During the ‘70s, at University of California at Santa Cruz, Alan Trimble got his hands dirty on the school’s student farm. He remembers the experience as a significant factor in teaching students where their food cones from — a lesson he feels UW students need to better learn.

Today, Trimble, a UW biology lecturer, is founder of the Greenhouse Farm. Most students probably don’t even notice the building, which is nestled behind some trees in the southwestern part of campus. Surrounding it are rows of tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and other vegetables.

“When I was teaching ecology a few years ago, students at UW had become totally disconnected from where their food came from, and the connections between agriculture and human sustainability,” Trimble wrote in an e-mail.

Trimble believes that the farm can teach students the ecology of urban agriculture, a subject that is critical in the rest of the world, but is not well understood here in the United States. The farm can teach them how much better fresh food tastes, as well.

This lesson was brought to reality with the installation of a cob oven, he said. A cob oven is built with mud and straw, which retain the heat of the wood fire built inside. The oven allows students to cook the vegetables they grow on the farm, using them for the quintessential collegiate food: pizza.

“It has become the focal point of enjoying life at the farm since the first firing,” Trimble said. “The oven is capable of producing far more cooked food than just pizza, and far more pizzas on one firing than you can imagine.”

Ann Anagnost, an anthropology professor at the UW, said the Greenhouse Farm is a wonderful resource for teaching and research, helping students to reconnect with where their food comes from and to experiment with alternative food communities.

“It also brings together an interdisciplinary group of people from all over campus, all concerned with contemporary food issues,” she said.

All students are welcome to participate in the farm’s activities; however, due to its small size, there isn’t always room for everyone. The farm was started on the land around the greenhouse because the UW does not maintain that land. Students are encouraged to start their own projects if room is not available at the farm.

“Students have the right and the duty to be involved and engaged in … socially useful projects like urban farms,” wrote Keith Posse, gardener and curator of the Department of Biology, in an e-mail. “We need more projects like the one we started.”

Posse was integral in helping Trimble establish the Greenhouse Farm. He is in charge of supervising students, and he teaches them good propagation techniques, such as soil building strategies, spacing of plants, and bed preparation.

Posse is also the gardener for the Medicinal Herb Garden, located across the street from the Greenhouse Farm. The garden has been around campus for many years, but like the farm, it too is having trouble garnering support.

The garden had little-to-no funding between 1979 and 1999, Posse said.

The funds raised will go toward purchasing signs to clarify for visitors the plants’ names and uses.

Possee and Trimble hope the UW allows more funding and land to expand both the farm and herb garden. For right now, they are making the most of what they have.

“An important aspect of our work is to transform marginal urban spaces into efficient food-producing spaces, being creative about how we use even the least likely spots,” Posse said.

Reach contributing writer Carlo Santos at features@dailyuw.com.