Backyard Harvest Community

Rivertown Commons Earth Day Enthusiasm

At Rivertown Commons, Earth Day was celebrated with excitement! The pictures below point to some of the activities that residents participated in at the Rivertown Commons Earth Day Kick-off on April 22. The event was designed for Rivertown residents to celebrate spring, with a special focus on the new Backyard Harvest garden in the community.

Resident chefs jump-started the event by providing samples of an array of home-cooked specialties. Next, a presentation on nutrition was given by a staff person from Simply Good Eating (a program of the University of Minnesota Extension). Kids activities through-out the day included vegetable coloring pages, as well as painting flower pots and seeding them as a take home gift. Throughout the afternoon, residents were able to meet Farmer Dina and learn about the garden design, harvest schedule and upcoming planting event. Backyard Harvest staff were busy building potato bins and planting serviceberries and currents along the garden border.

Jamal Hashi, head chef of Safari Express, capped off the event with a fantastic cooking demonstration, including food samples. He used many fresh ingredients, giving reference often to the nutritional produce that will be grown in the garden this summer.

The enthusiasm surrounding this garden is a promising sign of the season ahead and the possibilities that surround food access in rental communities.

River Town Commons Gardens, Summer 2010 Season - St. Paul, MN

After quite a successful first season and busy winter we have expanded in 2010 to additional neighborhoods in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the inner ring suburbs. We have also expanded our service options beyond intensively-designed vegetable, herb and edible flower gardens to include potato bins, asparagus companion beds, and strawberry companion beds. This year we will begin signing multi-year contracts with homeowners to further incorporate perennial fruits and vegetables into the food production system.

In addition to the expanded program offerings above, Backyard Harvest has been invited by the Cornerstone Group development team to design, implement and maintain a 400 sq. ft. garden at an apartment complex in St. Paul called Rivertown Commons. The garden will be bordered by 6 potato bins, a 25 sq. ft. strawberry patch, and a row of serviceberries. The garden this summer will not only provide a foundation for families to connect with their food, but also an opportunity to build community.

Rivertown Commons is an affordable housing community of East African, African-American, Hmong, and Hispanic families, located in the Frogtown neighborhood. 139 families share life together, blending cultures, languages and experiences. Throughout the growing season, residents will share the harvest, collectively follow the garden through the seasons, and come together around delicious food.

We are currently collaborating with the staff at Rivertown Commons as well as the resident action committee to plan a garden-centered kick-off event on Earth Day this April. During this event, we hope to introduce the garden to the residents and celebrate the possibilities that the garden will provide: high quality food, youth engagement and community building opportunities.

We are excited about this partnership which allows us to provide garden fresh food to families across the demographic spectrum. This project enables us to broaden our opportunity to give low income families access to local and organic food. Our desire this season is to develop a replicable Backyard Harvest model to serve low-income families, and build a base from which we can expand our partnerships to other low-income communities of color.

For project updates throughout the summer, check out our blog at: http://backyardharvest.wordpress.com

2009 In-Kind Donations

Thank you to the organizations below, who have contributed goods and services to help Backyard Harvest grow!

• Dendros Group (evaluation)
• JP Falk Designs (graphic design)
• Ecological Gardens (permaculture design)
• Outer Spaces Landscaping (soil delivery)
• Merlin’s Rest (event hosting)
• Kingfield Neighborhood Association, Longfellow Community Council, and Linden Hills Neighborhood Council (outreach)

Thank you

We appreciate the outpouring of support, volunteer labor, and donations from the Twin Cities community as we launch this innovative program to establish an urban food infrastructure. We are especially grateful to our Backyard Harvest Founders.

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