FGCU Food Forest

I thought FGCU’s Food Forest was an amazing experience to be a part of, I never been before but always heard great things about it. Walking inside, I kind of felt like it was a whimsical forest the way it was formed; I thought about a scene in the movie the bridge of Terabithia. When we first walked in, we were greeted by tall plants called chai, we were informed they were the barriers to the forest to stop some of the wind, I thought of these as the protectors of the food forest. Taking two more steps, I was able to find a plant that has the abilities to relieve the pain of my mosquito’s bites. As we twisted, turned, and ducked more into the eye shaped food forest, we found ourselves in the back of the forest, looking at the banana trees. This was fascinating for me to see because I saw banana tress before but just not in person, so to think that we actually had those in our back yard had me in awe. Since they were not in season, we were not able to see any until we were walking away; however, we found one sprouted in a tree. As we continued to follow the paths of the eye, we next found some papaya trees and mulberry trees. Honestly, I was very upset that the papaya and mulberries were not ready to harvest but I would have loved to experience harvesting my own food but I know that is something that I will have the opportunity to do in the future. In the middle of the eye, we found the beloved fruit, which only comes once a year I believe our guide said. It was sad to know that someone harvested the plant before its time and that we are never to see it grow to its full potential. I forgot the name of the plant but it was actually my favorite part of the day, still on the inside of the eye, it was a type of plant that closes when you touch the leaves; they close up. It was a bit like magic to me; it swiped my hand over a lot of them and like sea grass in the wind, they rippled shut. Leaving we looked more at the grass, and the food harvesting section. I cannot wait to go back and see the Sunflowers bloom, papaya and bananas. The food forest exemplifies exactly what is FGCU, this is a student started, student ran, and student loved forest; this forest thrives off the students. It more than goes with our mission statements with the sustainability, because not every university as a place they can harvest their own food for free and learn how to harvest these plants. The food forest is one of the small things that make FGCU special.