In the News
July 7, 2011
http://mlf.org/tag/paige-hill/
July 27, 2011
Grow Your Own Personal or Community Garden!
by Shelley Seale – “30 Days at a Time”
[O]ne thing you may not have considered is the possibility of actually growing your own food, in your very own garden or urban farm!
[excerpt]…Paige and her members work the gardens planted in community yards, as well as raising chickens and fish. The members learn how to garden, work the land, and share in the food it provides. The first Urban Patchwork garden was in a front yard, which generated a lot of interest. “People would walk by and ask about the plants, wanting to know more about this and about that,” Paige says. “It really brings communities together.” Food security is an important part of the urban farming movement for her, as well as preserving the knowledge of providing our own food in contrast to the relatively new, post-WWII habits of processed, supermarket and fast foods….
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Summer, 2011
Community Wealth City: Austin, Texas
.
Austin recognized as this summer’s “Community Wealth City” with Urban Patchwork listed as one of the “urban agriculture wealth building efforts”:
[excerpt]…Urban Patchwork was Austin’s first non-profit neighborhood farm network and Community Supported Agriculture. It helps neighbors turn unused yard space into farmland to produce vegetables, fruit, nuts and eggs….[end excerpt]
Community-Wealth.org is a project of The Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland, College Park.
The Democracy Collaborative was established in 2000 to advance a new understanding of democracy for the 21st century and to promote new strategies and innovations in community development that enhance democratic life.
The Collaborative is a national leader in the field of community development through our Community Wealth Building Initiative. The Initiative sustains a wide range of projects involving research, training, policy development, and community-focused work designed to promote an asset-based paradigm and increase support for the field across-the-board.
Read more about Austin’s recognition as a Community Wealth City by clicking here.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Kids and Gardens: A Patch Made In Heaven
Contact: PowerandLightGlow@comcast.net
[excerpt]…
“Why shouldn’t you tell a secret in the garden?” Because the corn has ears and the potatoes have eyes…
and the beanstalk.
Apparently, the beanstalk is also a tattletale and was added to the list of gossipmongers in the garden since I first heard this joke many years ago. To the clever little jokester who shared this latest version with me, beware: you probably shouldn’t tell a lie in the garden either lest you become entangled in the notorious grapevine, fall down, and squash your funny bone….[end excerpt]
“…Kids R Farmers – The 6701 Burnet Road Market in Austin, Texas is collaborating with Urban Patchwork Neighborhood Farms on a program called, “Kids R Farmers.” Jean Kruse, Market Director, has dedicated a patch of land at the market to nurture kids’ natural curiosity about gardening while parents shop for supper. The Saturday morning events focus on soil preparation, harvesting, and composting.”
Click here to read more at: http://freerangeyoga.blogspot.com/
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
A PROBLEM WORTH SOLVING
By Kate Clabby, Daily Texan Columnist
[exerpt]..If we want to encourage urban farming, we should find a way to make it more feasible by offering farmers fair water prices that reflect the way that they actually use water…[end exerpt]
In the city of Austin, you pay for most of the water you use twice: once when it comes into your house and once when it goes out. Your water bill covers the costs of extracting water from Lake Austin or Town Lake, filtering it and treating until it is clean enough to drink and delivering it to your home. Your wastewater bill covers the costs of cleaning the water you’ve used and getting it up to EPA standards before it is released back into the Colorado River. Since wastewater is much dirtier than lake water, wastewater treatment costs the Austin Water Utility more than drinking water treatment. Consequently, most people find that their wastewater bills are higher than their water bills.
Read more at the Daily Texan by clicking here.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
30 November, 2010
COMMUNITY GARDENS IN PRIVATE BACKYARDS
Austin, TX
An Austin organization is taking a new approach to community farming.
Urban Patchwork Neighborhood Farms is opening community gardens not in empty lots, but in people’s back yards. They’ve opened about ten since they got started in mid-2009.
KUT’s Nathan Bernier talked to Paige Hill with Urban Patchwork Neighborhood Farms.
Listen to their conversation by clicking here.
— Nathan Bernier
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
23 November, 2010
Community gardens sprouting up in yards
New organization brings farming to city
Updated: Tuesday, 23 Nov 2010, 5:33 AM CST
Published : Tuesday, 23 Nov 2010, 5:15 AM CST
Click here to read the story on the KXAN website
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
01 September, 2010
Tribeza – Sustainable Styles
Photography by Kenny Braun
Paige Hill, Founder, Urban Patchwork Neighborhood Farms
All my life I have had an innate connection with nature and an awareness of how impossible it is for humanity to dominate it or separate from it, no matter how hard we try. My hope is that we stop trying.
We envision all of Austin covered in a network of community-focused neighborhood farms that everyone considers as an abundant primary food source. In this future, the power of community and a collective dedication to everyone having access to healthy, safe, affordable food is the answer to our current failing food systems. read more…
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11 August, 2010
Farmer’s Blog (Flog?): Keith McDorman with Urban Patchwork
Keith and I met at Johnson’s Backyard Garden when Travis and I started as interns. Keith was halfway through his internship. He had come back to the States after a stint in Jamaica with the Peace Corps. He was then and he remains one of the most dedicated, hardworking people I’ve met.
I grew up in the countless miles of suburbs that surround Los Angeles. In that place I learned that food comes from grocery stores. The cows down the street (Chino’s once lucrative dairy industry) simply gave our city its reputation – an olfactory impression that wafted to the wrinkled noses of our closest neighbors. It was a city of CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) and I learned absolutely nothing about them, save for the fact that they smelled horrid and brought with them a pestilence of flies every summer….
Click here to read more at “Dissertation to Dirt”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15 April, 2010
Organizations aim to pepper Austin with urban farms.
By Asher Price
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 10:27 a.m. Friday, April 16, 2010
Published: 8:47 p.m. Thursday, April 15, 2010
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
09 December, 2009
Urban Patchwork – The Farm Next Door
