Schenectady Urban Farms

06/03/2024

May 18th was 518 Day of Giving, a time for giving back to our Capital Region Community through volunteering and donations! To celebrate, Fehr Ave. Farm hosted a wonderful group of volunteers who rolled up their sleeves for a day of planting, weeding, and learning about our community compost initiatives! 🌱

Visit our 2024 518 Day Photo Album to see how Fehr Ave. Farm is progressing so far this season! 🍅
518 Day of Giving United Way of the Greater Capital Region

04/16/2024

We are excited to introduce our newest edition to the Farms team, our Compost Coordinator, Yarold!

04/02/2024

The community compost is open again! We would love to have you become a community compost member! Look through the benefits below; registration required.

There are two locations available at this time for compost drop off:
Sustainable Living Center, Central Park
Fehr Avenue Urban Farm, Central Park
Additional locations coming soon!

Here are some of the benefits of joining:
-One-time donation of just $15 to join (fee waiver available)!
-24/7 access to drop off location- drop when it's convenient for you!
-No compost maintenance work for you!
-New in 2024: compost giveback days- receive finished compost made from you and your neighbor's food scraps!
-Meet like-minded locals at events just for community compost members!
-Two drop location options in Central Park!

Register at https://tinyurl.com/CommunityCompost2024

04/01/2024

It’s that time of year again! - Our beloved Schenectady Urban Farms are opening for the season! This isn’t just about growing vegetables; it’s about growing connections, friendships, and a stronger community. Let’s come together, sow some seeds of joy, and cultivate a greener, more united neighborhood. 🌱✨

Interested in becoming a Farms Member?
For More Information: sycamorecollab.org/your-farms

Fehr Ave Farm
Saturday, April 13th
12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Vale Farm
Sunday, April 14th
12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
#518

02/20/2024

Our first seeds of the season are up! Our farmers planted leek and onion seeds two weeks ago and they sprouted last week. This week we will be starting brassicas!
This is our second year starting some of our seeds in our office. We repurposed a baker rack by adding lights and surrounding it with a mylar type material to keep the space bright and warm. Thanks to Hassleer, farmer for Cornell Cooperative Extension Schenectady’s Sustainable Living Center for the idea. It really takes a village!

02/14/2024

Happy Valentine’s Day! We are cooking up our Six Nations Strawberry beans for lunch today in our community kitchen during our member hours.The beans in the heart are our seed beans for planting this year. We love our beautiful beans and they offer us sustenance during the cold winter months. Hope your day is as delicious as it is beautiful!

02/12/2024

Thank you to all who attended the 2024 Schenectady Seed Share!

Guests were able to pick from a vast variety of different seeds such as sweet peppers, corn, kale and sugar snap peas, courtesy of Schenectady Urban Farms and our wonderful community partners! There was also taste testing beans, pickles, sauce and more, all using ingredients from the Schenectady Urban Farms! Don't forget Farmer Leah's Lavender Lemonade! Between taste testing and seed sharing, informational sessions led by our community partners shared knowledge of backyard composting, sugaring, and more!

01/24/2024

Thank you to all who joined us for Schenectady Urban Farm’s Open House! Visitors learned about raising egg-laying hens, beekeeping, and growing herbs and veggies in the city of Schenectady!

🌱 Want to make memories like these? Join us for the 2024 Schenectady Urban Farms Seed Share for an evening of sharing seeds, stories, and local gardening information! Sessions include Backyard Composting, Backyard Sugaring, and more! 🌱

Enjoy samples of food made from locally grown vegetables. Enter to win a backyard composter and food scraps bin!

For more information and to register, visit https://sicm.salsalabs.org/2024SeedShareSignUp

01/18/2024

Come visit us and hear about beekeeping and raising hens and veggies and herbs in Schenectady! We’re hear until 7 at 839 Albany St!

01/11/2024

Third Annual Seed Share coming Saturday, February 3, 12-3!

Farming work really is year-round! One thing we have been working on is cleaning and sorting the dry beans we grew this year. Some of those include: Black beans, Jacob Cattle beans (pictured with Farmer Jeremiah,) Six Nations Strawberry beans and Haudenosaunee Skunk beans. With all the rain it was a hard year for dry beans. We grow them and let them dry on the vine and then harvest before the frost. Beans build the soil and provide a terrific source of protein that can be enjoyed in the wi winter. We are grateful for the harvest we do have.

We will be sharing some of these beans for you to grow at our Third Annual Seed Share! And, we'll be cooking some up for folks to try. Join us Saturday, February 3 from 12-3 at 837 Albany St. Snow date: Saturday, Feb 10, 12-3.
Registration info coming.....

01/08/2024

The Schenectady Urban Farm's Open House is coming up soon!

Interested in learning about community farming in Schenectady? Come, meet SiCM farms' staff and members, and taste locally grown food. Learn about opportunities to grow food, flowers, and herbs; raise and tend to the chickens and honeybees; and see how to get the best healthy soil through composting. The Schenectady Urban Farm's Open House will be on Thursday, January 18th, from 5pm to 7pm at our food pantry, 839 Albany St. For more information about the SUF Open House contact Melissa, our Farm Outreach Coordinator, at [email protected]

01/04/2024

The Schenectady Urban Farms open house will take place at 839 Albany Street in Schenectady from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Tell your friends and family!

Come join our farmer friends from Schenectady Urban Farms to learn about apothecary, beekeeping, the compost program, raising hens and growing your own fruits and veggies! Learn how you too can become a member of the Schenectady Urban Farms. Support the community, grow your knowledge and skills, and get your hands dirty! 🌱🌼🐔☀️

12/28/2023

Open Mic in Schenectady every month
FIRST TUESDAY!!!

12/25/2023

I don't think of Solstice as just the official day; I think of it as this whole time of year when days are short and nights are long. For some, it is excruciatingly difficult to get through, and I have certainly had lots of years like that. So my Solstice Round is not just for the official day; it's for this whole time of year when we need reminders that it is a cycle that moves through the cold & dark, reliably bringing back the light - one day at a time. The seed of light really IS there in the darkest of nights! CW

"Time to welcome the darkness and know it's the seed of life Time to know that the brightest morning begins in the darkest night" © C.L. Winter 1987 click on the icon below to download

11/22/2023

Are you looking for a way to support your local community this Giving Tuesday?

Consider making a donation to support Schenectady Urban Farms, a SiCM program consisting of three community supported farms in the City of Schenectady. The farms provide fresh produce to the farm members and the wider community. But that’s not all! The farmers are doing their part to reduce food waste by composting food scraps from Zoller Elementary School to make rich soil for the community.

Preservation sessions (such as: tea bag making & food preservation) are offered in the Community Hub using farm grown ingredients, while the apothecary garden and honeybees produce beeswax and lavender to be used in hand creams! So why not join the movement towards sustainable, community-focused living? Donate to SiCM in support of Schenectady Urban Farms today! 🌱🌻🥕🍅🐓🐝

$25 Donation = Two weeks worth of materials for honeybee care
$75 Donation = One month of a balanced diet for egg-laying chickens
$150 Donation = Funds one month of transportation costs for the composting program.

Visit https://tinyurl.com/SiCMGivingTuesday2023

10/31/2023

Talk about scary and exciting for Halloween! We have almost filled one of three bays in the solar-powered aerated composting system at Fehr Ave Farm! Believe it or not, the scary part is NOT collecting food scraps from Zoller Elementary school, although we do get dirty. We take the food scraps and dump them onto the pile, pull out any plastic, rip up the cardboard lunch trays and cover everything with woodchips. One elementary school in two months will provide enough compost for one of our farms for ½ the season. And, we are only 2 months in!! Just imagine if we collected and composted all our food scraps instead of landfilling them? That's the scary part; what's gonna happen to our soil and ability to grow food if we don't make some significant changes. That's where we come in, teaching the community that ANYONE can make an impact.

10/29/2023

10/29/2023

CANCELED 😞

We will have trick or treating and snacks Tuesday during Vale Open Hours!

Due to rain 🌧 we are having to cancel the SiCM Urban Farms spooktacular event 🎃👻

We apologize for the inconvenience, and wish that you all will have a fun-filled Halloween!

10/25/2023

Get ready for a spooktacular time at Vale Farm this Sunday at 4:00 p.m. We’re celebrating Halloween in style with FREE candy, so be sure to join us for some sweet treats and spooky fun! We hope to see you there! 🎃👻

10/17/2023

At the SiCM Family Fall Festival (At Vale Farm!) we will be having a pie baking contest, and we want you to join!! 🥧

To participate, you will only have to purchase a ticket to our fundraiser ($35) and bring your best baked pie to our event!

The contest will begin at 5:30 and the winner will be announced during the intermission of the musical performances. Your pies will be judged by local dignitaries, and you will receive a certificate from SiCM for participating!

The winner will receive a gift card/gift certificate! We ask that the pie be in a 9inch pie pan and encourage you to use produce and ingredients from the farms for your pie!

If you would like to enter the pie baking contest, please email Cali at [email protected] or call 518-374-2683 x 103.

The link to buy your ticket is here: 🎟️
https://tinyurl.com/sicmfall

Happy Harvesting and hope to see you there! 🍂

09/06/2023

Behind every successful organization are the dedicated interns and volunteers who make it all possible. From lending a helping hand to gaining invaluable experience, their contributions are immeasurable. Thank you to all interns and volunteers who make a difference every day!

We’d also like to extend a big shoutout and heartfelt thanks to our newest farmer at Schenectady Urban Farms, Tatyanna, who has been getting her hands dirty at the farm!

She was an intern with us, but through her dedication and hard work, she has proved to be an asset to the team and we're thrilled to welcome her back! Thank you Tatyanna for all that you do, and for inspiring us with your commitment to sustainability and community building! 🌱🌍🙌

09/04/2023

"Schenectady Urban Farms started over 10 years ago at our Vale Cemetery site with a small group of dedicated volunteers and a passion for growing in the community.

Over the years, our membership has grown from roughly 6 initial volunteers and their families to over 100 member families. This success is attributed to the strength of stewardship and connection to the land and the connection people have made over the years of tending the farms together.

In 2019 "Vale Urban Farm" as it was formerly known, joined SiCM to become Schenectady Urban Farms and took on 2 new sites, amassing 2 acres of urban farmland in the city of Schenectady."
- Farmer Leah, Manager for the Schenectady Urban Farms 💐

08/31/2023

A bee in its lifetime makes one teaspoon of honey. Here are some photos where thousands of bees have come together to make a harvest for us. 🐝🌻

08/30/2023

Last Tuesday, we held a Farm Food Preservation Event in the SiCM Community Kitchen! Our farmers and attendees made sauerkraut and dilly beans!

Shoutout to Jackie for sending us these great pictures!

08/29/2023

One of our Elder trees at Vale Urban Farm has been full of beautiful, delicious, immune-supporting elderberries! Earlier this August, we harvested the berries and made Elderberry Oxymel, an old-fashioned medicine made with apple cider vinegar and our farm honey! We'll continue to harvest the fruit and save it for Elderberry syrup making in our Community kitchen this Fall.
Schenectady Urban Farms