MDAR Commissioner Ashley Randle learns about a garden wall within the university’s food forest from UMass Lowell Sustainability Director Dai Kim. (Photo courtesy of Brooke Coupal for UMass Lowell)
As part of Massachusetts Urban Agriculture Week, on Friday, Aug.15, Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Commissioner Ashley Randle visited UMass Lowell, the highest-rated campus for sustainability in the state, according to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
Led by representatives of UMass Lowell’s Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy, Randle toured the university’s food forest, which produces fruit and serves as a living laboratory for students and faculty researchers.
Randle also toured the rooftop garden at UMass Lowell’s O’Leary Library, where she heard from Lowell-based Craic Sauce founder Brian Ruhlmann, who partners with the university to grow peppers and other vegetables for his hot sauce.
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- MDAR Commissioner Ashley Randle learns about a garden wall within the university’s food forest from UMass Lowell Sustainability Director Dai Kim. (Photo courtesy of Brooke Coupal for UMass Lowell)
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- From left, UMass Lowell Grounds Operations Manager Kevin Block, Craic Sauce founder Brian Ruhlmann, rising master’s student Nathan Gere ’25, UMass Lowell Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Assistant Professor Jasmina Burek, MDAR Commissioner Ashley Randle, UMass Lowell Sustainability Assistant Director Nicole Garmon, UMass Lowell Sustainability Director Dai Kim, rising senior Andrew Fenner, rising senior Anna Kifor, UMass Amherst Urban Agriculture Extension Educator Olivia Golden and UMass Lowell rising sophomore Erica Pen. (Photo courtesy of Brooke Couple for UMass Lowell)
