Sprout City Farms

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Sprout City Farms

Cultivating educational urban farms to engage & strengthen communities, and root farmers in the city
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Mission & Vision

Sprout City Farms builds educational urban farms to engage communities, strengthen neighborhood resiliency, and root farmers in the city. We envision a thriving local food system supported by a network of accessible city farms which nourish, and are nourished by, their surrounding communities. Our farms serve as a platform for education, health, food justice advocacy, ecological

stewardship, community wealth building, vocational training, and neighborhood resiliency. Guiding Principles

Sprout City Farms believes that a thriving local food system is the foundation for healthy, resilient communities. We strive to ensure food-secure communities by developing and strengthening the local food system. We believe in…

Creating opportunities for residents of our farm communities to have equal access to fresh produce and the knowledge of how to produce it themselves. Caring for the land we farm in an environmentally sustainable and socially responsible way, focusing on small-scale organic methods that encourage biodiversity, soil building, pollinator protection, and cultural heritage. Cultivating engaging community spaces where residents of all ages come together to build relationships around food. Creating opportunities for urban farmers to make a living growing food for their communities. Conserving scarce urban lands and/or maximize the potential of underutilized urban land for food production. Developing and leading a coalition of urban agriculture organizations to grow the local food movement and form a training pipeline for aspiring farmers and food systems advocates. We recognize that Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute), Tséstho’e (Cheyenne), hinono’eino’ biito’owu’ (Arapaho), and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ peoples are the traditional stewards of the unceded lands we are farming.

06/21/2024

Have you visited Sprout City Farms at the Longmont Farmers' Market yet?!

Farmers Steven and Jessie always have so much fun sharing our produce and talking about agrivoltaic growing methods while selling freshly-harvested vegetables from the farm at Jack's Solar Garden.

This week’s spread will include: kale, collards, chard, snap peas, radishes, scarlet turnips, garlic scapes, green garlic, spring onions, salad mix, baby kale, arugula, and MORE. Herbs will be parsley, dill, cilantro, sage, oregano, thyme, mint, and nettle. We’ll also have plant starts for any of you gardeners and home-growers!

Come visit us at Longmont Farmers Market tomorrow (and the Saturday after that, and the one after that…), as we have a booth every Saturday from 8am to 1pm!

06/20/2024

Happy Solstice from the Sprout City Farmers!!! ☀ You can find us spending the longest day of the year in our happy place - in the fields with the veggies!! 🥬

06/19/2024

This Juneteenth, the Sprout City Farms team is committing ourselves even further to learning and celebrating Blackness and BIPOC farmers.

Last Friday, the DGS Lunch & Learn program hosted Dr. Terri Gentry, who taught our crew and community members a “Roots of Black Farmers in America” lesson. She spoke about Black farming settlements in Colorado like Deerfield, the shrinking access to land for farmers of color in the past century (did you know that less than 1% of farmers in the US are Black?), and the joys embedded with resilience that comes with Black land stewardship.

Juneteenth is a holiday celebrated by Black communities to commemorate the day that enslaved people in Texas learned about the Emancipation Proclamation - two years after after the law was passed. Our team is taking the day to reflect and learn more about the history, barriers, and communities of Black land stewardship in the nearly 160 years since.

Dr. Gentry will be back on the farm September 20th to lead an Environmental Racism teaching. DGS Lunch & Learns take place every other other Friday from 12:30-1:30pm after volunteer hours (9am-12pm). Bring a lunch, a friend, and learn alongside our farmers!

In the meantime, we hope you join us in supporting Black-owned organizations/businesses, paying reparations to Black people, leaning into unlearning anti-Blackness, and (for Black people in particular) resting as much as possible.

06/13/2024

We love our community ❤ and the amount of volunteers we have had since April makes us feel so supported! We will be changing our work day hours to 9am-12pm each Friday at Denver Green School Community Farm. Please feel free to come within those three hours to work with us!

🍅 Tomorrow, Friday June 14, we are putting out a call for some extra help. We need help planting and prepping beds. Please come between 9am-12pm. You can sign up with this link. Afterwards, stay for a lunch and learn with Terri Gentry to learn about Black Farmers in the US!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084CA9AD2DA2FAC16-48693333-dgsvolunteer #/

06/13/2024

Vote SCF Farmers for Solar Farmer of the Year!

Our hardworking agrivoltaic leaders, Liza McConnell (Jack's Solar Research Farm Director) and Meg Caley (SCF Executive Director) are finalists for the Solar Farmer of the Year of the inaugural North American Agrivoltaics Awards!

This is a major honor that reminds us that our undertaking of the farm at Jack's Solar Farm is a big deal. The farmers at Jack's Solar Garden have worked tirelessly the past few years to grow crops under solar panels and figure out how to make agrivoltaics (agriculture + photovoltaics) accessible for farming operations across the country. The more we learn about vegetable production underneath solar panels, the bigger an impact we make for the future of sustainable food production!

Make a national statement and vote for our team to be the Solar Farmer of 2024 through the link below!

https://agrivoltaicsawards.com/people-nominees -f3ee-4934-8537-798c26d5acbf

06/13/2024

The first CSA pickup of the season at Denver Green School Community Farm was a hit ☀️

Everyone is happy to be back on the farm, and our farmers are happy to have everyone back!

Special thanks to Ashley at and Nicole Green for joining to get folks excited about the bread, baked goods, and other add-on shares!

(Peep the fresh new blue tent 👀 last year's hail tore up the one we'd had for ages but our replacement gives a lovely facelift, if we do say so ourselves)

06/07/2024

Before and after: many hands make light work during DGS drop-in volunteer hours!

Now that school is out, we're able to welcome young people to the farm as volunteers rather than students. Today, lots of teenagers on summer break from Regis Jesuit High School helped us clear three whole covercropped beds for planting.

Whether on summer vacation or summer break (or just a Friday morning off work), come join us Fridays from 10-12 at DGS Community Farm!!

06/07/2024

Say hello to CSA season!!!

The farm at Jack's Solar Garden launched its CSA today, and Denver Green School Community Farm is gearing up for their first pickup next Wednesday.

The first JSG share included green garlic, head lettuce, turnips, bok choy, greens, and herbs. If you don't have a CSA share (or want more), you can still get these agrivoltaic veggies at the Longmont Farmers Market this Saturday from 8-1!

We're so excited to be seeing y'all every week!!

06/04/2024

The party is BACK - tickets for Sprout City Farms' 2024 Night on the Farm event are officially on sale!

Join us from 5:30-8pm on September 21st at Mountair Park Community Farm as we celebrate the abundance of the farm season in all the ways we know how!

We're excited to have many collaborating partners returning to make the night even more delicious and fun than ever. Go to our website to find out more!

Keep in mind, this is the ONLY farm-to-table event that we're throwing this year, so you do not want to miss out!!

Get your tickets today at www.sproutcityfarms.org/night-on-the-farms!

05/22/2024

Extra, extra, read all about it!

Farmer Liza was interviewed for a local Left Hand Valley Courier article about agrivoltaics as a regenerative practice and the opportunities (including CSA shares - signups closing soon!) being offered by the farm under the solar panels at Jack's Solar Garden + Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center .

Read the story by Jennifer Wagner through the link below!

https://www.lhvc.com/story/2024/05/22/news/sprout-city-farms-farms-with-jacks-solar-garden/9200.html

05/21/2024

It took some time to get a burst pipe replaced (the second photo), but Denver Green School Community Farm finally has water for the season!!

You'd think Farmer Carly got the key to the city with how over the moon she is holding the key to irrigation. DGS School Farmer Tonja shows the replaced pipe, after it burst from a freeze over the winter.

It was hard to be patient, but worth the wait! Instead of watering in tubs and cans lugged over by the school, we finally get to use our well-loved, much easier drip irrigation system.

Water is life! We can't grow food without it.

05/16/2024

Andrea's first no-cost market at Mountair Park Community Farm was a big success!

We're so excited to host Andrea Loudd and Southwest Food Coalition to make food access possible for our neighbors, even when the fields are taking a rest year from producing food.

Get free produce every other Wednesday at MAP!!

05/14/2024

We're just a few weeks away from the start of CSA season!!! That means your last chance to get your farm-fresh veggies is just around the corner.

The farm at Jack's Solar Garden still has vegetable CSA shares available for our Boulder County neighbors (and DGS still has add-ons available for our Denver friends!!) and you do NOT want to miss out.

By getting a share, you'll get to know your local farmers, be a part of the largest farming-under-solar-panels operation in the country (the ONLY one with a CSA!), receive a wide variety of farm-fresh vegetables, AND save a visit to the grocery store!

With weekly and biweekly options, two pickup locations (Thursdays on the farm or Saturdays at the Longmont Farmers Market), fruit and mushroom add-ons, half-off EBT discounts, and payment plans, getting local vegetables couldn't be easier. 🥬🥦🫑🌶🍅🥕

CSA season at Jack's runs for 20 weeks, June 6th through October 17th.

Get yours today!! Link in bio and below.

https://sproutcityfarms.org/csa-signup

05/14/2024

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) provides not only a generous supply of organically grown produce each week to members, but it also creates educational opportunities for people to learn about their seasonal food, connect with their farm, and actively build connections in their community food sy...

05/09/2024

We're so excited to be partnering with Southwest Food Coalition to host Andrea's No Cost Market at Mountair Park Community Farm this season - starting NEXT WEDNESDAY!!!

As you may have noticed, we haven't been posting too much about Mountair Park Community Farm lately.

MAP is looking a little different in 2024 - after a decade of food production in Lakewood, Sprout City Farms is temporarily pausing daily farm operations for one season. After ten growing seasons, both our fields and our neighborhood are different than they used to be, and our team is dedicated to giving some extra TLC to both.

But don’t worry, you can’t get rid of us that easily! We will still be present on the farm and around the neighborhood, with the intent to cultivate opportunities for you to help us on the farm and provide insight to what the future of MAP can be. We will continue collaborating with the City of Lakewood as they pilot new projects in the area, as well as expanding our partnerships with nearby schools, neighborhood organizations, and food access coalitions.

We're so grateful to be partnering with Andrea and Southwest Food Coalition to ensure our MAP community still gets food while the farm is pausing its food production.

Be sure to stop by the biweekly market (by the red shed, where CSA pickup usually is) for some free vegetables for your family and friends!

05/08/2024

Our vegetable CSA is sold out at DGS Community Farm, but we still have other yummy options to choose from!

9 weeks of baked goods, baked by our friend Nicole Greene!

18 or 9 weeks of eggs from Nutripeak in Westcliffe, CO

12 or 6 weeks of microgreens from Emerald Gardens

12 weeks of fruit from Ela Family Farms

12 weeks of local grains and beans from East Denver Food Hub

18 weeks of bread from Rebel Bread

Sign up by May 30th and spread the word! Pick up is every Wednesday June 12-October 16 from 4-6pm. Sign up using this link https://sproutcityfarms.org/csa-signup

05/07/2024

It's potato planting season at Denver Green School Community Farm!!

One of the many benefits of having a community farm on school grounds means that students get to experience the farm as an outdoor classroom, and getting dirty gets to be a form of learning! 🌱

First graders just helped our farmers plant potatoes 🥔 When they come back as second graders after summer vacation, they'll experience the other end of the life cycle by helping our farmers harvest the potatoes they planted!

In the classroom, first graders are learning about animal habitats and talking a lot about how to help community. Through potatoes, they get to learn how vegetables grow to feed community and how some animals live underground like potatoes!

What's your favorite way to eat a potato? 🍠

05/06/2024

Meet your Longmont Farmers Market vendors, Steven and Jessie!

Steven (he/him) is our Market & Outreach Coordinator at Jack's Solar Garden and has returned to Sprout City Farms to farm under solar panels for a second season!

Jessie (they/them) is spending their first season with SCF farming at Jack's as an apprentice and has been excited to dive into agrivoltaics after a background in both production and community farming.

After a few days of working in the solar fields, these two jump into the weekend by bringing agrivoltaic produce and education to Boulder County residents through our farmers' market booth. This weekend, they helped folks sign up for our upcoming CSA and offered solar-grown radishes, arugula, rmustard greens, green garlic, and starts to anyone who stopped by. Next weekend (and the next, and the next...), find out for yourself what goodies you can go home with!

Give them a visit and meet your friendly neighborhood farmers on Saturdays from 8am-1pm at the Longmont Farmers Market! (Boulder County Farmers Markets)

04/29/2024

The farm at Jack's Solar Garden is offering half-price CSA shares for folks with SNAP benefits!

Thanks to Sprout City Farms' partnership with Double Up Food Bucks, every dollar goes twice as far - now including for CSA shares! Jack's Solar Farm is offering the only agrivoltaic vegetable share in the country, as well as fruit and mushroom shares from local partners Ela Family Farms and Mountain Mushrooms!

We know that up-front payments for CSA shares can be cost-prohibitive, so we have payment plans available upon request (for both half and full-cost shares) to make getting farm-fresh veggies easier than ever! Getting a payment plan set up is just an email away - contact [email protected]!

With weekly and biweekly share options, and two different pickup dates/locations to choose from, the June-October CSA program at Jack's Solar is designed to meet the needs of YOU and your household.

Sign up for your farm-fresh shares today at www.sproutcityfarms.org/csa-signup!

Cultivating educational urban farms to engage & strengthen communities, and root farmers in the city

04/22/2024

Orientation week for the SCF 2024 Farm crews was such a blast!!

Our teams spent last week getting to know Sprout City Farms' sites, their home farms, and each other. From slideshows about the history of SCF (featuring special guest, Wilson the duck!) to a cajita identity project to a cultural potluck, it was a full few days of building community together to prepare for the growing season.

We have an amazing set of farmers this year, and we can't wait for you to spend time with them!!!

04/16/2024

Join us on April 27 for fun, volunteering, a silent auction, and more! Come support the school and farm from 9am-2pm and join us in this community celebration.

04/15/2024

Our favorite part of spring has arrived - vegetables and seasonal crew members!

Asparagus is one of our early-season crops, like spinach and green garlic (which you can get from our Jack's team at the Longmont Farmers' Market!), that our farmers get to munch on while working in the fields.

This week is Orientation Week for interns and apprentices, where our crews from each farm will be getting to know each other and their farms!

Stay tuned to hear more about the all-staff activities we'll be experiencing in the coming days! 🌱

04/08/2024

Sprout City Farms at Jack's Solar Garden had its first day at the Longmont Farmers Market this Saturday! It was a chilly and windy day, but that didn't deter our team 🍃

We'll be selling veggies from our agrivoltaic farm all season long Boulder County Farmers Markets on Saturdays from 8am to 1pm. Come get your greens fix from us! (Solar-grown veggie CSA shares are still available too - double trouble!) 🥬

04/05/2024

Big news! Sprout City Farms is looking for 2 youth interns ages 16-19 to join us for 8 weeks this summer! SCF interns will learn about organic, urban farming at Denver Green School Community Farm. These are paid internships June-July.

Apply here!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd0N02b6c59JRAGp_y90DTEgzGRWZHSXmqroPzxFgUCQT0yfg/viewform

04/03/2024

Please join us in welcoming the newest Sprout City Farms team member, Daniel!

Daniel (he/him) is the new Denver Green School Assistant Farm Manager! Originally from Venezuela, Daniel has been all around the world learning about sustainability and agriculture, and has farmed on 19 farms in 4 different countries! We're so excited to be his 20th farm and have him join us at DGS this season.

Read more about Daniel in his bio on our website!

03/29/2024

After nearly 15 years of working tirelessly for Sprout City Farms, Farmer Meg is taking a much-needed and highly-deserved break!!

Meg is honored to be a recipient of a sabbatical grant from The Colorado Health Foundation alongside 3 other leaders from around the state. She will be on sabbatical from April through July (back in the office August 1), which will include one month of an Executive-in-Residence at the Health Foundation and three months of getting back to her cultural roots in Italy and France with her family.

Meg says: "I am so grateful to our amazing team, who will be here to steward programs and operations while I'm out. I have utmost confidence in their leadership and appreciate this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to focus on rest, rejuvenation, family time, and my first summer vacation since starting SCF!! Thank you everyone, and see you on the flip side-- arrivaderci!"

We know you will join us in sharing excitement for Meg as she embarks on this journey, and continue supporting the whole Sprout City Farms team while she's out these next few months!

03/27/2024

This year at DGS Community Farm we have some great opportunities for volunteers and community members! Each year we welcome individual volunteers every 🌱Friday from 10am-12pm and this year we are adding to that!

In addition to Friday workdays we will be hosting 🥗Lunch and Learns hosted by our Education Programs Manager, Myranda! Each Lunch and Learn will focus on a different topic from Composting to Indigenous Food Sovereignty to Crop Rotation. Spots are limited. Sign up or learn more today!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084CA9AD2DA2FAC16-48693333-dgsvolunteer #/

Thank you to all of our individual volunteers over the years. We love hosting work days with community members!

03/26/2024

We're getting irrigation and early-season starts in place for the season at the farm at Jack's Solar Garden!

We'll be producing food earlier than usual this year at JSG, because in addition to running the one-and-only CSA program grown under solar panels (shares still available!), we will be vending at Longmont Farmers Market this season! Our team is so excited to be alongside other incredible Boulder County Farmers Markets producers every weekend.

Come see us on Saturdays from 8am to 1pm at Longmont Farmers Market, starting April 6th (next weekend)!!

03/22/2024

Sprout City Farms' fundraising team is growing! Please give a warm welcome to Lindsay (she/her), our new Development Associate!!

Lindsay was born and raised in Colorado, and has spent time living in both Fort Collins and the Denver Metro Area, where she has strong roots in the food justice community. Currently our most remote team member, Lindsay lives with family in rural Veracruz, Mexico and will be joining us in Denver as we get deeper into the farm season.

In her varied career she has worked for nonprofits, local government, social enterprises and grassroots campaigns as a community organizer, program administrator and grant writer, mostly in the fields of food systems and economic development. She has even worked with Sprout City Farms before while working at the Denver Department of Public Health!

Read her full bio on our website at https://sproutcityfarms.org/our-team-1

03/21/2024

Happy spring! From seedlings growing to flowers blooming to garlic popping up, it's a beautiful time of year to witness nature waking up from a long winter's nap.

What's your favorite first-sign-of-spring? Did you celebrate the spring Equinox? Have you recovered from the recent time change of Daylight Savings?

Though March is historically the snowiest month of the year for Denver, the season's change - and a rising amount of pollen 🤧 - is in the air!

(Scroll all the way to see DGS Farm Manager, Carly, organizing seeds for the season with her feline familiar, Jinx!)

🌷🪻🌹🌸🌼🌱☀️

Address

6700 E Virginia Avenue
Denver, CO
80224

Telephone

+17202953217

Website

http://sproutcityfarms.org/

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Videos

Take it from some of our staff and volunteers: today is Colorado Gives Day!!!! This year, we are looking to raise $10,000 by the end of the day! Sprout City Farms has spent all season nourishing our community, and as we wrap up the year, we ask that you take this opportunity to nourish us! Members of our previous and current Board of Directors are making this goal even easier - they’re matching all donations up to $5,000! We’re already halfway there!! While we're still calculating the final numbers of impact from the farm season, our team is celebrating some major successes across our three farm sites: - Grew over 25,000 pounds of vegetables with organic farming methods, - Engaged nearly 6,000 individuals - including feeding over 3,000 of our community members! - through education, food access, and community outreach programs - 57% of our total harvest was allocated to food access through no-cost CSAs, donation-based farm stands, Farm-to-Cafeteria programs, and food pantry donations! Join us in celebrating these milestones and helping us end the year strong by donating to our #ColoradoGivesDay campaign through the link below. It takes a village to raise a chard! https://www.coloradogives.org/organization/SproutCityFarms

Like many other Lakewood growers, we were clobbered by hail and flooding at Mountair Park Community Farm last Thursday evening. Then, adding insult to injury, while we were walking the fields assessing the damage Friday morning, it started to hail again!! The storms over the last 2 months have been relentless across the Front Range and our hearts go out to all affected. We actually lost count, but think we've seen hail more than 10 times at MAP this spring 🤯 This latest one hit pretty hard, with many plants down to just a stem 😭 We will reseed and replant and hope some things will bounce back... though it can be difficult to stay optimistic in the face of such devastation, knowing how much this sets back our ability to distribute food to our community. But the silver lining: in the local farmer community, we feel each other's pain and we RALLY. Our farmer friends far and wide immediately responded to our plea for plants--we are thinking through how many of our 600 tomato plants may need to be replaced, for example--and we are all sharing tips about how to help the plants recover, what to replant, where to focus energy. There's a general we're-here-for-each-other morale boost going on. ✊✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾 Thank you everyone for the support, and keep it comin! People out there: buy from producers at your local farmers market/farm stands, come out to volunteer in the field, hug a farmer. This has been a particularly challenging and emotional roller coaster of a season so far, and summer has only officially just begun. But we'll keep at it if you all stick with us ☺️❤️‍🩹 You can help our farmers recover by donating to support the costs of replacing many of our plants. You can give as a one-time or monthly donation at this link: https://www.coloradogives.org/donate/SproutCityFarms #hail #hailno #hailstorm #denver #lakewoodcolorado #farmingincolorado #urbanfarming #milehighfarmers #mountairparkcommunityfarm #sproutcityfarms #climatechange #sol

Denver Green School second graders hatched chicks 🐣 in May and they are getting so big! Soon they will move into their brand new coop outside! Check back for more updates soon. 🐥

We had such a fun day bringing the MAP crew and Development Team to DGS for an all crew day! We got leeks and onions planted and patched up our irrigation system! #teamworkmakesthedreamwork

Third graders at Denver Green School know all about team work and sing it loud and proud! We love our students!

Let's welcome local beekeepers Katie and Rodney to the Denver Green School community! Thank you for sharing your bees and your knowledge! Video by Rodney!

Our friend and farmer Angelica was named a local Everyday Hero on Denver7 news! We're exciting to be providing even more fresh food to Metropolitan State University of Denver students by expanding our partnership with Rowdy's Corner this season - thanks to Angelica's hard work and deep care for the MSU community! We are happy to announce that Angelica will be returning to Sprout City Farms for her third season at Mountair Park Community Farm! First an intern, then apprentice, and now an Assistant Farm Manager at MAP, we are thrilled to have such a decidated person on our team. Keep it up, Angelica!! Read more about the work happening at #rowdyscorner at this link: https://www.denver7.com/news/7everyday-hero/helping-students-find-healthy-fuel-for-their-bodies-is-passion-for-fellow-college-student

Squash Blossom!

We hope you are enjoying the fresh vegetables from your share this week! At Denver Green School we harvested squash blossoms with the help of a friend 🐝 What will you make with your share?

Watch out, world, the Veggie Bikes are getting a facelift! Program Manager Stefan is cycling the first of both Veggie Bikes to Banner Signs to get wraps for each of our mobile farm stand e-bikes, that you, our community helped us pick! This bike will be graced with art from two Access Gallery artists, Allie and FuMei. See the makeovers up close and personal at our mobile farm stands beginning next month!

And so it begins… the typical but oft-forgotten late May snowstorm ❄️ Sleep tight farm and seedlings! For those gardeners out there, cover any tender plants with a bucket or tarp so they can weather the storm! 🤞 #springincolorado #springindenver #springsnow #hangtight #frostiscoming #denvergreenschoolcommunityfarm #sproutcityfarms

Here at Sprout City Farms we believe in "planting" opportunities for building communities. Our CSA programs we have the opportunity to provide locally sourced food to the community, as well as our farm stands. We also host community events and have regular volunteer opportunities. Both of these can be seen through the SCF website. You can see our CSA programs and the SCF website through this link: https://sproutcityfarms.org

First Tilling at Jack’s!

Taking a citrus break after a productive day of irrigating and seeding at Mountair Park Community Farm!

We’re proud to have Mountair Park Community Farm part of the 40 West Arts District ArtLine! It’s fun watching the Dermal Plate Gateway spin on a windy day....

We’re at @tedxmilehigh today spreading the word about urban agriculture!

Twilight at the farm :)

So good to have classes out on the farm again!! 1st grade has been studying pollinators and came out to spread wildflower seeds and check out the bees and friends in action. Here they are doing their bee waggle dance back into the classroom 🤗🐝🦋🌸