Research made delicious

On the Friday of UNH Homecoming Weekend, the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture erects tents and tables on the lawn adjacent to Barton Hall and invites alumni, friends, faculty, staff, and students to gather.

Strings of lights twinkle in the late afternoon autumn sun, pumpkins grown as part of UNH’s long-standing cucurbit research program are displayed on tables and bales of hay and spill onto the grass, and cornstalks cut from silage fields dress up the tent poles.

Since it was first held in 2021, the Taste of COLSA has become a celebrated and anticipated event — and 2025 marked five years of gathering the work of our scientists and students into something attendees can hold and taste. Guests arrive with brisk excitement, eager to see the college’s work made edible: sumptuous desserts containing milk from the Organic Dairy Research Farm, delectable soup and fritters made from squash harvested at Kingman Research Farm, fresh vegetables provided by the Farm to You NH program, and sweet grapes and kiwi berries from Woodman Horticultural Research Farm. These are just a few of the treats on offer at an event that has become a feast not just for the tastebuds, but also for the mind and spirit.

Faculty and students staff tables, happily describing their work and answering questions. Alumni and friends of COLSA listen, recognizing some things and learning about others. The event is a demonstration of scale: how something as large as our land-grant mission can be simply represented by scientists and students explaining their work and its value — and offering something delicious to eat.