New Chapter at the Farm

[Christian M]

Hey everyone,

Thanks to all who again braved this heat to support our vision to build a sustainable urban farm.  We want to give an extra thanks to our 2 high school interns, Natalie and Nicole, who spent most of their mornings each week planting, watering, shoveling, and laughing with us throughout the summer through the Port Towns Summer Youth program.

As the Port Towns program closes, a new one begins: our New Urban Farmer Training program.  In partnership with the Crossroads Farmers Market in Langley Park, we have 5 local residents learning the various aspects of urban agriculture and how to build an enterprise with their skills for the next 8 months.  They'll be learning and working every Saturday until next summer, and selling with us at the Crossroads Farmers Market each Wednesday.  We're very excited for this as we need more skilled agripreneurs to help build our local foodshed.

In conjunction with the Crossroads program, we'll also be holding a series of classes covering the topics that we'll go through in the Crossroads program: hoophouse construction and use, community composting, urban farm design, business planning, and more.  This program is open to you all through the Prince George's Community College.  There's more information on this below.

Finally, we're having an open house later this month!  See below for details.

Enjoy the updates and hope to see you soon,

Vinnie and Christian

ECO Urban Farm

4913 Crittenden Street

Edmonston, MD 20781

At the Farm

We're hoping to finally tie up some loose ends this August with these hoophouses, before we get into more interesting projects like aquaponics.  We could use help building our final endwall and 2 more worm racks for the final hoophouse, as well as building a few more beds outside the hoophouses and spreading worm tea on all the plants.  

Again, we welcome volunteers every Mon/Thurs from 8a-12p, and Saturdays 9a-3p.

Here are some pictures from the summer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48962800@N08/sets/

News

*An article about gardening and prisons in Detroit: http://www.freep.com/article/20100809/NEWS01/8090325/Detroit-garden-nurtures-inmates-near-end-of-prison-sentences

*AP article that discusses how international aid needs to go beyond donating food, money, and supplies: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gO5nc-lHnpfWQa0TRvsNZLoz5j7gD9HCUI505

Events/Opportunities

1)ECO Urban Farm Open House:  Come on Saturday, August 21st to our first open house to see what all the fuss is about.  We'll have free food, games, and tours to celebrate our new project in Edmonston, MD.  The address is 4913 Crittenden Street, Edmonston, MD 20781.

2)ECO's Urban Farming Workshop Series with Prince George's Community College

http://www.ecoffshoots.org/projects-2/urban-farmer-training/

3)Growing Power's National and International Urban and Small Farm Gathering! September 10-12

Come to Milwaukee and help grow the good food revolution. Hosted by Growing Power—a national organization headed by the sustainable urban farmer and MacArthur Fellow Will Allen—this international conference will teach the participant how to plan, develop and grow small farms in urban and rural areas. Learn how you can grow food year-round, no matter what the climate, and how you can build markets for small farms. See how you can play a part in creating a new food system that fosters better health and more closely-knit communities.

http://www.growingpowerfarmconference.org/