PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM 127 “There's 40 different kinds of citrus. Here, come taste some.” Patrick picks an Australian finger lime (also known as a caviar lime) and instructs me to bite the top off. “Give it a squeeze,” he encourages. I’m delighted when tiny green beads bubble up within. They burst on my tongue. “Really great on tacos,” he notes, before passing over a cheery yellow kumquat. “It has sour flesh, but sweet skin.” As I chew, I inspect a Buddha’s Hand tree. To me, its fruit looks less benevolent than its namesake and more like some tentacled alien. “It’s amazing how humans and plants have worked together to create so many kinds,” Patrick marvels. “It's Mother Nature-human symbiosis over thousands of years.” HANDS-ON APPROACH Though the farm is quiet during my visit, I see signs everywhere of the people who treasure this place. On the placard for the onions, a student has scribbled a sketch of Shrek. On another marker, someone has scrawled the words “grow strong,” as if cheering on the plants. To me, these feel like love notes from a community making a space its own. “There are classes that are taught out here all quarter long, The Farm’s Farm but then there are other classes that will come and just do a session or two,” Patrick continues, pulling me back to the present. He points out a row of wild leeks planted by a biogeochemist studying the effects of traditional harvesting methods on soil fertility for her doctorate. “The Cherokee would harvest these greens in the late winter and early spring and boil them to make them more edible,” he says. The farm draws students from across disciplines for research projects, including a recent engineering capstone focused on developing rapid crop-drying systems to support farmers in India. Meanwhile, Intro to Birding students have come in flocks, identifying and recording over a
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