The Early History of UCSC's Farm and Garden documents the emergence of the organic gardening and farming movement in Santa Cruz, while the two other volumes highlight the social and ethnic history of commercial agriculture in south county, narrated by two farm laborers.
The volume of Farm and Garden history includes interviews with Paul Lee, Phyllis
Norris, Orin Martin, and Dennis Tamura, who were involved in the early years
of the Garden. Maya Hagege, a former Farm and Garden apprentice and UCSC alumna,
conducted the interviews which were edited by Jarrell.
Established in 1967 by master gardener Alan Chadwick, the original site was
a neglected 4-acre plot at Merrill College which he and his student apprentices
transformed into a magnificent terraced garden. In this pioneering realization
of organic gardening Chadwick taught students French intensive horticultural
techniques, including the back-breaking labor of double-digging garden beds,
the use of composting for enriching the soil, and the elimination of pesticides.
The recollections of Chadwick describe the quixotic founder of the Garden, who
inspired a generation of students who went on to launch the organic farming
movement in Santa Cruz County and throughout the country. According to his friends
and apprentices, his singular personality combined the qualities of a Pied Piper
and a Johnny Appleseed, of a vexing and inspired visionary who taught his students
to read the landscape of the Garden and to discover the interrelationships among
land, climate, plants, and soil.
This early campus experiment has subsequently evolved into the Center for Agroecology
and Sustainable Food systems and is now a respected academic program. Paul Lee
was instrumental in assisting Chadwick found the Garden, and subsequently established
the Chadwick Archive at Green Gulch Farm in Marin County. Phyllis Norris describes
her experiences as a leading member of the Friends of the Farm and Garden and
the development of the apprenticeship program. Orin Martin, a former apprentice,
became manager of the student garden project in 1977 and has initiated a number
of programs linking the community and the Farm. He also describes changes in
the Farm's landscape and the variety of crops and fruit trees which have been
cultivated over the years. Dennis Tamura, a Chadwick apprentice and the coordinator
of the apprentice program from 1978-1985, provides a detailed account of Chadwick's
unconventional pedagogy, his peregrinations in founding other gardens in California,
and the evolution of the Farm and Garden.
which is available free from Adobe Inc.
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