Workday Changes, Vegetable Stand, and BEES!

We haven't had a big response for our morning workdays, so we are moving the times. Monday and Wednesday morning's workdays will be moved to Monday and Wednesday evening 5-9pm, at Smith and Fay.

Also, the Monday and Wednesday Farmers Market doesn't seem to be the best use of our time. SO, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we will have vegetables for sale at our roadside stand at the Smith and Fay production farm, from 4-8pm. This way, we can be working, not sitting, during our sales hours. If this is at all confusing, just check out our calendar, for times, dates and locations.

ALSO, WE'VE GOT BEES!! Art and Vera Gelder from Walk-About Acres (www.walk-aboutacres.net) have provided our Smith and Fay farm, with the pollination of two hives of honey bees. Honey bees are an excellent addition to a diverse farm ecosystem. The bees will improve produce yields and if all goes right, make some sweet, sweet honey. Thanks Art and Vera!

Veggies for Sale, Workday Schedule Change, Food Preservation Workshop, and Farm2Table

Howdy,

Good news! We have city-grown vegetables for sale to the public. All sales will benefit our not-for-profit organization, dedicated to demonstrating the viability of urban food production and educating the public on successful urban farming techniques.

You can find us selling at:
Columbia Farmers Market (1701 W Ash, behind the ARC) on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-6pm
Our Smith and Fay Production Farm (1209 E Smith St) on Fridays from 5-8pm.

Right now we've got peas, broccoli, cauliflower, greens, onions, and lots of herbs, stop by and see us!

Our Saturday evening workday is being changed to Friday evening, starting this week. Many hands make light work, so come out to one of our workdays, there is plenty of weeding, harvesting, shoveling, mowing, trellising, planting, seeding, watering, the list goes on....but I think you get the point. Check out our website's calendar for the full workday schedule, remember to bring close-toed shoes, gloves, hat, sunscreen, and a water bottle.

Also check out the calendar for three food preservation workshops this month put on by the University Extension office.

The Farm2Table event next weekend is where national, regional and local chefs, farmers and experts will be promoting the culinary and farm-to-table collaboration, see their website for more information http://www.f2tuclubmissouri.com/

Keep on eatin!

Billy

Summer Workday Schedule

We have finally come up with a summer work schedule. If these days do not work for you but you still want to help out, let us know and we can make other arrangements. There will be three workdays per week at our Smith & Fay site, and two workdays per week at our St. Joseph and Ash site. These workdays are going into effect immediately.

Smith and Fay
Map to Locate Smith and Fay
Monday 9am - Noon (or later)
Wednesday 9am - Noon (or later)
Saturday 5pm - 9 pm


St. Joseph and Ash
Map to Locate St. Joseph and Ash
Thursday 5pm-9pm
Sunday 5pm-9pm


We will soon be selling produce at our Smith and Fay site, once our produce stand opens, we will let everyone know our dates and times of operation.

Stephens Multiage School Visits

This past Friday, about 35 students from Stephen's Multiage School (grades K-5) came for a tour at the Demonstration Garden. They learned about composting, how different vegetables grow, raising chickens, and how to save water from your roof to water a garden. One of the Stephen's teachers made a slideshow of the day, here is the link: http://sccs-multiage.blogspot.com/2010/05/visiting-garden.html

Anyone interested in scheduling a tour should contact us at: education@columbiaurbanag.org

Did you know the city sells compost?

Just an FYI for anyone out there looking for some nutritious organic matter to add to their garden. The City of Columbia sells compost to the public at the landfill every Thursday from 1pm to 5pm and one Saturday each month from 8am to Noon. Bring your truck to their compost site at 5700 Peabody Road (Rte B, North past 63, Right on Brown Station Road, Right on Peabody, and take it to the end). The price is $12/cubic yard, which is about what a pickup truck will hold. They load it, you can be in and out in about 15 minutes. Here is a link to the City's Calendar http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/webcal/ choose "Solid Waste Events" where you can find their dates and times.

happy gardening

billy

We are now a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization.

Good news in the mailbox today! The Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture is officially exempt from Federal income tax under section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All contributions made to CCUA since May 21, 2009 and all contributions in the future are now tax-deductible!

Lots of Planting, Earthday, North Neighborhood Association

This Friday, April 23rd, from Noon to 6pm, we will be having a volunteer workday at our Smith & Fay farm see map. We have lots of planting to do, so come prepared to get your hands dirty. Bring gloves, hat, sunscreen, and a water bottle. Come one come all!

This Saturday, April 24th, from 3pm-6pm we will be making a presentation at the North Neighborhood Association Event. Come watch demonstrations by local organizations and get to know your neighbors. First Christian Church, corner of 10th Street and Walnut (map)

This Sunday, April 25th, from Noon to 7pm in MU's Peace Park see map we will be making presentations at the Eco Avenue Schoolhouse and have a booth with information about us, selling plants, and showing off chickens. See the Earthday website www.columbiaearthday.org

Workday Friday, Irrigation and More!

Hey everyone,

This Friday April 16th from noon to 6pm, we will be out at our Smith & Fay production farm installing drip irrigation and cleaning up the site. Come one come all!


BillyP

Workday on Friday!

So where did spring go? It seems like its already Summer, and spring was short lived... Do broccoli and peas even have a chance?


This Friday, April 9th, from Noon to 6pm, we will be having a volunteer workday at our Smith & Fay farm. We've finally worked the ground and there is lots of seeding and cleaning up to do! Come out for as much or as little time as you've got. Bring gloves, hat, sunscreen, and a water bottle.

See ya there!
BillyP

Horray Workdays!

This week, the garden at Smith & Fay Street made so much progress! About a week ago, the lot was littered with downed trees and huge piles of compost. Today, all of the downed trees are cleared (with the exception of some big fat logs), and the mounds of compost are finding themselves into 4ft wide rows across the Western portion of the property. The landscape is finally beginning to look like a garden.

Behind all of this progress are many volunteers. The trees didn't move themselves and the compost doesn't align itself in East-West rows by itself. There have been so many hard working volunteers to make all of these things happen. Volunteers from Douglass High School's Service Learning Club, John Reid's Environmental Science Class, CCUA's MU Service Learning Class, Students for Progressive Action, Sustain Mizzou, and other members of the community came out to shovel, rake, push, and pull all in the name of food. Thank you everyone who came out, without support from the community and volunteers, CCUA would not be able to carry out it's mission of empowering Columbia's citizens to improve their access to local healthy foods! Keep an eye out on our website and your inbox for updates on more workdays to come.

No Plowing This Friday 3/19

Dan and I did some soil sleuthing this morning, and the ground at Smith & Fay is fairly wet. I just got off the phone with Eli, our plow-man, and he agrees that we should probably hold off on plowing until the ground dries up some. We will still be holding workdays tomorrow and Friday at Smith & Fay, as there is quite a bit of work to be done. Hope to see lots of volunteers out there!

Donate using Paypal

You can now donate online by using the Paypal widgets located at home and donate. Thanks to all supporters!

Springtime!

Warm weather is just around the corner, and that means its time to think about starting seeds and preparing the ground for planting!! I found myself in the Peace Nook today in search of dish soap and saw that for the entire month of March, all gardening books are 20% off, they also have a nice selection of organic and heirloom seeds to get you started this growing season. Don't forget, a week from today we are holding an introductory chicken workshop on the Mizzou campus. Hip hip horray for spring!

Upcoming Events!!!

Listen up this Wednesday as CCUA will be on the radio with KOPN's Farm and Fiddle show from 7 - 8 pm!

Columbia Garden Coalition or CGC hosting Spring Thaw Meeting Sunday March 7th: 2-4 pm at Daniel Boone Regional Library.

Unite4Healthy Neighborhoods: April 9th and 10th. More information TBA.

Earth Day Events: April 25th CCUA will be there!!! More information, TBA later...

Farm2Table: June 12th and 13th

Please provide comments with details on these events, if you find you know them!!!
Thanks!

The sun is out and I am anxious for Spring!!!

Check it out, our calendar that is!

I forgot to mention something, so I am back, just like I said I would be!

Our calendar is on our homepage: columbiaurbanag.org

Make sure you check it often, as it is one of the best ways to find out about upcoming events that CCUA will be hosting or affiliated with!!! However, you could always just follow our blog too!!! I will try to keep you up to date about what is happening with CCUA, that is my duty to you!!!

Over and out for now...

More Urban Hen Workshops!!! Plus Coup Building too!!!

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

Hope it finds you snuggly chugging along in the week, as you go about your goals and accomplishments!

I just wanted to announce some recent information about "Urban Hen Workshops!"

"Urban Hen Workshop" --> March 10th: 7-9PM in room 2-10 at the Agriculture building at MU on the corner of Hitt and Rollins Street.

"Urban Hen Workshop" --> March 20th: 2-4PM in room 2-7 at the Agriculture building at MU on the corner of Hitt and Rollins Street.

"Coop Building Workshop" --> March 27th: 1-6PM at 214 St. Joseph Street, CCUA Home Headquarters.

Okay Folks...signing off here for now. But I'll be back...

Links of note

Jamie Oliver's TED 2010 talk was extremely inspiring and gives me hope that we are moving in the right direction. He "wish[es] for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity." I for one, welcome this food revolution!

Also, want to give a shoutout to Slow Food Katy Trail to promoting our urban chickens workshops. Thanks guys!

US Rents-It and City of Columbia

Thanks to all of our supporters, without your help none of this would have been possible!
This week CCUA thanks the support of US Rents It and the City of Columbia Landfill and Compost Facility. For several weeks in a row, and more to come, Billy F. and Daniel have hauled compost to our new farm site at Smith and Fey. Without the help of Us Rents It and the City of Columbia Landfill and Compost Facility we would not have 140,000 + lbs. of compost at Smith and Fay.

http://www.usrentsit.com/
http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/PublicWorks/Solidwaste/compost-mulch.php

Upcoming Hen Workshops! March 2010

Hey Everyone,

After the success of both our February 2010 Urban Chicken Workshops, we decided to bring them back again! They are to be held on Wednesday March 10, 2010 @ 7 p.m. and Saturday March 20, 2010 @ 2 p.m.! The location for these has yet to be determined, but I can assure you, as soon as I know, you will know also!

Hope everyone is doing well on this very wet Sunday morning!

Reasons to raise Chickens in your backyard

Check out this link: Urban Hens Workshop in the news!!!
http://mymissourian.com/

Article presented in it's entirety below, citation to follow:

Stilwel, Mary (2010, February 19). Reasons to raise chickens in your backyard. MyMissourian. Retrieved from http://mymissourian.com/

Reasons to raise chickens in your backyard

February 18, 2010

Shared by Mary Stilwell

Mary teaches a How-to Hens class at The Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture

Mary Stilwell teaches how to keep hens at the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture.

One of the best things about raising urban chickens is the joy of watching them; I love to watch the chickens. It’s just like a cat playing in the yard or watching your kids or an aquarium. They are little beings that you take care of and that are in motion and also give you eggs!

If you have never had a backyard egg before, wow! There is a difference – a big difference in color, in texture and in flavor. I actually didn’t like eggs very much and I would never voluntarily cook an egg until I had my own backyard eggs. Then I was like: Oh my God, eggs are good; this is yummy!

One of the other things that I like is that they use your waste and their waste is useful to you so it’s a circle, a cycle of life that you can actually create in your own backyard.

I love the joy that kids get from it and the community that is build around it. People’s kids will come to my backyard to feed the chickens, interact with them and pick them up. They get so excited that when they are playing with their friends in the neighborhood they will get them to come over, so I meet them and their parents. It is really a great community builder. That is one of the things that I am really excited about for Columbia.

There is another How-to Hens seminar on Saturday, Feb. 20th. More information can be found here.

Filed under: MyFood , MyOutdoors , MyPets. Editor: Julie Mabeck

Spring thoughts on a Winter's Day

Today is February 9th and it is currently very bitterly cold and snow covers the ground in our neck of the woods. Even with this prevailing Winter, I am dreaming of Spring. We have already had our first thaw of the year, which means only two more thaws and Spring is upon us! With this said, I do however know that the groundhog did in fact see his shadow last week, which means 6 more weeks of winter.

Given that this groundhog named Phil did see his shadow, I advise gardener's everywhere to get their hands dirty today! I will be going outside, yes outside, to mine some soil out of a soil container I keep up on my porch. I will use this to create some nice small pots for starts of plants, then I will go through my seeds and decide what I want to plant in my garden this year - I know the sooner the better on tomatoes because they are my favorite!

I might experiment with some greens in this long, skinny planter I have, but only if I can make the room for them in a windowsill. Anyway, just wanted to encourage everyone to start taking inventory of their seeds and be proactive on the gardening season, even in the dead of winter!

Upcoming CCUA chicken workshops!!

How-To Hens:

FACT: Your six hens could produce more than two dozen eggs a week!

Wednesday, February 17th at 7PM

or

Saturday, February 20th at 2PM

Where? 214 Saint Joseph Street Columbia, MO

$5-$20 sliding scale benefits the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture

Want to be an urban hen owner? Come to this workshop and learn all about the City’s new chicken ordinance, the benefits of raising backyard chickens, how to properly care for your hens, and much more! Contact Caroline Hargrove at cchargrove1@gmail.com for registration and info.

The city council passed the urban hen ordinance!

The urban hen ordinance passed the city council by a vote of 4-3. Check our calendar for upcoming workshops.