Arcadia Center For Sustainable Food + Agriculture

Arcadia Farm Camp registration is now open!

2012-03-02T13:20:00.000-08:00

We're ready to register campers for Arcadia Farm Camp's pilot season! We're planning a great mix of farming and food activities, from feeding the chickens to making salsa and pesto, for 6-10 year-olds for two one-week sessions (July 16-20 and July 23-27). Help us spread the word! And check our our FAQ page for more information.

We're also accepting donations to our scholarship fund, so that we'll be able to welcome children whose families may not not otherwise have the resources to be a part of camp. We're also looking for awesome camp staff! Check out the position descriptions here.

We've even got a logo! Thanks to Cat for designing it.

Rooting DC!

2012-02-27T12:14:00.003-08:00

Hello all! I'm Rachel the new Farm Educator Intern at Arcadia andthis is my first ever blog post. Hopefully it will be first of many! Thanks asalways for reading!

Team Arcadiatook part in this year's super exciting and successful Rooting DC event twoweekends ago at Coolidge High School. Sponsored by members of the Field to Fork Network (Arcadiaincluded), the fifth annual urban gardening forum featured workshops by localinitiatives and professionals, roundtable discussions, cooking demonstrations,and a bustling information fair where organizations could showcase theirwork.

Throughoutthe day, members of the Arcadia team took turns working the info booth andchatting with other players in the local urban gardening movement. While awayfrom the table, we attended workshops taught by other local organizations.Fellow intern Stephanie and I attended Healing with Herbs, a cooking demo byTambra Raye Stevenson from the UDCCenter for Nutrition, Diet and Health, Canning for Beginners byBradley Kennedy, and a panel called How to Build a Successful School Garden andUse it! Thanks to everyone involved for sharing your wisdom and enthusiasm!

Farmer Moled a workshop about soil basics called Getting Dirty, and Andrea took part inthe ‘15 minute field Trips’- Garden Activities Round Robin. Both receivedtremendous feedback from attendees who later visited the Arcadia table - way togo! Last but not least was a preview appearance from our Mobile Market! The biggreen school bus received lots of attention and looked terrifically shiny andmajestic in the afternoon sun.

Perhaps thebest part of Rooting DC was the amount of energy and excitement generatedbetween organizations and interested citizens. People of all ages andbackgrounds connected over similar interests; found volunteer opportunities andnew networks; and traded ideas, knowledge and SEEDS! It was exciting to beinvolved! We're so proud to be a part of this strong movement of farmers,activists and gardeners committed to a sustainable food system in D.C.

Open positions at Arcadia!

2012-02-24T11:55:00.000-08:00

Looking for a way to improve your local food system?

We're looking for dynamic, enthusiastic folks for paid and volunteer positions. Check out the individual job descriptions for more details about how to apply.

We're excited to welcome a few new members to the Arcadia team!

Snack-time and Social Media Week!

2012-02-21T19:33:00.000-08:00

Arcadia was a part of Social Media Week DC. Cat & Andrea from Arcadia’s DC Farm to School Network were part of an event dubbed “Snack-time: Collaboratively improving kids’ nutrition and having some fun along the way.” The event congregated various community leaders in diverse fields such as kids’ nutrition, social media, and technology to work together to get kids more active and healthy.

Andrea was on a panel with Montgomery County Food & Nutrition Services Director Marla Caplon and Kid Power Veggie Time Coordinator Katherine Harvey. They discussed the challenges facing school food service operations when it comes to serving healthy foods to kids, and how social media and hands-on educational experiences could help overcome these challenges.

The most exciting part was that students participated in a variety of healthy eating and exercise stations. Arcadia led a “Thank Your Farmer” card-making activity. After a brief discussion about farming and food, kids were excited and proud to write notes to the farmers who do so much for us.

Take a look at some of the best:

Apparently one student thought a farmer could use some love as well...

In an increasingly fast-paced world with an ever-changing food system, there are huge opportunities for social media to bring us together and help forge new connections. But we can’t forget the value of sharing experiences, having conversations, and getting our hands dirty!

The Bees are ready for spring too...

2012-02-19T08:40:00.000-08:00

Check out the latest from Jeff at DC Honeybees! We are excited to move two of our hives to the new front field to aid in pollination. We are even more excited to tap the hives this spring and start the honey flowing. We'll be sure to keep you updated about Arcadia honey!

Save the Date for Arcadia Farm Camp!

2012-02-15T07:19:00.000-08:00

We're glad to announce the dates of Arcadia Farm Camp's pilot sessions! Over the past few weeks, we've been moving forward with planning a truly awesome summer camp program. We had help from some fantastic parents at our focus groups in January, and we'll use their feedback as we develop camp policies and procedures.

We're hosting two one-week sessions: July 16-20, 2012 and July 23-27, 2012. We're planning to open registration in late February or early March. For more details, head over to our website. If you still have questions, don't hesitate to email liz@arcadiafood.org for more information. You can also sign up for future summer camp updates here.

We're excited to welcome your child to Arcadia Farm Camp this summer.

Arcadia will be at Rooting DC, you should too!

2012-02-13T08:38:00.000-08:00

Every winter, urban gardeners, local food fanatics and community food security enthusiasts from the farthest reaches of the District of Columbia gather together at Coolidge High School for Rooting DC! It's a day-long free conference filled with hands-on workshops and inspiration about all sorts of urban food and farming topics. This year, the event is taking place Saturday, February 18th. If that's not enough to get you excited about spring, I don't know what is.

Here's Mo presenting at Rooting DC last year.

Arcadia will have a big presence at Rooting DC this year. Our very own farmer Mo Moodie will be talking about soil science at noon - find out how macro and micro nutrients impact the health of your plants, how to test your soil, and how to improve soil quality. Andrea Northup, who runs Arcadia's D.C. Farm to School Network will speak during two workshop sessions - one on how the D.C. school food system works at 10:45am, and one demonstrating 15-minute educational activities in the garden at 3:30pm. Check out the full agenda here. And don't miss our Arcadia table on display in the community tabling area!

Spread the word, and we look forward to seeing you at the fun, free, and fabulous Rooting DC! Learn more and register at www.rootingdc.org.

What I learned at the Food Project's Winter Institute

2012-02-09T07:02:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to spend two days last week at the Food Project's Winter Institute with a group of insightful, inspiring food activists from around the country. The Institute showcases the Food Project's work empowering teens to make change through sustainable agriculture.

Since Arcadia is a young organization, I'm grateful I had the opportunity to learn from folks who've been working for food justice for 20 years. I learned a whole lot, but here are some of the most memorable parts:

Bridging divides has amazing transformative power. The Food Project brings youth of totally different backgrounds together to work on farms in both urban and rural areas. Arcadia's work connecting small farmers with city dwellers and young people to the source of their food has similar potential.
From Eron at Collective Roots in East Palo Alto, CA to Ryan and Kayla at Farm Fresh Rhode Island, the Institute brought together a group of really down-to-earth folks working on similar issues. Although it seemed that we're all often overwhelmed with the injustice we see around us, we are each really passionate about working with young people to help create a more sustainable and fair food system.
The Food Project teens are awesome! I was so impressed by their knowledge of the food system, their emotional intelligence and their communication skills. A solid portion of the 2.5 day institute was actually led by the teens themselves, including a stellar set of workshops about food systems.
Fun is super important! At the Institute, we learned some of the great games that the Food Project staff uses with their youth teams and I can't wait to play some of them out at Arcadia Farm this year.

If you haven't already, make your way over to the Food Project's toolbox - it's chock full of (free!) useful materials for folks who are working on sustainable agriculture issues and youth empowerment.

Local Food is Joelle's Job Description

2012-02-07T06:13:00.000-08:00

You know she's serious about local food, with the title "Local Initiatives and Procurement Coordinator" at DC Central Kitchen. Since DCCK is one of our best organizational partners, and since Joelle Johnson is their amazing leader of the local food movement here in DC, we decided to learn a bit more about what she does...

Joelle, what is your role at DC Central Kitchen?
Mainly I am responsible for sourcing and procuring locally grown products for all of our programs – nearly 10,000 meals a day. Most of what I purchase goes into to the meals we provide for DC Public Schools. But a good portion of it also goes into the meals we send out to local shelters and into the food we prepare for catering events every week. I aim to purchase from family owned farms that use sustainable growing practices, working with them on crop planning and setting fair prices. Last year we spent nearly $115,000 on local products.

Joelle gleaning for produce!

In addition to procuring local food, I also manage two programs - Truck Farm and Healthy Corners. Truck Farm (in partnership with the USDA People’s Garden) is a mobile educational farm planted in the bed of a pick -up truck designed to bring a rural experience to urban students. DCCK uses Truck Farm as a tool to enhance the summer-enrichment programs that we provide meals for through our already established Healthy Returns program.

Healthy Corners is a pilot program that began in the fall of 2011. Healthy Corners works with corner store owners in low-income DC neighborhoods, considered to be food deserts, supplying them with fresh, healthy foods. Currently we are working with 30 stores in wards 4, 5, 7, and 8 supplying 15 different types of fresh produce and healthy snacks.

What might a typical day look like?
I spend most of my days jumping back and forth between meetings with community partners and giving tours to visiting groups to taking product inventory, data tracking and placing orders. Some of our farmers really love to chat so that can take a surprising amount of my time! (I get really excited when I find a farmer who prefers email!) But generally summers are spent placing orders, scheduling pick-ups and taking inventory, whereas winters are spent visiting farms, compiling program reports, and attending conferences.

Joelle doing Truck Farm activities with students

What is the most inspiring part of your job?
The best part about my job is positive feedback. Sometimes it comes from farmers who tell me that they appreciate our business because we pay fair prices and that we have helped them reduce their product waste or expand their operation. Sometimes it comes from customers who thank us for bringing Healthy Corners to their neighborhood so they don’t have to travel so far to find fresh produce. Other times it comes from seeing kids’ faces light up when they harvest and eat a cucumber from the truck or hold a worm that they dug out of the soil. My job is pretty fun!

If you were a fruit or vegetable, what would you be?
Well, I’d like be something sweet like a strawberry or blueberry because everyone loves those things, but I’d probably end up being something that is cheap, fits the nutritional guidelines for DC public schools and is easy to source in bulk quantity like butternut squash….only because I appreciate the convenience of produce that fits all 3 categories!

What's your favorite winter veggie dish?
Shiitake mushroom bacon!

Sign up for your field trip to Arcadia Farm now!

2012-02-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

The D.C. Farm to School Network is excited to announce that registration for our spring field trips to Arcadia Farm is NOW OPEN! We'll take 3rd & 4th grade groups of up to 50 students each for interactive visits to our sustainable farm located at Woodlawn, a National Trust Historic Site in Alexandria, VA.

Arcadia Farm field trips will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:30am to 1:30pm from April 10th though June 14, 2012. We're especially pleased to offer transportation scholarships to help cover the cost of buses to and from Arcadia Farm for qualifying D.C. schools.

The field trips are aligned with age-appropriate curriculum standards, and teach students

1) how to grow food sustainably with the natural cycles of the earth;
2) which fruits and vegetables are available in our region during different times of the year;
3) how farm-fresh food is different from processed or fast food; and
4) that fruits and vegetables can be healthy and delicious!

Visit the Arcadia Farm field trip website at www.dcfarmtoschool.org/field-trips for more information. For questions, or to register your school for a field trip, please contact Katherine at katherine@dcfarmtoschool.org.
We hope to see you out at the farm soon!

Meet Matt: Arcadia's Director of Development & Communications

2012-01-31T05:40:00.000-08:00

Wow, we've got a lot of new staff coming on board to launch us into the spring season! Meet Matt Mulder, Arcadia's new Director of Development and Communications. Matt's job is to generate a sustainable fundraising strategy for Arcadia, and make sure our communications with all stakeholders are clear, consistent, and connected to our mission. We're so excited to have him on board!

Matt, what past experiences prepared you for this position?
Almost every job I’ve ever had has involved children, education, history, the environment, or agriculture. Most recently, I directed the Accokeek Foundation's Center for Agricultural and Environmental Stewardship. I’ve spent the last year working on issues of agriculture and food justice, and I look forward to continuing that work by supporting and enhancing Arcadia’s excellent programs.

What’s your favorite healthy recipe?
I’m really into Crispy Kale right now. Toss a big bowl of organic kale greens with 1 TBSP olive oil. Sprinkle lightly with salt or other favorite spices. Crisp on a backing rack set on a sheet pan in an oven at 250 degrees for 20-25 minutes. For more fun, use Lanceolate (or Dinosaur) Kale.

If you were a vegetable, what would you be?
Trombocino Squash. I played the trombone throughout much of my life. Its also a very versatile squash - its a great summer squash and can be hardened and used as a winter squash that can store well.

What about this position are you most excited for?
I’m excited about the opportunity to work with an energetic, enthusiastic, knowledgeable staff that can accomplish great things if they have adequate resources and enough support.

What do you see as your next steps - what do you plan to tackle first?
I am spending my time developing a comprehensive fundraising plan for Arcadia. I also want to make sure we are spreading the word about all of the exciting initiatives that are starting this spring – full operation of the Mobile Market, the Arcadia Farm stand at Woodlawn, Arcadia Farm Camp, and the all of the other exciting upcoming programs and events.

What’s your favorite season for growing produce and why?
I love late spring/early summer in this area. The weather is nice, the days are long, and with some of the early season fruits and veggies starting to ripen, you begin to see that the bounty of summer harvests is not too far away.

Thanks Matt, we're excited to have you on board!

Meet Cat: Arcadia's Illustrator!

2012-01-24T10:55:00.000-08:00

Cat Robinson is our new part-time Artist in Residence! She won us over with her amazing farm signs last fall, and her talents working with kids. Cat will be in charge of painting our Mobile Market, farm beautification projects, arts & crafts with kids, etc. She'll also help with our spring field trips once they get started in April. We're so glad to have her on board! Let's get to know Cat better -

Cat, as a giant peapod, doing art projects at a recent Farm to Table family event

What are you most excited about for this position?
I could go on for days about why this position is so exciting for me, but don’t worry, I won’t. I am most eager not only to be a part of this lovely and passionate group of Arcadia staff, but more broadly, the movement that is changing the way we think about food. I can’t wait to challenge, engage, and excite future generations about making healthy and informed decisions about what they eat. I am also quite excited to reach kids in a way that engaged me during my childhood - through art.

What is the coolest project you'll be working on?
Most definitely Arcadia’s Mobile Market, a full sized school bus that will hit DC’s streets this spring. I will be hand painting various vegetables and Arcadia-tastic text on the bus!

What experiences have prepared you for this position? While nannying for three, young children in the DC area I learned that if you can draw vegetables playing music, kids think you are infinitely cooler. At the time, I did not realize this skill would come in handy down the road! On a more adult note, a recent Master’s degree from GW in Art Therapy has prepared me for this position as well. The program played a major role in my artistic development and the grew my ability to engage kids in unique and engaging day-to-day experiences. On a more historic note, I was my grandfather’s sidekick growing up, and he was an avid gardener. And though I have been a city dweller all of my life, my love and appreciation of growing food is strong. An appreciation of nature and vegetables is quite necessary to spend to amount of time that I do drawing them!

One of Cat's awesome signs at Arcadia Farm

If you were a vegetable, what would you be?
An eggplant. I love it’s rich and unique hue and it’s the main ingredient in one of my family’s favorite dishes, Eggplant Parmesan.

Which season has the best produce (and why?!)
Hands down: fall. There are pumpkins to carve, apples to butter, and squash to soup. Now top all of that off with a over-worn, comfy sweater and life is good.

Fun Times at Smithsonian Farm to Table Family Day

2012-01-23T12:09:00.001-08:00

Arcadia had a super fun day at Farm to Table Family Day at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery this past Sunday. There was an amazing turnout of families throughout the day -- we had nearly 100 families visit our table! It was such an honor to share the beautiful Portrait Gallery atrium with so many great organizations from around DC, including City Blossoms, Washington Youth Garden, Bread for the City, Martha's Table and more!

We had a great time engaging kids in creating cards that we're going to send to local DC farmers. We encouraged each kid to write a personal note to thank their local farmers for growing their favorite veggies for them. (Side note: We were amazed by how many of the kids said their favorite veggie was the oft-maligned brussels sprouts!) We thought it would be a great opportunity to get kids handling different kinds of fresh veggies and to begin to make a connection between the fresh food they eat and the local farmers who grow it.

After they'd written their thank yous on the front, they got messy with our veggie stamps to create some wonderfully colorful cards!

While the kiddos were stamping and doodling away, we had some great conversations with their adult companions, learning about the foods they eat at school and at home, and building some buzz about our programs -- especially our Mobile Market community and school visits upcoming this spring.

We ended up with nearly 50 cards that we'll be sending to local farmers on behalf of our young artists. We know they'll appreciate a little special early spring pick-me-up.

All-in-all, the kids had a great time - and we did too!

Farm to Table Family Day

2012-01-20T05:38:00.000-08:00

We're excited to be participating in the National Portrait Gallery's Kogod Courtyard for a Farm to Table Family Fun Day! Join us on Sunday January 22nd from 11:30am to 3:00pm for some hands-on food & farming activities, give-aways, entertainment and more. Find more details on the flyer here.

We'll be joined by some of the best D.C. area nonprofits, like our friends at City Blossoms, the Washington Youth Garden, and the Capital Area Food Bank. We've got all sorts of fun, hands-on activities planned, like veggie stamping, produce matching, and "find the real food" challenges. It's all free, so don't miss out!

Healthy Schools Act Snapshot

2012-01-18T07:26:00.000-08:00

The D.C. Farm to School Network at Arcadia thinks the Healthy Schools Act is pretty great. It's a local law passed in 2010 that sets high standards for health and wellness in all Washington, DC public and public charter schools. We're especially excited about the nutrition and food quality requirements that schools must adhere to, which translate to more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables in school meals. It even gives schools a financial incentive to serve local food! Learn more about the Healthy Schools Act on our website.

We worked with D.C. Hunger Solutions and a number of other community organizations to pull together a Healthy Schools Act Snapshot for the 2010 school year, which was when the Healthy Schools Act first went into effect. The document shows how differnt parts of the Act have been implemented thus far, and which areas have the biggest room for improvement.

Check out the Healthy Schools Act Snapshot for yourself how this landmark piece of legislation is overhauling the health of Washington, DC schoolchildren, is working in communities in our nation's capital!

Meet Tom - Mobile Market School Educator

2012-01-13T13:15:00.000-08:00

We just hired Tom Flanagan as our Mobile Market School Educator! Tom's going to be coordinating educational visits to schools by our Mobile Market, and putting on local food throw-downs in school cafeterias across the District. Here's some more about Tom:

What past experiences have prepared you for this position?
I've had all sorts of jobs so far in my life -- you name it, and I've done it. I've worked at a coffee shop, a driving range, a nonprofit, and a soup kitchen; I've worked as a landscaper, a mechanic, a carpenter, and a baker; I've done marketing, organizing, teaching, and mopping. Now, as I step into this position with Arcadia, I can see how each of these unique experiences is going to contribute to the success of this program.

Recent experiences that I'll be drawing on most heavily include working with kids in the KIPP schools tending a small garden of edibles (with some minor success), and working with volunteers at Miriam's Kitchen to produce healthy meals for DC's homeless population.

What’s your favorite healthy recipe?
I have an adaptation of a lentil soup recipe that I stole from a food blog a few years back. It uses french beluga lentils that maintain their shape a bit more than the green lentils you usually see. Using some of my homemade canned tomatoes and adding in a stiff green toward to the end makes this a very clean tasting, healthy and hearty meal, perfect for a cold winter night (if we ever have those again!).

Tom doing some serious canning.
That's what we like to see in an Arcadian.

If you were a vegetable, what would you be?
I'd probably be an apple, because I go best with either peanut butter or cheese, but not at the same time. Does that make sense?

What about this position are you most excited for?
I'm most excited to be working with kids, helping them find food they like and learning from them what makes food appealing to people of all ages. But I'm most excited for the opportunity to work with a small and highly motivated team, building a program that will get kids psyched up to eat their local veggies!

What’s your favorite season for growing produce and why?
I love the early spring farmers markets - all the good strong leafy greens, the spicy arugula, the sweet strawberries, the pencil-thin asparagus, the tart rhubarb... So much goodness happens in the first few months of the growing season. Second favorite, of course, is tomato season. Because tomatoes!

We Love Basecamp

2012-01-11T10:58:00.000-08:00

Need something printed? T-shirts? Mailings? Business cards? Basecamp's got you covered. Arcadia is happy to support a fellow locally-owned business for all of our printing and shipping needs, and you should too!

Located at the corner of 18th & U NW, Basecamp is a friendly, small business that gets the job done. Raj, the owner, is a huge supporter of the local food movement (and Arcadia in particular). He and his team know their stuff! Check 'em out at www.basecampdc.com.

2012, Here We Come!

2012-01-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

Arcadia’s gearing up for 2012! We have ambitious goals - here’s what our staff are most excited about for in the upcoming year:

After a stellar first season, our Farm Director Mo Moodie, is excited to expand Arcadia Farm at Woodlawn to an additional 2 acres (“the Lower Field”) this growing season. Our Mobile Market needs fresh fruits and veggies to sell in and around DC, so she’s gonna grow ‘em. We’re also welcoming some living, breathing new members of our farm family: chickens & ducks!

Benjamin Bartley, our Mobile Market Director, is excited to get Arcadia’s farmers’ market bus on the road this season! He’s establishing a “Double Dollars” program that will match fresh produce purchases dollar-for-dollar from low-income folks using WIC, SNAP, and the Senior Farmers’ Market Promotion Program – up to $15,000! He also aims to engage thousands of students, parents and families when the Mobile Market makes educational stops at schools. Keep your eyes peeled for a produce-filled school bus soon!

Andrea Northup, D.C. Farm to School Network Director, is rolling out a number of food, nutrition and farm education programs this year. She’s most excited for a Farm to School Workshop for school food service providers later this winter, and the launch of our Farm-Fresh Feature program. The Farm-Fresh Feature will include a suite of educational materials and programs for schools to help them celebrate a different sustainable, local fruit or veggie each month. Stickers, handouts, banners, taste-tests and more will get kids jazzed about the local options in their school meals!

Liz Whitehurst, our Farm Education Coordinator, aims to build off of a successful season of school field trips to Groundhog Garden, our youth space at Arcadia Farm. Her main goals are to make field trips accessible to all schools, regardless of their ability to pay for a bus to transport students. Liz also plans to grow at least 50% of food for education programs at Groundhog Garden. Whole Foods generously donated hundreds of pounds of produce for field trip programming last year, but Liz’s planned expansion of Groundhog Garden will allow us to stock our salad bar with produce grown just a few feet away.

Wow, we’ve got a lot in store for the upcoming months! Help us reach our goals by donating to Arcadia (email info@arcadiafood.org to learn how) and stay in touch – follow us on twitter, find us on facebook, and be sure to get on our email list.

Farmer Hibernation

2012-01-03T11:42:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year from Arcadia Farm!

(this is what the farm looked like last year at this time and today it was 65 degrees!)

Is the cold winter weather ever going to visit us out at the farm? Things have slowed down, despite the balmy days, and I am looking forward to a little rest and relaxation for January. I'm already dreaming of spring greens and greenhouse babies, but the winter downtime will be spent building a duck house and constructing a new farm stand (expected to be open in May 2012). We're also really looking forward to volunteer days in the spring and welcoming a new team of interns.

In the meantime, I'll be hibernating in a dark cave eating stored up garlic and cave-aged apples. Maybe baking some bread and climbing a few rocks? Who knows? Happy Winter!

-Farmer Mo

Farm to School Person of the Year 2011: Whitney Bateson

2011-12-30T07:29:00.000-08:00

Since she was hired almost four years ago as the Resident Dietician for D.C. Public Schools at Chartwells-Thompsons, there has never been a doubt that Whitney Bateson wasn’t in the business to serve the children of the District of Columbia. Whitney has been a driving force in making DCPS school meals healthier, more sustainable, and more locally-sourced. At Chartwells she was tasked with creating menus and assuring compliance for approximately 125 school DCPS sites serving breakfast, lunch and in some cases dinner each day. Planning approximately 70,000 meals each day is no small task, but Whitney Bateson took the challenge head-on.

Here ia Whitney with Jeff Mills, Director of Food & Nutrition Services for DCPS,
learning from a vendor at a healthy food showcase. Look at the concentration!!!

When I first met Whitney, we were both new to Washington, DC. I called her up to talk about farm to school programs, and she patiently walked me through the process of how food travels from farm to tray in the D.C. school meal system. I immediately sensed that she shared my enthusiasm, and she took on the challenge of sourcing more local produce for DCPS school meals.

Whitney fast went from farm to school novice to expert at Chartwells. She scheduled meetings with produce distributors, researched local farms, worked out the logistics of local purchasing for special events (like Strawberries & Salad Greens), and enthusiastically participated in many of the farm to school workshops, events, field trips and meetings hosted by the D.C. Farm to School Network. It’s truly been a pleasure watching her knowledge and passion for farm to school grow over the years.

Whitney was our most enthusiastic Farm to School Field Trip participant!
Here she is holding sweetcorn on our trip to Delaware (third from right).

Not only do I respect Whitney’s work, I admire her incredible dedication to child nutrition; her willingness to push for change against great odds; her consistently positive and outgoing attitude; her natural curiosity (including a willingness to ask difficult questions); and her unwavering work ethic. These traits will take Whitney far as she moves on from her position at DCPS to become Director of Wellness Initiatives at Chartwells, where she will take on the role of coordinating sustainability and wellness programs for Chartwells across the country.

As someone who’s seen what DCPS school meals menus looked like four years ago, I commend Chartwells for now serving minimally-processed, healthy meals featuring a local food almost every day in the spring and fall (and a few days per week in the winter). I want to acknowledge Whitney Bateson for playing a lead role in this transformation to more fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and local produce. Granted school meal reform in Washington, DC has been a result of local and national partnerships, government agencies, and policies, but Whitney Bateson is one of the true unsung heroes of the movement. We are sad to see her move on to the national arena, but glad she still calls Washington, DC home!

Farm to School Field Trip - Blue Ridge Produce!

2011-12-21T07:47:00.000-08:00

I can't think of a better way to spend a weekday morning than travelling to the beautiful Shenandoah Valley to connect local growers with D.C. schools. Earlier this week, eight of my favorite school food service providers and farm-to-school stakeholders from Washington, DC took a field trip out to Elkwood, VA to visit Blue Ridge Produce. We got a first class tour of their new facility, which serves as a local food distribution "hub" for Northern Virginia and Washington, DC markets.

Jim and Mark, the co-founders of Blue Ridge, brought us up to speed with a history of the new organization and how it got started. We began our tour in the huge warehouse and freezer space, which will be brimming with produce come spring for wholesale buyers around the region.

We moved our way in to the (thankfully warmer) greenhouses, with thousands of square feet of space ready to grow hydroponic vegetables, herbs and greens. The potential for the space is huge - Jim and Mark described plans for a commercial kitchen, demonstration compost operation, and sustainable farm in the works.

Many thanks to Jim, Mark, Craig and the Blue Ridge team for a wonderful and informative visit. And thank you to Beatriz, Sofia, Lisa, Jaime, Benjamin, Jeff, and Whitney for coming on the trip. I look forward to working with all of you to make more healthy, local food available to Washington, DC schoolkids!

Support our friends @ 'An Evening of Carnivory'

2011-12-19T09:49:00.000-08:00

Looking to celebrate the New Year with meat? Our friend, Andrew, at Farmrun, is screening his new documentary, 'On the Anatomy of Thrift' at Big Bear Cafe on January 1. Movie to be followed by a delicious meal by Clementina Russo, (chef extraordinaire and supporter of Arcadia!!)

Check out the Big Bear website for more information and hope to meat you there.

The struggle to access healthy food meets the Mobile Market

2011-12-15T10:03:00.000-08:00

Just received a new report from the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), which highlights the difficulty in accessing health food, particularly for low-income people. In Washington, DC, more than 12 percent of residents reported an inability to access and afford fresh fruits and vegetables in the communities where they live.

D.C. Hunger Solutions, a local initiative founded by FRAC, has been actively working to reverse this trend for nearly a decade. According to Alex Ashbrook, director of D.C. Hunger Solutions, "it is essential to support families’ ability to purchase healthier food items. That includes efforts at the federal level to improve SNAP benefits [formerly known as "food stamps'] so they go further ..."

To that effect, Arcadia's Mobile Market will bring affordable, healthy food to these D.C. communities, as well as accept SNAP and other forms of food assistance. Moreover, we're working to offer a "matching dollar" program to further incentivize the use of these benefits, similar to the initiative we last blogged about.

It's been a lot of work getting our bus up-and-running, but I'm excited to be hitting the road in the spring of 2012. Please stay tuned for information on market stops!

Top 5 Awesomest Things in the Groundhog Garden

2011-12-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

Things at Arcadia Farm's Groundhog Garden were pretty awesome this fall, but here are some of the awesomest things of all:

1) Farmer for a day! All of the kids who go on a field trip to Arcadia Farm get to try their hands at farming, and in doing so, learn what it takes to grow food sustainably. From planting seeds to tending to bees, they get hands-on experience in the day-to-day life of a farmer. And they get to wear great hats!

2) Salad Bar: Our friends at Whole Foods donated a salad bar to the farm, which was both a great teaching tool and a fun way to eat healthy food straight from the ground.

If nothing else, we hope that field trips to the farm will make students more likely to eat fruits and vegetables when they see them on their cafeteria trays. Since more and more DC schools have salad bars, they are one way we connect the farm to the cafeteria.

3) Chef demonstrations: Chefs from all over DC and Virginia came to the farm to teach our students simple, healthy recipes using fresh food. Special thanks go out to the chefs themselves: Alison Reed, Robert Weidmaier, Michael Bonk, Tianna Feaster, Chef Indigo (at right), Chef Jamie and our very own Benjamin Bartley.

4) New shed: With the help of builder Jesse Cooper and some generous volunteers, we designed and built a new shed especially for our Farm to School programming. It will serve not only as an education station and storage space, but also a place for kids to explore and play. Plus, it's pretty darn cute.

5) Arcadia staff in vegetable costumes: It's no surprise: (DC Farm to School Network Director) Andrea makes a great carrot. The awesomest moment of the whole season might have been when a kindergartener grabbed her and yelled: "I'm gonna eat you!"

Ready to sign your class up for a spring field trip? Email katherine@dcfarmtoschool.org and ask her to add you to our list!

Help Support our Friends on December 14!

2011-12-09T08:24:00.000-08:00

Save the date: on Wednesday December 14 -- Whole Foods will donate 5% of all sales for Bloomingdale, 14&U, Mt Pleasant and NoMafarmers' markets to grow Food Stamp/WIC programs

Need to stock up on staples for the winter? Olive oil? Maple syrup? Wine? Bulk nuts for baking cookies, perhaps? Chicken stock for savory soups to get you through the cold months? Amaryllis plants? Start your list, but come in on Dec 14th that's when Whole Foods P Street and Gtown are having a "5% Day" to create double dollar food stamp and WiC/Senior programs for the markets.

How it works: You shop like any other day, EXCEPT that 5% of ALL sales at Whole Foods P St and Gtown on Wednesday December 14th will go towards doubling the WIC and SNAP (food stamp) programs at BFM, 14&U, Mount Pleasant, and NoMa farmers' markets during their 2012 season.

And if you stock up, we can match more Food Stamp/WIC dollars!

Intern at Arcadia!

2011-12-08T11:34:00.001-08:00

Do you know someone who is energetic, passionate about sustainable agriculture and looking for an internship? We're a small staff at Arcadia, so we truly rely on great interns and volunteers to make our programs run and our farm grow. We're looking for a few good interns for the spring season now - help us spread the word!

Also, we know what's like to be an unpaid intern, so we want to make the experience as valuable as possible. For example, Mo has cooked up a mini farm school for her intern. Plus, we definitely have the best snack breaks around.

Check out the position descriptions for the following gigs - Farm Educator Internship and Sustainable Farm Internship - and pass them along to interested folks. Thanks in advance!

DCPS Wellness Policy includes Farm to School

2011-12-08T08:26:00.000-08:00

D.C. youth have among the highest child obesity, hunger, and poverty rates in the nation. Since these kids spend a lot of time each day at school, we have a great opportunity to influence their health and wellness by making positive changes to the school environment.

D.C. Public Schools worked with community partners to design a Local Wellness Policy. This document lays out a road map to make DCPS schools healthy, safe, and green. Over the past few months, Arcadia's D.C. Farm to School Network was a part of this coalition that updated the Local Wellness Policy for its launch this week. The policy sets ambitious targets for physical activity, nutrition, and environmental sustainability for DCPS. It also outlines a community engagement and implementation plan. Download a copy of the wellness policy HERE.

We're excited to see Farm to School in the Wellness Policy!

School meals will include fresh, locally-grown foods from farms engaged in sustainable practices whenever possible.
Schools should encourage more student interaction with the food preparation process, including farm visits, cooking demonstrations and taste tests.
DCPS will incorporate farm to school/food origin education into its standard curriculum.

We look forward to working together with DCPS to make the vision articulated in the Local Wellness Policy a reality.

What makes a great farm summer camp?

2011-12-06T12:21:00.001-08:00

The first farm I ever worked on was part of a summer camp in the northern Adirondacks. I have fond memories of waking early to harvest kale with bleary-eyed 7-year-olds, who brought the fruits of our labor into the cafeteris for their lunch.

So when I heard that Arcadia was thinking about starting a summer day camp at our farm, I was on board right away. Teaching young people where their food comes from is clearly one of my favorite things, so combining farm education with fun and adventure sounded pretty darn perfect for me.

After doing some reading, I started to get a sense of what I had gotten myself into. So many camps to choose from! So many details to consider!

So I decided to ask you, blog readers, for help. What makes a great farm camp? What are your best summer camp memories? (Personally, I love this episode of This American Life). Parents, what are you looking for in summer camps for your kids this year?

Leave a comment or shoot me an email at liz@arcadiafood.org.

The Neverending Season

2011-12-02T12:58:00.001-08:00

Like a lot of farmers, I see December 1 as a time I can take a deep breath, stretch my back and eat potato chips for the winter. It's the time when the cold wind blows and the snows start to threaten. Mother Nature this year does not seem to be on the same clock...

With the last few weeks of warm weather, my lettuces, spinach and hearty greens are growing in earnest and are delicious! I have rogue radishes sprouting up everywhere (I think leftover from some kindergardeners eager hands), and I even saw a tomato seedling emerge! A tomato plant in December?!

Many farmers look forward to winter because it is not only a time to rest our bodies, but a time to let the ground relax for awhile and take a break too. Snow is great for the ground and kills off cover crop to prepare the soil for the spring. The Farmer's Almanac is predicting a snowy winter for the midwest and the east coast, but so far, I'm not buying it.

So, I'll be back on the farm tomorrow, harvesting mache and spinach and radishes, enjoying the sun and waiting for the snows.

-Farmer Mo

Farmer Liz is BACK!

2011-12-02T06:29:00.000-08:00

Liz Whitehurst was Arcadia's fabulous part-time Farm Educator this past fall. She spearheaded the design of Groundhog Garden (the space at Arcadia Farm that kids explore during field trips) and the development and implementation of our fall field trip program.

We're happy to say that Liz is back, this time in full force! She'll be with us full time as Arcadia's Farm Education Coordinator. Her main projects will be leading spring and fall field trips, developing summer camp program, and starting up a series of Family Fun Days on the farm. Welcome back Liz!

Screening of 'American Meat' and panel discussion with Farmer Mo

2011-11-28T07:35:00.000-08:00

What: The new documentary American Meat chronicles America’s grassroots revolution in sustainable meat production. The film, an official selection of Food Day 2011, explains our current industrial meat system, and shows the feedlots and confinement operations, not through hidden cameras but through the eyes of the farmers who live and work there. The film then shifts to the burgeoning sustainable, local-food movement made up farmers, food advocates, chefs and everyday folks who could change everything about the way meat reaches the American table.

Who: After the film, at 8:30 p.m., a panel discussion will be held with New York City filmmaker Graham Meriwether and Susan Prolman, executive director of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), and an advocate for sustainable agriculture for more than a decade; Phil Petrilli, Regional Manager, Chipotle Mexican Grill Restaurants, who helped set up the company’s purchase and distribution of grass-fed pork for its restaurants; Maureen Moodie, farm director of the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture, Fairfax County, Va.

Where: E Street Theater, 555 11th St. NW, Washington, D.C. (E Street entrance between 10th and 11th Streets NW)

When: 7 p.m., Thurs., Dec. 1. 8:30 p.m. panel discussion.

Cost: Free seating and free coupons for burritos, sponsored by the Chipotle Company.

Why: Sustainable farming is expanding exponentially as Americans learn more and more about their food and how they can connect with local farmers who raise their animals outdoors. Here is a film that celebrates these farmers, and all farmers, in an unbiased way that allows all farmers and food advocates to sit down and discuss solutions to their common challenges. Perhaps most importantly, the film provokes a spirited but constructive conversation about one of the most important subjects in our lives -- our food.

For further information on community screenings, please visit AmericanMeatFilm.com.

Groundhog Garden Shed

2011-11-22T08:27:00.000-08:00

Groundhog Garden has a new exciting development-- we've (almost) finished our shed! The whole Farm to School and Arcadia Farm team are thrilled about out new projects!

The kids shed will serve as an outdoor educational classroom as well as provide a safe and dry space to store all of our equipment and supplies for farm field trips. With the amazing design provided by Jesse, a group of volunteers dedicated their Sunday to its construction. A huge thanks to Emily Roberts, Jim Villars, Katie from Beet Street, Jeff Wilkes, and Luis from jWest Solutions (and of course, Adam and Ben) for your building expertise!

We've also sheet mulched more space in Groundhog Garden to make room for spring's new gardens-- more herbs, natural dye beds and fruit trees are on the way! We're already excited to use and explore our expanded Groundhog Garden with school groups in the spring!

Visit to Stone Barns

2011-11-21T11:38:00.000-08:00

Mo in the foreground, and 2nd graders on a field trip to Stone Barns behind her!

Turkeys, cows, chickens, sheep, pigs. These are only a handful of the many wonderful farm animals we got to see during our trip to visit Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture last week. The Stone Barns staff were kind enough to let us, Arcadia’s Farm to School Director and Farm Director, observe a field trip and discuss the in’s and out’s of their established educational programs.

The chickens were just moved inside for the cold weather, so kids got to harvest eggs!

Stone Barns is a non-profit farm and education center located just 25 miles north of Manhattan in Pocantico Hills, New York. Stone Barns operates an 80-acre four-season farm and incorporates broader initiatives to create a healthy and sustainable food system. Their Growing Farmers Initiative, children’s education programs, and diverse public awareness programs aim to improve the way America eats and farms. The famous restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns is on the property as well, engaging visitors in an incredible farm-to-table dining experience.

Stone Barns' half-acre greenhouse is always in-season!

We arrived on a crisp, clear morning last week in time to meet a group of 30 second graders for their field trip. We shadowed the group as they were led on an interactive two-hour tour that included visiting animals, harvesting eggs, and tasting produce in the greenhouse. Year round programming works when exciting animals and their huge greenhouse are always "in-season." The Stone Barns staff were incredibly helpful at sharing tips and hints for us, as we develop and grow Arcadia’s own educational programs. Thank you Stone Barns for the incredible opportunity. Now we just can’t wait to get our chickens this spring, and a summer camp up and running!

One Amazing Evening - the Vices that Made Virginia

2011-11-14T09:36:00.000-08:00

On Saturday November 5, a crowd of nearly 700 guests gathered on the grounds of the Historic Woodlawn estate in Alexandria, VA, home of Arcadia's two acre sustainable farm and educational hub. The occasion? The Vices That Made Virginia, our biggest fundraiser of the year to benefit Arcadia and Woodlawn, a National Historic Trust Site. The monies raised on this unforgettable night will fund the continued growth of our farm, educational programming, and the launch of our Mobile Market. We sincerely thank the guests and generous local sponsors who came to support us!

Woodlawn looked magical as the sun set over the crisp, fall evening, and spotlights lit up the estate and grounds. Local chefs and artisans prepared a spread of the season's finest meats, cheeses, oysters, vegetables and other prepared dishes. After the guests sampled the evening's finest foods and featured wines, whiskeys and beers, they could listen to the bluegrass music, take a snapshot the photo-booth, or watch a cigar-rolling demonstration. The air was full of laughter, great tunes, and merriment.

Arcadia's Mobile Market made its debut at Vices. The awesome, bright green school bus attracted guests who stopped by to pay a visit with the team and learn more about the program - even take a tour. Fully stocked with fresh produce from local farms, it was a sight to see. We can't wait to get it on the road!

Many thanks to all of the volunteers, staff, partners, sponsors and attendees who made the event a huge success. Be sure to sign up for our mailing list to be the first to hear about upcoming events and other Arcadia news!
Photo credits: Samer Farha

Chipotle's going local with Arcadia!

2011-11-11T09:25:00.000-08:00

We love good burritos here at Arcadia. But that's not the only reason why we love the popular restaurant Chipotle Mexican Grill. We've established a wonderful relationship with Chipotle, an organization with a dedication to "Food With Integrity" similar to our own. Yes, it does includes free burritos (for our volunteers and special events). But it goes so much farther than that!

Earlier this fall, Chipotle sponsored a DC-area wide fundraiser for Arcadia. They donated half of all proceeds from burritos sold the evening of September 14th to Arcadia's farm to school programs - a whopping $15,000! With these funds, we'll be able to expand Arcadia's farm field trips in the spring, and get our Mobile Market out to schools (complete with chef demonstrations and mock-farmers' market activities).

Chipotle also coordinated guacamole demos and film screenings "What's On Your Plate" in four schools during D.C. Farm to School Week in October. They reached over 400 DC students and families with hand-on food education and community engagement around the issues of nutrition and sustainability.

I already mentioned the awesome food - our volunteers on the farm take home "burrito bucks" after a hard day's work. And for our events and activities, you can count on some delicious carnitas tacos or our favorite - the veggie burrito. And while you're at the farm, check out the Chipotle Salsa Garden - complete with tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, garlic and onions.

Most recently, Chipotle was a top sponsor at the Vices that Made Virginia event, our rollicking fundraiser on the farm on November 6th (recap to come). They hit the Estate sponsorship level of $5,000, again showing their strong support for Arcadia's mission and programs.

Chipotle, we can't thank you enough. Your staff are incredible, your hearts are generous, and your values align so closely with Arcadia's own. We're so excited to continue working with you as our programs grow and flourish!

Arcadia's hiring a Mobile Market School Educator!

2011-11-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

Do you like youth engagement, local food, child nutrition, and food justice? If so, we've got the job for you!

Arcadia is looking for a part-time Mobile Market School Educator to lead educational programming on Arcadia's Mobile Market, and coordinate local food taste tests in DC school cafeterias. The Mobile Market School Educator should be someone who has extensive experience working with kids, exhibits a strong passion for Arcadia's mission, and demonstrates the capacity to deveop and lead educational outreach programs. This is a part-time (20 hrs/week on averaage) paid position.

For details about the position and how to apply, visit http://bit.ly/ArcadiaMMJob

Big Bad Green

2011-11-08T10:41:00.000-08:00

The Mobile Market has undergone a lot of work recently, but nothing’s been quite as eye-catching as the bus’ recent paint job.

According to Fred, General Manager and heavy truck specialist at Maaco of College Park, nothing “pops” like “Big Bad Green,” so we worked out a deal to get the Mobile Market looking like a million bucks (for a tiny, tiny fraction thereof). Thanks to his skilled and able team, Maaco was able to get the bus done in time for our annual fundraiser, The Vices that Made Virginia, during which guests were informed of the Mobile Market's food distribution and educational activities. They were also treated to an array of fruits and vegetables provided by our farmer friends, Derek Kilmer and David Marvel.

Next steps for the Mobile Market will be installation of a donated generator (thanks, Cummins!) and chest refrigerators. Otherwise, I recently passed my Commercial Driver's License test and have acquired all the permits for operating the bus, so much of the back-end work is complete.

Unfortunately, all of this is coming together just as market season is wrapping up, but the bus will be hitting the road soon enough when we begin making school visits early next year. Stay tuned for more information regarding our Mobile Market School Educator job listing.

Fall field trips in full swing

2011-10-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Arcadia Farm has been abuzz with activity over the past few weeks. As about 200 energetic, enthusiastic DC students have visited the farm, we've been busy talking and learning about where our food comes from.

We've been harvesting (beans, greens, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, beets and more), digging (so many worms!), tending our bees (did you know that workers in a hive fly 55,000 miles and tap two million flowers to make one pound of honey?), of course, eating good food from the farm. The photos below can tell you more.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Extra special thanks go out to Chef Robert Weidmaier and Chef Michael Bonk for teaching us their tricks, plus all the teachers, chaperones, and volunteers who've made it all work.

We're heading into the home stretch! After our field trips next week, we'll close down the Groundhog Garden and start planning for spring.

This weekend, we're building a brand-new shed that will help make field trips even better. Want to help? We can certainly use it! More info is here.

Farming Fun(ctionality)

2011-10-24T17:27:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks of my internship I've had the opportunity to do a little bit of everything, from weeding to fundraising. I've even gotten to take part in the D.C. Farm-to-School Week festivities and do some teaching with students during our ongoing field trips at the farm.

All of which has been fairly new to me. But nothing more so than what I got to do on Friday. Behold, the hand tractor.

Complete with pull-start, clutch, gear shift, and kill-switch. (No cup-holder though.) I'm told these run in the thousands of dollars. If you're like me you're thinking, "I can do triple-digit speeds on a motorcycle for that price. What can this thing do?"

Here's what it can do.

It tilled those rows in a fraction of the time it would have taken us without it. We rarely use machines at the farm, but some larger tasks require it. With that task complete, we were able to plant some oats to occupy that space for the winter.

We also used it to clear a patch of grass in the Groundhog Garden. This gives an even better idea of its usefulness.

Believe it or not this simple task was actually much harder, for the hand tractor and its operators alike. Soil under grass is denser and more compact without the aeration that tilling affords it. It is easy to think of a healthy lawn as a blank slate for agriculture. Actually, it can be a hindrance, albeit a remediable one.

What you see in this picture is also a microcosm of what we are doing at Arcadia. That is, turning unused spaces into productive ones. With conscientious soil improvement efforts, a few common tools and a little elbow grease, these neglected spaces can help create a more sustainable local food system.

-Adam

D.C. Farm to School Week Recap!

2011-10-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

The students at Cleveland Elementary with Chef Lauren say it loud and clear - third annual D.C. Farm to School Week was a huge success! About 5,000 students engaged in farm-to-table activities and over 200 school cafeterias featured seasonal, local food. Farmers, chefs, food service staff, parents, teachers, and volunteers came together to connect students with where food comes from. October 3-7, 2011 was a week full of excitement, fun, and discovery!

The week began with a kick-off event, which also marked the start of National Farm to School Month in October. Four local chefs and their student assistants competed to make the tastiest seasonal salads for a panel of judges. Using only school garden produce and healthy ingredients from Whole Foods, chef Lauren Von Der Pool won the judges over with her tangy kale salad. White House Pastry Chef Bill Yosses, D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh, State Superintendent of Education Hosanna Mahaley, and other V.I.P.’s and community members joined in the celebration at Thurgood Marshall Academy.

During the week, schools in all 8 wards of the District featured seasonal, local produce in their school meals. Just a few examples - Chartwells served roasted local butternut squash and local bok choi in a vegetable stir fry. D.C. Central Kitchen’s Fresh Start Catering cooked up roasted local broccoli and baked local sweet potato fries. Revolution Foods served fresh local pears and braised local collard greens with their BBQ chicken. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

45 schools engaged approximately 5,000 children in hands-on food, farm and nutrition education during the week. 41 schools were visited by local chefs from around the area for interactive cooking demonstrations. For example, Thomas Marr from Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza made roasted squash and grilled apple salad with 5th graders at Janney Elementary. 19 schools were visited by local farmers, who taught students about what it’s like to work on a farm. Polly from the Acokeek Foundation even brought chickens in to visit Garfield Elementary students! 10 schools went on field trips to nearby farms. For example, Cleveland Elementary’s 3rd graders planted garlic, weeded the herbs, and made morning glory crowns at Common Good City Farm. A handful of other schools coordinated activities such as farmers’ market visits, film screenings with families of “What’s On Your Plate” for parents and families, and veggie taste tests. We even sent volunteers into school cafeterias dressed as giant carrots and peapods to encourage kids to eat their veggies.

The D.C. Farm to School Network at Arcadia and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education coordinated D.C. Farm to School Week, in conjunction with the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, Chipotle, Whole Foods, USDA Forest Service, Lululemon, the Capital Area Food Bank, school partners, farmers, chefs, school food service professionals and tons of dedicated volunteers. We send a HUGE thank you to all who were so critical at making D.C. Farm to School Week a success! We also thank our sponsors DC Hunger Solutions, Dan Schiff, and WGirls DC for their contributions.

This quote from a DCPS teacher sums up how the week's activities complemented her classroom instruction:

"I really appreciate...the experience! It's so great when I am in the middle of a lesson and my scholars make a connection from their experience with D.C. Farm to School Week ('like when Chef Jerry did...' or 'when Farmer Mary Ellen did...') with a new lesson that I am teaching them. What a great feeling for a teacher; not only does it show that the students were well engaged in the previous lesson activity but it shows they are engaged in the new lesson when they make that connection... a priceless moment in teaching!"

Heritage Garden Project

2011-10-14T08:24:00.000-07:00

The formal gardens at Arcadia have always gotten my brain wheeling with ideas and with the help of an amazing landscape architect (a HUGE thanks to Ann!), we are finally going to make the Heritage Gardens a reality! The goal is to trace the history of Woodlawn through edible gardens--highlight the rich agricultural history of the place and show how generations of people cared for themselves, their families and their communities through this land. If you want more information or wish to sponsor a plot, please contact Farmer Mo at maureen@arcadiafood.org. Read more about the plan below:

† ARCADIA HERITAGE GARDENS ¢

The idea. Let the garden’s geometry tell the story.

Within the triangular planting beds along a

clockwise path, discover 17th century plants

foraged and cultivated by the Dogue Indians. The

herbs Nelly Custis Lewis used to flavor stews,

pickle vegetables and treat a feverish child. Plants

that enslaved Africans grew to recall their native

lands. Vegetables raised by the Quakers before the

Civil War. Crops and gardens kept by the Masons,

the family who lived together longest at

Woodlawn. Plants that reveal the 20th-century

transition from food crops to flower gardens.

Heritage you can see, touch, smell and taste.

We invite you to support Arcadia Heritage

Gardens. Each triangle can be sponsored for $250.

We also welcome volunteers to help build this

piece of living history!

I am really excited about the project and can't wait for next spring to get started! Hope to see you in the garden!

-Farmer Mo

Help us build a shed!

2011-10-11T08:26:00.000-07:00

Arcadia Farm needs your help! To make our youth education space at Arcadia Farm more fun and inviting, we are building a shed! The shed will be used for storage, and will serve as an outdoor classroom for our farm field trips. We are looking for a few volunteers with some building experience to help in the construction process. We plan to have a big building day on Sunday, October 30 any time between and we'll schedule a few more times through the first week of November. The farm is at 9000 Richmond Hwy (Route 1) in Alexandria, VA.

If you are willing to come out and help, please contact Maureen Moodie, Arcadia Farm Manager, at maureen[at]arcadoafood[dot]org. Please tell anyone else who may be interested!

Chipotle burritos and adult beverages will be provided and, of course, a HUGE thank you from the Arcadia team.

8' by 8' shed design

Arcadia Farm in summer

Arcadia Farm hosts first field trips of the fall season

2011-10-08T06:47:00.000-07:00

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

"Look!" she yelled. "It's a worm!" Before I knew it, ten other kindergarteners gathered, squealing and shrieking, as they passed the small, slimy creature around. One pulled the worm around her finger and held her hand out to me: "It's a wedding ring!" she said.

Put DC kids and a patch of soil together and what do you get? Curiosity, creativity, disgust, and lots of excitement. At our first field trips of the season, students from Washington Middle School for Girls and Ross Elementary School got the full farm experience, complete with compost, bees, and planting seeds.

Ross Elementary School students were even treated to a special chef demonstration by Chef Alison Reed of Cafe St Ex. The apple carrot salad was a hit! Our very own Chef Benjamin showed Washington Middle School for Girls how to make green bean salad. DC Farm to School's Andrea also made a guest appearance in a carrot costume and was bombarded by kids within seconds - "I'm going to eat you!" they screamed.

What a way to celebrate DC Farm to School week! We're definitely looking forward to hosting more and more school visits in the coming weeks. A big thank you goes out to our volunteer field trip assistants Laurel, Sheri, Lara, and Cat for all their help.

D.C. Farm to School Week Kick-off Event!

2011-10-05T06:21:00.000-07:00

Beets, carrots, kale and apples - those were the seasonal ingredients used by the four competing chefs to make salads at the D.C. Farm to School Week Kick-off Event on Monday October 4th! Over 150 students, community members, local and national leaders joined us for a fun and delicious afternoon. White House Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses emcee'd the chef demonstration, while Pat Dombroski, Administrator of the USDA Food & Nutrition Service Mid Atlantic Regional Office, State Superintendent of Education Hosana Mahaley and National Farm to School Network Director Anupama Joshi also spoke to the importance of healthy eating, supporting local farmers, and engaging students in the farm-to-table process.

The event took place at Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School, a high-performing law themed high school in Southeast Washington, DC. Special guest, White House Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses, emcee'd the chef competition! Once Chef Bill started the timer, chefs and their student assistants whipped up salads for the judges using school garden produce, a "pantry" of items from Whole Foods, and their special seasonal ingredients.

Chef Lauren Von Der Pool, the "Queen of Green" and her student assistant won over the judges' taste buds with their tangy kale dish. Chef Kyle Bailey from Birch & Barley mixed up a kickin' beet salad (using beets from Arcadia Farms!); Chef Will Artley from the Evening Star Cafe put together a colorful carrot salad; and Chef Todd Wiss from Radius Pizza whipped up a great apple dish. The event concluded with student-led tours of Thurgood Marshall Academy and neighboring Savoy Elementary's shared school garden.

The kick-off event marked the start of D.C. Farm to School Week October 3-7, 2011 - a celebration of seasonal, local food in Washington, DC schools. October is also National Farm to School Month! Many thanks to all of the wonderful staff and volunteers who helped make the event a success, and to the D.C. Farm to School Network at Arcadia, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education and Whole Foods Markets for coordinating the kick-off.

Photos by Sarah Bernardi

Outstanding in the Field

2011-10-03T14:19:00.000-07:00

What an amazing (and busy) week at Arcadia Farm! We were so lucky to host Outstanding in the Field last week for two dinners reconnecting eaters with the land, the farmers that grow their food, and the amazing chefs who cook it. With the cold fall winds blowing and the threat of rain ever constant, I wasn't sure we would pull it off, but I have to say, the crew with OITF were unbelievable (a huge thanks to Elaine and Leah, as well as the whole OITF crew!) and both events went off without a hitch!

The first night me and 150 others were graced with the culinary mastery of Scott Drewno, Executive Chef at the Source. The meal had an Asian flair and featured local Virginia wines as well as Port City Beer and Creekstone beef. The wontons were delectable!

The next night showcased Kyle Bailey, chef extraordinaire at Birch and Barley. Dessert was provided by the amazing Tiffany MacIsaac. Beer pairings were provided by Greg, the Man. Seriously. He finds the best beer around. The fresh lima bean hand-made caviteli pasta was delicious and nothing can beat Tiff's apple pie for dessert. I felt especially lucky to have the BBCK crew out at the farm seeing the spoils of their hard work helping me dig out the grass this spring. I was also especially lucky to have my sister, Shannon, and my mentor farmer, Kristen from Radix Farm at the table.

I got to serve up my eggplants, peppers, kale, mizuna, arugula, beets, herbs, and was once again humbled by how great chefs can transform my vegetables. I am already looking forward for the old Outstanding in the Field bus to come rumbling back to town and Arcadia Farm will be honored to have them!

More than thanks to everyone who helped with this event and really made it happen. (Benjamin, Liz, Adam, and all my volunteers, you are the real muscle. I just grew some plants.)

Check out some photos, courtesy of Jim Darling (more to follow):

Photo Credit: Jim Darling

-Farmer Mo

Groundhog Garden: Ready for a kid invasion!

2011-09-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

We've spent the whole season fighting a losing battle against the groundhogs at Arcadia Farm. From sweet potato greens to the first leaves of our cucumbers, they've eaten just about everything. As we try to control their seemingly ever-growing population, we were also trying to think of a name for our kids space, but nothing seemed to fit. Growing Together Farm? Meh. Youth Farm? Too plain. Funky Fresh Farm? Too corny.

So what did we come up with? In honor of our enemies, we decided to call the kids farm Groundhog Garden. Recently, they haven't been visiting their namesake - keep your fingers crossed!

Now, the Groundhog Garden is ready for kids. Next week is not only DC Farm to School Week, it'll also be the first week of field trips to Arcadia Farm.

Check out what's been growing on:

Sunflowers are blooming! Beans are growing like gangbusters!
Beets, radishes, lettuce, swiss chard, mustard greens have recently sprouted and they're growing strong.
We lost our pumpkins to squash bugs, but have replaced them with a bed full of cover crops and "rowdy roots."
We had to pull most of our tomatoes, but our cover crop - field peas - is germinating as we speak.
Eggplants, sweet potatoes, herbs and carrots are still going from the summer season.
Super volunteer Cat finished some amazing signs that will make the space even more beautiful and interactive.

For more, check out the photos below. Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

From “Mr. Jefferson’s University” to George Washington’s Estate...

2011-09-27T22:47:00.000-07:00

Salutations fellow Arcadians! My name is Adam and I’m the newest farmhand (read: intern) at Arcadia. A little bit about me: I’m a local kid. In fact, I grew up less than 5 miles from the farm. After graduating from nearby Robert E. Lee High School I obtained a B.A. in Politics from the University of Virginia in 2008.

Since then I’ve developed a passion for food working in restaurants throughout Virginia and the Carolinas. The marriage of this passion with my background in political and social philosophy has led me to pursue a career in the sustainable food movement. To me farming is the perfect synthesis of several personal values, namely health, hard work, physical vigor, and self-reliance. It doesn’t hurt that I get to work outside either.

In the next couple months I’ll be contributing to this blog and documenting my work on the farm at Woodlawn, as well as my involvement in Arcadia’s other exciting projects like the Mobile Market and the Farm-to-School network.

I am extremely privileged to work with Arcadia’s staff and be on the frontlines of such an important endeavor. Everyone I’ve met so far has been really cool! If I can glean even a little of the knowledge these folks put to use every day I will be far better for it.

Adam

D.C. Farm to School Week Kick-Off Event!

2011-09-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

All are welcome to the third annual D.C. Farm to School Week kick-off celebration! It will be an exciting event featuring four local chefs battling to create the tastiest seasonal salad for a panel of esteemed judges. Chefs will use D.C. school garden produce and a pantry of items furnished by Whole Foods to make “top-chef” style salads, engaging an audience of over 200 students and community leaders. There should be enough for students and attendees to taste, as well! Student-led tours of the school’s Great Garden of Anacostia will follow.

Chef Lauren hands out samples to students at last year's event -
she'll be back for the competition this year!
Photo: Christiana Aretta Photography

The kick-off event will take place on Monday October 3, 2011 at 2 p.m. at the Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School and Savoy Elementary School shared gymnasium, located at 2427 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Southeast Washington, DC.

The event will also commemorate and kick off nationwide celebrations for the first ever National Farm to School Month, designated by a House Resolution passed in November 2010. White House Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses will emcee the event and the list of other V.I.P. guests and speakers will be announced as the event nears.

View the kick-off event invitation here, and the press advisory here, with information about how to RSVP. For more information about D.C. Farm to School Week, please visit www.dcfarmtoschoolweek.org. View pictures and quotes from D.C. Farm to School Week 2010 at www.storiography.com/50voices.

Support Arcadia Farms with the click of a button!

2011-09-16T12:34:00.000-07:00

Between now and September 30th, we ask that you vote daily for Arcadia Farms to win a $65,000 grant from Nature's Path Organic. Funding from their "Gardens for Good" grant will enable Arcadia to staff and develop our new lower field (slated to exclusively grow food for our Mobile Market). The grant will also fund the expansion of our interactive farm field trips for D.C. schoolchildren.

Thank you for voting for a more equitable and sustainable food system in our nation’s capital!

Shout out to our City Blossoms consultant-friends!

2011-09-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

Like just about everything at Arcadia, the kids farm is a project that's constantly evolving. When I showed up in July, the space included some tomato, cucumber, and eggplant plants, plus some squash vines that were getting eaten alive by squash bugs. And of course, there was lots and lots of crabgrass. The photo here shows what it looked like back in the spring.

Since then, I've gotten to work planting a salad bar bed full of carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, a field of greens, sunflowers and more. And while we're almost ready for DC students to join us for field trips, we're also thinking about what we want our kids farm to look like in the future. (You can find some current photos here).

Since they've been artfully gardening with DC kids for the last ten years, we called up our friends Lola and Rebecca at City Blossoms. Inspired by their gardens on Marion Street and Girard Street, we wanted their help to create a design for a kids space that's interactive, educational, beautiful and fun. We met up and talked basics - goals, measurements, age-levels - and shared ideas. Lola and Rebecca visited Arcadia Farms to see what's already growing and get inspiration.

Not only did they come up with a plan that includes a natural dye bed and lots of easy-to-maintain perennials, they also handed over their super-secret list of kid-friendly plants. We're excited to make it happen.

Thanks to Lola and Rebecca for sharing their expertise and creativity with us - and for being super fun to work with!

Want to help maintain the kids farm? We could always use your help at our Monday and Saturday volunteer days. You can sign up for our email list here.

Arcadia Food Hub Farmer Forum

2011-09-13T12:27:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday we held a forum with farmers to get advice and feedback on the Arcadia Food Hub. We had a wonderful group of farmers from Virginia and Maryland that gathered at the Columbia Firehouse in Alexandria, Virginia. Our hats go off to Chef Brian Wilson and his staff for providing us with a delicious assortment of food and beverages. The forum was an excellent opportunity to receive constructive feedback from area farmers that we hope to serve and work with. We will be using this feedback to develop and shape the Food Hub, which we hope to have up and running this spring. Once again, thank you to everyone that took time out of their Sunday to join us.

For more information on the Arcadia Food Hub please contact the Food Hub manager, Matt Tremblay at matt.tremblay@arcadiafood.org.

Weds. Sept. 14th - eat Chipotle from 5:30-7:30, support Arcadia!

2011-09-09T06:50:00.000-07:00

Chipotle, the popular burrito restaurant chain is holding a fundraiser for Arcadia on Wednesday, September 14 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. That evening, 50% of all sales at all metro-Washington, DC Chipotle restaurants, up to $15,000, will be donated to Arcadia for its D.C. Farm to School Network. Funding will primarily support the upcoming D.C. Farm to School Week October 3-7, 2011, when schools across the District will feature seasonal, local food in their school meals and coordinate hands-on farm-to-table experiences for students.

We're excited to work with Chipotle because they are genuinely excited about our programs to connect youth with where food comes from, and they show similar organizational support for growing the local, sustainable food economy. Chipotle's Food With Integrity philosophy aligns with our own - to improve the link between the farm and the plate to create healthier communities. And we value Chipotle's commitment to being involved in more ways than just fundraising - our kids love the ‘Chipotle Salsa Garden’ out at the farm and guacamole chef demos at school, and our farm volunteers get to take home ‘burrito bucks’ in return for their hard work!

So get your Chipotle fix Wednesday September, 14th from 5:30-7:30pm in any DC-area Chipotle store, and know that you're supporting a good cause!

Happy Hour Fundraiser Friday for Arcadia's D.C. Farm to School Network!

2011-09-07T06:40:00.000-07:00

What better to do this Friday night than to enjoy drink specials, music, and merriment at the Blue Banana in Petworth? For no cover, join us for a fun night out, and all tips and donations will go to Arcadia's D.C. Farm to School Network. Weather permitting, we'll even plant seedlings for D.C. Farm to School Week and D.C. School Garden Week on the back porch!

When: Friday Sept. 9th, starting at 6:30pm
Where: The Blue Banana, 3632 Georgia Ave. NW
What: Drinks and fun - tips and donations go towards D.C. Farm to School Week

More information at http://t.co/IcHiWk9

Welcome, Liz!

2011-09-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

I want to offer a hug welcome to our new(ish) Farm to School Education Coordinator! I am thrilled to have my good friend, Liz Whitehurst, working in the fields with me again! Before joining the crew at Arcadia, Liz planted lots of seeds as Volunteer Coordinator at the Neighborhood Farm Initiative and I was lucky enough to meet and work with her at the Fort Totten urban farm. She's also worked with plants and great people at Common Good City Farm, Camp Treetops and Sligo Creek Farm. Liz has an infectious smile, a tireless work ethic and willingly puts up with me :) She's also really into kale. Liz will make a wonderful addition to the team and we are lucky to have her!

-Farmer Mo

Arcadia Farm Field Trip (trial run!)

2011-09-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Sept. 3rd, we hosted about 25 kids (and lots of parents) out to Arcadia Farm to test our farm field trip program. We're figuring out our field trip protocol in time for our first school groups in a few weeks. Thanks to a number of gracious parents, we had a fun-filled Saturday field trip trial run!

We started with a 5-senses tour of the farm, then everyone got gloves and hats and became "farmers for the day" - we dug, weeded, and pollinated the flowers!

We learned about soil health and compost, plant parts and how plants grow, and farm wildlife - bees!

Next, we harvested together for the Arcadia Farm salad bar, donated by Whole Foods.

Finally, we learned how to make fresh salsa with Chef Benjamin (aka Arcadia's Mobile Market Manager). Everyone went through the salad bar and tasted some of Ben's Fresh Salsa with chips and burritos donated by Chipotle.

We all had Chipotle burritos together and discussed what we could do to make our farm field trips even better. We learned a lot, and are excited to have our first school group out to the farm soon!

One step backwards, two steps forward

2011-08-31T08:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week for Arcadia, especially when you take into account the fallout from last week's earthquake and hurricane. The winds and rain from Irene were particularly damaging to Arcadia Farms, uprooting plants, turning over row cover (which gave the groundhogs a veritable feast of sweet potato greens and baby lettuces), and toppling the hops tower in the children's garden. Fortunately, you can always reseed new vegetables and rehabilitate damaged plants. Moreover, with a little extra work we've been able to turn these natural disasters into opportunities for growth.

For starters, we were actually pleased to have such a thorough, steady downfall after one of our driest summers on record. As it were, the rain from Irene moistened the ground enough so that the kind folks at Mt. Vernon could plow and till our remaining fields at Woodlawn. Farmer Mo will now have the entire top field as well as a new bottom field for cultivation next year.

Matt of Mt. Vernon masterfully wielding a multi-purpose tractor.

The newly tilled fourth quadrant in our top field.

The inaugural plowing of our bottom field, reserved for supplying Arcadia's Mobile Market with healthy, locally-grown, sustainable food.

Our Mobile Market program has also made some important developments. For instance, we have finally been awarded the necessary permits and licenses by the DC government to operate the bus. This has been a long, difficult process which we are definitely excited to have finally completed!

Meanwhile, the bus itself is nearing completion. The engine has been refurbished and the front tires have been replaced. (The tires will soon be reborn as planters in the children's garden).

In addition to the tires, we've transformed the fallen hops tower into a verdant tepee.

There is still progress to be made in getting the Mobile Market road-ready, but the remaining logistics and cosmetic work is all underway.

Fortunately, there have been a lot of silver linings in light of last week's natural disasters, but that shouldn't come as a surprise since it's nature's way to grow and prosper after a period of destruction. In the same vein, sustainable agriculture seeks to replicate such cycles of nature, so Arcadia is none the poorer from these events.

Personally, I used Irene's destruction as an opportunity to pick the biggest bouquet of flowers ever.

D.C. Farm to School Week - Oct. 3-7, 2011!

2011-08-29T09:53:00.000-07:00

What’s a child’s first reaction to a bright orange roasted sweet potato on her cafeteria tray? “Weird!” or “What’s that?!” But take that child to a nearby farm and show her how sweet potatoes are grown; or bring a local chef into her classroom to make a delicious sweet potato dish. Then what? That sweet potato in her school meal is gone before you know it!

We are pleased to announce that the third annual D.C. Farm to School Week will take place October 3-7, 2011 in schools across Washington, DC! The week will get students excited about local food and where it comes from. Schools will feature seasonal, local foods in their school meals, and engage students in hands-on food education.

Get your school involved! Learn how at www.dcfarmtoschoolweek.org, where you’ll find tools, resources and instructions for registering your school. The D.C. Farm to School Network at Arcadia will help every step of the way.

Sponsor the event! We're looking for organizations and individuals interested to help make D.C. Farm to School Week a success. Read our Sponsor Packet to learn more.

The event will kick-off the first ever National Farm to School Month in October, celebrated by schools all over the country. Last year, over 150 schools served up seasonal specialties such as honey-braised local apple and collard green salad, and Asian slaw with local cabbage during D.C. Farm to School Week. And dozens of schools coordinated farm field trips and chef demonstrations to engage students in the farm-to-table process. Let’s make this year’s event even better

For more information, visit www.dcfarmtoschoolweek.org or email Andrea Northup, D.C. Farm to School Network Manager at the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture, at andrea[at]dcfarmtoschool[dot]org. And remember, D.C. School Garden Week will take place Sept. 26 - Oct. 1!

Our Growing Farm

2011-08-28T14:56:00.001-07:00

Check out our new space! I am so excited!

Update from the Farm

2011-08-28T14:21:00.000-07:00

Hi farm friends,

After a week of earthquakes and hurricanes, I'm happy to say the farm is still standing and growing (although a little beat up from the heavy winds and rain!). We're cleaning up and recovering and loving the little bit of chill in the early morning air.

It's been awhile since I've updated and I've been busy digging in the dirt, harvesting, going to the SW waterfront market, planting fall seedlings, and having a great time with volunteers! The summer is wrapping up and I am happy to report we have produced hundreds of pounds of tomatoes and what feels like a billion pounds of summer squash. We've been at war with the groundhogs all summer (thanks, Benjamin!) and I have welcomed back our resident family of foxes. We are preparing to welcome DC Farm to School field trips and have recently built our on-site salad bar! Fall is on the way and I am looking forward to having greens--kale, collards, lettuces-- back on the farm.

The big news at Arcadia Farms is our new front field! We are taking over another 1 1/2 acre in the front of the property right on Rt. 1. With the help from the amazing team at Mount Vernon, we will be plowing the brush in the new field and putting down cover crop for the winter. Cover cropping helps add organic material back in to the soil, reduces erosion, smothers weeds and provides habitat for beneficial insects. (For more on cover crops, see this article from Virginia Tech).

Wow, we're busy out at the farm. More updates soon and I hope to see you out in the fields soon!

-Farmer Mo

Arcadia Farm Field Trips launch this fall!

2011-08-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

The D.C. Farm to School Network at Arcadia is looking for Washington, DC school groups to sign up for field trips to Arcadia Farm this fall! Our field trips are designed to connect students with where food comes from, while developing critical skills and meeting age-appropriate curriculum standards.

Field trips include a hands-on farm experience and an optional interactive chef demonstration. Students will make the connection that healthy, fresh food comes from the earth, and will understand the process of growing food sustainably. After an interactive tour of the farm, they'll become farmers for the day and learn about soil health, caring for plants and identifying farm wildlife. The session will end with a harvest and taste test, so students will become familiar with specific fruits and vegetables and will be more likely to eat those foods when they see them in the cafeteria or at home.

Arcadia Farm field trips in the fall of 2011 will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Click here for a general overview of the Arcadia Farm field trip program, and contact Sarah at SarahB@dcfarmtoschool.org for more information!

Garden Party At Whole Foods on P Street

2011-08-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

We want to thank Whole Foods on P Street in Washington, DC for hosting the Community Garden Days this past Saturday, which included Arcadia and five other organizations. It's important for the community to know about the many wonderful projects related to food and agriculture in and around Washington, DC.

Community Garden Days is a gathering of local community gardens and farms at the P Street Whole Foods, where representatives of the gardens and farms engage the community by displaying information, pictures and snacks. Even though we did get rained out in the afternoon, the Arcadia staff and volunteers had a great time meeting and sharing Arcadia's mission with the folks that stopped by the table. We also treated them to some delicious pesto made with basil from our farm. Thank you again Whole Foods and thank you to our superb volunteers Eden, Rachel, and Patrick for taking time out of their weekend to help us out. We look forward to next year's event!

Volunteer with Arcadia Farm Field Trips!

2011-08-14T08:38:00.000-07:00

We're gearing up for fall farm field trips and we need your help!

Starting in September, we're connecting students with where their food comes from by hosting school groups at Arcadia Farms. They'll learn about growing food sustainably, eating healthfully, and they'll get their hands dirty, too.

In order to create a hands-on experience, we're looking for a few Volunteer Field Trip Assistants to help out.

See the full volunteer job description below. Thanks!

Program Description
Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture is a new non-profit organization serving the Washington, DC area. We raise awareness about healthy food and its sources, and establish innovative connections between sustainable local farms and consumers. Our farm, located on the historic Woodlawn estate in Alexandria, VA, aims to demonstrate environmentally and economically sustainable growing practices through community engagement.

This fall, we will host groups of up to 30 students from Washington, DC schools on our farm two days a week for hands-on educational programming.

Responsibilities
We’re looking for Volunteer Field Trip Assistants to help make field trips to Arcadia Farm safe, educational and fun. Field Trip Assistants will help monitor the space, provide instruction and supervision, and assist with general garden maintenance.

Volunteers must attend a 1 hour on-site volunteer training session on August 30.

Qualifications

Experience working with youth
General knowledge and interest in organic gardening, child nutrition and food security (or similar issues)
Excellent communication skills
Commitment and reliability
Leadership experience helpful, but not required
First Aid/CPR certification is a plus
Must be able to work outdoors in various weather conditions and lift 50 lbs

Time Commitment
We’re looking for volunteers who can commit to one Tuesday or Thursday from 9:30am to 1:30pm per week for the duration of the program, which runs from September 1 to October 20. Preferably volunteers can commit to the same day/time for the entire fall. The volunteer shift will take place at Arcadia Farm, 9000 Richmond Highway in Alexandria, VA. Volunteers must provide their own transportation to/from the farm.

Compensation
This is a voluntary position. School internship credit can be arranged for a minimum commitment of 10 hours per week (2 days/week).

Contact Information
Please send your resume plus a note describing your interest and relevant experience with organic gardening and/or working with youth to Farm to School Program Assistant Liz Whitehurst at liz@arcadiafood.org by August 26.

Arcadia Says Goodbye to our Mini Me's

2011-08-10T12:50:00.001-07:00

Anna has been an invaluable D.C. Farm to School Network intern - how could I have managed the summer without her? As the D.C. Farm to School Network has transitioned to Arcadia and taken on new projects, Anna has spearheaded a lot of projects - a farm to school field trip to Delaware, getting our Farm-Fresh Feature initiative, our monthly newsletters (sign up here if you're not on it), and so much more! It's been such a pleasure to work with a dedicated, self-starter like Anna. All ll I have to do is describe the project, and before I can blink, it's done with efficiency and enthusiasm. Plus, she's my mini-me and my right-hand-girl, and I'm going to miss her soooo much!

-Andrea

I can't believe how fast this summer has flown by and that it is already time to say goodbye to my amazing intern, Beverly. None of the growth we have seen this summer would have been possible without her and I feel privileged to have gotten to know such and amazing and driven woman. Beverly is an expert squash-bug killer, a badass digger and one of the most smiling and positive ladies I have ever known. She also makes a mean zucchini bread, certainly knows how to get down at a dance party and devises amazingly creative ways to pay for cabs. Beverly is going to make a great farmer and I wish her all the best in her last semester in college!!! I'll miss you, Bev!

-Farmer Mo

Thanks, Aaron, for the virtual shout out!

2011-08-08T18:10:00.000-07:00

I'd cross-post it if I knew how, but I don't, so here's the link, at the very least.

Guest Post: Eating the Rainbow!

2011-08-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

This blog is cross-posted from http://www.sweetgreen.com/blog/2011/07/25/sweetgreen-schools/ and written by Pheobe, a Sweetgreen intern. Sweetgreen in Schools is a program created in partnership between Sweetgreen and Arcadia's D.C. Farm to School Network.

Although the academic year has ended, Sweetgreen in Schools is in full force at two new locations: Ketcham Elementary School and Kenilworth Elementary School. For those unfamiliar with the program, Sweetgreen in Schools is our community outreach initiative made possible through a partnership with Arcadia’s D.C. Farm to School Network. The program seeks to teach children about fun ways to eat fruits and vegetables, the health benefits of farm-fresh foods and “where food comes from.” The series culminates with a salad-making competition in which the students use their creativity and fruit and veggie knowledge to impress the judges with their unique salad.

For this week’s lesson, students served as taste-testers for Sweetgreen’s “new” Rainbow Salad. Most students have never heard of Sweetgreen, but they were very excited to put their taste buds to the test. The classes prepared the rainbow salad using red strawberries, blue blueberries, green cucumbers, orange carrots, purple beets, and yellow corn. These delicious ingredients were served on a bed of green spinach and dressed with honey dijon, champagne vinaigrette, or a mixture of both! As the students munched on the salad, we talked about the health benefits of eating a rainbow-colored diet. They were surprised to learn that the Vitamin C from beets helps heal cuts and antioxidants from blueberries gives us a memory boost for studying. After everyone’s plates were emptied and appetites were satisfied (some students came up for fourth servings!), students used the describing words we came up with as a class in their letters to the Sweetgreen chefs. They wrote about the most exciting parts of the rainbow salad, what their favorite fruit or vegetable was whether or not it should be added to the menu. The overall verdict: a definite YES!

Next week, we are going to do some detective work with a Mystery Fruits and Veggies game. Then the classes will taste test a salad with ingredients from a different plant parts. Yum!

-Phoebe K, Sweetgreen Intern

Student insights:

“I think you should put rainbow salad on the menu because it is sweet, awesome, righteous, fantastic, crunchy and delicious.” -Mekhi

“I tasted your salad and I think is very wonderful. And when I took one bite and it felt like I took a thousand bites. It was out of this world. And I will ask my mom can she put your logo on Facebook so the people can go to your store.” -Kailya

“Your salad was great and your slogan should be ‘Rainbow Salad: tasty and good’ and you should keep making Rainbow Salad and I think it will be wonderful to others. My favorite fruit and vegetable was strawberries and cucumbers and I love your salad.” -Khalyl

Eastern Shore Farm to School Field Trip

2011-08-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

How does a Delaware watermelon travel from a field to a school cafeteria? On our field trip to the Eastern Shore we saw the process firsthand, in addition to meeting all sorts of local food growers, processors and distributors. In fact, midway through the trip, Chartwells’ Dietician for DCPS Whitney Bateson just couldn’t help exclaiming, “I’m learning so much about agriculture!”

On Tuesday July 26th the D.C. Farm to School Network organized a group of D.C. and Maryland school food stakeholders on a field trip to Delaware and Maryland to explore large scale local food resources. David Marvel of Marvel Farms was our trusted guide and expert farmer.

In case you were wondering, Mar-Del watermelons are painstakingly grown on viney bushes in sandy fields. At harvest time, skilled “cutters” comb the field for ripe melons and turn them belly up (so that the lighter side is facing up). Watermelon vehicles, which are recycled school buses with the seats and windows taken out, drive up and down the rows as harvesters load the ripe melons in. Then, each school bus transports about 18,000 pounds of melons to local packaging houses. The watermelons are sent along a long conveyor belt, smacked with a sticker, and are sorted into different grades based on size. They’re packed into the big boxes you see in supermarkets, and are loaded into tractor trailer trucks for distribution.

Coastal Growers watermelon operation was only one of our many stops on our tour - we started the day at SEW Friel, a sweet corn processing facility. Enormous truckloads of corn pulled up to be canned while we chatted with the owner, Jay Friel, about the operation. Did you know that canning only occurs during a few months in the summer to ensure that the corn is canned when it’s fresh? Farmers stagger their plantings to extend the season, but during the rest of the year the cannery focuses on other tasks, like applying labels to the cans.

Next we visited FoodSwing, a company that specializes in making boxed products - like the chicken soup broth in a box you see at the grocery store. We learned that packaging food in this way makes shipping about 20% more efficient since the packages fit together perfectly, and it preserves the nutritional value of the product inside. FoodSwing’s modern machinery was in full swing when we walked through, popping out hundreds boxes of turkey gravy by the minute!

We also visited a packing house at Vincent Farms where they sorted and packed tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, sweet corn, and more. They had a special tool to sort watermelons by weight - as melons came down the conveyor belt, a computer registered their weight and kicked them off the belt at the right station to be packed into boxes.

We picked apples, peaches, and nectarines straight from the orchards at T.S. Smith and Sons farm, and got a personal tour. Although T.S. Smith and Sons is a family farm started in 1907, they are constantly innovating. They recently installed an efficient drip irrigation system for their asparagus field, and power their cooling facilities with solar panels!

Finally, we swung by Kenny Brothers Produce to tour the cucumber sorting and grading facility. The cucumbers are washed from the back of eighteen-wheelers onto sophisticated machinery that prepares the cukes for shipment to pickling companies like Vlasic and Mt. Olive. They have a special supercooling station where sorted cucumbers are brought down to about 40 degrees before they leave the premises.

We couldn’t leave Delaware without visiting the state fair! It was “healthy kids day,” but we were so exhausted by the time we got there, it was all we could do to just eat our peach ice cream (made with T.S. Smith and Sons peaches) and head home.

The result of our trip? We learned that there are many large, family farms close to D.C. with the capacity to feed our schools, and facilities that can preserve local food to help extend the growing season.

View more photos from the trip here.

Thank you Chipotle!

2011-07-28T11:45:00.000-07:00

After a long, tiring morning of weeding beds, harvesting, and turning the soil out on the farm, you’re hungry. What would be better than a big, juicy burrito stuffed with fresh ingredients and clean meat? Now every volunteer who comes out to Arcadia’s farm to volunteer will get a gift card for a free meal at Chipotle, thanks to a new and exciting partnership between our two organizations!

We’ll be partnering with Chipotle in a number of ways during the upcoming months - keep your eyes and ears peeled. But for starters, Chipotle gift cards were recently featured in the gift bags given away at the Summer Brunch fundraiser to benefit Arcadia's D.C. Farm to School Network. And, we just received free meal cards to give to all our wonderful volunteers who brave the heat and help out on the farm. Stay tuned for more details about the other exciting ways we’ll partner in the future, and we’ll close with an enthusiastic thank you Chipotle!

Get your nerd on!

2011-07-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

Arcadia's farm now hosts a geocache. Don't know what a geocache is? You haven't been living yet! First, learn more about this nerdy hobby of mine here. Second, grab your GPS and like-minded friends and come on out to the farm. We'll reward you with vegetables if you can find the cache.

Arcadia staff pizza night

2011-07-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

What does an Arcadia staff dinner look like? Farm fresh veggie pesto salad, artisanal bread and cheese, home-made pizza, and excellent company. We treat our staff right!

On Monday July 18th, Arcadia staff gathered to bond and celebrate the early summer harvest. Farmer Mo and Farm Intern Beverly contributed beautiful and tasty carrots, beans, tomatoes, eggplant, and basil galore - straight from Arcadia’s farm. Mobile Market Manager Benjamin shared his cheese expertise and showcased his impressive pizza-making skills. The rest of us provided refreshments and very healthy appetites.

Don’t you wish you were on Arcadia’s staff? Well, you can do the next best thing - every Monday and Saturday we take volunteers out at the Arcadia Farm in Alexandria, VA. Contact volunteer@arcadiafood.org for more info!

Powdery Mildew

2011-07-20T05:35:00.000-07:00

So as the summer continues, so do our discoveries of pest and disease problems on the farm. Yesterday we discovered that several of our summer squash plants have a fungal disease called powdery mildew. A plant gets this fungal disease when an airborne spore lands on a leaf and germinates into a fungi. Once on a plant the fungi grow root like structures that attach to the leaves and sucks up plant nutrients from the top cells of the plant, weakening the leaf and slowing the growth. In less than a week the fungus releases a million more spores that go on to affect several other neighboring plants with the help of wind, rain, or insects. Powdery mildew is an easy disease to identify because it simply looks like the plants are covered in baby powder. How is this problem solved? Yesterday we pulled and trashed a few of the severely infected plants in hopes that the spreading will stop. Today the other infected squash plants will be receiving a bath of baking soda and water to help prevent the spreading of the disease and hopefully terminate the powdery mildew issue.

Arcadia featured in USA Today

2011-07-19T07:12:00.000-07:00

Arcadia was recently featured in a USA Today article about programs being created to address 'food deserts' across America! Read the article to learn about some of our projects that aim to create a sustainable food system in the D.C. area.

The Mobile Market Goes Green

2011-07-19T06:46:00.000-07:00

There’s a lot of activity underway as we retrofit our school bus. Among other developments, we’re building custom shelving for the produce, developing an electrical system for the refrigerators and freezers, and weighing our options for the exterior’s facelift (have any ideas? Send them to benjamin[at]arcadiafood[dot]org).

Most exciting is our partnership with DC Biofuels to run the engine on a blend of diesel and locally sourced vegetable oil. We had James Peeples, Senior Vice President of DC Biofuels, check out the bus this week and it looks like our engine is still in great shape. I can already smell the savory scent of fryer oil! Except not really – we’ll be running on a blend that burns clean. Plus, fryer oil may not pair well with the smell of freshly picked produce …

Featured Local Produce Program in D.C. Schools!

2011-07-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

September - tomatoes! October - sweet potatoes! November - kale! We are excited to announce a new D.C. Farm to School Network program for the upcoming school year. Participating D.C. schools will familiarize students with seasonal, local produce - a different produce item each month. Our goal will be to educate and excite students about local fruits and veggies, so they’ll be more likely to eat them when they show up on their cafeteria trays. The program will also foster lasting partnerships between local farms and D.C. schools.

Here’s how it will work - each month will have a designated local fruit or vegetable. Let’s say it’s November, and the featured food is kale. School meals in November will include a local kale dish, which could be as simple as baked kale chips. Schools in D.C. will feature kale in their school gardens. Students participating in field trips to Arcadia’s educational farm will learn about growing and harvesting kale. Chef demonstrations, both on the farm and in schools, will feature healthy kale recipes. Taste tests in school cafeterias will expose students to a few different ways kale can be prepared. Download-able kale-themed lesson plans and worksheets will engage kids in the classroom, in line with D.C. curriculum standards. Keep your eye out for more information and for the launch of this exciting new program!

In the meantime, we need your help coming up with a creative name for the program! What should we call this monthly seasonal produce spotlight? Comment below, email anna[at]dcfarmtoschool[dot]org with ideas, or tweet ideas to us @dcfarmtoschool!

Fantastic Fundraiser Brunch!

2011-07-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

Just picture this - 200 beautiful people enjoying brunch fare at Ris, champagne flutes filled with bottomless mimosas, models on the red carpet featuring the hippest summer fashions, gift bags overflowing with goodies from sponsors, a mix of the latest and greatest tunes in the background - can you feel the fun and excitement?

The Summer Brunch Soiree this past Saturday was a fantastic success, and we are so honored that the proceeds were to benefit the D.C. Farm to School Network at Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture. Only Becca and Cori Sue, also known as the Bitches who Brunch, could organize such an incredible fundraiser event. We want to extend an enormous thank you to them for choosing the D.C. Farm to School Network to benefit from the proceeds, and we look forward to working together in the future.

Thank all of the attendees for your support as well, to Ris for providing the wonderful food and staff for the event, to the volunteers who helped ready the space for the big day, and to all of the event’s sponsors. Find a picture medley from the event here!

Photo from readysetdc.com of the D.C. Farm to School Network table at the Summer Brunch Soiree.

First Farm Dinner!

2011-06-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

I've had a little time to recover and reflect on our very first farm dinner hosted at Arcadia Farms! I want to send a sincere thanks to all who attended and helped support our organization. I am humbled by your generosity and kind words.

Last Sunday, we hosted 90 amazing Arcadia supporters for an evening celebrating local food and Virginia wine. With the culinary genius of Tony Chittum from Vermillion and the decadent desserts of Tiffany Macisaac (who won a RAMMY this past weekend-- congrats, Tiff!), guests were treated to pork-stuffed squash blossoms, sesame-crusted green tomatoes, cucumber fennel salad, chamomile whipped cream over blueberries, and a host of other local fares.

The event went off without a hitch thanks to an amazing group of volunteers! (A HUGE thanks to the NRG staff-- and, of course, to Bev and Anna!)

There is something really rewarding watching people enjoy food that I have grown from tiny seed. It reminds me that food and food sharing is essential to us as social beings and it is such a luxury to have a glass of wine on my farm. While I spent most of the time looking at all the weeding that needs to be done, I think guests enjoyed being on a tiny rural oasis amidst the urban sprawl of Rt 1 and contributing to a great cause.

There will be more dinners to come and I hope to see you all there!

The National Trust for Historic Preservation visits Woodlawn

2011-06-26T20:29:00.000-07:00

Among her many other skills, Farmer Mo is a great tour guide. According to one blogger, "I have never wanted to be a farmer before today, but I’m reconsidering – Maureen’s passion for community farming was that contagious."

Can Virginia-grown, pasture-raised, hormone and antibiotic free beef be found in a Washington, DC public school?

2011-06-24T12:54:00.000-07:00

The answer is yes, and the school is the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School in Northeast Washington, DC.

By: Andrea Northup, D.C. Farm to School Network Manager, and Anna Chute, D.C. Farm to School Network Intern

Lisa Dobbs, Chef and Nutrition director at E.W. Stokes, will stop at nothing to make sure that the 350 students she serves each day have healthy, delicious meals. Cooking from-scratch and using no processed foods, she and her staff prepare breakfast, lunch and supper in their antiquated kitchen for the school’s population of mostly low-income students. Lisa incorporates fresh, locally-grown foods whenever possible, especially on the school’s salad bar. And she works with the rest of the school staff to ensure that the school’s garden, nutrition and wellness programs are coordinated with her healthy menus.

As the Director of the D.C. Farm to School Network, I heard about Joy Evans from a friend who works in a local farm-to-table restaurant. Joy and her husband operate a business called Shenandoah Foods, which delivers meat, cheese and eggs from Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley to Washington, DC-area restaurants. Joy takes a delivery fee from her clients to run her business, and then farmers deal directly with customers to handle food costs. I reached out to see if she might be interested to work with Washington, DC schools.

Getting local meats into school meals is difficult. Most schools buy pre-cooked commodity meat from large distributors. It’s cheap (less than $1 per lb) and can be ordered in the evening and delivered the next morning – a system that’s hard to beat. But we’re not quite sure where it comes from, and it’s not always the highest quality product. But with about $1 per meal to spend on food, school food service directors have to make difficult choices about what they can afford.

I invited Joy and her husband to Washington, DC to meet with a few schools interested in buying local meat. We had a lively discussion about what products schools want, how much they need, what prices they can afford, and how to handle invoicing and delivery. We tried some delicious cheeses, Virginia-grown ground beef hamburgers, and fresh yogurt with local berries. If your mouth isn’t watering, it should be - the school food service providers could taste difference!

Joy and Lisa connected, and decided on a trial-run of 200 pounds of lean ground beef for $2.60 per pound. Joy picked up the meat from D&M Meats in Harrisonburg, VA in her refrigerated van, and delivered it to E.W. Stokes in conjunction with her regular restaurant deliveries. Lisa and her team expertly sautéed and seasoned the ground beef, and served it with pico-de-gallo, tortilla chips, and fresh guacamole. The result? A delicious and healthy meal for hungry students, which put money into our local economy, supported a sustainable small producer and made clean-beef fans out of Stokes’ young scholars!

Lisa Dobbs, Food Service Director at E.W. Stokes says the quality of the Virginia-grown beef is unparalleled. There isn’t murky liquid left over after cooking – something she’s used to with the lower-quality products. “We would never go back to the beef we were cooking before! We would drop beef from our menu entirely if we had to go back,” says Lisa.

Lisa can’t serve local meat every day, but it’s on the menu about once or twice a week, and they are looking to incorporate other items like chicken and eggs. We’re working to get more schools on board, and we’re excited for the potential to grow this partnership!

Arcadia produce featured at the new SW Waterfront Market

2011-06-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

The fruit and labor (and vegetables) of Arcadia can now be found at The Wharf, DC's newest farmers' market, every Thursday this summer from 5-8PM. The market is located at the corner of Water and 7th Street SW, just a short walk from the SW Waterfront Metro and the Maine Avenue Fish Market.

In addition to Mo's produce from the Woodlawn farm, we've been harvesting and sourcing from Radix Farm in Upper Marlboro and two urban farms in DC, Common Good City Farm and Neighborhood Farm Initiative, all sustainable operations.

Artisan cheese and bread have made appearances at our stand, nestled between the delicious greens, beans, carrots and cabbage (expect the pepperjack and baguettes to soon be regular offerings, as well as the produce to include more summer vegetables like tomatoes and squash). We will also be welcoming berries and cherries from Kilmer's Farm and Orchards this week!

Besides being DC's only farmers' market to sell beer, The Wharf also hosts stands with prepared foods, baked goods and charcuterie. Throw in some ping pong, corn hole, lounge chairs and live jazz and you've got the perfect way to spend a Thursday evening.

Also, check out the piece WAMU's "Metro Connections" aired last week about Arcadia's presence at The Wharf and our Mobile Market (updates to come).

Rainbow Salad Event at Ross Elementary School!

2011-06-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

The corn is mushy! The cucumbers are crunchy! The whole salad is awesome! These were some of the describing words used by 20 second graders as they tasted the colorful salads they made in Ross Elementary School’s cafeteria.

Yesterday the D.C. Farm to School Network and Sweetgreen teamed up to lead a salad-making workshop for students with Cafe Saint-Ex’s Pastry Chef Allison Reed, Ross Elementary’s Chefs Move to Schools adopted chef. The students were asked to be important “Taste Testers” of a new Rainbow Salad that sweetgreen chefs are working to perfect. Their challenge was to identify fruits and vegetables of each color of the rainbow, build a colorful salad, and use describing words to say what they thought of the salad. In the process, we learned that the same chemicals that give fruits and veggies their color have different health-promoting functions in our body. For example:

Red strawberries keep us healthy by staving off illness
Orange carrots help keep our eyesight sharp
Yellow corn helps with digestion because it has a lot of fiber
Green cucumbers and spinach, keeps our skin healthy
Blue blueberries help keep our memory sharp
Purple beets keep us awake and alert

Each student made a salad with all the different colors and choose a dressing - vinaigrette or cucumber and basil, yogurt-based dressing. Everyone tried the salads and then came up with a list of adjectives to describe the different ingredients. Soft, hard, mushy, tender, crunchy, awesome, sweet, sour... almost all the kids came up and asked for seconds!

A big thank you to Sweetgreen for providing all of the salad materials; to chef Allison Reed, to the Ross Elemetary School teachers, principal and cafeteria staff; and to the second graders for being well-behaved, adorable, and enthusiastic about trying new fruits and veggies! Ross Elementary School had the demo because they were the lucky winners of a drawing from schools that participated in the Strawberries & Salad Greens event (more about that event here).

D.C. Farm to School Network and Whole Foods teach kids about herbs!

2011-06-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, the D.C. Farm to School Network and the P Street and Georgetown Whole Foods Market joined forces to host an interactive tent at the Jazz on the National Mall event to engage children and adults about garden herbs! Kids had the opportunity to touch, smell, and see herb plants that were on display. We talked to kids about different herbs and how they can be used in healthy recipes. They got to draw pictures of their favorite herbs on a chalkboard. We also sent them home with bags of seeds already in soil to grow their own herbs at home!

A special thanks to Whole Foods for making the beautiful herbs and foods poster and for helping to make the event possible. Thanks to Stan and Nicole Schermerhorn of A Thyme to Plant for their generous donation of beautiful herbs plants. And thanks to America the Beautiful Fund for their donation of herb seeds that we gave away to interested kids and adults!

D.C. Farm to School Network Joins Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture

2011-06-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

Download a copy of the press release here.

Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture is pleased to announce that they are the new home of the D.C. Farm to School Network, formerly a program of the Capital Area Food Bank. The transition to Arcadia was a natural fit for the D.C. Farm to School Network as the two organizations share in their commitment to improving the sustainability of Washinton area's food systems. The D.C. Farm to School Network at Arcadia will be fueled by a grant from the Kaiser Permanente Foundation.

At its new organizational home, the Network will continue to grow and expand its programming to get more healthy, locally-grown foods in to Washington, DC school meals. The Network will focus on three main program areas - hands-on farm to school education; tools and resources for school food programs; and community engagement.

Andrea Northup will continue to operate as the Network’s Manager. “Housing the D.C. Farm to School Network at Arcadia affords so much potential for growth and development of the local farm to school movement, within an organization that is poised to lead the broader local food movement,” says Northup.

Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture aims to improve the health of area residents by providing a direct link to area farms. The organization does this by way of a farm for both sustainable production and consumer education; a mobile market that brings local fresh food into low-income neighborhoods and a center that operates as a local food distribution “hub”.

“When Arcadia was founded, an integral part of our mission was to create a collaborative space that would act as a rallying point for those working to better our food systems and we could not ask for a better organization than the D.C. Farm to School Network to take the lead,” says Michael Babin, Founder of Arcadia & Owner of Neighborhood Restaurant Group.

The D.C. Farm to School Network began as a program of the Capital Area Food Bank, the largest non-profit anti-hunger resource in the D.C. metropolitan area, in the Harvest for Health department. The food bank fostered the Network’s early stages of growth and program development. Since its inception in 2008, the Network has grown to over 1,000 stakeholders and has accomplished a number of program objectives including web presence, regular events, workshops, tools & resources, and advocacy wins.

###

Media contact:
Andrea Northup
D.C. Farm to School Network Manager
Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture
andrea@dcfarmtoschool.org
(203) 558-8549

The D.C. Farm to School Network welcomes a new summer intern, Anna Chute!

2011-06-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, my name is Anna Chute and I’ll be interning with the D.C. Farm to School Network at Arcadia for the months of June, July and August. Washington, DC is a brand new city for me and I’m very excited to be here working with such a wonderful organization. You can reach me at anna@dcfarmtoschool.org.

My interest in fresh, local food dates back to growing up in Vermont with a big garden, and has continued through my studies about food insecurity, food deserts, the rise of local food/farmers’ markets, health inequities, and more. I just graduated from Tufts University in Boston, MA with degrees in Community Health and International Relations. I love cooking (especially baking), eating, going to farmer’s markets, and am hoping to develop a greater appreciation for and knowledge of gardening. I also play ultimate frisbee, love doing artsy/crafty things, and have a soft spot for popsicles and smoothies in the summer.

Here are some of the projects I will be involved with this summer:

Developing a Harvest of the Month program, complete with posters and materials to be displayed in DC schools, featuring a different local food item each month. We will feature fun facts about each food, provide recipes, and work with school food service operations highlight each seasonal food in school meals. The eventual goal is to develop complimentary lesson materials and activities to help increase kids’ exposure to each food in the classroom, in the cafeteria, and in the home!

Becoming a media guru-- organizing the Farm to School newsletters, writing weekly blogs profiling farm to school initiatives from around the country and local programs, keeping the website updated with happenings, and manning the Farm to School twitter!

Helping with and attending Farm to School events such as the delicious and beautiful upcoming farm dinner that will be served at Arcadia’s farm (invite available here), the fabulous Bitches who Brunch brunch fundraising event to benefit the D.C. Farm to School Network on July 9th (invite available here), and more.

We’re looking forward to a great summer full of Farm to School fun!

Strawberries & Salad Greens 2011!

2011-06-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

“We all loved the event… Most students were surprised to see the strawberry plant and lettuce that was ready to eat, even while it was planted. Overall, it was a fabulous experience and has given us the confidence and excitement to try highlighting produce often served at lunch to increase student interest in their food.” – Ashley, teacher at Marie Reed Elementary School

Want to guess what was served on school cafeteria trays in Washington, DC on Wednesday, May 25^th? Dark green leafy lettuces and juicy red strawberries - all from local farms, fresh and unprocessed – were happily gobbled up by D.C. students. This was a part of the second annual Strawberries & Salad Greens Day hosted by the D.C. Farm to School Network - which is now an initiative of the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture!

"The strawberries are so tasty, are we going to have them again tomorrow?" – Student, Oyster-Adams Upper School

Approximately 150 schools in Washington, DC served local berries and greens on their menus, in dishes like spinach and feta salad with a strawberry vinaigrette, and lettuce salad with radishes and carrots with strawberries on the side. In 32 schools spanning all 8 wards of the city, D.C. Farm to School Network volunteers engaged students at educational “Where Food Comes From” tables in the cafeterias, just after they got their meals. Students were able to make the connection that the fresh food on their trays grew on nearby farms, by checking out strawberry and lettuce plants, seeds, farm pictures, maps, and seasonality charts. A few schools blogged about their experiences - at Stoddert Elementary, H.D. Cooke Elementary, Bancroft Elementary and Thomas Elementary. Farmer Mo and Intern Beverly had a table at D.C. Bilingual Public Charter School.

“I think my favorite moment was when we were showing around strawberry seeds and explaining how just one seed grows up into a plant that produces many strawberries. A little girl looked at my handful of seeds and then up at my face with her eyes wide, shaking her head in disbelief, and said, ‘I did not know that!’” – Sam, Volunteer at Ludlow-Taylor Elementary

The event was made possible by a number of partnerships, collaborations and volunteers. The adorable stickers were donated by Sweetgreen; the beautiful banners by Whole Foods; and the plants by Kilmer’s Farm, the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture, and the Farm at Walker Jones, and we owe heartfelt thanks to the many other volunteers contributed. Learn more about the D.C. Farm to School Network here.

Tomato Time!

2011-06-04T05:21:00.000-07:00

It's Tomato time!!! We are starting to see little baby tomatoes popping up on our tomato plants, we could not be more excited! Did you know that since tomatoes are a part of the nightshade family, people once thought that they were poisonous and only used them for decorative purposes. It was not until the 16th century that tomatos became an actual food source in Europe. Thank goodness tomatoes aren't actually poisonous!! They are way to delicious to live without!

Learning About Slugs

2011-05-27T05:16:00.000-07:00

I'm finishing up my second week interning on the farm and I cannot even express how much I'm loving it and how much I have already learned! Did you know that those slugs that like to munch on tasty greens are hermaphroditic, so any slug can reproduce since it has both male and female parts. This means that controlling slug populations can be pretty difficult. Also, slugs are nocturnal so they typically only come out at night and they hide during the day. SO how do you get rid of these slimy slugs? BEER! It turns out that slugs love beer, you can set traps around your plants with Tupperware containers filled with fresh stout beer, and slugs will basically drink themselves to death. Unfortunately the beer traps we set out at Woodlawn did not have the greatest success. Maybe the beer we used wasn't fresh enough or stout enough, or maybe the Woodlawn slugs just aren't into binge drinking these days.

-Intern Beverly

Mo welcomes an AMAZING summer intern!

2011-05-25T11:50:00.000-07:00

I'm Beverly Hoath a student at Lynchburg College, a small liberal arts school in the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Central Virginia, where I am getting a degree in Environmental Science with a minor in Biology. I play on Lynchburg College's soccer team and am active in our college's greenhouse. I love food and am so excited to learn about growing it in an organic sustainable way. I fell in love with learning about food after watching the documentary "Food Inc" which truely inspired me to become more involved in the local organic food movement. Learning about growing food is so exciting to me. I love the feeling of the dirt between my fingers and I love watching as a plant goes from a seed to something so beautiful and delicious. I could not be more excited about being the farm intern for Arcadia!

Chefin' It Up

2011-05-25T05:30:00.001-07:00

Woodlawn/Arcadia hosted our first farm dinner this weekend at the Pope-Leighy House! Chef Tony Chittum from Vermillion and Pastry Chef Tiffany Maciassac chefed it up for an intimate group of 12 using Arcadia's spring harvest (still awaiting pictures, but I know the food was amazing).

I feel so lucky to have some of the best chefs in the DC area come to my farm and am always amazed watching my tiny seeds be transformed in to delicious meals.

Want to experience dinner in the garden? We are hosting a fundraiser on June 19 to raise funds for the farm and the mobile market. Please join us!