Harvest Delivered by Trevor the Trailor.

Fresh Roots – growing food in our neighborhoods, for our neighborhood, by our neighborhood

We produce and distribute organically grown food through our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, using urban land to nourish Vancouver residents.

How We Do What We Do!
Fresh Roots Blog

After confirming with the landlord, ensuring all parties are happy – what is our actual urban farming process?

First. We kill the sod. We do this by collecting cardboard from dumpsters around town then laying it out on the lawn.

Important to note, we lay down the cardboard because it helps kill the sod, with the understanding that the cardboard will decompose with the sod and the following season we’ll be able to access all the scrumptious soil hidden beneath the unused grass. Our next step is to collect woodchips. We’ve been collecting from a pile up near 52nd and Main – we’ve found it to be quite a fruitful mission each time we drive that way.

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Green City Acres is comprised of 10 small and large farm sites

Green City Acres is a pedal powered urban farming/edible landscaping company dedicated to sustainable food production. We utilize back yards and urban spaces to grow organic produce for local distribution. All of our farming operations including farm maintenance, transportation of crops, restaurant deliveries, weekly farmers markets, and moving of our 300 lb. rototiller, are all done with our bikes and trailers. Our mission is to foster social and environmental change through the production of local organic food, with minimal use of fossil fuels, and to help, teach, and empower people to start growing their own.

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Spring 2011

Farming the City: Global Perspectives on Urban Agriculture & Food Security
(SPEA E100/V100 Spring 2011)

Course Description:
Feeding the world’s ever-increasing urban populations presents both significant challenges and surprising opportunities. As cities continue to grow, millions of individuals, families, organizations, and governments are turning to forms of urban agriculture to help meet their food security needs. Urban agriculture practices involve the growing, processing, and distribution of food and other products through intensive plant cultivation and animal husbandry in and around cities. From Cuba to Cambodia, from Toronto to Tanzania, well-established forms of urban agriculture now thrive alongside with a range of experimental projects and food security initiatives.

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For this Seattle coop, a hinged panel opens from the outside for easy egg collection.Photo by Credit Matt Deschler. See more photos here.

All Cooped Up – The latest accessory for a custom home? A shelter for the feathered ones

By Cheryl Weber
Custom Home Magazine
September 1, 2010

Excerpt:

When architect Michael Viveiros built a house for his family 10 years ago, he added a second house, next to the garden, for his Rhode Island Reds. The chickens probably were the first ever to live in a house recognized by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), as it won a People’s Choice Award from AIA Rhode Island. The property has since sold, and Viveiros is designing another coop to complement his new house. This one will be two stories tall and built into a hillside, with a garden shed upstairs.

“I like playing with forms typical of farm buildings, and things that are simple and handmade,” says Viveiros, a principal at Durkee, Brown, Viveiros & Werenfels Architects in Providence, R.I. “We deal so much with technology that when it comes to relaxing, I like things at the opposite end of that spectrum.”

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Urban gardens bloom in Cuyahoga County.

Urban agriculture in Cuyahoga County

Urban Agriculture Program Updates:

Summer Sprout: The Community Gardening Program in the City of Cleveland, Summer Sprout, is currently accepting applications for new gardens the 2011 season. Gardens involved in the program receive technical assistance and research-based education from OSU Extension and are eligible to receive seeds, soil tests, starter plants, soil, humus, reduced-rate hydrant permits and roto-tilling.

Suburban Community Gardening Program: This program aims to assist residents to start new community gardens in suburban communities of Cuyahoga County as well as supporting existing gardens through education and technical assistance.

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