Organic Produce, Hands on Learning

TC3 Farm

As de facto property holder for the College, the Foundation has been instrumental in numerous innovative initiatives, but perhaps none quite so unique as Farm to Bistro.

The concept, which features an organic crop farm next to campus in Dryden and a culinary center with a fully functioning professional restaurant in Ithaca, is only one of its kind at an eastern community college. And while the restaurant rightly garners much of the media attention, it is the TC3 Farm that truly makes the project unique.

The organic-practices farm (it takes three years of following organic practices to receive official organic certification) is located directly adjacent to the Dryden campus and features a barn, as well as a green house and three hoop houses. The property is owned and administered by the Foundation, and farm operates as its own LLC. The farm supplies produce to Coltivare, the College’s Ithaca culinary center, and directly supports the Sustainable Farming and Food Systems program as well as providing indirect support to the Culinary Arts, Hotel and Restaurant Management, and Wine Marketing programs.

Students at the farm experience cultivation of the land using sustainable farming practices on a farm which we intend to have run free of the commercial energy grid through the use of solar and geothermal technology.

The farm also runs a CSA for the TC3 community and a farm stand open to the public during available times.