St. Paul Farm Receives Organic Certification

"Cornercopia is the only organic-certified booth at the Church Street Farmers Market, and has the only organic farm plot on the St. Paul campus.

Berries, sweet corn, eggplant, lettuce and tomatoes only begin to describe the colorful array of produce available at the Church Street Farmers Market.

Now in its fourth year, the market features seven unique vendors with local offerings.

Among them is Cornercopia , the only stand to be USDA certified organic, offering items from the St. Paul campus’ organic farm maintained by students in the College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences.

Obtaining the USDA organic seal, which became official for Cornercopia only two weeks ago, is no easy feat, Student Program Coordinator Courtney Tchida explained.

“We had to keep records of the seeds we used, where they were from, the kind of pots we used and had our land inspected through the transition years of 2005-07,” she said."

Read the article