Contrary to popular science, Leah Pollock can, in fact, multitask.
In the Sprout Garden on Drake University’s campus, her roommate Audrey Fudnok cheered her on as she made salsa and rode a bike — simultaneously.
“Go Leah!” Fudnok exclaimed.
Pollock was operating Cultivate Local Food Connections’ “blender bike.” When pedaled, its gears roll and activate the blades on the blender.
Those blades quieted to a consistent hum. Its contents became smooth and frothy. Cultivate representative Paul McCormick, one hand on top of the lid, signaled Pollock to stop.
“Okay, I think we’re good,” said McCormick.
Soon enough, he was dishing out samples of the salsa.
“It feels fresh. Not store-bought,” Fudnok said.
That’s because McCormick used tomatoes, jalapeños, peppers and onions reaped from the very garden they were standing in.
The blender bike was just one element of the Harvest Party. 86 people attended this celebration on Sept. 9, which brought the community and garden together.
The Sprout Garden has three parts: a half-acre of fruit and vegetable beds, an outdoor classroom and a half-acre of food forest — a space that includes the seven layers of a natural forest and cultivates fruits and vegetables.
The Sprout Garden features a three-bin compost system, next to which the Drake Environmental Action League tabled at the Harvest Party.
Abi Ferguson, a junior at Drake, was leading a Jenga game for compost education.
“The different colors of the compost Jenga represent the different [materials] that you want in a compost pile,” Ferguson said.
The brown rectangular prisms represented mulch and sawdust. The green and yellow ones stood for produce and yard waste.
“All of these combined create that healthy microbiome within the compost, and that’s what makes the fertilizer for the plants,” Ferguson said.
The organization didn’t stop at teaching students how to compost — they gave them the tools to actually do it.
“DEAL is here at this table with compost bins,” said Allie Raines, the DEAL compost coordinator. “You can paint them and personalize them for your dorm or apartment, so you can put compost on the inside and then bring the compost to the compost pile at the Sprout Garden.”
Raines was illustrating teal fish on her bin.
“I’m painting this for my friend,” Raines said. “She asked for fish, so I’m trying to pick her favorite colors and do a bunch of funky fish shapes.”
In addition to the composting station, Raines said she came to the Harvest Party for the food, such as the appetizer Caiden Abbott was whipping up.
“We have tomatoes, mozzarella and basil,” said Abbott, folding the ingredients in balsamic. “And then we’re going to put it on a slice of bread, and hopefully it’ll taste pretty good.”
Abbott is the vice president of sustainability with the Drake Student Alumni Association and organized the Harvest Party. In other words, he organized the Harvest Party.
“It’s so awesome that we’ve started this tradition somewhat recently,” Abbott said, “and we’re able to promote composting and all these things [that are] sustainable [and see] what we can do on campus, growing fresh produce.”
Giving away that produce was his favorite part of the event.
“They can cook more than just basic meat and pasta sauce,” Abbott said. “They can put vegetables in it. They don’t have to just get McDonald’s every night.”
And, according to Abbott, fresh food is everything.
“It’s important for your body to eat healthy and eat fresh, and it just makes you feel better when you do it too,” Abbott said.
The Harvest Party connected Pollock and Fudnok with fresh produce.
“[I got] a couple of tomatoes. A pepper,” Fudnok said.
Fudnok hopes to make a traditional marinara sauce — she’ll just have to look up the recipe first.
