2013-Garden Bed Preparation and Planting

Start Date-End Date: 06/02/2013-06/02/2013 Land Manager Office: Ekar Farm Land Manager Contact: Aaron Ney Funding Partner: Slow Food Denver Programmatic Partner: Crop Mob Summary: NOTE: Registration for this opportunity is full. If you register, you will be placed on the wait list. Spend a day outdoors planting fruits and vegetables for those in need. Description: STEWARDSHIP SITE Ekar Farm is a charity-based non-profit urban farm situated on 2 acres of Denver land. Don't miss this chance to get outdoors while also helping tobuild community, providing experiential environmental education, and growing sustainably-produced fruits and vegetables for those in need. VOLUNTEER PROJECT - WHAT & WHY Volunteers will help plant tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and much, much more. With any luck, this work will help Ekar Farm reach their goal of producing over 8,000 lbs of organic produce this season, the majority of which will be donated to local food shelters such as the Jewish Family Service and SAME Caf. Volunteer work will be fun, easy, and child-friendly.Tasks will involve preparing the garden beds, weeding, working the soil, and planting vegetable seeds and seedlings. PARTNERS Ekar Farm, Slow Food Denver, & Grow Local Colorado OTHER FUN STUFF Snacks and lunch provided. Latitude/Longitude: 39.713232, -104.907389 Additional Information: Watercourse provided lunch at discount. Camping Available: No Physical Difficulty: Easy, Moderate High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 25 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 18 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 1 Total Volunteer Days: 19 Total Unique Volunteers: 19 Total Volunteer Hours: 75 Staff Hours: 7 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: Successes and Challenges: Lessons Learned: Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Compost, Honey Bees, Worms, Urban Ag provided by Ekar Farm and Slow Food Denver. Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Donated $$ to help cover lunch that Ekar paid for. Description of Accidents/Incidents: None Description of Work Completed: Over 20 volunteers arrived on a sunny Sunday morning to help prepare a brand new community education garden bed at Ekar Farm. The morning started out with a short tour of this amazing urban farming site, with a visit to the farms "worm hotel" and bee hives. Shortly after the tour, volunteers began weeding, turning soil, and composting this new site where educational classes will take place on urban agriculture. Representatives of Slow Food Denver provided education on compost ethics and gardening strategies to volunteers while they were hard at work. For lunch, the restaurant Watercourse provided a generous discount to help provide a healthy and hearty lunch for everyone. By the afternoon, the new garden bed was constructed and volunteers began working on weeding the rows upon rows of vegetables to wrap up the day. VOC was thrilled to partner with Ekar Farm and will work to continue this urban agriculture collaboration in the future.