Cellar Market a Seller's Market for Horticulture Students

Bill Lamont, professor of vegetable crops, displays bell peppers grown for sale at the Cellar Market. Lamont hopes the market will become an entirely student-run operation.

The Cellar Market is like a treasure chest. Tucked away in an old potato cellar between the Tyson Building and the Eisenhower Parking Deck on Penn State’s University Park campus, it might be hard to locate, but once found, the market offers produce lovers a bounty of fresh fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

The Cellar Market, which began its second season in April 2005, is the first in a series of steps to help advance the production and marketing skills of Penn State horticulture students. Bill Lamont, professor of vegetable crops, and several of his colleagues established the market as part of a long-range plan.

“We felt there was something missing in what the students were learning,” says Lamont. “They were learning a lot about fruit, vegetable, and flower production, but very little, if any, about marketing the end product.”

Lamont and his colleagues are developing what he calls a unique, innovative, and advanced horticulture production and marketing course, which he hopes will debut during the 2006 Penn State summer session. The ultimate goal is to transform the Cellar Market into an entirely student-run operation.

To build upon production knowledge, students will be required to plan, plant, maintain, and harvest the fruits, vegetables, and flowers they want to sell at the market. To develop marketing skills, the enrolled students will be responsible for operating the Cellar Market. Students will determine customer preferences and use income from the market to offset operating and production costs. Lamont views the new course as a capstone course for horticulture majors. Students taking the course will need to have basic horticultural knowledge in areas such as soils and production techniques. He says the course will be aimed at third- and fourth-year undergraduate students, because by this point in their college careers, they will have developed the basic production skills needed. “The class will be offered for about 15 students, and we will set up a selection process because of the limited size,” says Lamont.

To increase student interest, the Horticulture Department hopes to offer scholarships to students taking the course. “We realize that many students need to work over the summer so that they can continue with their education during the regular academic year,” says Lamont. “By offering scholarships, we hope to reduce the financial burden for students to attend school during the summer.”

The Cellar Market’s first two seasons of operation could be considered a test run. Lamont wanted to make sure that a market could survive on campus, especially during the summer months when many students are gone. In 2004, the market was open on Wednesdays and Thursdays from noon to 5:30 p.m., April through December. Lamont says the market developed a clientele base that returned on a weekly basis. To gather marketing data, faculty and students who stopped by between classes to buy some fruit or a few vegetables were asked what their favorite goods were.

Customers at the Cellar Market can choose from a variety of produce, including tomatoes, mixed greens, sweet corn, broccoli, peppers, and fresh-cut flowers.

During its first season, the market offered a variety of produce, including mixed salad greens, sweet onions, broccoli, sweet corn, tomatoes, eggplants, green and hot peppers, cucumbers, watermelons, ornamental corn, pumpkins, garlic, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples, peaches, fresh cut flowers, and many other goods. Lamont said tomatoes were the market’s best sellers.

“This program, the course, and the market are educationally driven,” says Lamont. “I’m not interested in being the Wegman’s of University Park. This is a realistic and necessary education initiative. The Horticulture Department feels that this is one of the best education packages that a student Customers at the Cellar Market can choose from a variety of produce, including tomatoes, mixed greens, sweet corn, broccoli, peppers, and fresh-cut flowers.This class would be a real draw for students all over the country and world because there are very few like it offered.could participate in for the knowledge and hands-on experience. Gaining practical experience in both production and marketing will help make our students ready for the job market.”

Lamont hopes the Cellar Market and new course catch the eyes of the horticultural industry. “If industry recognizes this course and the market as a good educational tool, then our students will have more job opportunities upon graduation,” he says. “Our students’ experiences will stand out to employers.” Lamont is not only excited for the course to begin, but for the attention that it will help bring to Penn State’s Horticulture Department and the College of Agricultural Sciences. “Student recruiting is a major issue for the Horticulture Department and for the college as a whole. This class would be a real draw for students all over the country and world because there are very few like it offered.”

—Jill Hoover