The Horticultural Science Program

Our garden and orchard is the heart of program, and serves multiple roles. Firstly, it provides a working classroom from which our students put-into-practice the skills and concepts they learn in the classroom. Secondly, it is one of the few sources of organic food production within the small island community of Islesboro, ME.

During the fall and spring, the garden and orchard is managed by students currently taking classes within the Horticulture program. All of the food produced during this time goes to our school cafeteria, where it is utilized by our school chef Jonny Erskine, who prepares all of his meals from scratch, combining the produce with other fruits and vegetables sourced locally. During the summer months, the garden and orchard is managed by paid student interns funded through the generous support of the Island Institute summer intern program. A majority of this produce is sold at our student run farmstore. This year, our farmstore will also feature WestBay Farm Meats, Rosalie Joy Baked Goods, and a variety of other products from our gardens and orchard.

We are committed to agricultural practices that maintain the overall health of our community and environment through organic and sustainable food production. We maintain soil's biological health by reducing our annual tillage, practice crop rotation, and utilize cover crops and aged compost. We maintain biodiversity by producing a variety of fruits and vegetables cultivars using non-GMO seed from Johnny's Selected Seeds, a Maine based employed owned company. We can't list all of our practices here, but for more information please contact us by using the navigational link at the top of the page.