Thank you for a successful season and Fundraiser

We want to sincerely thank everyone that was involved in making our Second Annual Growing up Green Fundraiser an amazing success! Without the help of our dedicated volunteers, performers, chefs, sponsors, donors, and guests we could not have made this event happen.    We were able to raise over $4000 that will be put towards our Cecil Elementary School Garden club program!! Special thanks to the following people for making this event happen:   Chefs: Sarah Morton and Billy McCarthy, Kevin Brown, Krystal Mack, Jen Doll Food: Boone Street Farm, Hawks Hill Creamery, South Mountain Creamery, HEX Ferments, Atwaters Bakery, Real Food Farm, The Mushroom Stand, Two Boots Farm, City-Hydro, Really Raw Honey, Reids Orchard Silent Auction: Metta Integrative Wellness Center, The Wine Market, Rothwell Law, Blue Pit BBQ and Whiskey Bar, Xquistite Catering, Friends and Farms, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, The Breadery, Charm City Yoga, Pablo Machioli, Ed Schrader's Music Beat, The Charmery, Zensations Apothecary, Woodberry Kitchen, Artifact Coffee, Ron William, Leah Livengood Performers: La Rose and the Buttes, Catalina Byrd Venue: Peabody Heights Brewery Sponsors: Coppin State University, Roland Park Country School, Sweetgreen, University of Baltimore, The Restaurant Store, Rouse Foundation Poster Artwork: Sara Lautman Volunteers: Raychiel, Ellie, Jon, Natanya, Vanessa, Gagan, Ricker, Alison, Isabel, Joey, Kevin, Noah, Jacob, Amelia, Debbie, Tommy, Katie Boone Street Staff/Interns: Cheryl, Dana, Marcus, Serina, Tanya, Lindsay, Grace, Chris, Sequinta, Sonce, Lauren, Patrick, Emma, Katelyn, Deja, Rosa, Amelia.  Thank you for an AMAZING Season We want to thank everyone that has been involved in the farm this year for helping make this our most productive season yet. Our accomplishments this year include harvesting over 5,400 lbs of produce, hosting over 20 interns and regular volunteers, hiring an assistant production manager, educating over 30 students through our Cecil Elementary School Garden Club program, working with 5 high school students through the Youthworks program, delivering vegetables weekly to 11 families through our Community supported agriculture (CSA) progam, starting an herbal CSA,  attending a new farmers market, selling to local restaurants, creating a cookbook, and hosting our first ever cooking classes. This year we continued to expand our production allowing us to increase our yields and provide more fresh produce to the community. We added 8 new rows to our St. Ann's site and increased our growing intensity allowing us to reach our sales and harvest goals. Each year we are able to improve our efficiency and learn new techniques helping us work towards creating a sustainable farm business. Through grant funding we were able to subsidize the cost of our produce to community members and people receiving nutrition benefits allowing us to sell our produce at our weekly farm stand at an affordable price. We were also able to purchase a tool shed which will cut down on a significant amount of travel between the office and the farm allowing us to spend more time working on growing great produce. As many of you are aware we had an independent developer place a bid on our 21st street lot putting us in danger of losing about 25% of the space we are currently growing on. Thank you to everyone who signed our petition and showed your support of the farm. We were able to place a counter bid on the land and are now waiting to hear the outcome. During this time we can still use all the support we can get. Please consider donating to the farm during this holiday season to help us secure the rest of the land we are growing on and provide support to continue to expand our production and programming. For online donations visit ourwebsite and use the paypal link under the donate tab or send checks to Boone Street Farm, 2701 St. Lo Dr, Baltimore MD 21213. Look out for information about 2016 programming and how to join our 2016 CSA early next year. We hope everyone has a happy holiday season and New Year!     Don't miss the Second Herbal Medicine Class Wednesday, December 2nd!

Thank you to this years interns and staff!! Spring Marcus Carter Amelia Hazen Matt Nickelson Chris Carresse Kendell Shriver Hannah Blau Kimberley Meistrall Kate FitzGerrell Kariyma Murphy Emma Reisinger Emani Williams Christopher Croft Lyn Davidson Summer Tanya Krapf Hans Van Zinkernagel Grace Macfarlane Ellie Macfarlane Elizabeth Gallo Maggie Weese Andrea Michalowsky Fall Lindsay Crisler Sequinta Watts Sonce Reese Deja Golder Rosa Wilson Serina Willams Patrick Baron Lauren Poor Katelyn Jarkowiec

Sign this Petition to Help Boone Street Farm

Boone Street farm is in danger of losing ¼ of the land that we are currently growing on and programming for due to an independent developer who would like to build properties on our open space. Boone Street Farm would like to continue to grow fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs and develop this land for the community to utilize for recreational purposes.  We have successfully built a small urban farm and have developed educational programming that reaches both our neighborhood residents as well as students, gardeners and residents across the city.  Boone Street Farm strives to create affordable access to fresh healthy food through our Greenmount market stand and our CSA program and we need your support to continue to do this work in East Baltimore Midway.  Please sign this online petition to show your support for Boone Street Farm to continue to grow food on the corner of 21^st St and Boone Street.  Please share this link with with your networks!!  Thank You!!!

Cheryl, Dana and Marcus
Boone Street Farm 

Herbal Medicine Making Classes

November Newsletter

November at the Farm

With the shortening daylight and colder temperatures the work on the farm is quickly coming to an end for the season. We have slowly been taking out all of our summer plants and planting cover crops or garlic in all the empty beds. All of our sweet potatoes have been harvested and cured and we are getting towards the end of our root crops and greens. Before the end of the season we hope to have a new perennial bed put in and all the pathways remulched in order to get a jump start on the weeds next spring. We were very excited to finally be able to move into our new shed this past week! The shed will cut down on a significant amount of travel between the office and the farm allowing for a more efficient work day.

The last week of October marked the last week of our Market Stand and CSA for the year. Special thank you to all of our CSA members this year! We are so grateful to have had you all as dedicated customers this year and loved being able to share all of our bounty with our members each week. The CSA is an important part of our business model because it allows for some cash flow at the start of the season and guarantees sales throughout the season. It also gives us a closer relationship with our customers and encourages member to eat seasonally and try new produce. Look out for information for our 2016 CSA season early next spring!

We had several volunteer days this past month that were a huge help in getting us started on all our fall clean up. The volunteer groups helped us paint the shed, pick up trash, make new compost bins, take out tomatoes, and wood chip pathways. We always appreciate extra hands at this time of year to help us finish larger projets and tie up loose ends on all the projects we have started throughout the year. 

The garden club students took a field trip this past week to Milburn Orchard where they got to pick apples and pumpkins, make apple cider, and enjoy delicious fall treats. Despite the rainy weather on Wednesday they all had a great time. The students also got to show off what they have been learning this year during Cecil Elementary School's Annual Harvest Fair. Every student at Cecil got a chance to come to the garden and receive tours from garden club students and sample one of the garden club recipes!

We hope you all will be able to join us at our Second Annual Growing up Green Farm Feast. This year the event will be held on November 18th from 6-9 pm at Peabody Heights Brewery. Event will include a five course meal prepared by local chefs featuring Boone Street Farm Produce, brewery tours and tastings, performances, and silent auction. See Flyer above for more information and where to get tickets!

You're Invited! Second Annual Growing up Green Fundraiser dinner

Boone Street Farm and Cecil Elementary School invite you to join us at our Second Annual Growing up Green fundraiser dinner. 

All proceeds from event go towards supporting Cecil Elementary School Garden Club Program and Boone Street Farm's educational Programming. Tickets and more information can be found here:

Calling all University of Baltimore Students

Come Volunteer at the Farm tomorrow 7/11/15 from 10 am - 2 pm and stay for a community BBQ/Potluck from 3 - 5 pm

Reflections from High School Intern Kendell about her two weeks working on the farm

Though farm work may not be as glamorous as one reads in books and blogs, or sees on tv, it still is wondrous work. I’ve learned this growing up when I would help my grandfather in his garden, and I certainly reinforced these sentiments this past week and a half working at Boone Street Farm for my independent senior project for Garrison Forest School. Farming is tiresome, straining, sweaty, and sometimes bloody (if you’re clumsy like me and you accidentally cut yourself with a hand tool on the first day…) work. Weeding is, frankly, boring, but is a very necessary part of farming if you want your crops to survive and not the weeds; it is also something that needs to be done often, because they’ll just grow back. Creating new rows is tiring and probably requires every muscle in your body for hours on end, but again, it is very necessary, as this is obviously where the food is grown. Harvesting is pretty easy and fun, but this is only a fraction of the work on a farm. It’s the handful of performances after months of long rehearsals, set building, costume designing, figuring out lighting and music, as well as everything that goes on backstage during a show. However, like performances, farming too is so rewarding, and when you step back after a long day outside, sweaty, with dirt covering the entire surface of your body, new blisters on your hands, and ready to take a nap (after a cold shower), you realize how awesome this work is. Through the endless hours you feel completely at peace with the land you are working with, you talk to people about anything and everything (though it usually relates to farming somehow), and you feel a sense of satisfaction comparable to nothing else on earth. Not to negate other jobs, but little to none are as fundamentally important as that of the farmer. They are the ones who produce food, and, simply put, humans could not survive without it. Thus, humans could not survive without farmers. So you can imagine the pride a farmer has when they hand their fresh produce to their customer, because at that moment they realize the long hours they put into producing that crop meant they’re giving their customer something so important to their health.

However, in the modern world this exchange happens very rarely. Most people rely entirely on grocery stores to provide their food, having no idea who produced it, who spent hours weeding, and planting, and watering, and harvesting. Frankly, that these events even occur is something the grocery store shopper doesn’t even have to think about; to many grocery store shoppers, food just magically appears. However, when you can buy directly from a farmer, you can appreciate your food so much more, and even though it may be more expensive than conventionally farmed food, as the buyer you can appreciate that you’re supporting an individual, a real person, instead of a faceless corporation.

        As I phase out my two-week internship at Boone Street Farm, I know I will put to good use everything I have learned. Between sustainable farming practices I have been shown, to a little bit about soil health when I attended the Soil Building Workshop, to simply the true love and passion I have for producing my own food, I know I will come out of this experience a more valuable member to the modern organic farming movement. Whether I make a career out of it after college or not, I know I will always be farming in some way, even if it is a tomato pot on my deck and a few small house plants if I don’t have a yard. Growing food is something so satisfying and rewarding to me, especially when I think about how much work and love I’ve put into it.

        I wish all the best to Boone Street Farm in their upcoming season, and am so lucky to have been given the opportunity to work on their beautiful farm.

Soil Biology Workshop at Boone Street Farm Tuesday May 26th

Earth Day Festival April 22nd!

Thank You Whole Foods Harbor East!!

We are so excited to announce that we received $3,545 from the Whole Foods Harbor East 5% day this past Wednesday. Thank you to everyone that come out to support Boone Street during the event.

This spring we will be using the funds raised to rebuild our tool shed, put in a water line at the farm, build a washing station and purchase basic tools. This basic infrastructure will help to make the farm operate more efficiently and develop into a sustainable business.

Join our CSA today!

We are now accepting applications for our 2015 CSA!

This year we are offering both single ($300) and double shares ($500) as well as an herbal product Add on! For an additional $15 per month you will recieve two herbal products along with your normal share on the last week of the month. 

This year your share will also include reusable canvas bags and FREE BIKE delivery for neighborhood residents. Click here for more information!

Email boone.street.farm@gmail.com if you would like to sign up or have additional questions. 

Winter Benefit Bash !!!!

The benefit show was a huge success, we made over $3000 for Boone Street Farm to continue to grow the educational programming and build the farm into productive land for the community long term. 

We want to thank all the amazing people that made the benefit show possible

Bands:

Chain and the Gang- Ian Svenonius, Anna Nxsty and Francy Graham

Cole Tut – Jeffrey Mcgrath,  Lesser Gonzales, Steve Santillian and Chris Day

Butte La Rose – Lauren Poor and Liz Marchetta

DJ’s:

Blk, Michael Collins and Dan Deacon

Paintings by Pablo Machioli

Poster -  Kevin Sherry

 Sponsor - Twin Valley Distillery

Volunteers:  Liz Marchetta, Sophia Mack, Jenny Guillume, Vinnie Bevivino, Natanya Rabinowitz, Alison Worman, Isabelle Antreasian, Michael Collins, Kelleigh Eastman, Brian Nicholson, Joey Fox, Debbie Higgs, Maxine, Madeline Arnoult,  Ed Schrader, Tanya Garcia, Merrell Hambleton, Crawford Pile, Jason Bartholomew

Sound  - Chester Gwazda

Equipment - Future Islands,  Nick Petr,  Ed Curren

Host - Compound

Thank You!!!!!

Winter Benefit Bash! Friday February 13th 2015

We took some time out for Winter hibernation this year.  We have been working on our plans for the coming season and are getting excited to get things rolling again this Spring!  Look for our 2015 CSA announcement soon!

We are kicking off our 2015 season with a Winter Benefit show at the Compound on
 Friday February 13th 2015. Doors at 7PM. Tickets $10-15.
Pizza and drinks available.

Don't miss Chain and the Gang, Cole Tut and Butte La Rose followed by a dance party and karaoke!!

Poster by Kevin Sherry

Boone Street Farm is fund raising to complete a project that will secure water access for the community garden and farm as well as to support our garden club program with Cecil Elementary School.  The garden club builds students environmental leaders in the neighborhood who grow vegetables, herbs, fruit and make healthy snacks.  It has been a great experience to work with the students at Cecil Elementary School at the community garden in East Baltimore Midway and we thank you all for your amazing support to keep this project running!