SUNY Morrisville Organic Farm shares summer harvest, horticulture staff and students keep things growing during summer break

By early morning, before much of the SUNY Morrisville campus has stirred, the organic farm on Eaton Street in Morrisville is alive with activity. Students and interns move between high tunnels and garden beds, harvesting flowers, tending crops and preparing for another busy day.

Inside one high tunnel, rows of snapdragons and craspedia are being harvested. Another tunnel is filled with bell peppers, jalapenos, raspberries, three kinds of tomatoes and mahagony-red hibiscus foliage destined for handcrafted bouquets. The high tunnels provide a protected environment that helps extend the growing season and supports a steady harvest.

The Organic Farm serves as a living classroom where students gain hands-on experience that complements what they learn in their courses. Summer offers opportunities to see entire growing cycles unfold, troubleshoot real-world challenges and learn what it takes to produce healthy crops from planting through harvest.

From the road, passersby catch only a glimpse of the colorful landscape, but behind every row is a season of steady work by students and staff who keep the farm thriving long after classes end for summer break.

By 9 a.m., horticulture student and summer intern Kierra Merkle has already snipped blooms from a bed of snapdragons that will become bouquets by afternoon.

"It's a great learning experience," Merkle said of her internship, where she is building hands-on skills in pest management, pruning, harvesting, crop care, flower production and more.

Working alongside fellow four-year horticulture student Natasha Kazarian and Lucy Dixon, instructional support assistant, Merkle helps tend the fields and high tunnels throughout the summer. The work means long days of weeding, scouting for pests, harvesting flowers and vegetables, and nurturing everything from seed to harvest.

Dixon, a graduate of the college's horticulture program, helps students learn everything from crop selection to harvesting. "Bachelor's buttons have a short harvest window, whereas the snapdragons are more forgiving," she explained.

This summer also brings several new additions to the farm. Students have seeded an area of sweet corn with plans to sell it after harvest, while newly installed fencing supports climbing crops such as luffa gourds and other vegetables.

Those crops, along with fresh-cut flowers, are shared with the community through on-campus and pop-up sales, giving residents access to locally grown bouquets and produce throughout the summer. Sales are typically held on Fridays at the college, with additional pop-ups in the Morrisville community, while bouquets are also available at Dougherty Pharmacy in Morrisville.

For Kazarian, the experience is helping shape her future. She already operates a small-cut flower stand from her home and hopes to own a greenhouse one day. Working on the farm is giving her firsthand experience in growing, harvesting and marketing crops while reinforcing the skills she will need to turn that goal into a career.

"I am gaining so much experience that I cold work on a floral farm," Kazarian said. "I am getting so much exposure to pests and plant identification, and it has all helped with my flower stand."