Journal Entry 3

I had never heard of FGCU's Food Forest until the first day of class when I parked by it and noticed the dumpster painted outside. Even then I still really didn't know what it was or what to expect when we visited a few weeks later. When we were first standing outside of the Food Forest, I honestly wasn't impressed. It didn't look like much and I thought it was "dirty" because of all the newspaper I saw laying around. I still listened and kept an open mind as we entered. My group first went to an avocado tree, which I have never seen one before. I was disappointed to find out there were none growing right now. Then next to the avocado tree was a ginormous pile of dirt. I forgot exactly what it was called but it was filled with a bunch of things to help plants grow and would require much less work. It is something new they just built and I found that very interesting. I also then learned that a component to help it grow was the newspaper which explained why I saw that laying around in the soil. It wasn't just trash, which was nice to find out. Then as we went around the Food Forest some more I was very interested in the different type of things they had growing, a lot of them I had never heard of. Then it came time to "eat" some of the things growing in the Food Forest. This I was very skeptical about and didn't try the first few things. Later on I finally gave in and tried a couple things that turns out I actually enjoyed. I regretted not giving everything a try. My favorite thing I tried was the one that tasted like an apple or cheese.. it's still unknown. Another thing I really enjoyed were the plants that had a really strong aroma. Most of them smelt like some of the candles I purchase except maybe stronger which really blew my mind. I also found the banana tree quite interesting. Bananas are my favorite fruit so I thought it was cool to see where they come from and that they can grow well right where I live. One thing that I really didn't enjoy was the fact that it was "dry" season and nothing was really growing. I will need to go back and visit when everything is blooming, I am sure it is a beautiful sight. I am glad I kept an open mind during this field trip because it turns out I really enjoyed the Food Forest. So much that I chose to do my service learning hours there. I am excited to learn even more about the Food Forest and be apart of something so cool that our campus has to offer. I do believe that this perfectly fits with FGCU's mission in sustainability because it is using given resources in order to grow food, healthier food at that. Another great thing, IT IS FREE. How cool students and faculty can come and get freshly grown food there. They can also plant something they want in there if they really like. I have never thought about the benefits of growing your own food before but I think it is something I want to try to start doing in the future. I don't exactly have the room at the moment so I might have to either start with something small or head on over to our Food Forest. I think the Food Forest is something cool and makes FGCU even more unique. I hope that because of permaculture it is there for many years to come, maybe my kids or even grandkids will be able to come visit it.