The Ithaca Children’s Garden (ICG) is an award-winning public children’s garden free and open to all every day of the year, from dawn to dusk. Its mission is to inspire the next generation of environmental stewards, and does so through authentic, hands-on, child-led engagement with the natural world. Ithaca Bakery is a local destination that has stood the test...
As urban agriculture programs expand in Chicago and other cities, a new project aims to unearth data on one of the biggest potential obstacles to city-based farming efforts: soil contamination. The University of Illinois’ Chicago Safe Soils Initiative is offering free soil lead tests to home gardeners and urban farmers across the Chicago area. The new effort –...
If you travel by train into Bristol from north of the city, there is a point two miles from the center when you can catch sight of a tiny farmyard. Nestling at the bottom of a railway embankment between houses, builders yards, and a car rental depot, it has sties, snoozing Gloucester Old Spot pigs, a paddock with caramel-colored Dexter cattle grazing and vegetable...
BEREA, Ky. — A pilot program in Berea where women in recovery learn job skills through farming saw its first batch of graduates this month. Harvesting Hope is a partnership between Sustainable Berea and Liberty Place, a recovery center for women in Richmond, along with several local businesses. Program director Cheyenne Olson said many people might be surprised...
It’s a warm afternoon in late spring and before us rows of strawberry plants rustle in the breeze as the scent of fragrant herbs wafts across the air. Nearby, a bee buzzes lazily past. Contrary to appearances, however, we are not in an idyllic corner of the countryside but standing on the top of a six-storey building in the heart of the French capital. Welcome...
Before you start your seeds, and if you’re growing in containers, you should look over this infographic. We’ve given you a suggested number of plants that will grow successfully in a 12″ container. It would be a waste of money and time to start more seeds than you’ll need so here’s a simple guideline of where to get started! Growing...
Megan Chen — author, Dual School alum and rising junior at Newark Charter — has always had a passion for environmental issues. Now, she’s also the founder of a 501(c)(3) called the Urban Garden Initiative. “I learned about the food desert problem in Wilmington, and I had an idea that I really wanted to stick with,” she told Technical.ly. Chen is sharing...
In Chelsea, Massachusetts — a 2-square-mile chunk of mostly industrial land across the river from Boston — a tiny urban farm sits in a gravel parking lot, sandwiched between towering, tarp-covered salt piles and a tightly packed residential neighborhood. The farm was created to provide food for the Waterfront District’s high concentration of undocumented people,...
Imagine hearing that familiar summer song and looking up to see a truck rolling up your block. Kids flag it down, only to find vegetables. A mobile farm stand truck might be less exciting to kids than an ice cream truck, but the prospect of getting one in West Sacramento has proponents of urban agriculture pretty pumped up. Here’s how it would work. Several urban...
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An urban farmer in Kansas City is using his skills and life experience to cultivate the minds of young men. Dre Taylor is the founder of Males to Men, a rites of passage program that works to raise “strong, conscious and productive young men.” “A man has accountability and responsibility with himself and his community and that’s what...
This month, Green Umbrella’s Greater Cincinnati Food Policy Council announced that the long-awaited Urban Agriculture Zoning Ordinance has finally passed in the City of Cincinnati. With this legislation comes increased freedom for residents and communities to take their food security into their own hands. The Greater Cincinnati Food Policy Council is a formal initiative...
In March this year, Atieno Kasagam came home from a long vacation to find a slip for a misdemeanor complaint on the front door of her house. It cited her for possession of a farm animal without a permit and having an unlicensed dog. It wasn’t the first time her and her partner Zomi Huron have gotten the fine, and it probably won’t be the last. The couple owns...
Some of the most inspiring people we’ve covered this year are working to make the food system more just, sustainable, and equitable. -Civil Eats Darren Chapman: A Phoenix Urban Farmer Growing Hope for the Formerly Incarcerated Since 2005, the founder of the Tiger Mountain Foundation in Phoenix, Arizona has recruited and worked with thousands of formerly incarcerated...
CHICAGO (CBS) — Thousands of acres in Chicago are little more than empty fields. But CBS 2 Morning Insider Vince Gerasole learned they could sprout jobs and economic opportunity by converting them into farms. He spent a day down on the farm getting to know the people who work the soil. “I get to eat a lot of good vegetables and grow a lot of vegetables,” said...
It was 8:15 Tuesday morning and the greenhouse was just waking up for the day. Spurred by an electrical panel that serves as its brain, its roof vents had popped open, letting in the cool, morning air. Meanwhile, the human staff of Altius Farms was already busy doing its work. Moving among rows of aeroponic growing towers the pickers plucked leafy greens, herbs and...
Sasha Kanno is the eternal optimist. The founder and farmer of Farm Lot 59, an organic farm, retail spot and education center that sits on a one-acre site surrounded by oil fields, is absolutely convinced that the people of this city need a business like hers. But… “I’m just a one-woman show here,” she said. “It’s a very expensive operation. We are...
LANSING — The city is growing — in population and also vertically. Tomatoes, greens, squash and more sprout in garden plots and small farms across Lansing. More than 100 community gardens are tucked into vacant lots sitting in Lansing neighborhoods, their use coordinated by the Ingham County Land Bank, which owns them. There were only nine such gardens in...
“Community Roots uses the entire city as a classroom. It sees place-based learning as essential to teaching and learning. Urban gardening serves as a departure point for learning about land and relationships, as well as food, consumer culture, and social activism.” “Raven, a student who grew up in Coney Island, recalls a reading in Community Roots...
A pop-up urban garden has taken over a small slice of Broadway for the summer. This week, the Garment District Alliance announced the return of a seasonal pedestrian plaza to the neighborhood. The space is located along Broadway between 37th and 38th Streets, a block that was converted into public space. The garden features a mural by Ecuadorian-born artist Carla...
It began with a packet of seeds. Growing up in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Nasim Parveen was mesmerized by the lush flowers she saw growing in neighbors’ gardens. As a second grader, she begged her father for a garden of their own, but he rebuffed her, saying, “No, this is dirty stuff.” After many entreaties on her part, he finally relented and bought her a packet of...
