Fall Festival at Marra Farm

One of our South Park rambles with Mako took us through the Marra Community Garden. Recall we visited in winter, and saw the bones of the garden and lots of healthy looking kale (see Marra Farm Community Garden).

Marra Farm community garden in South Park, Seattle

Walking with Mako

When we visited this time, in late summer, the garden was filled with beautiful produce just starting to ripen, and within a month of harvest. The corn stalks stood high, and the ears were just ready to bulk up.

Giving garden

Corn stalks at Marra (note the slender ears of corn)

Beds were filled with a variety of squash, tomatoes, sunflowers, chard, lettuce, beans, and several types of pumpkin. Everything looked healthy and delicious.

Garden plots

Makes me wish were were going to be in town for the Marra Farm Fall Festival on the fourth Saturday in September. If you're in the Seattle area, find out more: Solid Ground 17th Annual Marra Farm Fall Fest.

Marra Farm Community Garden

On one of our long rambles in South Park, Seattle with Mako, we passed through Marra Farm, a four-acre farm parcel that is part of Marra-Desimone Park. The original Marra Farm was operated as a truck farm by the Italian-American Marra family from the early 1900s to the 1970s, and was then sold to King County.

Marra Farm community garden in South Park, Seattle

In 1997 several citizens and nonprofit organizations restored part of the farm, and today it operates as a community garden, growing more than 13,000 pounds of organic produce a year. Seattle residents can sign up for a P-Patch lot, and are added to the waiting list.

Healthy kale and greens at Marra Farm

Greenhouse structures at Marra Farm

We walked through the raised garden beds and green houses. It was December, cold, and raining, but the kale looked fantastic! The large chicken coop was stocked with many species of chickens.

Chicken coop at Marra Farm

Another restoration project is underway nearby – Hamm Creek, a tributary of the lower Duwamish River which empties into Elliott Bay. According to Habitat Restoration along the Lower Duwamish Waterway, the restoration at Hamm Creek provides a “fish-passable” connection to the Duwamish river, enabling salmonid spawning in Hamm Creek.

Hamm Creek habitat restoration

Gifts for the World Garden

Christmas would not be Christmas without dreaming about peace on earth and good will towards humankind. Here are some ideas that take the dream into action.

This year my husband and I signed up as members of the Zion National Park Foundation, which helps support Zion National Park. We enjoyed our week in the park last fall, and want to help support it.

Urban Farming Exhibit

By chance, we encountered the urban gardening exhibit at the Oakland International Airport while seeing our son off to fly back to University of Alaska, Anchorage. The exhibit is presented by the Oakland Museum of California at the airport from June 24 – October 7, 2011, and was organized by guest curator Sean Olson. The installation describes and shows the basics of soil, composting, and vermiculture (use of worms).

Urban farming exhibit at Oakland International Airport

The exhibit also introduces three Oakland nonprofit organizations:

• City Slicker Farms – empowers West Oakland to meet basic healthy food needs by creating urban farms and backyard gardens: http://www.cityslickerfarms.org/

• OBUGS (Oakland Based Urban Gardens) – uses gardens to build healthy communities for children, youth and families in a network of school and neighborhood gardens, green spaces, and farmers’ markets: www.obugs.org/

• Planting Justice – is dedicated to food justice, economic justice, and sustainable local food systems, by helping families build their own gardens, fostering an understanding of food, and enabling them to grow fresh food: http://www.plantingjustice.org/

These organizations provide a proactive and positive solution for bringing fresh, affordable, and delicious food to the urban setting in West Oakland, building a healthy community, and helping to create green jobs.