The aroma of fresh produce can be smelled from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Tuesday in front of the MSU Auditorium on Farm Lane.

The scent comes courtesy of the Student Organic Farm stand, which is put on weekly by the Ecological Food and Farm Stewardship.

The stand offers organic fruits and vegetables grown locally at the Student Organic Farm, which is located 3 miles south of campus. The stand also educates students about buying locally grown produce, said environmental studies and applications sophomore Holly Markham.

"I don't think a lot of people on campus have been introduced to the idea of buying local food," Markham said. "We want to let people in our community know that we're there, we're doing it and it's important to support your local farmers."

The farm stand offers a wide variety of produce, from watermelons and squash to carrots and assorted peppers. The farm stand also offers more exotic produce not seen in the average supermarket, such as Zebra tomatoes and Asian eggplants.

Jay Tomczak, assistant manager of the Student Organic Farm, said the reason the farm stand can offer these varieties is because of the unique nature of the stand.

"We sell things here that you don't see at the store," Tomczak said. "One of the reasons for that is at the store, you only see the things that ship well. We can sell a lot more perishable items because we just harvested them."

Markham said because the produce sold is harvested by students for students, the product is more desirable.

"Not only is it convenient to go pick up your fresh produce on the way to class, but it's also really cool to get people asking 'Where is this grown?'" Markham said. "It's all grown 3 miles from here. It was harvested this morning, and now you can take it home and cook it and eat it."

This is the second time the stand, which was started last year, has operated. The initial response was positive, but because of the irregularity of its appearance, students were confused about the nature of the stand. Tomczak said this year, the goal is to get the word out about the farm stand by being consistent.

"We only had two farm stands," Tomczak said. "We want to be in the same place at the same time every week for eight weeks in a row."

This year the stand has been running since the first week of school, and the response from both students and staff has been positive.

"I think it's a great idea," said Grace Ruch, a Japanese studies junior. "(MSU) is an agricultural college, and it's really cool to see students just going out there and doing their own organic thing, rather than training to be part of the corporate agriculture scene."

The stand averages a total of $400 a week in sales. But for the Student Organic Farm, the sales are mostly secondary, Tomczak said.