Greenies Urban Farm interview by Amanda Micek
LOCAL GARDEN FEATURE
The Greenies Urban Farm, located on the East Side of San Antonio, aims to educate t h e co m m u n i t y a b o u t gardening and fill gaps in the food system. On a once vacant lot locally known as the “goonies,” the urban farm was situated in this particular locale to lower criminal activity and address a lack of access to affordable produce. This ten acre space is already providing fresh vegetables for an area heavily affected by food insecurity. On a cold November morning, I was able to visit the Greenies Urban Farm to hear about their efforts during the first phase of this project and see what crops are currently growing. First, I talked to a frequent volunteer, Ray Montez. Amanda: So, can you tell me what you’re growing out here? Ray: Well, basically we started in late August. And we’ve planted watermelons, cantaloupes, tomatoes, three different kinds of zucchini and two squashes. Right now we just picked the green beans and we have a lot of cucumbers still left. And of course, we have broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. And there’s all kinds of produce that we’ve already harvested. And that’s not even including what we’ve already sent out. I think we have a total of 5,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables that we have harvested here. A: What are you going to do with all of the produce you have harvested? R: Well, in the beginning, we started giving to Catholic Charities. And then through Bexar County Commission-
ers, everything’s been donated to the University Health System. They distribute it amongst the people. So we just plant, grow, and give it to them. To learn more about the operations taking place, I also spoke with Larry Stein, an associate department head, professor, and extension horticulturist with the Texas A&M Agrilife extension program. Larry: We’re trying to show people that you can grow vegetables in a small area of land. And that’s basically what we are doing here. We started in the spring, and we grew cold crops. Then we planted warm season crops in August. Since we waited so late, we were able to direct seed those instead of using transplants. . So squash, beans, cantaloupe, watermelons, cucumbers, we just direct seeded it, which is a lot cheaper and easier to do than using transplants. And so basically [this is] just an experiment to see if we can grow produce in the city. From here Larry walked me to a small shed with pallets of recently harvested produce. There were signifCultivate SA | 17
