Urban Agriculture

First, picture this: a D.C. high school at 9:00 AM.  It’s 30 degrees and windy walking through the parking lot, and the ramps and stairs that lead to main entrance are crusted in snow, thanks to the late February freeze.   But despite the weather and the early morning, despite the fact that it’s a Saturday, the folks streaming into the atrium at Wilson Senior High School look more like a group that’s heading to a sunny recess break than a group braving the cold to get to Saturday school.

And that’s because, in a lot of ways, the experience that awaits inside has more similarities to a sunny recess break than an interminable winter class day.

What do you get when you combine 5 eggplants, 10 lbs of pole beans, a gallon of blanched sweet potato greens, and dozens of Thai basil bunches? We asked ourselves that very question earlier this month, as a mild panic set in: Our after-school cooking programs hadn’t started back up for the year, and we were filling our fridges and freezers to the gills with fresh produce from the Brainfood Youth Garden. What were we going to do with all those extra veggies?! Thanks to the folks at Neighborhood Farm Initiative, City Blossoms, and Common Good City Farm, we found the answer last weekend: Homegrown DC, a “hyper-local” farmers market where community gardens, urban farms, and youth gardens like ours can show off what they’ve grown and celebrate delicious foods originating right here in the District.