The Community Food Collaborative has 6 acres on its urban farm in Richmond's East End. (Photo courtesy Beth Furgurson)
On Saturday, Sept. 29, Real Local RVA hosts its third annual Urban Farm Tour & Party to bring Richmonders closer to their food sources and highlight the growing importance of nontraditional farming practices and urban agriculture.
Attendees will hop on a bus and travel to small area farms including Tricycle, Bow Tide Farms, Community Food Collaborative and Lakeside’s Tiny Acre. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, approximately 15 percent of the world’s food is grown in urban areas, a number that is expected to continue rising.
“You can’t get much more local than being grown 10 to 15 minutes from your house,” says Beth Furgurson, executive director of Real Local RVA, a grassroots organization formed to create a network among farmers and chefs.
Furgurson wants participants to see that, when it comes to farms, size doesn’t always matter, and bigger isn’t always better. Her hope is that the tour engages people to think about how food gets to their plates, while showcasing both the need to utilize available green spaces and the positive impact of urban farming on communities.
“You think of eating locally, but at the heart of local is growing something yourself. Everyone should have a chance to see what [that] looks like, even if it's a small garden," she says.
As the size of farms continues to decrease, the average age of farmers continues to increase, and the cost of land continues to rise, the tour aims to expose participants to a world that may seem unfamiliar and emphasize the significance of growing food where they live.
Each spot on the tour features farms with different missions, an intentional decision on the part of Real Local RVA.
Tricycle, a Richmond nonprofit with plots in Manchester and the East End, focuses on neighborhood revitalization and utilizing abandoned spaces to engage community members; Bow Tide Farms rests on three-quarters of an acre on Brook Road and grows organic vegetables for its CSA program and local restaurants including Tazza Kitchen; Community Food Collaborative, next to Fairfield Middle School, is a 6-acre nonprofit farm with outreach efforts in area schools working to incorporate learning opportunities involving the Chesapeake Bay watershed; and Lakeside's Tiny Acre, located behind the farmers market in Lakeside, sells directly to consumers and offers organic vegetables.
“I think [sharing] different stories is important,” says Furgurson. “We wanted to introduce people and show there are great nonprofit farms to address food access and engage the community, and other farmers trying to make a profit and grow good, nutritious, wholesome, healthy foods [for] consumers that can afford to pay for it. Four different stories so they can see their reasoning behind why they do what they do.”
Each farm visit will last roughly 45 minutes and showcase growing practices and the diversity of crops, along with small bites made from produce on the farms in collaboration with local restaurants.
Guests will enjoy a pastry from Sugar & Twine at Tricycle, juice from Ginger Juice at Community Food Collaborative and a salad from Tazza Kitchen at Bow Tide Farms.
The goal? An intimate experience for consumers: the opportunity to meet local growers, create personal connections and get a “taste of local” from each farm to bring the experience full circle — a small peek, or bite, of urban agriculture.
The relationship between farmers and consumers is symbiotic, Furgurson says. “If the consumer isn’t willing to pay the price for what the food is worth, the restaurants can’t purchase local food, which won’t support the local farmer.”
During the tour, she adds, “I hope they learn the names of some of these farmers and see them at the market and think, 'I went there and met that farmer.' ”
The last stop on the tour is Lakeside's Tiny Acre — a small plot of land owned by Peter and Sharon Francisco, also owners of the Lakeside Farmers' Market — with a celebration including live music and purveyors such as Wild Earth Fermentation and Little House Green Grocery, and beer and wine from Final Gravity Brewing and the Virginia Wine Academy.
The Franciscos, high school sweethearts and longtime Lakeside residents, live less than 2 miles from the market and own about 75 commercial properties in the area. They opened up the market over 10 years ago in an effort to keep local food in the heart of their community.
“We all have to eat food and hopefully [are] thinking about what’s going into our body,” says Furgurson. “There isn’t a much better way to get healthy nutrients than eating sustainably raised, chemical-free produce grown 15 minutes from your house.”
Tickets for the Real Local RVA Urban Farm Tour & Party are $65 plus fees. To attend only the Lakeside's Tiny Acre tour and party, tickets are $45 plus fees.
