
🌿 16 basil plants from 4 varieties

And the harvest told a powerful story of abundance:

Together, we harvested for campus dining:
🍒 199 quarts of cherry tomatoes (nearly 50 gallons!)
🍅 424 pounds of tomatoes
🌶️ 687 sweet peppers
🌶️ 13 dozen banana peppers
🌿 10+ pounds of basil
🎃 Around 200 pounds of butternut squash

And that was just the produce sold to Sodexo this season! It doesn’t include the many dozens of cherry tomato pints, hundreds (likely well over a thousand!) of peppers, and hundreds of pounds of tomatoes that were given away free to members of our campus and community.

Every harvest represents more than just produce — it reflects student involvement, stewardship of the land, and the journey from seed to table. The campus garden continues to be a living classroom, a place of collaboration, and a meaningful contributor to campus sustainability efforts.

A very special thank you goes to Helena Marinho and Elle Clem, who put in many hours as our garden interns this year. Many thanks as well to Dr. Collin Hobbs and his kids, Natalie Porter, Mindy McNally, and the dozens of other volunteers who spent countless hours throughout the growing season nurturing the garden and harvesting (and washing!) all of the produce. Thanks also to Todd Downs and the Sodexo team for all the wonderful recipes created with the campus produce.  The campus garden is truly a team effort — and we’d love to welcome even more helping hands this spring and summer. Whether you’re an experienced gardener or just curious to learn, there’s a place for you in next season’s garden.

As we wrap up the 2025 season, we are deeply grateful for this community and the shared commitment that made it all possible. 🌱💚

1 Corinthians 3:6 (NIV)

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”