The garden allows space for new gardeners and old hands and also holds an informal competition for most unique vegetable, most aesthetically pleasing plot, best overall organic plot and more. Below is a view of the garden with the campus’ smokestack and Boatwright Tower barely visible.

I followed two UR staff members as they tended to their plot–one of them has appeared before on vasadp, here and here, and the other is my girlfriend.

Here Kim is weeding the plot in 100 degree heat after work.

Neah spreading compost on the plot. UR provides water and compost for the plots.

Kim spreading straw to keep the weeds out!

After they finished weeding, fertilizing and mulching, Kim watered all the plants (and the camera).

The bounty!

Pretty labels from another plot:

Find out more on the UR sustainability web page.

Farm to Family is currently running a meat, dairy and grain CSA through the winter along with its regular lineup of Virginia grown and produced food. Farm to Family has sourced meat from Polyface, dairy (butter, yogurt, cheese and milk) from Mountain View and grain from Judy’s Bread and more.

It is interesting to note that Good Magazine recently held a competition to “redesign your farmers’ market” for L.A. county and the winning entry was titled Farm on Wheels. The concept involved “mobile markets” like Farm to Family to distribute local food throughout the city. Read about the competition here. It is good to know that Mark, and consequently, Richmond is ahead of the curve and already has some parts of a more local and mobile food delivery system in place (at least as far as Good Magazine is concerned). New York City has also begun to introduce mobile food stands.

The bus in Carytown in front of Mezzanine, now it can be found near Ellwood Thompson’s on Thursday and any other day it is in Carytown:

It was fun to look and buy produce and see cars whiz by outside the window:

Completing a purchase:

and potatoes:

To learn more, visit Farm to Family’s website.

One of Sub Rosa’s loafs is made with wheat sourced from Virginia (a rarity) because Rick and Evrim believe in supporting local farms, and more importantly believe that we should be able to source the staples of our diet from our local environment. Below is the bread:
The bread tasting station, with extra virgin olive oil and Evrim sorting out the bread and bags in the background:

And lastly, Evrim points out the differences between the two loaves of bread:
The slice on the right is the Virginia stone ground wheat loaf, on the left is their “flagship” loaf which is in the pain au levain style.

Visit Sub Rosa’s blog for more information (and photographs).

Visit Dayspring Farm or learn more about agriculture extensions through VSUand VA-Tech.

On the second work day, 300 plus people showed up and completed the garden and playground. Below, workers fill the raised beds with a combination of soil and organic matter:



While it was hard work, most people there fully enjoyed themselves and had at least a little fun (notice the shark hat on one of the workers).

For more information, please visit Tricycle Gardens and Friends of Chimborazo Playground.

Berries are a specialty crop that require specific amounts of nutrients, including water. The irrigation system is one of the most important systems on the farm to maintain–even as they construct new structures, such as trellis systems. Starting the irrigation system pump, which is the smaller engine/pump on the left (the larger pump is for another, larger farm).

Waiting for the old water to clear out before opening up the water to irrigate the plants:

Testing to make sure all of the irrigation pipes are clear:

To learn more, visit Agriberry’s web site.

Below are images from a Tricycle Garden, 17th St. Garden, and Mamma Zu’s garden.

First comes the Jefferson Garden, on Jefferson Ave between N. 23rd and N. 24th Streets. This garden is the first garden completed by Tricycle Garden 5 years ago and has 15 beds.

The garden on 17th St. is operated by the 17th St. Farmers Market and funded by Venture Richmond. It provides plots for community members and nearby restaurants.

Last on display for this post is the garden next to Mamma Zu that provides the restaurant with plenty of basil, as well as other ingredients for their dishes.