The great part about being an urban farm is all of the amazing opportunities to partner with other businesses in the city. We just started working with Wash Cycle Laundry to offer a bicycle delivery option for our CSA. We understand some people don’t join CSA’s due to the inconvenience of lugging around produce or a lack of a pick-up location close to their house. Well, now with the Neighborhood Foods CSA you can get it delivered straight to your home. To learn more and sign-up click here and click on the application form on the upper left-hand side. 

Tim Bennett of Bennett Compost making a delivery to Neighborhood Foods Farm

When Ryan, UTC’s agricultural director, told me that we’re now partnering with Bennett Compost, I got really excited! As a person who’s been recycling and composting for many years, I love hearing about Tim Bennett’s Philly composting business. He picks up his customer’s buckets filled with  disintegrating vegetable remains by night (“our compost fairies come in the night and whisk away your food waste, leaving the empty container for you to retrieve in the morning”) and uses sites around the city to convert the stuff into usable, rich compost.  Not only does the service help people to lessen their trash load, but reducing the amount of  the methane that would normally be generated by the vegetable waste   is huge. As the Bennett Compost website says “methane emissions from landfills are a leading contributor to climate change.”  PLUS he employs teens in the neighborhoods where his composting sites are located to turn the steaming piles every week!  It’s definitely a win, win, win situation!

Ryan gathered a bunch of ever useful free pallets and together Tim and farm crew members Que and Raheem  constructed the bins at the Neighborhood Foods Farm.  With Tim’s weekly vegetable scrap deliveries, coffee grounds collections and reserved fall leaves, the bins are really filling up. We’re looking for a willing neighborhood teen to do the turning.

Speaking of steaming piles, you can tell that the mounds at the Farm are indeed composting. A thermometer with a long probe  inserted into the middle of one reads (click to enlarge) 140 plus degrees!

In a matter of weeks, the finished compost will get mixed into the soil to nourish the spring crops. We invite you to check out Bennett Compost and sign on for the service as a way to recycle your vegetable leftovers and to join Neighborhood Foods CSA to partake of the bounty of our locally grown food.

Your food becomes your food!

- Sue Witte, UTC’s volunteer coordinator

Neighborhood Foods CSA is back!

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Customers pay the farmer at the beginning of the season and receive a box of local produce every week. We offer produce grown at our farms and we purchase directly from farmers in Lancaster to supply items that are hard to grow in the city. We also offer other products produced right here in Philly, including home-made jam, honey, bread, and coffee. The Neighborhood Foods CSA runs from May 24th through October 25th.

All of the income we generate goes towards keeping our gardens up, providing food to families in Haddington, and funding our community programs. To check out  Neighborhood Foods’s new website go to neighborhoodfoods.org. To purchase a share go here. The CSA application is on the upper left hand side.

Asian greens – three years

Bush and pole beans – two years

Beets – two years

Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Kohlrabi – three to five years

Carrots – three years

Collards, Kale – three to five years

Sweet Corn – one year

Cucumbers – three years

Leeks, Onions – two to three years

Lettuce – three years

Melons – three years

Parsley - two years

Parsnips- one year

Peas – two years

Peppers – two years

Radishes – four years

Rutabagas – three years

Spinach – one season

Swiss Chard – two years

Squashes – three to four years

Tomatoes – three years

Turnips – four years

The authors also mention that annuals are generally good for one to three years; perennials for two to four years.

 Happy seed saving!

- Awinda Otieno-Pala, Horticulturalist, UTC staff

Dear UTC Supporter,

UTC has made many strides in recent years and wishes to further expand our mission into 2013.  In order to do so, we believe it is crucial to understand those who support our organization.  We have created a quick survey that will better acquaint us with your needs and concerns.  All of your information will be kept confidential and at no point will you need to indicate who you are.

Your input will provide information that can be used to increase our influence within the Philadelphia community.  This data will help up discover better ways to involve you and the Philadelphia community within our organization.  We encourage you to follow the link at the bottom and take this short survey for UTC.

Thank you ever so much for your continued support!

TAKE THE SURVEY

A busy frame in springtime, with worker bees, young larvae, and capped drone brood

Of all the teamwork at Urban Tree, nothing can beat the workings of a bee.  The two resident honeybee colonies of our farm have stayed strong and healthy through the 2012 season, pollinating our crops and gathering nectar which they use to make honey.  After the loss of our hive last year, we got two new hives this March in the most unlikely way possible: through the U.S. Postal Service!  The bees quickly settled into their new homes at 53^rd & Wyalusing, raising thousands of young to prepare to collect the springtime nectar flow.

Que dons the veil and gloves for a hive check-up

As the season progressed, the hive was a view into the variety of the urban ecosystem.  In the cells of the honeycomb, the bees stored pollen in a range of yellow, orange and red hues.  Seasonal flower variation also came through in the honey, with lighter honey in the early summer and darker honey in the fall.  Sometimes the bees got defensive and stung the beekeepers intruding in their home.  After a particularly swollen eyelid, we decided to invest in a bee suit.

Kalib zips Ryan into the bee suit

With protective gear on hand, more staff joined the ranks of UTC beekeepers. Ryan helped with the springtime colony installation and Que overcame his fear of bees, leading many successful hive inspections throughout the summer.

Bees arrive at the hive with heavy loads of pollen on their hind legs

The bees, in their highly organized mini-society, have taught us so many lessons about working together towards a common goal.  Worker bees perform various jobs, from foraging for nectar to sealing up cracks in the hive to feeding the larvae.  But when there is a need for extra hands (or wings) on deck for another job, the bees don’t hesitate to step up.  At the height of summer, when the hive overheats, many workers stop what they’re doing to fan their wings at the hive entrance, circulating air.

Teamwork, initiative, diligence and flexibility are all essential characteristics found in our amazing team of farmers, landscapers, chefs, activists, librarians and teachers that keep our collective of gardens buzzing with energy.  We left the bees with ample honey stores to survive the winter, and they leave us with much food for thought as we work towards building our own, cohesive, healthy community.

-Annie Preston
UTC’s Program Director
(Photos by Sue Witte and Robert Berliner)

Fall is the time for enjoying our harvest at Memorial Garden Club and learning about how to prepare the land for winter. This November our group of kids took time to try the many different veggies that they planted and grew in the past two months, as well as capturing the fall landscape in drawings.

In the beginning of November we planted rye seeds in an empty bed and learned about how cover crops protect the soil from runoff and restore nutrients as well. Two weeks later the same bed was full of rye grass and ready for a cold winter!

The beds that we planted were full of lettuce , spinach and carrots. The kids got to try all of them, and spicy mustard greens as well, and everyone took some home to their families.  Many of the carrots were grown close together so they came up as baby carrots-delicious and sweet!

“Fruit” by Destiny

The group also explored the crab apple tree at the garden and picked lots of the little “apples” which everyone decided looked more like cherries, but wouldn’t taste like them.  While the farm gets chiller in the fall, the Garden Club members still manage to have fun, learn and grow together!

- Addie Ansell, UTC’s Philly Fellow and Curriculum Development Coordinator

Three-course Meal for $30

Rembrandt’s restaurant and bar will be hosting an end of the season celebration to benefit Urban Tree Connection. UTC invites you to join us on November 17th for a taste of locally grown produce from our Neighborhood Foods Farm, carefully prepared by one of the city’s premier restaurants to complement some of their signature dishes – just for us! Proceeds will help finance a new high tunnel and other farm equipment for our 2013 season.

Dinner will be a three-course meal with options (including vegetarian) for each course, featuring produce grown at our farm site in West Philadelphia. We will discuss our 2012 season, and provide information about our urban farming model.  You will learn of our plans to change food systems across the city while enjoying a tasty meal at a reasonable price.

Rembrandt’s is located in Philadelphia’s art museum neighborhood on the corner of 23^rd and Aspen Streets. All are welcome!

Please join us for the celebration and a chance to enjoy good food with great people. If you are interested in purchasing a ticket, call Dylan Baird at 240-350-3067 or Rembrandt’s at 216-763-2228. We look forward to seeing you there!

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The Sickels Street Garden at the corner of Haverford Avenue and Sickels Street

One of the things I love about working at Sickels Street Garden is the way in which the plantings are arranged so that you are always presented with a “surprise” of color from the different blooms throughout the year. It’s almost like a timed energy injection for your eyes, so that as your eye leaps from one bloom to another, a surge of excitement is released, resulting in endless visual pleasure as far as your eye can reach.

The asters we transplanted last summer along the back wall are now in bloom, showing off their bluish/purple daisy-like flowers. We started with 7, but the big, floppy-leafed plants have now almost doubled in number, and will need to be divided come next spring.

Our crop of mums are still forming buds, but you can still enjoy some of the purple echinacea floral blooms, against the yellow backdrop of some late-blooming daylilies.

Along Haverford Ave, nested below the trumpet vine, you can spot a single hidden Kniphofia with its flaming blooms of orange & lime green.

As you can see, there’s more than meets the eye at this small seemingly plain site. Hopefully you can get your shot of exhilaration before the season is out!

- Awinda Otieno-Pala

Skip holding the remaining stem with seeds after the pepper tasting. “Whoa, this is hot on the inside!”

Chapeu de Frade pepper looking like a UFO

I think we figured out where these plants came from, too. Eric Blasco, professional gardener and friend of UTC, helped us out with seed-starting this spring. He is a seed saver and is especially interested in heirloom vegetable varieties.