A reflection: What was lost and what has been found on Urban Farm Day
Approaching the end of the Gardens Buffalo Niagara (GBN) event season, Urban Farm Day returned on August 27, 2022 for its second year. As hoped, it has become an annual habit, to visit and support urban farms, community gardens and more, to reconnect with where our food comes from, and maybe to be inspired to find your own passion to create a garden plot.
For anyone who has ever tried to grow food, you know farming is beyond one’s control most of the time, with the expectation of gaining something, one always has to think and rethink about loss. It is particularly true with urban farms, since often there is an opportunity found in loss.
Led by Mary Van Vorst, from GBN Events Committee, Urban Farm Day explores market gardens, community gardens, private gardens, and more, which focus on farming and growing food in urban settings, in Buffalo and the City of Tonawanda.
Owners of Common Roots Urban Farm Terra Dumas(second from left) and Joshua Poodry(third from left) at their on-site farm stand
You’ll find an array of successful market gardens on Urban Farm Day.
Market gardeners give the lost land (vacant abandoned lots) in urban areas a new life. They operate like successful traditional farm, and by successful, we mean their operations do aim to turn a profit and self-sustain.
You would find a native elderberry bush (of the size of a small house!) at 5 Loaves Farm, an entire farm grown from raised beds (a result of considerations on soil quality) at the WestSide Tilth Farm, and innovative methods and tools from Jean-Martin Fortier’s book in practice at Common Roots Urban Farm.
Fresh produce at WestSide Tilth Farm Saturdays 10am-3pm (See more: List of open hours of all featured farms)
As one of the featured talks and guided tours on Urban Farm Day, you would find Dr. Samina Raja’s talk at Massachusetts Avenue Project. Dr. Raja is the leader of the UB Food Lab (Twitter: @ubfoodlab), whose team studied this very special urban agriculture initiative for nearly two decades (Read more at Rustbelt Radicalism: A Decade of Food Systems Planning Practice in Buffalo, New York).
Dr. Raja shared her insights with GBN and we learned that as a pioneer in urban farming, Massachusetts Avenue Project had to pave its own way, and it continues to be on the frontier of bringing the concept of the importance of the food network into people’s awareness, and challenging city regulation and zoning laws in the meantime.
An interactive presentation by The UB Food Lab at Massachusetts Avenue Project (Photo courtesy of Jim Charlier)
In addition, it is a pleasure to see an urban farm that is dedicated to engaging with youth and helping them find “job readiness and leadership skills through farming.” As a matter of fact, we heard from every single urban farm that we visited, that they always thrive to find more ways to engage with the community.
On Urban Farm Day, you also find many community gardens organized by independent non-profit organizations (NPOs).
Community gardens often are built on vacant lots leased from the city, with the aim to nurture an environment that would bring the community together. You may hear people sometimes call it ‘allotment’, which would be a simplification of what they do.
GBN visited DeeplyRooted Community Garden in the city of Tonawanda, which is in its early stages. You would find a sensory garden for children and many repurposed garden arts there, along with neatly planned planting plots and raised beds.
While GBN moved on to the Grassroots Gardens of WNY headquarter on Broadway, we witnessed its leader Jeanette Koncikowski gave a talk to a large group from East Side Bike Club. Koncikowski, with Program Manager Tim Chen, shared with GBN that the biggest challenge they faced was the risk of losing the lots back to the city. The fear is that developers would purchase the lot from the city with the intention of building over the community gardens. Since the majority of the land that community gardens built on is on lease rather than owned by the organization, their effort has been focused on preventing the potential loss of the lots through the establishment of a land trust. Grassroots Gardens of WNY aims to secure 20% of its oldest and largest sites through purchase.
Jeanette Koncikowski of Grassroots Gardens of WNY gave a talk to East Side Bike Club on Urban Farm Day
The Bolyard Garden in the City of Tonawanda stands out.
The Bolyard Garden, a private residential garden, has gone through tremendous transformations over the past years. When asked what they have overcome for their project, the Bolyards said it was self-doubts that what they planned would cause them to lose the good opinions of others, but quite the contrary, not only did they gain more respect, but their urban farm also gained a new purpose: to homeschool and to engage children with educational activities in a growing environment.
Natalie Bolyard shared that children were fascinated by the lifecycle of insects and also their population fluctuation as the season progressed. With the abundance of fruit, vegetable, herbs, birds and insects, children would have a much better chance at developing a meaningful understanding of where our food comes from, and the importance of the balance in nature.
The Bolyards family table at Bolyard Garden, with their late summer harvests (Photo courtesy of Natalie Bolyard)
With 18 urban farms and establishments featured on Urban Farm Day, it is more than what one can explore and visit during one Saturday morning. Most of the farms open through the season, and some of the establishments operate year round. Even if you lost the chance to visit some of them on Urban Farm Day, you can still find another opportunity, check the list for their open hours.
Urban Farm Day is far more than just something nice to do on one Saturday morning, we hope to envision a new way for our daily life, for our children’s future, and for our community.
While waiting for the next Urban Farm Day, GBN would like to complete this reflection with the quote from writer Kathryn Schulz, “our brief crossing is best spent attending to all that we see: honoring what we find noble…recognizing that we are inseparably connected to all of it, including what is not yet upon us, including what is already gone.”
Let the spirit of our urban farmers remind us to notice other people’s struggles, to rethink the possibility of creating something new, and to cherish the connection that we have found.
By Jay Jinge Hu, GBN Events Committee
GBN gratefully acknowledges the input from Dr. Samina Raja from the UB Food Lab on this article.