Dressed in jeans, a button-down shirt and red suspenders, Cliff Welsch grabbed two heaping handfuls of apples, which would be pressed into fresh cider Saturday at the Student Organic Farm Harvest Fest.

Welsch guided people through the cider-making process using a wooden press he and his wife, Margaret, bought 30 years ago.

The Welsches, DeWitt residents, have volunteered at the Student Organic Farm, or SOF, for about a year and a half. All the apples were picked at SOF, 3291 College Road in Holt.

"It's the freshest cider you'll ever taste," Cliff Welsch said.

More than 200 people attended the Harvest Fest to drink cider, go on hayrides and listen to music.

"The harvest festival is more (of) a celebration to celebrate the end of the big harvest season," said Corie Pierce, an SOF manager.

Pierce said the farm grows about 60 different fruits and vegetables.

"Almost anything you can grow in Michigan that's a vegetable we grow," she said.

The farm was started in 1999 by MSU horticulture Professor John Biernbaum and a group of students.

Biernbaum, the faculty adviser for SOF, said his students wanted to learn about organic farming, which at the time hadn't been studied at the university level.

After choosing the land, which is about three miles south of campus, it took three years for the farm to be certified as organic.

Students and faculty work on the farm year-round, using unheated greenhouses built by Biernbaum and students.

Biernbaum said the farm feeds at least 200 people, and the local aspect is important to everyone involved with SOF.

"People think you have to have vegetables from Mexico, South America," he said. "What we're showing is you can do it economically on a small scale."

"Eating locally means your food hasn't traveled hundreds of thousands of miles to get to you," Pierce said. "What we are promoting is both the organic and the local elements — getting people to be aware of both of those things."

Lansing resident Derek Freridge, who attended the event, grows crops with his family on a community garden plot in Lansing.

"It makes us feel better about the food we're eating too," Freridge said.

The Student Organic Farm sells produce to people around the Lansing area through a program called Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA.

Through CSA, Lansing resident Cheryl Bartz pays at the start of the growing season, then picks up an allotted amount of food from the farm every Thursday.

She's been involved in CSA for two years and splits her share with one other person.

"It's a different style of eating because you learn to eat what's in season," Bartz said.

"More importantly, it's locally grown, conserves energy and there's a connection with the farmers. It's healthier."

CSA co-manager Mitra Sticklen, an environmental economics and policy and anthropology senior, said she helps with distributing food on Thursdays.

"(Food isn't) just a product that you eat, but it's a process," she said. "It's a very viable way to promote a more ecologically sustainable system."