STANFORD UNIVERSITY IS known affectionately as the Farm. Since 2014, the Farm in Palo Alto has also had its own agricultural farm, where vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers grow in a fenced enclosure near a large barn.
The facility itself is hidden in a corner of campus near the Stanford Golf Course and is officially known as the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm. This is an organic farm, where students learn small-scale farming techniques and about sustainable agricultural practices.
Peering through the fence surrounding the property, it’s easy to see orchards with trees growing citrus, olives and apricots, and to notice winter crops such as cabbage and broccoli in the soil. Summer vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes and eggplants have recently been planted, according to Patrick Archie, the farm’s director. Altogether, more than 200 plants grow there.
The food grown at the farm is sold to Stanford’s own food services, which uses the food in dormitories and at campus-catered events. It’s not a major source of food on campus — more like “a drop in the bucket,” Archie says.
The farm also grows flowers that show up at university events. Sunflowers, marigolds, and asters are grown there. On Earth Day, student Haley Koo was leaving the farm with a bouquet of snapdragons, bachelor buttons, sweet pea flowers, and one plant she identified as dusty miller.
Koo is a mechanical engineering graduate student who works at the farm.
“It’s such a beautiful place,” she said.
Archie said that the farm is an important part of students’ education and a focal point for many in the Stanford community.
“We get to bring people together,” he said.
Stanford’s quiet oasis
The farm is a quiet oasis on the Stanford campus, but visitors often walk through its gates, either to volunteer (on two designated days each week), to take a class or to participate in an activity there.
Groups like the Stanford Birdwatching Club host events there. Professors hold classes at the farm, and some send students there on field trips. One postdoctoral researcher is setting up an experiment on earthworms there, Archie said. During the summer, university staff groups gather for events.
Archie described the students who come to the farm as “a great mix.”
“We do have alums who are farmers and work on farms,” he said, but added that the farm’s programs attract students from all majors.
“We also get students from urban studies, the law school, engineering,” he said. “We get lots of students who are interested in food and agriculture and land stewardship.”
Archie runs the program with the assistance of several other employees, including two farmers. A dozen students also work there on a part-time basis.
Archie teaches several courses at the farm in a classroom that has space for 20 students.
While he teaches sustainable agriculture, other courses taught there have included writing, communication and engineering.
A multi-story barn at the Stanford farm is surrounded by a greenhouse and a lath house, where plants are nurtured before they are planted in the fields outside. The farm also includes a wash and pack facility.
Stanford is not the only university in the Bay Area to have its own farm. Farms are also on the campuses of University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Santa Cruz.
The farm is located at 555 Fremont Road on the Stanford campus. Enter from the parking lot on Searsville Road. The farm is open Monday through Saturday. Volunteers need to register in advance. More information is available on the farm’s website.