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North Richmond Farm
323 Brookside Drive, Richmond CA 94801
July 3, 2018
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North Richmond Farm Newsletter
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- NEWS from the North Richmond Farm
- Growing Food, People Community: Young leaders at the North Richmond Farm
- From UC Santa Cruz to Richmond with Love: Farm Exchange
- North Richmond Farm Construction Updates
- 2018 Summer Youth Apprentice Program Begins
- What's Growing at the Farm?
- North Richmond Free Farm Stand
- Join the Farm to Table CSA
- GET INVOLVED!
- Volunteer: Saturday July 28th, 10am- 1pm, Community Build Volunteer Day
- Host an event at the Farm
- DONATE: Support the North Richmond Farm
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GROWING FOOD, PEOPLE
& COMMUNITY
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Young Leaders at the North Richmond Farm
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The North Richmond Farm is dedicated to improving our community by growing healthy produce for local residents. Urban Tilth has hired a strong team of young adults from this community, to care for this land. Their tireless efforts are manifested in the improving soil quality and the yummy veggies that grow at the farm. Tania Hammond, Luis Jacobo, Maria Hernandez and Deandre Evans maintain our crops by planting, watering, weeding, harvesting and caring for our 64 fruit tree orchard. Their collective work now feeds over 75 families every week. They also host our volunteer days, lead tours and are learning to lead our farm education programs.
Thanks to the tremendous efforts of these young adults and members of the Richmond community, people power continues to move the Farm forward!
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From UC Santa Cruz to Richmond with Love
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On June 20th, we were excited to host our annual farm work exchange with our partners at the
Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems at UC Santa Cruz. For 3 years now the new CASFS apprentices learning at the fabulous 50 year old farm at UC Santa Cruz have come to the North Richmond Farm to learn about what we do and help us develop our farm. This year they blessed our land by helping us expand the growing space at the farm. They built out 2 new, 50 ft long, 4 ft wide farm beds. By layering compost, manure, woody organic materials, and straw; while letting these layers decompose, we will grow nutrient rich soil that should be ready to plant next spring. Just these two new beds will increase our growing area by 400 square feet! That’s a lot of heirloom tomatoes.
The Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems has an established 50 year old farm where instructors and students share our mission for advancing sustainable food and agricultural systems. The 50 UCSC Farm Apprentices who volunteered this year, helped move us weeks ahead in our farm development schedule by donating just 3 hours of their collective time. We are so grateful for their service!
What’s even better is that now our 40 Richmond Youth Apprentices will have the opportunity to journey down to Santa Cruz this summer and help out on the UCSC 50 year old farm, learning about their well developed systems and seeing a perfect example of what our farm can be in future. This learning exchange has been very exciting for us. We enjoyed a hot sunny day, shared food, and stories amongst each other. Thank you for a lovely visit.
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FARM CONSTRUCTION UPDATES
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Urban Tilth is proud to share our latest updates from the farm. After finally establishing EBMUD water service at the farm in May 2018, we are elated to begin a 6 month journey towards developing the new crop rows on the 2 acres of land that will become the final growing spaces for the farm. For the past 2 years we have been cleaning, testing and amending with nutrients and cover cropping this area. Now we are finally ready to bring the 1st - 4000 square foot area of growing space into production. In order to do this we will be launching our “Season of Service” Volunteer Project where we will be hosting large volunteer groups who can help us build out the new crop rows. This time next year, we should have 20 - 50 feet long, 4 feet wide. nutrient rich, crop rows available for growing more veggies, providing a larger harvest for our community!
In these times when the realities of drought and climate change are all around us, conserving water is a key concern. With summer upon us, we are happy to announce that we have just completed the installation of a new drip irrigation system in our 64 fruit tree Orchard. Now we can give our fruit trees what they need to grow the delicious fruit we love, while conserving water.
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We are very excited to see our days of manual watering coming to an end.
We are also excited to announce that we have completed the installation of our new walk-in cooler at the farm. So now we can harvest our veggies when they are ready to harvest and store them at the proper temperature. This infrastructural improvement will end the need for us to harvest and distribute all of our produce in the same day.
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Tania Hammond, Our Farm Manager in Training showing off the carrot harvest
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To learn more about the
Season of Service
Volunteer Project , or to sign up your organization or company to participate please contact Princess Robinson, princess@urbantilth.org
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2018 Summer Youth Apprentice Program
Urban Tilth has hired 40 youth to learn about urban agriculture in our Summer Apprentice Program. This program educates and trains youth to become leaders in our community. The Summer Apprentice Program is a rare opportunity for West County youth to join a dynamic and positive group of their peers for a life changing summer of intensive urban agriculture training, community engagement, mind-opening field trips and paid summer employment.
During the course of this intensive 6-week program, youth learn to work together to grow fresh, healthy, organic food for our community while developing meaningful life skills.
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Come by Tuesday - Thursday 10am-1pm to meet our North Richmond Farm Summer Apprentices.
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Summer Apprentice Program Staff Training
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To learn more about the Summer Youth Apprentice Program contact Adam Boisvert, adam@urbantilth.org or
click here
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WHAT’S GROWING AT THE FARM?
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This spring and summer, our farm crew has started to plant more flowers, herbs and medicinal plants, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, onions, carrots, potatoes, greens, and more.
The herbs and medicinal plants will become ingredients in our handmade natural products such as soap, lip balm, honey, fruit jams and more.
This Fall we plan want to expand our Farm Stand by adding new products and offering new community workshops so anyone can learn to make these products themselves. Stay Tuned!
FOOD FOR ALL
The food we grow at the North Richmond Farm is grown with love for this community. There are a number of ways you can get fresh healthy food from the North Richmond Farm. The easiest is to stop by on a Monday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday mornings between 10am - 1pm and volunteer with our farm crew, and then harvest what you want to bring home and enjoy with your family.
We also have a FREE Farm Stand Produce Giveaway every Tuesday in North Richmond.
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(Left)
Tuesday Free Farm Stand for local residents in North Richmond
You can also support the farm and Urban Tilth’s educational programs like the Summer Apprentice Program by becoming a member of the Farm to Table CSA produce box program. It’s a great way to make a contribution while also receiving a delicious box of fresh veggies every week.
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Learn more about these opportunities to get fresh, healthy produce below.
North Richmond FREE Farm Stand
Join us every Tuesday, for our FREE produce giveaway in North Richmond. Come to the corner of Fred Jackson Way & Chelsey Ave from 1pm until the veggies are gone. Come early and be the first to get farm fresh, delicious, free veggies!
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JOIN THE
FARM TO TABLE CSA
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Get a 10-lb box of delicious and nutritious, locally grown seasonal fruits and vegetables every week.
The Farm to Table CSA is Urban Tilth’s youth and local resident-run social entrepreneurial venture providing
boxes of fresh, locally-grown produce to West County residents at an affordable cost. You can sign up for weekly or bi-weekly service, pick-up or delivery. Funds raised help employ and train local youth and support our school and community garden and farm programs
. Our mission is to make sure FRESH, locally grown and organic produce is accessible to all West Contra Costa residents.
There are also opportunities to sponsor a low income family.
Sign up today!
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VOLUNTEER at the Farm
Don't miss out on our 4th Saturday Community Build Volunteer Days!
Every month on the 4th Saturday you can volunteer at the farm and help us build out new areas of the farm and help grow food for our community.
Upcoming 4th Saturday Community Build Volunteer Days:
- July 28th, 2018, 10am- 1pm
- August 25th, 2018, 10am- 1pm
- September 22nd, 10am -1pm
HOST an event at the Farm
The North Richmond Farm is planning to host new community events so that more people, especially families, can come out and enjoy this space. If you have an event idea we would love to hear it.
For event ideas, for more information about hosting an event at the farm, to volunteer or arrange a volunteer day for your community organization or company please Contact:
princess@urbantilth.org
or
Taniah@urbantilth.org
(Espanol) for more info!
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SUPPORT the North Richmond Farm
Urban Tilth is continuing to raise funds to develop the North Richmond Farm. Help grow the future we need to THRIVE.
Consider making a 100% tax deductible donation to support the North Richmond Farm today.
You can also make a contribution by visiting our website
www.urbantilth.org
or by sending a check to:
Urban Tilth
323 Brookside Dr
Richmond, CA 94801
THANK YOU!
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