This past week our Colloquium class took a field trip to FGCU's Food Forest. You can see the pictures taken by Marnie on our blog of the different types of plants grown at the food forest. There were a couple of things that we learned from the food forests president, Arlo Simonds. Marnie learned the Moringa tree can grow 12 feet in one year while Bianca learned that the mimosa plant fixes nitrogen into the soil. She also discovered that the Spanish needle has twice the nutrients of spinach and it's medicinal if you roll it up and rub it on your skin for bug bits. There are 6 butterfly species that rely on this plant for a food source. Mical learned you can put cardboard on top of weeds and water it down so it gets heavy and breakdown more easily to kill weeds. We all took some Chaya and was told by Arlo on how we could boil it for about 20 minutes and add our own spices eat it. Chaya is actually one of the most healthy plants on the planet that a human can consume.