Truck-fresh cocktails

Last weekend we had our first restaurant event thus far. What a fun couple of days! Beatrice and Woodsley, one of Denver’s premiere farm-to-table restaurants was interested in partnering with us for a weekend brunch event. At their suggestions, bartenders developed some delicious cocktails based on the herbs that we had available, and patrons were able to come out and pick their own herbs while interacting with the Truck Farm, which was parked right in front of the restaurant. It was quite a hit and those bartenders came up with some incredible drinks! We met a lot of new people and got some terrific exposure for the Farm. It was a really fun end-of-summer weekend for everyone. A sincere thank you to Beatrice and Woodsley for putting this event together with us!

School days

Yesterday we took the Truck Farm to Schmitt Elementary in southwest Denver for their Get in the Action healthy living fair, sponsored by Action for Healthy Kids. It was a fun, sunny afternoon and the kids really loved the truck! It was great to see their reactions upon telling them that they could, in fact, EAT those leaves from the basil, mint, chives, and other fresh herbs. Several of them seemed pretty skeptical about the notion of eating something straight from the dirt – but some classic peer pressure from their classmates did the trick! Thus far I’d have to say that one of the most rewarding parts of this endeavor has been to see the amazement in kids faces when they discover where actual food comes from. Sad state of America’s food system aside, it’s a great experience to be a part of the movement to change the status quo. A special thanks to Scott Muir for helping us out yesterday also! Here are some shots from the event. We will be at Asbury Elementary in the University neighborhood on Thursday, September 15.

On a final note – Schmitt’s brand spankin’ new playground is pretty swell! UCD’s Learning Landscapes program is redesigning and rebuilding all of Denver Public Schools elementary playgrounds, and many of my classmates in the Landscape Architecture program have been a part of this process. DPS kids are getting some fantastic playgrounds. Very exciting!

Disregard our silence

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted any updates. Both Ashleigh and I spent much of our summer in Europe, though luckily for the farm, at different times. My travels through Finland, Estonia, Russia, Germany, and Denmark were incredible and the food culture in Europe is outstanding. Finland has the most amazing berries I’ve ever tasted!

We’re both back in Denver now, we’ve made some swaps in the truck and things are growing, growing, growing! We have some fun events coming up in September too. We will be participating in some Healthy Living fairs at several Denver elementary schools and we have some fun brunch events lined up with a local restaurant (more on that later)! August and September are the best months of the year for Colorado produce and we will see you back at the Old South Pearl Farmer’s Market in September, when hopefully it is cooler.

A hot, hot Sunday

This Sunday’s market was pretty fantastic all around! It was a hot, hot Denver day and we sold quite a few t-shirts – thank you to all who bought one. Our t-shirts are the only way we currently have of recouping any of the costs of the Truck Farm. Ashleigh and I have thus far been spending our own money to build and maintain the project, so your support really helps! We also met quite a few new faces and made some great connections for future school visits and community events.

Also, in the past two weeks we’ve met several people who recognized us from the Truck Farm film! We’re thrilled that people have seen Wicked Delicate’s film and are excited about our unique urban agriculture project. We hope to have some copies for Denverites soon!

Lastly, everything is growing wonderfully! Check out some shots from South Pearl Street, June 12, 2011!

Market season

The first Old South Pearl Street Farmer’s Market was on Sunday, June 5th and it was a great success! Denver Urban Truck Farm got a sweet spot on the corner of South Pearl and Florida under a great big Elm tree. We appreciate the shade since the Denver heat is upon us already! The market has expanded this year, with even more great local vendors. I even heard a rumor that our favorite food truck Pinche Tacos will be making appearances this year…

We had quite a few repeat visitors who knew us from last year, and plenty of first-timers as well. Everyone seemed enthusiastic about the project, and we made some great new contacts with local renewable energy groups and some South Pearl Street restaurants. The truck looks fantastic and is much more full than last year. We had a few casualties since planting, but we will soon need to thin out some of the larger plants as they grow, so now we will have some flexible space. Cool season crops are looking great and we will already be harvesting some arugula and herbs this week!

See you all next week – and very soon at Civic Center Eats as well!

We have a farm!

It’s official! Denver Urban Truck Farm 2011 is planted and ready to roll around town! This past Sunday we hosted a small group to barbeque and help plant the truck. On Saturday we got a fresh load of planting soil and added the three bags of compost we received from the Whole Foods event. This year we have a bit deeper soil which the plants should love. We also learned a valuable lesson last year – you don’t have to follow the instructions on plant tags literally. We had so much wasted space in the truck last year so we decided to fill it in more this time.

Unfortunately, our seeds did not do so well. We are still not sure the exact cause, and it was our first time ever starting seeds. They did not like the trays, or perhaps we started them too early and they needed to be transplanted sooner. Colorado spring is neither friendly for plants nor predictable, and we have had a few weeks of especially Oregonian weather. This delayed our planting. So, we ended up having to buy starts for the truck again. We did stick with cool weather crops – three varieties of lettuce, broccoli, rainbow chard, bunching onions, arugula, and a large assortment of herbs. Since we are going to be potentially working with some local restaurants this summer, after some helpful input, we decided to increase the number of herbs which will be much more useful for cocktails and garnishes and make our partnerships more beneficial for everyone. Additionally, we planted a row of marigolds on either side of the truck, along with a couple of nasturtiums, to ward off pests and bring some color to the truck.

Also, our seed starting was not entirely wasted – we started several rows of French Breakfast radishes in between the young plants. These radishes are delicious and only take about three weeks to harvest so they can be in and out before the other plants get to be too large! We’re excited to see how this experiment turns out.

Old South Pearl Street market starts in early June!

Compost

Gardeners and farmers love it – and they came out in droves to get it for free at the Washington Park Whole Foods on Saturday. Every spring and fall the store provides free compost for the community, made from their own food scraps throughout the year. What a stellar way to help the planet and give back to the community! We made a brief appearance, helped some people fill up burlap sacks and load them into their cars. It was a great opportunity to chat with people about the Truck Farm and get them excited for the upcoming season. We also pitched Wicked Delicate’s Creative Gardening contest and had several interested parents and teachers. Hopefully Denver is well represented in those photo submissions!

We even got some free compost for the Truck Farm which will come in handy VERY SOON! Thanks to Andrew at Whole Foods for keeping us in mind for his community events!

For more info on the Wicked Delicate Creative Gardening competition go to Truck Farm  and click on “The Contest”.

Seeds and More!

A few weeks ago we took our first steps towards Denver Urban Truck Farm 2011. Rocky Mountain Seed Co. was having a liquidation sale (unfortunately they have now closed after 80 years), and we snagged TONS of seeds, including many heirloom varieties, for 25 cents per packet! Shortly thereafter we had a seed planting day at Ashleigh’s and started quite a few trays of lettuces, radishes, kale, chard, and other cool season vegetables. This was our first time planting seeds and we were not sure how well it would turn out. Fortunately they have all sprouted! We have seedlings galore now and we can’t wait to transplant them in a few more weeks! In the coming weeks we will be getting soil and compost and preparing the truck for the 2011 season.

Additionally, with the help of some friends we have been developing a restaurant sponsorship program for the season. This program is still in the works but we have already had some interest from a couple local restaurateurs! The general proposal is that restaurants can sponsor the Denver Urban Truck Farm for three-week blocks. During those three weeks, we will park the truck in front of the restaurant on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, and chefs will be able to use available produce during those times. In return we are asking for a 1% donation of profits from each evening to help recoup costs associated with starting, running, and maintaining the Denver Urban Truck Farm. We are very excited about this proposal and hope that it will be well-received by Denver’s incredible restaurant community. We feel that a partnership like this will benefit all parties and help further Denver’s commitment to local food choices. More to come on this in the near future!

Truck Farm 2011

Planning is underway for Denver Urban Truck Farm 2011! We are working on some BIG things for this year – partnerships, sponsorships, art + food + film events, multiple crops (spring lettuces! kale! squash!), elementary school programs, and even a few new farmer’s market appearances! We’ll have a twitter feed up and running this spring so you can keep track of where we’re headed, in addition to our Facebook page. We learned A TON last year and we can’t wait to grow the team and the farm!

Also, big things are happening with Truck Farms nationwide. The boys over at Wicked Delicate Films have a new initiative up and running – 25 Truck Farms in 25 cities! Stay tuned for more info about this awesome project…

Happy 2011, Denver – we can’t wait to see you on the streets!

The Truck Farm on the Airwaves!

The Denver Urban Truck Farm made the news this past week! Colorado Public Radio’s Anna Panoka came to the South Pearl Farmer’s Market a few Sundays ago and interviewed us about the project. She spent some time interviewing visitors to the market and just recording various sounds of the morning. The story turned out great! Click on the image below to listen!