Blueberry Extravaganza connects Maine’s crops to community – The Bowdoin Orient

Final Friday, members of the Bowdoin neighborhood gathered in a bustling Smith Union for the Blueberry Extravaganza. The occasion supposed to teach college students about pollination, sustainability, normal wellness and, in fact, blueberries—one in all Maine’s most necessary crops.

Wyman’s—one of many largest growers and sellers of untamed blueberries on this planet—joined the festivities together with representatives from the Bowdoin Natural Backyard (BOG), Sustainable Bowdoin and Bowdoin Counseling and Wellness Companies. Collectively they offered programming that included educating about pollinators and native blueberry vegetation by way of giveaways and shows and getting suggestions about BOG initiatives to return.

“We’re right here selling the goodness of untamed blueberries, what makes them totally different from cultivated blueberries and likewise selling pollinator well being inside our habitats and ecosystems,” Wyman’s worker Collin Jay stated.

Wild blueberries are smaller than abnormal blueberries, however they’ve a stronger taste, twice as many antioxidants and solely develop alongside the coasts of Maine and Jap Canada. Because of the shortage of the wild blueberry’s habitat, Wyman’s is concentrated on preserving the setting and the pollinators that enable the blueberries to develop.

“It’s actually necessary to guarantee that we’re not destroying habitats. It’s not simply bees,” Jay stated. “Moths, flies, beetles [and] even bats might be pollinators.We’re doing a whole lot of totally different efforts proper now to assist promote that with issues like this.”

One of many methods Wyman’s strives to guard pollinators is thru the Bee Wild Cellular, a pollination schooling station and blueberry haven on wheels.

“We journey round New England selling what we imagine in and what we predict is correct for the well being of the ecosystem,” Jay stated.

At Friday’s occasion, Wyman’s representatives handed out flyers with enjoyable information and actions about blueberries and pollinators. Additionally they supplied quite a lot of blueberry and bee pins and jars of untamed blueberry jam for college students to get pleasure from.

The BOG used final Friday’s occasion to advertise the pollinator mattress it plans to put in within the spring and requested college students to vote on which native vegetation they want the mattress to incorporate.

Sustainable Bowdoin introduced a give attention to human environmental affect to the occasion, because the Extravaganza was additionally a celebration of “Midway to Earth Day.” Its presence on the occasion was half of a bigger effort to interact with the scholar physique about conscious consumption and vitality use.

“We’re making an attempt to scale back our carbon emissions throughout campus and likewise assist nationwide and international efforts to be extra eco pleasant and sustainable as an entire, and it begins with our area people,” first yr Eco Rep Nina Fearon ’26 stated.

Bowdoin Counseling and Wellness Companies related the well being of the setting to non-public well-being by promoting some new companies it gives to all enrolled college students.

“We now have direct connection to a few current telehealth and on-line platforms that we’re partnering with,” Director of Counseling and Wellness Companies Dr. Roland Mendiola stated.

Assistant Director of Pupil Actions Eunice Shin was excited by the intersectionality of the occasion.

“My purpose once I first envisioned this occasion was to supply one other enjoyable [way] for college students to work together with these departments and likewise actually see how interconnected these places of work are, as a result of I believe that’s one thing not a whole lot of college students get to see on a regular basis,” Shin stated. “Behind the curtains, we’re at all times continually working collectively to supply a whole lot of enjoyable actions.”

Wyman’s and the three Bowdoin teams current ultimately Friday’s occasion helped college students perceive the nuanced connections between agriculture, pollinators, the setting and themselves.

“We clearly need pollinators to be plentiful and wholesome inside Maine to assist wild blueberries develop,” Jay stated, “It comes all the way down to the well being of different Maine crops, like potatoes, or crops on the whole all through New England, … to guarantee that our ecosystem is sustaining its well being.”