Do you have special aspirations to imprint the shape of a kumquat on your newest pair of thrifted cargo pants?
Look no further, because the Pitzer Student Garden has just the event for you.
Last Friday, Sept. 18, the Garden was humming with vitality as students gathered to create prints with the Garden’s own fruit. Chatting over limeade and popsicles, attendees covered cardstock and old clothing with organic shapes derived from bisected kumquats, figs and limes at the Garden’s first “Crafternoon” event of the semester.
Students basked in the Garden’s creative, relaxed energy, wandering around and chatting with one another as they crafted. Many said they were drawn to the event by the unique and sustainable fruit-printing technique.
One attendee, Penny Messenger SC ’29, explained that she had been making a scrapbook collage and wanted to add to it by putting in some fun, eccentric prints. Once she arrived, she was impressed by the warmth of the community.
“I like how everyone is taking time out of the day to do something not related to school and to be mindful. It’s a really nice community,” Messenger said.
Outside of “Crafternoon” events, the Pitzer Student Garden has a large presence on campus. Founded in 1994, the garden spans about 12,000 square feet and is tucked just behind Pitzer’s Mead Residence Hall.
Situated directly next to Pitzer’s beloved Grove House, the Garden has long had a symbiotic relationship with its neighbor. The Garden provides fruits, vegetables and eggs to Pitzer’s student-run cafe located within the Grove House. In return, the cafe sends its compost back to the Garden, where it is turned into soil for the plants and hens.
Outside of this symbiosis, the Student Garden and the Grove House frequently collaborate on larger-scale events. Throughout the fall semester, they host open houses and concerts, drawing in crowds from all over the 5Cs. Every spring, they host Citrus Fest, an afternoon filled with a variety of citrus treats, hands-on garland crafting, printmaking and guided tours of the Garden’s operations.
Three student managers work to oversee Garden operations, managing the numerous 5C students who tend to the plant beds three times a week during what the Garden dubs “Power Hours.” Additionally, 14 trained students, dubbed “Chicken Tenders,” care for the Garden’s five hens.
When volunteers aren’t busy stringing together citrus garlands, collecting the chickens’ eggs or dancing through the plant beds, you can find them hard at work cultivating the Garden’s ecosystem. One of the three Robert Redford Conservancy Student Garden Managers, Mia Teicher PZ ’27, sat down with TSL to discuss all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into the Pitzer Student Garden.
“The way I like to conceptualize the Garden is as an educational community hub for people to connect to a hyperlocal food system, get their hands dirty, learn through collaboration and connect over shared values of cultivation, stewardship and knowledge sharing,” Teicher said.
What the Garden lacks in size, it makes up for in creativity and intention — each student volunteer brings something different to the table, and together they practice regenerative agriculture, drawing inspiration from everything from GE biology classes to Indigenous knowledge.
“It’s really fun to have people come into the Garden who have these interests and super niche agricultural practices,” Teicher said. “I heard that planting this plant will keep away the pests from this [other] plant. I was like wow, that’s an incredible thing to know — let’s test it out!”
This semester, the student managers are pioneering a new initiative in the community Garden: “rent-a-bed.” Anyone from students and staff to affinity groups and local Claremont folks are welcome to take control of a plant bed for free and cultivate anything they want within it. The managers described this program as a big experiment, but also as an open environment for people from across the 5C community and beyond to think critically about their food systems.
“I like to think of small-scale agriculture as resistance,” Teicher said. “We’re never going to feed the world with small-scale regenerative agriculture, but spaces like this that also serve as community spaces for people to come make art — to me, that feels important right now, to have these spaces where you are going against these dominant economic models that are destructive.”
Many students find themselves becoming Pitzer Student Garden enthusiasts, attending different events each week. As a self-described aspiring gardener, Daniel Sanchez PZ ’29 has appreciated the energy that all the volunteers bring to each event they host.
“It’s the pleasure and happiness that people have when they’re here,” Sanchez said. “They’re not confined to have a certain vibe — they’re here because they want to be here. They’re just naturally happier.”
Strolling through the Garden on a tranquil Friday afternoon, it’s not only the plants that look regenerated — students, faculty and local Claremont gardening-enthusiasts chat and laugh together as they craft. As vibrant as the Garden community already is, Teicher stressed that they are always looking to welcome more volunteers to the team.
“We love as many people here as possible,” Teicher said. “We just want people to get involved. It’s a space for everybody — come pick the fruit!”
Students can find weekly volunteer hours on the Pitzer Student Garden’s Instagram, @pitzerstudentgarden.
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