Ambiana Glavin, when she arrived in the fall of 2024, brought her SCOBY. SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. This SCOBY culture is what you add to a batch of green or black tea to turn it into the fermented beverage, kombucha. Kombucha is rich in probiotics and contains gut-healthy, nourishing enzymes. Ambiana soon met Chloe Casperson, and both took Dr. Todd Pritchard's World of Fermentation Course. Soon, they decided to start UVM's Fermentation Club. In their first year, they held half a dozen workshops for fellow students interested in fermented food, including making kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut, cheong, sourdough starters, and hot-pepper fermentation. Club membership and student participation have grown rapidly, and they have been selling the kombucha they produce, aiming to encourage students to try more fermented products while also bringing attention to the new club. This year, they have even more ambitious plans, as they hope to participate in the Fermentation Fest, an annual event held at the Soda Plant. Ambiana also wants the club to support the local food system, "There are so many farms and small businesses in the area that do fermented things, so collaborating with those producers is really important." For another Fermentation Club office, Ryan, "I think that people smile more and the food tastes better when it's alive."
To find out more about the Fermentation Club, follow them on Instagram @uvmfermentation, or join their email list on their IG page.
Landscape Design Club
For Lea-Karoline Ritzenhoff (right), club president, and Alma Smith (left), officer of the newly formed Landscape Design Club, the priorities of their new club include giving students an idea about landscape design career paths, hosting fun, creative competitions amongst the club participants, and organizing field trips for club members. "There are a lot of locations in the area that have super ecological landscape design and are also just beautiful," Alma said, "And we're excited to see what people who join the club are interested in as well." Another focus will be on establishing a stronger connection with the Vermont Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA VT), a not-for-profit organization representing over 50 members in Vermont. Both Lea and Alma feel that having a greater connection with the professionals in the organization will provide excellent networking and mentorship opportunities. There couldn't be a better time to make those connections, as CALS has just started a separate major in Ecological Landscape Design.
To find out more about the Landscape Design Club, visit their Instagram @uvmlandscapedesignclub.
Agriculture Club
Caption: Morgan Jablonski, assisting with the Friday Farm Stand at the Horticulture Research and Education Center in South Burlington.
Last Winter, Morgan Jablonski was interning at the 97-acre Horticulture Research and Educational Center (HREC) in South Burlington. She and Jay Hardesty, the Catamount Educational Farm Program Coordinator at HREC, were discussing what an amazing resource HREC is, and yet how many students at UVM remain unaware of it. Together, they conceived the idea of starting an agriculture club. "We mainly started the club for students to know that this was a resource, and to have experiences on the farm. They can just come and learn about their food system and know how food grows, join their friends, and have a good time outside. Last semester, we had a spring transplanting event, so some of the produce that went into the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) boxes came from things that group planted." Her additional hope is that students will learn more about agriculture, as she laments that there aren't many young people pursuing a career in farming. "It's important for students to have opportunities to meet farmers and other people in this field to get more connected to where food comes from and think about how food comes to their plate."
To learn more about the Agriculture Club, follow them on Instagram: @AgricultureClubUVM, join their mailing list -- also available via Instagram, or email them at: agclubuvm@gmail.com.
Walt Regan-Loomis, a junior majoring in plant biology and agroecology, has been interning at UVM Proctor Maple Research Center (PMRC), working on a joint initiative with Cornell University on a remote-sensing on trees project, and also on a different project around biodiversity in the sugarbush. He credits the start of the new Maple Club to another PMRC intern, Emma Griffith, who had the goal of connecting more UVM students to PMRC, which is the premier maple research center in the world and the only one in the US. Walt believes that the club can also introduce more young people to the sugaring industry, which he sees as having a lot of producers who are aging out and will soon need a younger workforce. "If you're interested in trees, or agriculture, or food systems, with all the resources and investment at PMRC it is a really interesting scientific field to get involved with. We have over 6000 tapped trees per season." Walt also hopes that the club can help students see the sugarbush as an ecosystem. "Sugarmakers aren't just extracting a product; they are caring for the forest, which provides all of us with multiple additional benefits. There are so many different aspects of maple to get involved in. It's also really fun. There's nothing better than maple syrup. It goes in my coffee, my breakfast, and it's awesome to know that when you go to any UVM dining hall, you're eating our own syrup. All the syrup on campus was made from trees tapped at UVM, boiled at UVM, and it's fun to be able to make that connection for people and to know that you've been a part of it."
To find out more about the Maple Club, visit their Instagram at @Uvmmaple and fill out their signup form.