The University of Connecticut is holding Farm Fridays at Spring Valley Student Farm every Friday until April 26.
This program allows UConn students to visit Spring Valley Student Farm, which provides fresh food for UConn dining halls, and experience different farming activities from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays. Students can participate in a variety of activities, including planting seeds, weeding and harvesting crops.
Farm Fridays started on March 22 this semester. The program occurs every semester and allows students to earn community service hours.
Ayla Perosky, a sixth-semester allied health sciences student, is a student farmer at Spring Valley Student Farm. Student farmers live on the farm and complete 10 hours of work on the farm each week in addition to helping coordinate Farm Fridays.
She said the farm centers around community living practices and agriculture for the student farmers, but any student could come and enjoy it. Perosky said that Farm Fridays are “such a great opportunity to get outside” for students who do not live on the farm.
“The farm in general also functions as an opportunity for students from the general body to come and visit and collaborate with us on Fridays,” Perosky said.
Perosky said that about 20 to 30 people come to Farm Fridays on average, though the weather could be a factor in attendance. She said that even in rainy weather, there are things to do on the farm, such as making paper pots for the marigolds that the farm will sell during UConn’s annual Earth Day Spring Fling on April 17.
According to Perosky, students with many different areas of study participate in the program.
“Some people minor in sustainable environmental systems, or they’ll have other specific things like internships, but we have a really big range,” she said.
Perosky said that students interested in internships for community service hours could reach out to farm manager Jessica Larkin-Wells at jessica.larkin-wells@uconn.edu.
“There are a lot of ways you can make the farm work for you,” Perosky said.
And I think the number one thing I hear from farmers from Friday is ‘oh, man, I wish I would have gotten here sooner.
Ayla Perosky, Student Farmer at Spring Valley Student Farm
Perosky said that students who participate in the program often come back for the “friendly faces” and connections they make.
“It’s such a wonderful way to cap out the week with so many wonderful people,” she said. “And I think the number one thing I hear from farmers from Friday is ‘oh, man, I wish I would have gotten here sooner.’”
The farm was created as a project by UConn Residential Life in 2010. Spring Valley Student Farm is also home to the beehives of UConn’s Beekeeping Club and an edible forest garden.
Students can sign up through the farm’s UConntact page to take the free Community Outreach shuttle or find their own transportation to the farm. The farm is located at 104 Spring Manor Road in Mansfield, off Route 32.