1st ANNUAL EMERALD STREET URBAN FARM-RAISER and NEIGHBORHOOD COOKOUT

HERE IT IS…WHAT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!!!!!!

We are holding our FIRST EVER EMERALD STREET URBAN FARM AND EAST KENSINGTON NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION FARM-RAISER and NEIGHBORHOOD COOKOUT!

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 26th    FROM  12-9

AT THE EMERALD STREET URBAN FARM PROJECT

Corner of Emerald and Dauphin Streets

East Kensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Kids Games, BBQ, Pig Roast, Beer from PBC, A feast of Local Foods mostly grown at ESUF, Music from Jubel Jenkins, TJ Kong and the Atomic Bomb, 2/3 Goat and DJ SnakPak, Raffle Prizes, T-Shirts, Pie Eating Contests, and Lots of Fun and Friends!

See you there!!!

SORRY FOR THE LACK OF POSTING…PICTURES!!!!!

WEll the summer is in full gear…and everything is growing great…we have even started having small pay what you want farm stands…more in depth post coming soon…enjoy the pics though! I can’t seem to figureo ut how to put them in chronological order….so the earliest are in the middle, the last pictures are the next and the first are most recent…I’m kinda internet illiterate sometimes!

FOOD for the Eating!

Well its been a while since we posted last…sorry bout that. But its because we have just been so busy doing work and planting, as well as our full time jobs that this whole internet blog thing fell by the wayside pretty quickly! But that said we had an awesome work day about 3 weeks ago. We planted the new bed with kale, collards, bok choi and chard! We also finished building the small flower beds for the corner and planted them and also put in a small brick patio  for hangin out amongst the flowers. The next week was crazy and hectic but we moved some dirt, started building our third bed and started screen printing our reusable grocery bags for the trenton avenue arts fest. This pas tweekend we didn’twork in the lots because of teh rain but we spent most of the weekend screnprintinng andwe finished making the bags and are very excited for the fest next weekend…hopefully people will buy them and we will make some money!!!! And lastly we had our first harvest…I pulled 6 bunchs of radishes…”the morale booster”…we asked the kids that have been helping us if they wanted to tae them home but they all scrunched the faces and shouted “Ew, i hate radishes”, or “Yuk, no I don’t want them” … oh well!!

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks….you can see how much stuff has grown especially now with all the rain!

Plant A Seed…

Well I just wanted to post some pictures we took when Shinea, Corrie and I planted in our first bed this past weekend!

SPRING!!

Well its here Folks! Warm sunshine, warm rain and apparently hail storms and all! Spring has arrived.

Check out this Video! – http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h155/podtrippin/?action=view&current=DSCN0702.flv

March 21st rolled around and I was unsure whether or not this whole spring thing even existed. After almost 2 years away from seasons, (an endless summer from Philly to California to New Zealand and then the seasonless Northwest) this winter really beat me up. I was a flat tire, loud music and “not another piece of garbage” away from finding the quickest way out of Philadelphia. But then I got my new job at Greensgrow, we received our seed donation from High Mowing Organic Seed, I finished our “cold frame”/greenhouse and started those seeds and suddenly my return to the “City that Loves You Back After Beating You Up a Few Times” really doesn’t seem that bad!

I woke up this morning bright and early with the birds, 6:00 to be exact. My eyes were foggy and my alarm clock just wouldn’t understand what snooze meant. So in my early morning  daze I lay under my warm sheets and realized that aside from my alarm clock, there wasn’t a singe abrasive noise entering my eardrums. My neighbors weren’t blasting their awful second rate hip hop, there weren’t mopeds and mini pocket rocket motor cycles roaring by and there wasn’t a single person screaming, as if the sky were falling, across the street. All I could here were birds, yes birds, a chorus of birds. I was dumbstruck. I lived in this city for almost 5 years, 2 of them were in this neighborhood, and nothing ever bothered me about the garbage, the noise, the lack of nature or the anger in any given person walking down the street. But a year and a half in California, New Zealand and Oregon will turn you into a person that forgets what life in the city is all about. Honestly, as much as life on the west coast and that exotic island on the other side of the world was easy going and surrounded by beauty, I realize how much the true and sometimes harsh realities of life that exist here in Philadelphia are what make life exciting and allow you to appreciate each breath, each swallow and each chew. It is easy to forget that the birds still sing, the sun does shines, the trees bloom and plants do still grow after the dreary and dark months of Philadelphia winters.

So as I was sitting on my back porch, enjoying my much needed strong coffee and watching the birds dive into the lots of the future Emerald Street Urban Farm for nesting materials, I looked around and realized how much we have accomplished since our last blog post. Elissa and I dusted off our “Timeline” last night and ended up crossing off basically everything!

On March 4th, Natalie brought over her drawings she has been working on for our farm design and we had a little pow wow! The drawings were AWESOME! We played around with ideas, erased, scribbled, and by the end had a great picture of what we hope to create here. 10 beds total for growing, a mini orchard, tool shed/rain water catchment, composting area, outdoor kitchen/community classroom, flower beds and signage were all included! Although it won’t all happen this summer, its nice to have a firm vision and goal to be working on.

Rachel and I went on a serious and adventurous search for construction sites to dumpster dive lumber for building projects. It didn’t take long for us to find a house on 16th and Ridge that was being rehabilitated. I had seen it before but this time we got out of the car and went and talked to the guys working on the house. There was copious amounts of lumber from 2×4’s to 2×12’s and sheets of ply wood scraps galore! The guys working on the house told we could take what we wanted, everything in sight was free for the taking. We rejoiced and took 2 full loads worth. It was enough to build a small house.

So with all that wood I finally had the motivation to start building our cold frame/seed starting greenhouse. It was complicated and I wanted to do it right so it took about 2 weeks to actually compete but it really turned out well. I used two double paned windows we got for free through Stan “the man” Gable, some 2×10’s and some fancy finishing wood we bought at home depot! Here are some pictures! Check out the awesome splinter I got…right through the skin of my whole finger!

So, now that we have our seed starting “device” I spent a few hours seeding several flats I was given at the Circle of Hope Urban Farm Team meeting! Oh yeah I forgot! I started a dialogue and getting involed with the Circle of Hope’s “Urban Farm Team”. I hope we can collaborate in the future!

So I got some compost and seeded Broccoli, Green Wave Mustard, Spinach, Chard, Parsley and Kale, all of which were donated by High Mowing Seed Company. Thanks High Mowing! But of course every success comes with some failures! So first off immediately after seeding 5 more flats of tomatoes and peppers for resale as a fundraiser at the Trenton Avenue Arts Fest, we met with our friend Aaron about business plan and incorporation stuff. It was a great meeting but it was abruptly ended because a CRAZY hail storm rolled in…pictures and video follows. So we lost a few plants in the hail storm.

But worst of all, I didn’t anticipate how hot our cold frame would get and on Monday I came home from work to find the inside of the cold frame close to 100 degrees. Most of the plants were fried but that’s not the end of it. I opened the lid to cool down the inside before I let Elissa’s “ADORABLE” new dog Honeypie out for a “pee and poop”. Then I left real quick to buy some stuff at the hardware store and when I returned Honeypie decided to have play time with our flats and sadly destroyed any life that existed. “Bad Farm Dog”! Sadly she is no longer with us…APRIL FOOLS!

Finally, our most recent accomplishments: I went and talked to the NKCDC about our project on Monday. They were super friendly and seemed to be interested in our project. We have been sending emails back and forth and I hope we can have a good relationship with them! Hopefully we can write an article for the Star’s column “Sustainable 19125″ in May about our project! After our meeting with the NKCDC Corrie and I got a truck and got one load of compost from Fairmount Park and One load of dirt from some ranomd guy off craigslist. We brought it back and finally filled in a bed and planted it with peas, beets, radishes and carrots.

As much as we have gotten a lot done, and the prospect of spring as finally arrived there is just one thing that has truly made this whole project worth it. Our neighbor Shenea, an 8 year old from around the corner stopped by and asked if she could help us plant. As she peaked through the chain link fence with her face painted like a butterfly, I thought, “Wow this is it, this is where it all begins”. She came in and we started planting peas together. She said she didn’t like peas very much but stated “There isn’t anything I can think of thats more excitin than plantin a garden!” Corrie and I looked at eachotehr smiling and it was that moment that I knew what we were doing here was a good thing, a fair thing and most definitely an important thing. She asked when were going to be working in the lots next and I told her Saturday. She was quite upset about that and exclaimed “I have to wait 5 whole days inside!” I told her to come by the next day and see if we were planting or seeding. She didn’t end up coming over but I really hope she comes back and helps. Her excitement and her awe really affected me. Now I can’t even wait 5 days to get back to work in the lots. I don’t think I’ll be sitting around twittling my thumbs inside any more…not after what Shinea told me thats for sure!

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Does this mean we are OFFICIAL?!

Hi farm friends!

I hope you are all well!

Welcome to our new BLOG!!!!

I figured this would be a great way to give updates and to post work days and other great stuff, also it would be a great place to direct people on our pamphlets and at fundraisers and when we have a table at events!!! YAY…Does this mean we are a little bit more official!!!

So here is an update on our progress!

WE GOT OUR SEED DONATION!!! 50 Packets from High Mowing Organic Seed Company!

We are having a meeting with Natalie the first week of March to discuss and finalize some ideas for the farm design. Wewill meet at 2312 Emerald st. We will let you know exactly when…All are invited!

The certified letters have been sent!

The soil sample has been sent!

Malachy finished our logo and layout and graphics for our pamphlet and petition.

Rafael is working on translating them into spanish.

I presented our Farm Project to EKNA on Monday! And while they seemed supportive they were not jumping out of their chairs to give us $$$.

And we would love your input and insights about a few things:

1. We have decided that we should slow down a bit, because we have no money, no soil and not much time to dive full on this year. So we are going to work on fundraising, developing a business plan, gaining community support, build our infrastructure and work on planting just the two present beds this season and make them look spectacular so it catches people’s eyes. We want to first get people’s attention, let people know what we are doing and make it gain momentum.

2. We think that it would be a good idea to have a table at the Trenton Avenue Arts Fest on May 16th. If we did that then we would need the farm liturature done by then. This is the same day as the Kinetic Sculpture Derby. I think that both event would be good for outreach. Perhaps turn our bikes into vegetables or something?? I also have started some t-shirt designs so we can sell some tshirts, also it might be nice to sell sunflower starts or something else that would be cute and fun for people!

We also need to plan a big fundraiser for the summer…Anyone have any ideas???!!! We have a few that we are working out…like a show, silent auction, barn dance/square dance, dance party, performance by artists…still working out the details.

2. I’d like to go talk to NKCDC in the next few days about our stuff. Today i thought long and hard about how if we are going to take this year as a complete planning year and develop a ligitimate business plan i’d like to explore more lots on Emerald Street to incorporate. If we can figure out how to make the business work and if we can build good infrastructure and focus on fundraising i think it would be great to really get out there and reclaim a lot of land…and grow a lot of food!!! I’d like to explore what NKCDC has to offer by way of land and also i’m hoping to reach out to Circle and talk with them about their garden and maybe we can start collaborating.

So please give us any feedback or thoughts you might have!!

Thank you all of being so supportive and joining us in this farm effort.

I dont know what we would do without friends like you guys and gals!!!