Tomorrow Bouquet Workshop At Center For Urban Horticulture

The UW farm is having a special bouquet making class tomorrow from 3-7pm. The information says: UW Farm: Flower Power Hours  Come learn about the flowers grown at the UW Farm. Make bouquets for the CSA program and make one for yourself as well.    Riz Reyes leads this informative fragrant workshop the last Tuesday of each month. Free and open to the public. Drop-in anytime during the four-hour volunteer shift.   If this is your first time volunteering at the UW Farm please sign-up on the website and fill out the application and questionnaire before arriving. Go here for more information.

All About Raab

Each month the UW Botanic Gardens' Newsletter, E-Flora, posts in detail about a specific plant, among many other interesting posts about events and general information.

This month's feature is about Raab, or Brassica oleracea, grown at the UW Student Farm at McMahon Hal.




April Plant Profile: Brassica oleracea

BROCCOLI RAAB BY SANDY SARSFIELD / FLICKR

This time of year, you may notice your winter garden plants like kale, collards, and cabbage start to elongate, and produce new, small tender leaves and florets, soon-to-be flowers, also known as raab. Often green, yellow, or purple, these clusters of flower buds emerge when the days get longer, and signify that your plants are preparing to go to seed.

What you may not know is that those are edible, delicious, and nutritious! Raab tastes a lot like broccoli, but is sweeter and more tender, and is delightfully simple to cook: briefly sauté them with a little bit of oil or fat and garlic, and add them to your favorite pasta, stir-fry or scramble.

This year, the UW Farm is taking on a third site: the terrace at McMahon Hall. We broke ground on this site on April 1, and it happened to be covered in collard greens preparing to go to flower. We were able to harvest almost 20lbs of raab for the McMahon dining hall, just 100 feet below our garden.

Expect to harvest 6-10 clusters of raab per plant in the spring. Plan ahead and grow extra brassicas in July so that your spring harvest starts early!


Family: Brassicaceae

Genus: Brassica

species: Brassica oleracea

Common Name: Kale and Collard Greens

Location: UW Student Farm at McMahon Hall

Wednesday UW Farm Hosting Farm-To-Table Dinner At Center for Urban Horticulture

The UW Farm is hosting its fourth annual public Farm-to-Table Dinner at the Center for Urban Horticulture on Wednesday from 6:30-9pm.  The cost is $30.

The information says:

The evening will feature a delicious vegan and gluten-free friendly meal of locally grown produce, local beer, live music, and more.

The UW Farm is a 1.5 acre, student-powered, urban vegetable market garden located on 3 sites at the University of Washington’s Seattle Campus. Our mission is to be the campus center for the practice and study of urban agriculture and sustainability, and an educational, community-oriented resource for people who want to learn about building productive and sustainable urban landscapes.  

Our produce is sold to community members and UW institutions, given to learners/volunteers, and donated to the U District food bank and the UW Food Pantry.

The UW Farm is a volunteer-run “demonstration” farm on the U.W. campus that seeks to educate the university community on issues related to sustainable urban agriculture as well as global and local food systems.   

All proceeds from the event will go directly towards supporting the UW Farm and its students.

Purchase tickets.

All About Winter Squash From UW Botanic Gardens Newsletter

A Laurelhurst Blog reader sent in this information from the UW Botanic Gardens newsletter which profiles a new plant every month and this one is on winter squash:

October Plant Profile: Cucurbita maxima

Beautiful, packed with calories and vitamins, and easily stored for up to several months, winter squash is one of the most rewarding crops for vegetable gardeners to grow. One of our favorite squash varieties grown at the UW Farm at the Center for Urban Horticulture is Confection Squash. Similar to Crown Prince, popular in England, New Zealand, and Australia, Confection is a beautiful blue-grey, squat kabocha-type squash most notable for its incredible flavor, rich sweetness and texture, and edible skin. Learn more. Family: Cucurbitaceae Genus: Cucurbita species: C. maxima Common Name: Confection Squash Location: UW Student farm at the Center for Urban Horticulture

Help Grow UW Farm WIth Donations

Recently, the UW Farm, located next to the Center for Urban Horticulture, accepgint donations towards a crowdfunding initiative to help expand and improve their facilities this year.

The UW Farm is cam­pus cen­ter for the prac­tice and study of urban agri­cul­ture and sus­tain­abil­ity providing an edu­ca­tional, community-oriented resource for peo­ple  

Through the crowdfunding USeed, the UW Farm is hoping to raise enough funds during their current campaign to:

1. Build additional hoop-style greenhouses
2. Build a better wash station
3. Build a cob oven to bake pizza

The information says:

Help us Grow the UW Farm

 We are looking to raise $9,000 to support the construction of the following at the Center for Urban Horticulture farm site:

• a new cob oven¹ and shelter,
• reusable and portable hoop houses²,
• and a new, conveniently located wash station.

What We Do

  The UW Farm is a student driven urban farm on the University of Washington campus. The Farm inspires people like you in the UW community to think critically about our food system while providing a physical space for students to experiment and learn about urban agriculture.

Growing the Farm Budget Breakdown

  

• Wash Station - $3,960 shelter, $500 2 sinks, 1 used tub, 4 non-slip mats
• Cob Oven - $3,840 shelter, $300 oven
• Portable Hoophouses - $400

Project Objectives:

 

Community

 
The site of our current cob oven will be the home of the new Botany Greenhouse and Biology Building, which unfortunately means the demolition of our beloved oven; with your donation, we will be able to build a new cob oven and community gathering space in 2015.

This project is important because:

• Our cob oven at the Botany Greenhouse has been crucial to introducing new students to the UW Farm’s community and work.


• Feeding people farm-grown food cooked in our oven is a powerful way to show that we value building strong connections through eating and quality time together.


• We look forward to joint pizza bakes with Seattle Youth Garden Works and the opportunity for our programs to continue to build a relationship through food and farming. Learn more about SYGW below in Our Partners.

How we will build the oven:

• After the shelter has been built, the UW Farm will host a cob-building workshop. Students of the workshop will learn about building with cob and will build the new UW Farm Cob Oven all at once! Anyone is welcome to attend.

Education

  Portable hoophouses will allow us to:

• extend the growing season, givng student farmers hands-on growing opportunities earlier in spring quarter and later into fall quarter;


• grow our educational programing with UW courses and student groups during more of the academic year;


• better grow heat-loving crops such a tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers despite Seattle's cool summers;
• give more of our great veggies to the students who work on the farm. (we love to feed our volunteers!)

 
  

Efficiency and Sustainability

  A dedicated space for us to cool, wash, and package our produce immediately after harvest will:

• make our food higher quality and safer;


• make our farm more efficient, eliminating the cumbersome process of moving all of our products from the field to our current washing location;


• and overall make work on the farm more enjoyable to interns and volunteers!

We grow great, tasty, local sustainable veggies, and we want to feed the UW!

Partners

 

• The Engineers Without Borders (EWB) will be leading in the design, planning, and construction of our projects. This will be an opportunity for real-world design and construction experience for aspiring Engineering students. Look under their "Current Projects" tab to see the work they're doing at the farm. 

• We share our farm site at the Center for Urban Horticulture with Seattle Youth Garden Works. SYGW empowers homeless and underserved youth through garden-based education and employment. We’re excited that this campaign will also be a great benefit to their program.  

Grow the Farm!

 
This is a great opportunity for the farm to grow further into its full potential, and we would like you to be a part of it. Everybody is invited to follow our progress on Facebook, and we will recognize donors proudly through our donors list, on social media. We hope you’ll join us in planting these seeds to Grow the Farm!

“I couldn’t imagine what my year might have been like without farming and all the wonderful people I’ve met through this incredible program in my life. One thing that I love about the farm: every single person who wants to learn about food, discuss issues related to food, or just have a day of hard work is welcome, unconditionally.” —Kate Doughty, Junior

 

1. A cob oven is a small, outdoor, wood-fired oven for baking, built from cob. Cob is a natural building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water and earth, similar to adobe.

2. A hoophouse is an unheated greenhouse. Most hoophouses are built with steel or plastic arches. See a photo here.

Levels of donations:
Volunteer Shift

Give $25

You’re contributing what fair wages would be of a standard student volunteer shift. The more time a student spends on the Farm, the more they learn!

Nuts and Bolts

Give $50

Thanks to your support we will be able to purchase all of the nuts and bolts for the cob oven structure.

Sitting Space

Give $100

You’re providing enough funds to get a picnic table, allowing exhausted farmers a place to sit while enjoying the Farm.

Hoop Houses Galore!

Give $500

Thanks to you we can afford to buy enough portable hoop houses for the upcoming summer. We can’t thank you enough!

Cob Oven Fun

Give $1000

Your contribution is enough to fund the rest of the cob oven. We’re looking forward to making some tasty pizza with farm fresh toppings!

All Seasons

Give $1500

4-seasons of pizza bakes! You’re helping us put a roof over our cob oven structure, making it possible to grow the Farm Community year round!

Squeaky Clean Veggies

Give $2000

Thanks to you we can buy the sinks, flooring, and materials for a shelter for our wash station. If you’re excited about helping us out with a big ticket item, this is the one for you!

 

Public Invited To UW Farm To Table Dinner Tomorrow

The UW Farm is partnering with Chaco Canyon Cafe in hosting a public Farm-to-Table Dinner at the Center for Urban Horticulture tomorrow at 6:30pm.  Along with dinner there will also be games, pumpkin carving and a food  demo.

The information says:

You’ll be treated to a knockout meal, incorporating UW Farm produce, from the chefs at Chaco Canyon Café. Local microbrews will also be available for purchase.

Tickets are $13 in advance or $15 at the door for students, and $20 in advance or $25 at the door for non-students.

All proceeds go to the UW Farm, the campus hub for urban farming, agricultural education and research.

If you would like to see more about us, check out website: http://food.washington.edu/farm/ and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UWFarm.

UW Farm, With A Location In Laurelhurst, Looking For Used Bikes

A reader sent us email that the UW Farm, which is in the process of starting a new farm at the Center for Urban Horticulture, located in Laurelhurst is currently looking for used bikes.

The information says:

The UW farm is looking for donations of working bicycles for UW farmers to help commute from one farm site to another. Currently, the two farm sites are a half an hour walk apart.

We will be creating a community bicycle system that will allow farmers, who do not bike to school, access to bicycles that will significantly reduce their commute time to and from our new farm site at the Center for Urban Horticulture. 

Bikes of all sizes are appreciated! We only ask that bikes are ridable and in working order.

If you have a bike that you can donate, please email Ross at rover.ross@gmail.com.