FARMINGTON – Nestled snugly under freshly fallen snow, a 40-acre parcel of land here lies fallow, biding time before becoming a teaching garden next spring.

The University of Maine at Farmington and Life Enrichment Advancing People, Inc., are in the planning stages for a spring “stone soup garden” in this spot, where participants, including LEAP clients, UMF students and others, can learn the nutritional and environmental benefits of eating local food through gardening and food preservation.

Located on Route 2 – Farmington Falls Road – near LEAP’s Oliver Hill House, Maurice Martin, UMF assistant professor of community health education and president of the board of directors for LEAP, was “blown away by the vast amount of unused farmland” when he saw the property. He and Rick Dorian, executive director of LEAP, worked to develop ideas on how to bring a stone soup garden to the community.

Students and faculty from UMF’s Community Health Education program and administration and staff from LEAP, a private non-profit organization that supports people with cognitive and intellectual disabilities, plan to develop the 40-acres into an educational and interactive community garden.

“All community members with an interest and something to ‘throw in the pot’ are invited to participate,” Martin said. “The garden will be used as the centerpiece for contributing community members as we try to decrease social isolation and increase social capital through teaching and learning with hands in dirt activities.

“It is our hope that all who contribute will see this project as a platform where their efforts together with others efforts will make the community an increasingly sustainable and interdependent place to live,” Martin said.

Sustainable agriculture is only part of the goal for members of UMF’s Community Health Education Program. They also want to focus on nutrition and physical activity to combat a growing obesity epidemic, he said.

Students in UMF’s Community Health instructor Denise Higgins’ environmental health class already have been to a similar garden to learn how to take soil samples. Her nutrition and obesity classes have tilled soil, planted garlic bulbs and learned how to make cheese, butter and preserve food.

“Together, as a community, we can learn how to become better stewards of our land and how to improve our quality of life,” said Sarah Pine, a UMF community health education student.