Whitney Ladwig and Justin Hallman harvest kohlrabi at the Agriculture Community Resources for Everyday. Sustainability Student Farm. The primary role of the ACRES farm us to promote sustainable growing. (Photo: Courtesy)
“My role involves a lot of planning and organizing,” Legg said. “I sometimes run the meetings, I help get everyone on the same page, hang up posters.”
Legg said she was also had other farm-related responsibilities, such as making sure seeds get ordered on time and coordinating volunteers to help plant.
Legg started her involvement as a volunteer, and in the past three years has fulfilled the roles of secretary, assistant manager and now vice president.
Legg said the primary role of the ACRES farm was to promote sustainable growing practice in the community.
“Our main purpose is just to bring sustainable practices in vegetable farming to the Laramie community and then pass on those benefits to university students as well as Laramie community members,” Legg said.
Legg said in addition to the experience of working on the farm, ACRES farm also provided opportunities for research and internships.
“We have lots of research opportunities and internship opportunities if students are in a degree program that requires an internship,” Legg said. “If students are conducting research on plants then they’re more than welcome to use some of our land to do their research.”
Legg said the farm used compost to continue the sustainable practices and had a campus collection bin in the works.
“We drive our little farm truck around town twice a week and pick up kitchen scraps from restaurants in Laramie, restaurants in the union, and from the Washakie dining center,” she said. “We’re working on getting a community compost drop off bin on campus. Students could just bring their vegetable scraps, drop them off next to the recycling bins and then we’d take them up to the farm and compost them into really good dirt.”
Legg said ACRES farm also tried to run several events throughout each year.
“We try and do a couple of big events every year outside of having people come out to the farm,” Legg sad. “Last fall we did a concert with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. This semester we’re working on screening a film for Earth Day.”
ACRES Farm is located on the corner of 30th and Harney Streets, across from the golf course.
“I always tell people it’s on top of the tallest and windiest hill in Laramie,” Legg said.
Legg said that her involvement with ACRES farm has also helped her on a personal level.
“It’s made me get back to basics a little bit,” she said. “Being a student, I tend to get wrapped up in school and studying and all of these other things but then just going out to the farm and getting back to the really basic source of life: growing vegetables and growing your food and doing it in a way that is really close to the earth. I think it’s a really good thing.”
