Monday, November 30, 2015

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

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Sign this Petition to Help Boone Street Farm

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 21st St and Boone Street.  Please share this link with with your networks!!  Thank You!!!

Cheryl, Dana and Marcus
Boone Street Farm 

Thursday, November 5, 2015

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!