​Feed Denver will be closing its operations – including the Sunnyside Farm & Market – with its last Saturday Morning Market on October 31st. After seven years (five at the Sunnyside location) it is time to let the program go fallow, return its energy to the earth. One thing I’ve learned over these years is how our human activities mirror nature. All things have a life cycle. We hope the seeds of our work will find their way to continue to support food and farming sovereignty.

In October of 2008 the spark for Feed Denver was lit. I had been hearing about the insolvency of our food system for a while. An article here, a film there, my own experience of the food available in the marketplace. One day I reached my own personal seminal moment when I could no longer act as if it was okay to expect someone else to solve this massive issue. I had to do something, I had to get involved.

I sought people and communities and organizations that were talking about this. I joined and I spoke and I shared information. There were so many layers to the problems and so many ways to approach issues. After a while I realized there was a great outcry for more nutritious food, more local farming but not a lot of talk or programming to create the most important (to me) aspect of the broken system, the lack of farmers. That realization led to the creation of Feed Denver: Urban Farms & Markets.

Over the years we’ve met amazing people from all over the world but especially from right here in our own community. We’ve drawn in people to our education events, our farms, and our markets to speak and teach local food sovereignty. From this work seeds were planted that have been germinating gardens, farms, programs, and businesses.

Although there have been many individuals and organizations that have supported and nourished our seasons here, these are some who made a mark: 

Starting a new project is intimidating. From the beginning Carmen Casis was there as my listening post, chief encourager, our first board member and for every day and event since. Lisa Reynolds one of the first people to see the vision and commit to making it happen and was truly that midwife of Feed Denver’s birth.

Our community steward farmers truly made Feed Denver real. Paula and Kasmira Thompson, our first farmers embraced our work on the parking lot across the street from their home. They guarded it as their own, kept the gates open to their neighbors, and fertilized it with their joy. Young Daniel joined us on our first day of building the parking lot farm at 44th & Vallejo in Swansea neighborhood. A young boy full of enthusiasm seeking a place in this world left his mark on us. 

Support for our local food movement amazingly came from distant places. Margaret Morgan-Hubbard and Zsofia Pasztor, both mothers of this movement, sisters in the work through their respective organizations, Eco City Farms (MD) and Farmer Frog (WA), shared passion and encouragement. Our projects gaining strength and weaving relationships across the country. Intertwining with those long distant colleagues was Laura Weber who always had a bed for traveling farmers and ear to hear our stories.

Feed Denver’s mission was inspired and nurtured from the very beginning by Will Allen.  Our work, our people, and our programs were fertilized by the people at Growing Power both staff and fellow participants. And we were watered by deep-hearted people like Martin Bailkey who became a conduit for those of us doing this work in far flung places to remember we weren’t in it alone. Growing Power alumni are the mycelium of this movement, pulsing a beat across this country. 

It may have taken inspiration from afar to build our project but it was our community here that made it work. It was the army of volunteers over the years that actually built our programs. Thanks to each and every one of you! Thank you to Donna at the Urban Farm at Stapleton, David at our 42nd & Steele Parking Lot Farm, and Mary and Ed at Common Grounds for sharing space with us; and Ann Tod for welcoming us to your church for our winter market. We’ve had the pleasure of working with dedicated community members through our board of directors over the years including Francoise Schmid, Colleen Sandrin, and Evan Call who gave it a good final push. We are especially grateful to David Portillo and the Denver Foundation’s Strengthening Neighborhoods and Michael Miera and the Denver Office of Economic Development for being key funders for our projects and all the individuals and organizations that donated from their own hearts and pocketbooks. 

Through it all, though, it was through our farm market that we most deeply connected with our community. Our community of farmers and local producers came together to create a local economic opportunity including Jennifer Johnson of HardPan Horticulture, David Kaminer of Raleigh Street Bakery, Paul Fleischer of Fleischer Family Farms. But it was our customers who made our market a success being encouraging and patient with our explorations, week in and week out: including Jeff, Dana, Bayard, Risa, Matt, and more people over the years than can be listed here. It was your patronage and enthusiasm that proved to us our work mattered. 

Finally, as we close down our operations, I would like to mention and thank those individuals that walked this path with me, put in their own blood sweat and tears. Trineka Freeman, Silvana Hoitt, Pam Seaton, and Sheila McClain. As farmers, vendors, teachers, and believers you kept Feed Denver alive over the years. Your love and commitment to the vision, our community, and my crazy ideas were the fuel that kept Feed Denver warm, full of laughter, good food and hope.

But the most important support over these years has been my parents, Mary and Jim Rogers. It was your support, protection, patience, and belief that allowed me to develop this concept and its programs over the years.

As Feed Denver closes its operations its seeds will continue to germinate in this community and elsewhere. A plant doesn’t knows how far a seed will go or where it will take deepest root.

Thank you all, deeply,

Lisa Rogers
Director

This passing from summer to autumn seems to have fallen from out of nowhere. Although I have always associated the use of the seasonal name of Fall to the falling of the leaves, this year it felt like the season change was like a falling of a door or gate. What is past is behind it. It's time to move forward into the new season. 

Many things about our cultures and experiences seem to have passed a point of no turning back. How we look at our food choices and food system. How we interact with our communities. How we deal with the climate crisis. Despite the fact that these issues and experiences are not new, they seem to have passed the point of avoidance. We - as a culture - may have been able to keep them hidden in a closet in the past by ignoring, discounting, or sometimes by openly lying but that time is over.

Like the arrival of autumn this year, the closet door to has opened, closed, and now those challenging realities are sharing the room with us. And, like the season we are in, we must look to the future acknowledging and accepting what is before us: a long winter. 

I like to look to nature for guidance when faced with a challenge. To move through a long cold winter we must shore up our resources, draw in our community, and find ways to celebrate the beauty and gifts of the season we are experiencing. Instead of wishing for the warmth of summer, revel in the crisp mornings of autumn and the early setting dark drawing us into our homes. In those homes or community gathering places stop to spend time with your family, community. Look beyond differences to commonalities and interdependencies. Draw close to those near as you might need one another for support, friendship, or as a dance partner. As you change your behavior to reflect the reduction in light, heat, and growth take the time to meditate on how you can work within your community to accept the changes in our world in a way that moves us all into the new cycles, seasons, and nature of our planet.

The sun keeps shining, the planet keeps spinning, there will be a new season. Don't wait for it, reach out and draw it in.
 

There is a lot of conversation in our community lately about gentrification. As I putter in our vegetable beds, prune fruit trees and bushes, and plant for the season, I've been noticing how much tending to growing things can teach us about living together.
Sometimes we can forget that soil and communities are living things. They are like air and water, always surrounding us. It is important to take a moment to engage and observe whether our interactions are healthy, warranted, or even needed. Here are some things we can learn from sustainable farming and gardening.

Don’t assume something needs to be fixed: In the Springtime it is hard not to run out on the first sunny days to turn over soil. We feel strong and accomplished standing there with our shovel and pitchforks. Although we have been taught this by many generations (and countless advertisements!), we have known for a long time that the life and health of our soil’s ecosystem is immeasurably disturbed by unnecessary tilling and digging. This is not unlike the reaction of our North Denver community to the digging up and turning over of the lovely housing stock that defined our neighborhoods. Those who have been here for a while are in shock from the visual and emotional changes to our home. Like soil, it will take us a while to recover.

Healthy soil can be over fertilized: Many “miracles” are proclaimed in advertising during this crucial sales time in the gardening business. Here, again, we are being bombarded by the thought that something is inherently wrong with our soil so we add boosters every year – just in case. Without testing your soil and understanding its strengths and weaknesses, you can toxify it by assuming you know what’s best. Communities are the same. Without taking the time to explore and understand, even adding what you consider “good and miraculous” elements can end up creating a toxic environment.

No matter how good it might look, if the conductivity is not there no one benefits: In healthy humus there is a natural electrical conductivity, like static-cling, that attracts nutrients to clay making it available to plants for their food. Without this pull and interaction a plant can’t eat, even in a soil that seems to be a well-stocked with nutrients and minerals. Good humus comes from diversity of compost inputs, room for air, and patience as relationships develop and boundaries break down. Does that sound like good advice for a healthy community? I think it does! 

It takes a few seasons to develop networks and understanding: Although I love seed catalogs as much as the next person, to truly develop healthy, strong plants and vegetables you need to save seeds and nurture them over the years. Hardly any seed on the market is actually grown in a high-mountain, arid landscape like ours. If the seed comes from Florida or Missouri it is in the nature and expectation of the plant growing from that seed to expect that environment. The plant will not fully express its full, juicy self until it has time (seasons) to acclimate to our climate. People are the same. It can take a while for a new person to find their way around, settle in, and begin showing their best self in the same way a current resident may feel invaded, shy, or not trusting. Gently developing relationships with respect and sharing goes a long way toward creating a strong community. 

It is important on all sides of community – those that have been around for a while and those who have recently “blown in” – to be patient, get to know one another, seek to share strengths and minimize conflicts, and find reasons to work together and share knowledge and skills. Although there is a lot of frustration and bristling, judgments and assumptions, I know our community can create a healthy ecosystem if we practice patience and respect and take the time to get to know one another.

Deep in an election season (when are we not?!) it can be difficult to see the good that may have developed in our communities with so many decrying the bad and looking for someone to blame. We have many issues that need serious attention but let’s take a moment to see and celebrate some positive developments in our midst.

We at Feed Denver are happy to be curating a Lexicon of Sustainability show this year. This week’s topic is Unconventional Agriculture. As I read their newsletter (with a few hallelujahs – they were preaching to the choir, here!) I began thinking of our fair city. 

Denver, with its surrounding Rocky Mountain region, has a number of interesting and attracting elements that bring many people to visit and live but one that doesn't get a lot of attention is its burgeoning grass roots urban agriculture movement. 

It only takes a visitor from out of state to give new perspective. They notice the front lawns turned to food beds and the shared block gardens neighbors are creating to grow food together. They are surprised by front porch food stands selling just-harvested veggies with fresh breads and jams. They have never heard of gardens, farms, and agriculture being written into a city’s zoning code.

As you explore the city, and its surrounding suburbs, you realize you have begun seeing actual farms. Everitt Farms in Lakewood, Five Fridges Farm and Clear Creek Organics in Wheatridge, True Roots Farm formerly in Wheatridge (moving this season to Arvada), and Feed Denver’s Sunnyside Farm on 44th & Vallejo. You see farm stands and markets. At the stores you see local farm products like Maxfield’s Organic Soils. And you notice local seed companies like Seeds Trust, Lake Valley Seeds, and Botanical Interests.
Supporting these and future farmers are some remarkable programs. Feed Denver: Urban Farms & Markets commitment to growing farmers through regenerative farm modeling and education to create true community level economics.  Re:Vision in Westwood committing itself to one geographic community’s food and job shed. The Denver Green School and Slow Food Denver’s programs to put food growing education in all schools. 

People, this is amazing! Denver – the Queen City of the Plains - was an early adopter of the conversation around food sovereignty. The first bold move was our forward thinking zoning department (yes, I did say that about the Denver zoning department!) added language allowing the growing of food in almost all areas. When introduced to the opportunities in the innovative urban agriculture movement they recognized that local, uninhibited food production needed to be written into Blueprint Denver, the comprehensive rezoning project they were working on that was adopted in 2010. 

The next bold move, that same year, was the creation of the Mayor’s Sustainable Food Policy Council (initiated by then-Mayor Hickenlooper). Since their formation the council has debated and developed policy and understanding of the food needs of this city. They have been instrumental in continually addressing and exploring ways the city can support local food production.

That group brought the third bold move forward answering the state’s Colorado Cottage Food Act they worked with relevant groups and agencies to create the Fresh Produce and Cottage Foods Sales Home Occupation Permit. This provided a smooth integration of both state and local policies to support not only growing food in a residential area but the creation of cottage food opportunities. This is the thing: In Denver we can grow food at home and sell it. We can process some of that food and sell it as well…from home. 
More than unconventional, this is revolutionary (in modern first-world cities)! This fertile ground, where Feed Denver has germinated, is creating the opportunity for cottage food entrepreneurs and urban farmers to take it to the next level and build that true local economy. The local economy that is about one person exchanging with another, one community supporting itself with its own effort. 

In the Lexicon newsletter (#45) that inspired this essay, they said: Unconventional agriculture encompasses a philosophy that addresses the complexities of sustainable farming and reflects on the local history and resources of the land. It benefits from innovative research, mathematics, and thinking in abundance.

 An unconventional CITY encompasses a philosophy that addresses the complexities of sustainability in partnership with nature while reflecting on its own local history and resources. It also benefits from innovative communities and economics, as well as, thinking in abundance.

We live in an amazing city. Remember that as you prepare for the upcoming leadership elections. But remember you are part of this city’s ecosystem, too. Get involved. Do your research. Ask questions of your leaders and potential leaders. Challenge policies by helping to write and build better ones. Start something unconventional…like an urban farm.

[Thank you to Beth Partin for posting this on her blog: Beth at Home and Abroad]

During her keynote speech at the Grow Food Symposium, Oakland farmer Novella Carpenter made a joke about living next to vegans while raising “edible pets.” It was one of many laugh-out-loud moments that evening. She told stories of cruising the dumpsters  of Chinatown for scraps to feed her pigs and ordering turkey poults online: “They looked stunned” when she took them out of the box and put them in their new home in the parking lot she turned into  a farm.

Carpenter noted that growing vegetables was much less lucrative than growing pot and then asked, “What plant do you want to commune with?” Jokes aside, the topic of making urban farming profitable came up again and again at the symposium. “It’s a hustle,” Carpenter said, and she wasn’t just talking about her own farm. She wants her neighbors in Oakland to make a living as well.

I had no idea that many people consider urban farming to be a cute hobby or that some urban farmers consider the nonprofit farm model to be a problem. Amanda Weaver of Five Fridges Farm and Derek Mullen of Everitt Farms think that the best way to get people to value locally grown food is to charge a fair price for it. She stresses that farmers are business owners.

Although many attendees do make money from their farms, and although Lisa Rogers of Feed Denver, which hosted the symposium, said it’s possible to earn $20,000 from a quarter-acre farm, no one was pretending urban farming was a get-rich-quick scheme. Weaver, for example, teaches geography at CU–Denver in addition to farming, and Mullen said that he and his wife Khamise made more money from selling Christmas trees in 2014 than from selling produce.

Diversifying is the key to success in more ways than one. Urban farmers don’t grow monocultures; they plant a variety of vegetables and herbs close to each other, making it more difficult for weeds to flourish and for one insect to wipe out an entire crop. They may sell cottage foods and eggs as well as produce. All of them are trying to build community in some way, but most of all, they want to rebuild local and regional food infrastructure.

And that, I think, may be where many of the future jobs in urban farming lie. Feed Denver’s website states that there are about 300 farms in Colorado that produce vegetables. Lisa Rogers wants that number to grow to a million small farms producing food for local consumption.

So Colorado needs a lot of farmers, yes, but it also needs people to train them, to help improve the soil, topickle the vegetables, to slaughter the chickens when they are too old to lay anymore. It needs people to set up local versions of the High Plains Food Coop and a labor cooperative to funnel workers to farmers when they most need help—during planting and harvest.

What else do urban farmers need? Candice Orlando of Urbiculture Community Farms stressed that access to land is problematic now in Denver, with its soaring real estate values. Urbiculture is a nonprofit multi-plot farm that grows food in yards and other spaces throughout Denver. One of their locations was recently sold for $3 million. Dan Graeve of True Roots Farm told a similar story. His farm has recently moved to a new location on the border between Golden and Arvada, and the old location will be developed.

Until urban farms are valued as highly as parks, for example, people will continue to sell their land to developers rather than leasing it to farmers. Sundari Kraft of Heirloom Gardens suggested convincing city officials to provide a tax deduction to people leasing their yards to urban farmers.

Chris Sramek of High Plains Food Coop spoke of bridging the urban-rural divide by telling people in rural areas what they want to hear. They want young people to return to rural areas, so if you can show that young people are interested in starting small farms, you will be able to convince politicians to value urban farming more.

The most important idea I took from this symposium was that of abundance—that there is room and to spare for Denverites to produce more of their own food, in small farms, in gardens, on roofs, and in greenhouses. And not only that: many homeowners are open to the idea of someone leasing their land. One attendee said he uses Google Maps to find land for farming. He claimed there is a lot of land people don’t want to take care of and they will line up to get someone to garden it.

Who knew growing in soil would be so revolutionary in the 21st century? Around the world people are realizing one of the healthiest responses to climate change is to develop farming practices that steward and protect land while producing healthy, natural food. Even in cities, soil farming is proving to be an antidote to the limited and dismal opportunities of our low wage, service industry heavy job markets. Learn more about being a farmer in the city at the Grow Food Symposium, March 20 & 21st.

The fastest growing job sector is the service industry with its hard, uninspiring, long hours, and limited advancement opportunities. Jobs where you are the public face of a company that does not support you with insurance, family leave, or retirement options. Fast food, health care, prison, retail stores, phone banks, data input, video scanning, child care, teaching, and the list goes on. Some of these are honorable jobs, some just placeholders until robots can fill the need. All of them offering minimal wage or less, none of them providing long term commitment or security to you.

Urban farming actually offers an interesting alternative in this service-heavy job market. If you are a self-starting, creative, hands-on sort of person urban farming can provide a modest income in an environment you build yourself, maybe even in your own backyard.

A small yard can build a solid supplemental income while also providing home-grown food for your family. This sort of financial offset can be significant when you consider the average organic vegetable ranges from $3-8 per pound. If you can have chickens you will never need to buy eggs again. At $6 and more per dozen for pasture raised hen eggs this is noteworthy.

A creative, entrepreneurial-minded urban farmer with access to a quarter acre of front and back yard space can gross up to $20K per year and more. The use of regenerative soil techniques and agrarian principles will bring more than a return on the investment of the first years but will lead to rapidly diminishing investment needs in future years. A healthy farm builds itself with proper care.    

This is not easy work but it’s not as bad as working for a landscape company, construction crew, or even in a restaurant kitchen. It takes a person who is not afraid of getting dirty, who enjoys the outdoors, and who will put in the time it takes to get a job done. The hours are flexible but the work requires commitment.

The most difficult part of the work of being an urban farmer is finding your market. Where does an urban farmer find people who want to eat healthy local food these days? What about people looking for healthy worm and soil products for their own gardens? The very special gift city farmers have is they live in communities full of people who eat and garden. And we are blessed in Denver and Colorado to have governments and zoning that respect the economic and environmental opportunities offered to neighborhoods with urban farms and gardens. The City of Denver Cottage Food Act allows a person to sell produce and simple baked and canned goods from their very own front porch. Attracting customers is dependent on your own community engaging creativity. Working a farm might be a solitary endeavor but selling to market is definitely not. Growing a product and selling it to your neighbor is at the true heart of economics. This is what creates a healthy community and a strong business – farming in the city.

What do future urban farmers look like in 2015? Meet Jamie Purcell and Cassandra Bush. These power women run the Wyoming Food for Thought Project - an organization dedicated to creating systemic change in their local food system through direct outreach to children through weekend food bags, as well as the management of year-round farmers markets and community gardens.

The food issues we have in cities are endemic. One single approach is not going to solve this convoluted and complicated problem. Jamie and Cassie are dedicated to chipping away at both ends. Making healthy food available to children in food desert communities while simultaneously teaching and encouraging new urban farmers in these very communities. Nothing is more empowering than growing food where there is little and creating a business that helps feed your family and your soul at the same time.

Jamie and Cassie are looking forward to the Grow Food Symposium where they can connect with other grassroots organizers, learn more about urban farming, and create lasting partnerships.

My husband and I are aspiring urban farmers in Denver. We're finding that some of our biggest challenges with getting our hands dirty is connecting with the right resources and finding land. We're experiencing that the most valuable information and the most helpful resources are from the small network of farmers in the area, growers and those that are involved in the urban farming movement. The networks and relationships that we're starting to build are providing us with the most momentum and inspiration to move forward.  We have learned that there is no handbook to figuring out our challenges, but we instead need to continue to build networks with other people and join forces with other farmers for us to begin to develop our urban farm and our ideas.

We're anticipating that the 'Grow Food Symposium' will give us an opportunity to not only meet some of the more significant figures in the urban farming movement, but it will give a chance to add more to our web of resources and relationships. We hope to gain specific knowledge from the speakers at the symposium of what has worked for them and what has failed. We're looking forward to making those connections that will help us move our venture forward and possibly partner up with others that understand we have to work together at some level.

The way we choose to work in the 21st century is changing the face of our cities. People are taking work home. Whether from disenchantment or disenfranchisement, entrepreneurially minded folks are creating livelihoods from their residences. And urban farming is at the forefront of this movement.

Today’s newspaper explores the Denver City Council task force on the sharing economy as they try to get a handle on the impacts of Uber and Lyft, AirBnB and VRBO.  Last year they passed the Cottage Food Act allowing urban farmers and others to create limited food businesses from residences. There are pros and cons to the regulation of the sharing economy but its strength is shown by the need of cities to engage and recognize this new level of local economy. If you can’t beat ‘em, regulate ‘em!

This new developing economy is changing the way we see and use our homes. Homes are now creating value rather than simply draining our resources through mortgages and rent, dependent only on volatile real estate markets. A home that can facilitate a supplemental income of a few thousand dollars a year in producing fresh produce or a small business in baking or canning could create the opportunity for a parent to stay home with children rather than take limited jobs that would barely cover child care in the first place. Creative adults bound to home due to disability or caring for a loved one with disabilities might be able to earn a few thousand dollars from home by growing herbs and vegetables and selling them at local markets.

More than a decade of unemployment and underemployment has kindled a do-it-yourself drive in many people to attain their own form of sovereignty. Urban farming is one of the most accessible home businesses if you have some yard space, like being outdoors, and enjoy meeting new people at markets. Using natural growing methods focused on healthy soil, bio-intensive planting, and techniques for growing year-round an urban farmer could see revenues in the thousands of dollars from a backyard. Creative marketing and value-added preservation techniques could double or triple that.

If you want to learn more about opportunities in urban farming come to Feed Denver’s Grow Food Symposium, March 20th & 21st at the Highland Event Center. 

Tuesday we held our first film fest screening of DIRT! The Movie. As I watched it I became more aware of the the discrepancy between what we, as a culture, consider wealth and what is the actual, physical wealth of a community.

The word RICHNESS came to mind as I watched the film explore the vastness of the world of soil and, the complexity of its place in our ecosystem. The word DEVASTATION came to mind later as they clearly showed how we have decimated our planet.

The disregard we show our soil is reflected in the disregard we show in other areas of our collective lives. The separation and hoarding of mineral resources to the detriment of the whole soil biome is not dissimilar to the way we manage our economies and corporations, education systems and governments. Wealth derived for few, by extractions causing grave imbalance and breakdowns of natural systems, is not real wealth. There is a statement that circulates attributed to various individuals from different global first nations that goes something like this: when there is no food they will realize they can't eat money.

So, how do we build RICHNESS for ourselves, our families, our communities? I believe we need to begin by rebuilding the richness of our planet and that begins with the soil. Even though our access to soil is limited in urban settings, the work of urban farmers is as important as that done by stewards of larger pieces of land. If we can we must - in our own small way - create healthy soil, stabilize that soil with healthy plants and trees, engage with those plants as stewards and co-creators of small food producing ecosystems. These systems and our communities and economies need to be tended gently to grow stronger season by season, year by year. This is not a short game. This is a forever mission if it is truly our intention to live healthy, rich lives here in the Rocky Mountain region. 

We - your team at Feed Denver: Urban Farms & Markets - build our RICHNESS by getting our hands dirty growing healthy and nutritious food. Creating markets to make that food available to you and our neighbors. We educate ourselves continually to find better, healthier ways to nurture our soil and plants. We share our knowledge hoping that it will be disseminated like pollen by the bees or seeds on the wind. We create forums where urban farmers and aspiring urban farmers and growers can cross-pollinate and fertilize one another with experiences and knowledge but most of all with support because it is a daunting task.

Farmers are a target for extraction from a society that does not recognize their value and role in stabilizing the very earth and environment we live in. They are the first link in the chain that includes our grocery stores, restaurants, school cafeterias, and all food, natural fuel, and fiber industries. If that chain is not stable, nothing is stable. Cheaper, quicker, more perfect vegetables and fruit is the mantra for that extraction. Food should be free, meals should be cheap, "if I buy more can I get it for less?' are all statements of extraction that devalue the farmer, the land, and the soil. Farmers are also targets for carpetbaggers purporting to offer the magical elixir of easy solutions for just a wee (wink) investment - equipment and amendments, pesticides and fertilizers to grow faster, cheaper. 

Our culture here in the Denver/Boulder bubble places higher value and attention to the supply chain around the farmer although it is the farm that provides the most basic resources for those other organizations.  But can we expect anything different as our larger over-culture shows so little respect to food workers and their compatriots in the caring and service industries - teachers, care workers, veterans, need I go on.

The RICHNESS of our community can be found in the support and respect shown to true farmers and their products, not the romantic idealism lip-service expressed in SuperBowl ads and green-washed marketing. The RICHNESS of our economy can be found in the attention to and support of restorative land-stewardship livelihoods. We need to build our RICHNESS from the soil up where we are and in our communities; in the decision-making we do at home and in our jobs; in seeing beyond the mind-numbing mantra of more, more, cheaper, cheaper (squirrel!) distractions.

We can build RICHNESS by learning about and engaging with our earth, in supporting and creating urban (and rural) soil regenerating farms and gardens here in our communities. And, as a community, by rethinking our policies and values, committing to them resources like land and time...as much time as we ourselves expect to be on this planet. RICHNESS doesn't come from separating and hoarding. It comes from opening our eyes to the state of our environment, taking responsibility to do something about it, and a dedication to creating a better world. Call it pie-eyed optimism but that's what the new farmers we work with are doing: building RICHNESS.

Join our upcoming events and classes, films and farm markets to build your own portfolio of RICHNESS.