A Midsummer Bounty
Here in mid-July, farmers are taking a quick breath during the high heat of midsummer before heading back into the fields to plant the fall crops. We've been taking advantage of this slightly slower period to do more of our outreach and education work:
- Holding cooking and nutrition demonstrations with Chef Crystal Forman of Holistic Wellness and Health, pictured above;
- Hosting training workshops like the Cultivate Baltimore workshops featured in this month's issue of The Delmarva Farmer, starring member farmer Kimberly Raikes of Whitelock Community Farm and Farm Alliance board member Neith Little of UMD-Extension Service;
- Proposing sessions for winter farming conferences; and
- Speaking to groups of students about the work that we do. If you would like to invite our Executive Director, staff, and/or a farmer to come and speak to your group, company, school or community about the farms in Baltimore City, please reach out to us at mariya@farmalliancebaltimore.org. We offer a sliding scale honorarium structure for speaking engagements, and if you are a public high school or public community college/HBCU, we will speak for free.
Farm products you may see this month at our Waverly market stand and community cooking demonstrations: Some early tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, baby kale greens, kale, collard greens, cucumbers, sweet peppers, hot peppers, raspberries, spinach, patty pan squash, basil, thyme, honey, eggs. Samples are now available at the market stand! And we've begun hosting some cooking demonstrations and Meet Your Farmer days at market, too. Don't miss a Saturday or you might miss the fun!
Help Send African American Farmers to A Weeklong Training!
The Farm Alliance of Baltimore invites you to contribute to our scholarship fund for African American urban farmers from Baltimore City to attend trainings and conferences throughout the year. A fund of $12,000 will allow us to send up to eight African American farmers to SoulFire Farm in Grafton, NY in August 2020 for the annual BIPOC FIRE immersion program, as well as to this fall's Black Urban Farmers and Gardeners (BUGS) conference.
Farmers work in isolation much of the year, growing healthy vegetables and fruit and raising bees, chickens and goats. They've told us that they would like the Farm Alliance's help to attend more workshops and conferences as a means of coming together, sharing knowledge with their peers, and learning from experts. We are proud to provide financial support for their professional development, and we are excited to invite you to join us in this important work!
All proceeds from this fundraiser will go to our Black Farmer Scholarships fund. You may wish to make a one-time donation to this fund, or become a recurring direct donor to the Farm Alliance by using the Donate button on our website! Include your contact information so we can send you a thank-you card!
Learn with us
Our annual Cultivate Baltimore workshop series is humming along. Consider joining in for our next session on Community Engaged Farming at Filbert Street Garden at 6pm on July 26, with speakers from Cherry Hill Urban Community Garden and Filbert Street Garden. Cost is $10 per person, but scholarships are available. Get yours now as this session is likely to fill up quickly. Click here for tickets.
Our community cooking demonstrations given by Chef Crystal Forman of Holistic Wellness and Health are free and open to the public. Please come join us as Chef Crystal shows us how to prepare the produce from Farm Alliance member farms in delicious ways. Once a month, we are pairing these demos with a pop-up market stand so residents can also purchase the produce right there. Here is a list of our upcoming community cooking demos:
July 17th, 11am, Baltimore Free Farm, 3510 Ash St.
July 24th, 3pm, Restoration Gardens II, 4201 York Rd., 21212
July 25th, 3pm, Monteverde Apartments, 2503 Violet Ave.
July 27th, Farm Alliance Market Stand, 32nd St. Market, Waverly
August 13th, 1pm, City View At McCulloh, 501 Dolphin St.
August 13th, 6pm, Lillian Jones Apartments, 1303 Greenmount Ave.
August 14th, 11am, Monument East, 633 Aisquith St.
Please check our Farm Alliance of Baltimore Facebook page for additional dates and details about each demonstration. Addresses of all our member farms can be found on our website.
Even More Summer Farm Events:
July 17th, 5pm-7pm: Volunteer Evening at Whitelock Community Farm
July 17th, 9am-noon: Open Volunteer Hours with the Baltimore Orchard Project at Real Food Farm
July 18th, 4:30pm-7pm: Croppy Hour in the garden at Perlman Place
July 26th, 6pm-7:30pm: Community Engaged Farming workshop with Rodette Jones of Filbert Street Garden and Eric Jackson of Black Yield Institute, Filbert Street Garden
Thank you to all of our volunteers, donors, and supporters who feed us, compost with us, garden with us, donate books and artwork, and give generously of their energy and money to support our work. We are grateful and excited to be growing in our ninth year with you!
Support Our Work
If you would like to make a donation to the Farm Alliance of Baltimore, please use this link. And thank you!
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