Urban Patchwork Neighborhood Farms

After months of silence, the Urban Patchwork blog finally trumpets happily some spring fresh tidings!

Greetings!  Allow me to introduce myself: I am Keith, a brand new staff farmer now working with Paige here at Urban Patchwork.

Much change is afoot as Paige and I scramble to prepare all the new plots, plant all the new plants, plan all the new plans and get everything rolling for the coming spring season.  We’re both very excited for what is coming and very much look forward to bringing to you the bounty of all our efforts!

In the meantime, please keep an eye out for a new website layout.  We’re revising and revamping this site to better suit the farm and better communicate all that is going on with us here at UP.  Thanks for your patience and enjoy the beautiful spring!

photo credits: taken for the blog of  Johnson’s Backyard Garden

This is reprinted from the August Crestview NA newsletter.

Imagine getting fresh, locally grown veggies and eggs delivered to your door each week for less than grocery store prices. Now that we have launched the first nonprofit urban farm right here in Crestview, this is a reality.

Urban Patchwork is Austin’s first nonprofit CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Our goal is to make local, natural food available and accessible for all of Austin and join the growing movement toward more sustainable living. Produce can now be planted, harvested and delivered all within the neighborhood. Visiting with the farmer and seeing the process is as easy as walking down the street.

The way it works is our farmers cultivate plots of land scattered across different properties in Crestview. Then we deliver weekly baskets of seasonal fresh produce and eggs to our members. We are committed to using ecologically sustainable methods without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers to control pests and diseases. We plant heirloom varieties which have been selected over generations for flavor and nutritional value.

Help us create a better tomorrow through better food. A limited number of pilot program memberships are currently available. Visit our membership page or email me directly at paige@urbanpatchwork.org.

Over the weekend, we finished almost all of the remaining plots we’ll use for the pilot program growing season. Here are some before and after pictures:

The front plot after the rock beds were removed

The front plot after the initial tilling

The completed front plot

Tilling the back plot

Adding compost to the back plot

After the compost was spread and mixed in

We’ll be back out there tonight digging rows in the back plot. Next weekend will be seed planting. Let us know if you’d like to help.

If you’re interested in having a weekly share of fresh produce, this month is the last opportunity to get the early bird pricing. After that, the prices goes up from $288 to $320 not including delivery which would add $2 per week. Sign up on our membership page.

We’re going to be doing the rest of the tilling for the pilot project this weekend. We need some volunteers who don’t mind getting out and sweating in the heat with us. We’ll go for as long as we can Saturday and possibly Sunday too depending on how it goes which leads me to the final point…

Does anyone know about a rototiller or lawn tractor with tiller attachment? We’re tilling by hand and wearing our volunteers out a little faster than we’d like. We could probably knock out the rest of the tilling in a couple of hours with something like that.

We’ll also have some less physically demanding opportunities in the next couple of weeks too if anyone wants to help but not till. We’ll need all the help we can get to make sure we get our seeds in the ground in time for the next season.

We all met on July 7th to talk about our business model and some figures we’d worked up.

Stay tuned for updates!