What is here
The University Farm occupies about 40 acres east of the main campus: row-crop and cover-crop research plots, a high tunnel and greenhouse range, a small orchard, pollinator and prairie restoration areas, a teaching kitchen, and a barn with classroom space. It is a working operation, not a petting zoo — plots are managed to answer research questions.
Who uses it
Courses in food and agriculture, dietetics, environmental science, biology, and even industrial design (for farm-equipment and packaging projects) hold sessions here. The student-run campus garden club grows produce for the food pantry and teaching kitchens, and the farm hosts summer research assistants studying soil health, stormwater, and regional crop systems.
Visiting
The farm is open to the public during posted daytime hours along a marked visitor path; the research plots and equipment areas are off-limits without a class or a host. A fall open house brings families out for the orchard and a wagon tour. The Porter Loop shuttle runs an hourly farm stop on weekdays during the growing season.
Accessibility
The visitor path, the teaching kitchen, and the barn classroom are step-free and firm-surfaced; the greenhouse range has a level central aisle. Field plots are uneven ground. Contact the farm office before a visit if you need a specific route or a ride from the parking area to the barn.
History
The land was donated to the university in 1958 by a family that had farmed it for three generations, with a deed condition that it stay in agricultural teaching use. The high tunnels and the teaching kitchen were added in the 2010s as the food and dietetics programs grew.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every building, room, hour and detail on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real campus.