Report
Once a fruitful endeavor that united the University, ASU's campus harvests have undergone massive changes Story and photos by Savannah Dagupion
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pringtime on asu's Tempe campus is characterized by the bright Seville sour oranges blooming overhead. Everywhere you look — a round juicy orange peers back at you. Before the oranges hit the ground, hordes of volunteers gather to harvest them all, knowing the sour oranges will return again next year as they have every year since 2008. However, the aroma of citrus has diminished on campus. asu campus harvests have been putting campus-grown produce back into the food supply for decades, but in the wake of climate change, the water crisis and the pandemic, the harvests have had to adapt to change. Deborah Thirkhill, grounds services program coordinator, is facing these issues head-on. She was hired to coordinate the first sour orange harvest over a decade ago and is the primary point of contact when it comes to cultivating, harvesting and producing. Thirkhill said the University once had over 250 sour orange trees, which made it easy for her and the volunteers to produce the 10,000 pounds of oranges needed for cleaning and juicing at Sun Orchard Juicery.
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