Fresno State’s annual Summer Farm Festival at the Rue and Gwen Gibson Farm Market 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, July 14, will showcase student products with food sampling, wine tasting, music and prizes.

This year’s event may also have historical value as the last celebration at the current structure. Ground was broken in April for a new building south of the market that has been in operation since 1986. The new market, made possible because of a $1.5 million dollar bequest from the estate of Joyce Mae Gibson to the farm market and the university’s equine program, is expected to be complete in January.

The 2012 Summer Farm Festival event, which is free and open to the public, will include hourly guided tours of the student-operated organic farm at the university’s Ornamental Horticultural Nursery, across from the market at Barstow and Chestnut.

The event is designed to celebrate the summer harvest now under way and showcase   products grown or produced by students in the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology and sold at the student-run farm market.

Guests may sample and purchase the famous Fresno State sweet corn and ice cream, meat and other dairy products, fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables, nuts, wine and processed products such as olive oil and candy-coated almonds and raisins.

A free raffle drawing features prizes every half hour such as passes to Metal Mark Rock Climbing, SkyWalk and Yard House gift certificates.

Proceeds earned through farm market sales are plowed back into the 1,000-acre University Agricultural Laboratory on campus, where students get hands-on experience in the latest growing, irrigation and harvest techniques, often with industry partners. The farm is a research center where students participate in studies of food and water innovations with applications locally and worldwide.

Summer hours for the Gibson Farm Market are: 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday.

For more information, call 559.278.4511 or visit the market’s Facebook page.

University Communications news assistant Samantha Gibson contributed to this copy.

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