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• 1 media/1_d8DyNLUIa8xo5rGrO-2FSg.jpeg media/SummitCityFarD52aR03jP01ZL-Hoover3m.png 2019-11-15T14:57:54+00:00 Mural Proposal 21 plain 2019-12-11T17:49:07+00:00 Visiting Summit City Farms is a different experience for everyone. For many, it’s a place to gather with other people in the community, maybe for a five-year reunion or private party. For others, it’s become more of a tourist attraction by offering wine tasting nights and fall festivals. But for locals like Ester DeEugenio, who grew on on the farm, Summit has carries a lot of history. In our interview, Ester described that farm, now run by her first cousin Louis, has been classified as preserved historical land meaning there are strict regulations regarding what can be built nearby in order to preserve their plot. Ester says much of Glassboro used to be orchards that have been converted to housing because of the way the Boro and the Rowan collaborated to evolve into a college town. The farm itself is evolving too. Throughout the year, farmers at Summit switch which crops they grow based on what’s in season and what will grow best based on how the weather is expected to be for that year. For Summit, this means growing peaches in the summer, apples in the fall and mushrooms in the winter. The eco-footprint of the farm can be felt on a local and global scale. Ester says that years ago farmers warned city planners in Glassboro that building on low land orchards would cause flooding that the orchards would otherwise absorb. As a result of the planners deciding to build on orchards, the buildings regularly flood. The state of farming in Glassboro had evolved immensely over the past fifty years. My mural depicts this transition through images from the past and present. When viewing the mural let to right, viewers will travel from the farm’s expansion in 1967 all the way to what the farm looks like today. There are two images that focus specifically on how peach cultivation had evolved to use more machines than human labor. I want the mural to demonstrate that although agriculture has changed, it’s also become relevant in new ways. 
  
  Houshmand’s Hazardous Hot Sauce has become a trademark of Rowan farming in Glassboro. According to an interview with Provost Lowman, President Houshmand began growing the peppers fo his hot sauce in his own backyard. Eventually, the operation got so big that he had to ask a farm associated with Rutgers University to grow the peppers. However, the farmers at Rutgers just could get the peppers right, and it wasn't a good crop. So, President Houshmand asked farm just outside of Glassboro to start farming peppers for the sauce and he's never looked back. Student volunteers help to pick the peppers and because the profits from the sauce go to scholarships, the hot sauce created a connection between students and farming. 
  
  
  
   
• 1 media/Screenshot 2019-12-11 at 12.23.42 PM.png 2019-11-15T14:58:05+00:00 Personal Reflection 13 plain 2019-12-18T15:31:47+00:00 This project was something that was important for me to do in order to feel more in touch with the climate at Rowan. Farming was a huge part of my life before I moved to Rowan. Through talking to local farmers and learning more about agriculture in my new home, my perception of Rowan as a place has changed. As a Political Science major, this was not a project I typically would have been able to do. One surprising part of the project came from examining farming through multiple lenses. Esther taught me about Glassboro agriculture in a way that no one else could have becasue of her personal relationship with Summit City Farms. Esther also witnessed all of the major developments and expansion of Rowan which pushed her family to declare their farms as preserved land. Dr. Lowman, on the other hand, was able to tell me about farming from the perspective of the University. Although the University and surrounding farms may occasionally push against each other, I learned that both are looking forward to finding new ways to coexist and sustain each other into the future. They have already started to do so through President Houshmand’s Hot Sauce operation, which brings Rowan students and Glassboro farming together in a new and exciting way. This is a cultural shift that I wasn’t expecting to encounter before I spoke to local farmers and heard how much pride they took in growing the peppers and in turn, how much pride President Houshmand takes in using Glassboro grown peppers.
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