Fresh fare from locally grown produce and farm tours were part of the activities presented at the Sustainable Student Farm’s annual open house.

The different creations — including BLTs, caprese salad, spinach salad, pasta and sausage dishes — were prepared by chefs from University Dining Services.

The main purpose of the open house was to show people that growing food locally can be accomplished, said Bruce Branham, a professor of Crop Sciences who helped organize the event.

“It’s fresher, it tastes better and it provides our local economies with jobs,” he said.

Branham said many people are uninformed of the origins of the food they eat.

“We go to the grocery store and buy what we want and we don’t know where it’s made; we don’t know where it’s grown; we don’t know what has been done to it,” he said.

The farm has provided fresh produce to some residence halls since 2009, Branham said.

Growing locally is not only good for supporting local communities and farmers, but it is also good for the environment, Branham said.

“When you’re transporting food thousands of miles, there’s a cost to doing that in terms of carbon and so on,” he said.

Fred Kolb, teaching coordinator for crop sciences, said that local food production is something that is becoming increasingly important.

The University highlighted this importance with the approval of the Illinois Climate Action Plan in May. One provision of the plan calls for 30 percent of University food to come from within 100 miles of campus by 2015.

“It’s a win-win situation all around,” Kolb said. “It saves on transportation costs, and the food is not sitting on grocery shelves. It’s fresher and better tasting.”

Locally grown tomatoes were put next to commercial tomatoes for students to sample and compare.

“The student farm tomatoes taste much better than the ones sold in stores,” said Claudia Dominguez, junior in LAS.

Andrew Graumlich, University alumnus, brought his dog, Kubla, to the open house, where they chowed down on the dishes together.

“So far I’ve tried the apple and he’s tried the bacon. He said it was great,” Graumlich said.

He said that the fresh produce tasted better than something he could get at the store, and that he would have liked it if local produce was served when he lived in the residence halls.

Graumlich said he enjoyed the opportunity to understand how the food from the farm is grown.

“It’s interesting to see how it all happens, it’s one of the major industries in Illinois,” he said.

“It keeps the state going and it’s good to know how it works,” he added.