Sprouts of onions are just beginning to peek out of the frozen ground. Â Decaying leaves are piled across the plot of soil, warming the plants in the months of freezing winter weather. Â A few feet away, carrots grow underneath a white fabric sheath – a greenhouse of sorts. Â The rest of the plots are empty, but the compost bins are full of eggshells, pepper stems, banana peels and dozens of other odds and ends that are slowly decaying into rich soil.
Standing inside the brick walls that surround this quarter-acre farm, you can hear the hum of traffic and the bustle of daily life: shouts, car horns, bicycle bells.  Instead of sprawling across the isolated countryside, this farm stands on a street directly off of Forsyth Boulevard.  Dormitories, the Edison Theatre, Washington University’s Francis Gymnasium and the Danforth University Center are its neighbors.
This is the Burning Kumquat.
Founded in 2007 by Washington University students, the Burning Kumquat is an almost entirely student-run urban farm.
Participants in the Kumquat can not only look forward to a valuable chance for connection with their peers, but an opportunity to get involved in their community. Â For students who are new to St. Louis, this can be especially rewarding.
“We sell [the produce] at the Old North Farmer’s market in the summer, and we also sell it to Bon Appetit if we get it in large volumes … We also sell it in the courtyard [in Washington University] to the students or whoever walks by, and then we take some of it home ourselves,†Mohr said.
While the Kumquat requires a lot of hard work to maintain, the farm management makes it easy for people to balance farmwork and schoolwork.
“The Kumquat is really cool because you can be very involved or not very involved … There are probably 15 people involved in … the governing body, and then there are other various people that work in the garden,†Libby Mohr, a sophomore at Washington University and the community and education director for the Burning Kumquat, said.
In the often overwhelming world of college, a quiet place to go and farm can be lifesaving for some students.
“It’s just a good way to get away from everything.  We usually have workdays on the weekends, so I’ll stressed with my work, and I can go the garden and get dirty, pull weeds.  Seeing everything get bigger every week is really cool, too,†Mohr continued.
Kumquat members also work to promote change with their farm and urban or organic farms in the St. Louis area.
“We have a couple pillars which are to educate ourselves about growing food, to educate others about growing food and the food system, and to get really engaged in the community and with all of the urban gardens in St. Louis,†Mohr explained.
These lessons are apparent not only within the walls of the Burning Kumquat, but within the classrooms of Washington University and colleges across the country.
“This semester I’m taking Soil Science and a class called Brave New Crops, which is about bio-technology, genetic manipulation of crops and investigating the implications of that and its effect on economics,†Mohr said.
Discussions like the ones in Mohr’s class are part of an ever-increasing wave of organic and urban farming that is sweeping the nation.
According to ers.usda.com, the prices of fertilizers have been increasing dramatically over the past ten years. Â Ammonium nitrate, for example, went from $194 per ton in 2000 to $506 per ton in 2012.
Organic farmers who don’t use fertilizers avoid these costs and the health concerns that come with them.  This economic benefit has helped organic farming become more fiscally achievable within the last few years.
The often detrimental effects of fertilizers on a farm’s environment can also be eliminated when farmers chose to grow crops without chemicals.
Ground runoff can carry fertilizers into natural waterways such as rivers and lakes as well as wells and reservoirs. Â Not only can the chemicals hurt people who drink the infected water, but nitrogen fertilizers can cause algae blooms in bodies of water, which often destroys marine life.
The Burning Kumquat accepts the pests that come with not using chemicals in order to run an all-natural farm.
“We don’t use any pesticides, herbicides or insecticides … It’s just about respecting the Earth and what’s there,†Mohr said.
While this requires a lot of hard work from the Kumquat’s volunteer staff, it almost always results in a life-changing experience for its members.
Furthermore, the effect of having a green space on campus for students to retreat from classes and stress is immeasurably valuable, especially to freshmen during their first year away from home.
After working in the Burning Kumquat for two years and another farm over the summer, Mohr realized that farming will always be a part of her life. “I decided that no matter what, I’m going to have a garden for the rest of my life.  It’s going to be something that carries through my life … even if I’m living in an apartment and I just have a couple of tomato plants on my balcony.â€
