The Secret Garden
November/December 2004
photograph by Jake Wyman

In May 2003, students began clearing away dying hemlock trees and shrubs from this one-acre patch of land off Prospect Street, near the Divinity School, to convert it into an organic garden. Soon after, the Yale Sustainable Food Project launched a nationally acclaimed effort to incorporate locally grown seasonal and organic foods -- including produce from this garden -- into the daily menu of the Berkeley College dining hall. "In the Japanese eggplant parmesan served for lunch this week," wrote the New York Times in August, "there was a hint of change. In the balsamic glazed beets, there was the trace of rebellion." This fall, all the residential colleges are offering some of the project's recipes, made with locally grown foods.