Market Garden
The Market Garden was started in the early 1980s by students wishing to gain practical experience in organic vegetable production and marketing. Currently, the Market Garden occupies four and a half acres of land used for year-round crop production, various independent student projects, and field activities for selected courses.
Students can participate in the Market Garden as volunteers, as interns for credit, as part of the PLS 49 Organic Production Practices class, or as student employees. Participants are involved in all phases of organic vegetable production and marketing; these include growing transplants in the greenhouse, direct seeding and transplanting of crops, field preparation, irrigation, cultivation, pest management, harvesting, packing and marketing. Some students develop independent projects as part of their Market Garden experience. Examples include producing greenhouse tomatoes, monitoring pests or nutrients, and conducting variety trials.
During the school year, Market Garden activities take place from 8 to 12, Monday through Friday. Monday and Thursday are harvest days for our CSA. During the Spring and Fall quarters there is a on-campus farmers market on Wednesdays. Field activities take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Summer internships are also available in the Market Garden for students and non-students. Each year, six to ten applicants from across the country are accepted as interns from the third week of June through September. During the summer, interns work from 8 to 1 Monday through Friday and participate in all aspects of organic vegetable production, including equipment operation. Click here to download an application for Summer 2012. Applications should be submitted by March 1, 2011.
Produce from the Market Garden is available to the UC Davis campus community via fresh, seasonal dishes prepared by UC Davis Dining Services and the Coffee House. Market Garden produce is also available through direct sales. We both sell at the UC Davis Farmers Market and have a community-supported agriculture project, Student Harvest.
Another Market Garden program area is grant-funded, special projects. In past years we have participated in variety trials with the Organic Seed Alliance and Seeds of Change. Presently, we have a 3-year grant funded by the USDA to develop plant breeding educational programs related to peppers. Ildi Carlisle-Cummins heads this project. There is a pepper Powerpoint presentation that can be viewed here. We are also maintaining a pepper variety garden within the Market Garden that is used for educational tours.
For more information about the Market Garden, contact Raoul Adamchak at (530) 304-1898 or rwadamchak@ucdavis.edu.
Market Garden Educational Materials. We have developed a number of materials with information on some of our practices:
3. Soil Fertility Management Strategy
5. Transplant Production in the Greenhouse
6. Organic Soil Fertility and Management
8. A Pepper Primer: Introducing the Capsicums.
10. Growing Food for the Campus Community
