91制片厂

Here鈥檚 how you get healthy food to low-income families: help their garden grow. And if the saying holds true that such acts take a village, then meet villager Natalee Stimpson.

Last winter Stimpson '16, a听听major, volunteered to grow seedlings for the Sycamore Community Garden in Concord, New Hampshire, a 138-plot field whose shareholders are mostly African and Asian refugees. Stimpson learned of the project from Jonathan Ebba, horticulture facility manager at the听.听

Garden organizers had contacted Ebba about the possibility of 91制片厂 growing seeds for them. He offered space in the greenhouses and then asked Stimpson if she would volunteer to do the actual planting and tending of the seedlings. That meant starting with teeny little seeds grown in cells before transplanting them to other containers until they were big enough to take hold in the ground.听

鈥淚鈥檇 definitely gotten my hands dirty before,鈥� says Stimpson, who has worked at the greenhouses since she was a freshman. What鈥檚 more, her father was a farmer when she was young. 鈥淭hat was a significant part of my life,鈥� she says.

Yet when she arrived at 91制片厂, she had no intentions of making that past her future. 听 [Natalee Stimpson with seeds]

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 come to 91制片厂 with an outline,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hen, during the second semester of my freshman year, I walked into my first open house at the greenhouses. The minute I smelled that smell again, I knew.鈥�

The Rochester, New Hampshire, resident has been in with both feet ever since. In addition to her job at the greenhouses, Stimpson assists Cooperative Extension specialist and New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station researcher Becky Sideman with her research.

鈥淚 love sitting in a field with Becky talking about how she wants to lay it out,鈥� Stimpson says.

During this year鈥檚 January term, Stimpson took the course 鈥淎griculture and Development in the Neotropics鈥� and spent three weeks in Costa Rica studying tropical agriculture and ecology. One of the discussion groups was on ethnobotany. For Stimpson, participating in those conversations was like smelling the fresh soil in that greenhouse three years earlier.听

鈥淚t really spoke to me. I鈥檇 never thought about the relationship between people and plants in a scientific way,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檝e always been interested in the medical use of plants but there has been a disconnect in my life. I want to work to bridge that gap.鈥� To that end, Stimpson now plans on making ethnobotany the emphasis of her major.

Growing the seedlings for the community garden was a new experience. It was mid-semester of the second term. Stimpson was in the middle of projects and papers; she had her greenhouse job and a waitressing job, in addition to attending classes and studying.听

鈥淚t was a little stressful. I spent some late nights in the greenhouses,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut knowing how many people were going to have fresh vegetables to eat, and know where their food was coming from, made it worth it.鈥澨�

It took a little while to figure out the germination period. Stimpson started the eggplants (African and Asian varieties) and peppers first, followed by the okra and tomatoes in early April and then squash, cucumbers and cabbage a few weeks later.

At the end of May, Ebba, Julie Barber (a horticultural major) and Stimpson delivered more than 5,000 seedlings to the community garden. Each plot tender received a six-pack of each vegetable.听

鈥淎ny other time I鈥檝e grown things, I鈥檝e seen it all the way through. Growing plants to give away so people have food is a different feeling,鈥� Stimpson says. 鈥淎 good one.鈥�