Celebrating NW urban food harvests

Source: urbiculturecommunityfarms.org via James on Pinterest

NORTH DENVER – UrbiCulture Community Farms celebrated the 2nd annual tour of Sunnyside’s local farms, “Tour de Harvest.” Founded by Candice and Jon Orlando, this urban farmer couple embarked on a mission to bring fresh produce to local families and women’s shelters, Family Tree and Safehouse. Irene Glazer was the first Sunnyside citizen to offer her garden as a testing ground for the concept. Since then twelve local yards and large, often barren plots, have given up grass, weeds and mowing as hosts to this urban farming affair. Sixty CSA members benefit from the fruits (and vegetables) of this labor of love by belonging to the consortium that provides garden fresh produce on a weekly basis. In addition, families in need are provided with fresh food, as an alternative to convenience store and fast food fare. On September 15th over 100 curiosity seekers and “localvores” set out on foot or bike to tour nine of these gardens for a progressive dinner party followed by a street side hootenanny. Gardens ranged from small front yards to mammoth back gardens, all punctuated with verdant leafy greens, eggplant, tomatoes, pumpkins, squash, and plants that shall remain nameless to many who wondered. Jon Orlando explained, “The trick is how you can grow a huge amount in a dense space. We don’t grow broccoli because it attracts aphids. We grow leaf lettuce, not head lettuce, because we can get two or three yields in a season. We live in a desert environment where climactic swings make it hard to manage gardens, so we utilize staggered planting to increase our output.” FULL STORY