By Aidan Rivera
TAMPA – The Botanical Gardens Club hosted a food sovereignty and herbs social on Friday afternoon at the USF Botanical Gardens Pavilion.
The club gave out pots with herbs and information on how to grow them and why you would no longer need to buy things from the store. The club gave out these pots with herbs because it allowed students to practice food sovereignty inside their dorms as they could access fresh plants. The club spent much of its time vigorously promoting the USF seed library that will be built in the USF Tampa campus library. The seed library is a student-led initiative started by the USF Agrarian Club, which is under the UN Millennium fellowship project. They focus on seed and food sovereignty and spend much of their time sharing seeds and seed-saving knowledge.
“The USF seed library will have genetically diverse and culturally appropriate seeds that will be given out to students for free,” said Carolina Gutfreund, Botanical Gardens club president.
The event spoke glowingly of the USF Agrarian Club, a student organization supporting sustainable local food production and the health of local ecosystems. They work with the Department of Religious Studies and its program in religion and sustainability, focusing on courses in religion and food: Agrarianism and the sacred, and support for the USF botanical gardens. The club welcomes students interested in vegetable gardening, local food systems, sustainable living and promoting agrarian ideals.
“I enjoyed learning about sustainable practices and how to create my own herbs,” said Connor Brown, an event attendee.
The club discussed the upcoming Food Sovereign farmers market they will host on Saturday, November 16th, at the USF Botanical Gardens from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Vendors from the Tampa Bay community will sell things like honey, organic produce, organic soaps. The event will also have many informational vendors discussing sustainability, composting, vermiculture and other things that fall under the food sovereignty umbrella. The event typically garners a large crowd so it is important to arrive early so that you secure a parking spot.
The event showed attendees how to make and care for herbs such as oregano, sage, rosemary. Oregano is sowed directly to the soil’s surface and prefers full sun for most of the day. It grows best in neutral to dry soils. Sage requires daytime sunlight and grows best in moist and rich soil. Sage needs a deep and wide container to promote its eight-inch roots. Rosemary seeds sow barely below the soil and are not completely covered. They require six to eight hours of daytime sunlight. They take 80 to 100 days to be ready, and they will be picked by hand. Each event audience member was given a sheet of paper outlining how to create and take care of each herb.
“I was surprised how easy it was to create my own herbs and with the guidelines we were given I think I will be able to take good care of them,” said Jason Weitz, an event attendee.