“...prodigal summer, the season of extravagant procreation. It could wear out everything in its path with its passionate excesses, but nothing alive with wings or a heart or a seed curled into itself in the ground could resist welcoming it back when it came.” --Barbara Kingsolver Despite the ravages of COVID-19, our school gardens and subtenant farms are burgeoning. We invite the public to visit and take home a bag of veggies. Sign up here at our website for a scheduled, small-group, socially-distanced, face-covered one-hour tour. |
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FARM BOX PROGRAM PROCEEDS, WITH 3-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION OPPORTUNITY |
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The Farm Box Program began in Fall 2019 as a Pacific Beach Continuation High School Enterprise Project. Students harvested, washed, packaged and marketed the vegetables they grew at City Farm to 30 satisfied customers four times before onsite classes shut down in March. We are continuing the Program while we await students' return, shifting to a CSA model, whereby shares are prepaid to support future production. Only 30 subscriptions are available, for $100 each covering 3 boxes. Pick-up is at the farmstand at 1221 Calle Joaquin 3-4pm on the following dates: August 27, September 24 and October 22, 2020 (pumpkin included!). Additional times and places will be announced soon. SIGN UP FORM |
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EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS CONTINUE DURING SUMMER AND FALL |
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City Farm hosted Steam Ahead, a summer enrichment program led by instructor Jen Dudley designed to engage girls in science, technology, engineering, entrepreneurship, arts, and mathematics- so they can believe in the possibility of a career in STEM! Our Global Family Garden, a partner and tenant of City Farm SLO, invites you to the farm for Family Fun on the Farm Fridays 10 AM -noon. |
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Our new subtenant and partner, Mariposa Education, is running an Outdoor Daycamp August 10-14 and is getting ready for their year-round Program beginning in September. |
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Francisco Martinot joins Javier Magana, Abimael Basurto, Katie Ikard, and Corey Richmond as City Farm subtenants growing commercial crops. It took him just a few days to prepare the soil and plant starts, and he's looking forward to his first harvest this Fall. |
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Back in February 2019, when the Farm was too muddy for Pacific Beach High School students to work in the garden, they constructed an Owl Box in their classroom. The hope was that it would draw Barn Owls to help control our gopher and ground squirrel problems. It was mounted to a pole shortly thereafter, but remained empty for 17 months, until the night of August 4th 2020, when Katie Ikard texted: "There’s an owl in the owl box in your garden! He/she is very vocal!" and the night of August 5th when one posed for a picture. |
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NO-TILL CARBON FARMING PAYS OFF |
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The striking bounty of this summer’s harvests shows that our experiment with improving soil health and sequestering carbon is now working. Rather than rototilling, disking or digging, we’ve covered the heavy clay dirt with soaked cardboard and planted directly into a thick application of compost, allowing soil microbes to do their work undisturbed and enriched. This” no-tilll” technique has been used successfully by tenants Katie iKard and Teresa Lees and is also espoused by Cal Poly Professors of Soil Ecology, Charlotte DeCock and of Agroecology, Nicolas Babin, who visited City Farm in July. It’s been supported by an “Existing Activity Payment” just awarded by the National Resources Conservation Service as a result of assistance by Soil Conservationist Cheryl Zelus and her staff. |
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DONATIONS TO FOOD BANK AND SLCUSD FOOD SERVICE |
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At least once per week we've delivered freshly harvested produce from our quarter-acre plot for free distribution to families in need. |
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For the whole story in pictures, check out our Flickr site and/or our Instagram feed. City Farm News monthly newsletter is archived here. |
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