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|  ECO City Farms October 2016 |
A NEW SEASON AND A NEW FARMER!
We at ECO are so thrilled to welcome our new farm manager, Aaron Griner to our organization. Aaron is an experienced farmer, growing up on his family's farm in Thomasville, Georgia, where they raised peanuts, cotton and beef. Aaron developed his own produce business on the farm, Rock Hill Organics, where he ran a CSA and also pioneered farm to table in his community by providing produce to a local restaurant. He also served in the Peace Corps, providing agricultural extension services as a food security specialist in Togo, West Africa for two years.
Aaron brings a wealth of farming knowledge to us at ECO and has lots of new ideas for us. Below is an introduction from Aaron himself.
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Greetings from the farm! My name is Aaron Griner, and I am your new lead farmer here at ECO City Farms. I am a seventh generation farmer, gardener, educator, and food junkie from Thomasville, Georgia. After serving as an agricultural extension agent in the Peace Corps, I moved to D.C. to follow my passion for sustainable, local, and above all, delicious food. On my days off I can be found out and about with my girlfriend Beth and my dog Chewie exploring this great community we now call home.
 In case you haven't noticed, fall is in the air! The ECO Farm staff and interns have been busily working to transition our production from the summer to the fall season: frost covers are being brought out from storage, hoop houses (pictured) are being refitted, and mulch is being installed by the truckload. In the coming weeks, be on the look out for all of the great things that come with the cool weather: collard and mustard greens, fresh lettuce and spinach, Romanesco cauliflower and those sinfully sweet radishes and carrots we all adore.
- Farmer Aaron
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ECO Update
Check out this
article
by OneGlobe Citizen about their visit to the Bladensburg Farm.
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Fall & Winter Farmshares Now Available
Sign up now for a farm share from ECO City Farms! ECO will offer a limited number of weekly farmshares (also called CSAs) of locally grown produce each week this fall and winter season. Members sign up and pay for the entire season ahead of time, then pick up their share of produce each week at designated locations.
ABOUT OUR PRODUCE
ECO grows sustainably using organic, chemical free methods at our two urban farms in Edmonston and Bladensburg, MD. We also purchase a small amount of produce from small sustainable farmers in the area to supplement the CSA.
WHAT DO I GET EACH WEEK?
The fall/winter share mostly contains: collards, swiss chard, kale, bok choi, kohlrabi, radishes, arugula, spinach, lettuces, mustard greens, scallions, microgreens, turnips, garlic and apples.
SHARE OPTIONS
Large, small and eggshares available.
Fall season runs October 13 - December 15.
Winter season runs January 12 to March 2, 2017.
For prices and the application, click HERE.
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Beginning Farmer Training Program- Now Accepting Applications
While there is no simple step-by-step method to become a farmer, ECO City Farm's
Growing Urban Farms and Farmers
program is designed to help an aspiring, new, or beginning farmer learn the information and practice the skills they need to farm- from the ground up. The training program builds upon all of ECO's offerings over the past six years. It includes comprehensive practical hands-on experiences, one-on-one mentoring, and a well-tested graphics-rich, culturally-appropriate curriculum that includes all of the crop production, resource management, business and administrative skills needed for graduates to roll up their sleeves and farm on their own land.
Learn more about this program on our
WEBSITE.
To apply for the program click
HERE. The deadline is Monday, November 28th. Only twelve participants will be selected. A fully completed application -with two references- is required. All candidates will be interviewed in person or via internet chat program prior to acceptance.
For more information, please contact Gabrielle Rovegno at ECOnewfarmer@gmail.com or (301) 244-5969.
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Volunteer Days
Open volunteer hours end in November, there's still time to come on out! ECO City Farms serves the community and without the incredible help of volunteers like you, we could not exist.
Volunteer days are Saturdays from 9am to 12pm
. 1st and 3rd at the Edmonston Farm and 2nd and 4th at the Bladensburg Farm.
We offer free public tours at 12:15pm after volunteer day. Please contact Kayla (kayla@ecocityfarms.org) to register to join!
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Riverdale Park Farmers Market
Thursdays 3-7pm
ECO has a regular farm stand at the year-round
Riverdale Park Farmers Market
. The market is outdoors, great atmosphere for the fall season.
Enjoy the live music and conversation. Visit our stand and peruse what's in season and share your yummy recipes us.
The Riverdale Park Farmers Market is
located in the MARC train station parking lot (4650 Queensbury Road Riverdale Park, MD 20737).
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