 "Photo: David Hartstein | Student Life Archives")
For the students who belong to the Burning Kumquat, a Washington University cooperative and organic farm, autumn has ushered in a harvest ready to be used for student meals and cooking.
The Burning Kumquat, run by University undergraduates, grows various crops in a garden on the University’s residential campus and sells them in local farmers’ markets. The co-op’s crops include all kinds of vegetables and produce, and are grown using compost and natural organic fertilizers instead of chemicals.
Students organized the Burning Kumquat near the end of last year and eventually developed a hierarchy of what one of its members, junior Hitomi Inoue, calls “farmigarchs.” The group is run by 10 of these officers, who say that their plans have so far run smoothly.
“[This] first year of transition we just worked out the system,” Inoue said.
The club started last year when a University groundskeeper allowed the students to use a portion of campus grounds as a garden.
So far, the group has experienced little interaction with the rest of campus. Last school year, food grown by the co-op was not ready until after the end of the 2008 spring semester. The group sold their harvest at the North City Farmers’ Market, but found little in the way of financial profit.
“At North City we had to price things below the price of Schnucks—you couldn’t have Clayton farmers’ prices there. No one could afford it,” senior Lucy Colville, a member of the group, said.
The Burning Kumquat will sell its food to students and tried earlier this year to sell outside Givens Hall and the Olin Library.
“Our plan was to start selling on campus. We did set up markets outside of libraries, but [we’re] technically not allowed to sell until [we’re] officially a [Student Union] group,” Inoue said.
The group is currently applying for Category III student group status, meaning that they will not receive monetary funding, but will be recognized as an official student group.
Inoue reported that other obstacles also worked against the group, noting the effect of seasonal cycles upon the group’s work.
“Our market schedule was hopefully Mondays and Thursdays, but now since it’s the end of the season, crops are dwindling,” Inoue said. “We haven’t gotten into the swing of things before the first frost.”
Nonetheless, Kumquat members have tried to establish a role within other parts of campus activity, selling crops during Sustainability Week and also hosting two markets in collaboration with Wash. U. Dining Services.
In keeping with the University’s goal of environmental friendliness, Dining Services and the administration have communicated with the Burning Kumquat throughout the year.
“I think they’ve made it clear they want us to be a part of sustainability,” Inoue said. The group has offered advice even in the area of getting silverware.
Although there have not been many chances for markets on campus, the group has made some money from students, and generally found students to be more generous.
Yet Colville stressed that the club is not a profit-driven venture.
“From the start we wanted to be a place where students could learn and be active in the growing process. I think a lot of us don’t know the evolution from growing to plate,” Colville said.
Meanwhile, the effort that the Burning Kumquat members have invested in their garden has been valuable in its own right.
“I think for us right now, our failures are successes in that they’re learning points,” Colville said.
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