Meet Brandi, our new Education Coordinator

We're pretty excited to welcome Brandi Redo, our brand-new Education Coordinator, to the Arcadia team. This fall, she'll be working with the Mobile Market on educational visits, on the farm with farm tours and helping out with farm field trips. She'll also be working behind the scenes to coordinate logistics.

Read on to learn more about Brandi.

Tell us about your past experiences and what brought you to Arcadia.
I grew up in Hayward, California where our high school mascot was the Farmer. Chris, my husband, (who I met in high school) and I always joke about how we weren't even nerds we were agrarian. I have always loved being in wide open spaces and eating food fresh out of the earth. I believe that the energy you put into the food you will get back and so I love making things grow with my own hands, chopping and preparing food and teaching others to slow down and do the same.

What about the position are you most excited for?
Before I came to Arcadia, I worked and continue to work as a Health Coach. I do weight-loss challenges, teach folks to prepare healthy meals in their homes and do group cooking demos and wellness seminars for all ages. I have taught classes in a number of notable locations from McDonalds Corporation to the USDA and I really want to contribute what I know about group nutrition education to the wonderful programs going on at Arcadia.

Every time I visit the farm my nose is greeted with the fragrance of beautiful flowers and fresh herbs and my tummy rumbles knowing that there is wholesome, delicious, real food at my fingertips. I am excited to introduce this feeling of connectedness and wholeness to communities where real food is scarce. I have had an opportunity to witness the magic Ben and JuJu work at the Mobile Markets and am thrilled to be a part of that.


If you were a vegetable, what would you be?
If I were a plant food I would probably be a winter squash. Either a butternut or a spaghetti squash because they make people happy and are tough on the outside but naturally sweet on the inside. The spaghetti squash is particularly appealing because it is unique and surprising.

What’s your favorite season for growing produce and why?
I really like the fall growing season because the weather is milder and I feel more motivated to get out in the yard and garden. I also like the vast variety of fruits and vegetables you can grow in early fall and the idea of the large harvest around Thanks Giving. I am a big fan of the leafy greens that grow well in the fall, especially kale and collards which are the most important part of my diet.

Farms + Food + Fun = Arcadia Farm Camp

We're halfway through the very first week of Arcadia Farm Camp - and what a week it's been! From water games to chef demos, we've been busy beating the heat, exploring the farm, and having fun.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Chefs Ed, Christina and Shannon from DC Central Kitchen stopped by to show us how to make huge delicious meal with seasonal fruits and veggies: okra and tomatoes, chicken florentine, coleslaw, and crepes.
  
• We had a visit from Farmer Ben and Arcadia's own Mobile Market on Tuesday, which included a tour of the bus (so many fridges!). He also enlisted our help in harvesting herbs and Swiss chard.
  
• Elizabeth from Chipotle did an awesome fresh salsa demonstration today - and brought us free burritos! (Extra special thanks go out to Chipotle for donating eight scholarships to farm camp for kids from low-income families).
  

More shout-outs go to staff members Rachel, Carling, Matt, Natalie, Sophie and Kat for keeping everyone safe, happy, and healthy. Check out the photos below and stay tuned to our blog for more updates! Created with flickr slideshow.

Meet Tom - Mobile Market School Educator

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!

2012, Here We Come!

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.

Arcadia's hiring a Mobile Market School Educator!

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

Check out my ride

Yes, within about two weeks, Arcadia has gone from no vehicles to two! Here's a pic of Farmer Mo with her snazzy farm truck, Bertha:

Much more practical than a borrowed hatchback for hauling around loads of mulch, compost... a 6'x8' pallet of burlap. (True story.) And stylish, too. Just like Farmer Mo.

And here I am trying to figure out how to shift gears on... um... Bus-To-Be-Named:

Oh, it's an automatic. That explains the lack of a clutch. Riiiight. Love the hum of that engine. Ahhh.... Now time to haul some fresh produce around town. Well, after some major (and, if I do say so myself, pretty darn cool) renovations. More on that in coming weeks.

And speaking of weeks, we are in the FINAL WEEK of our online fundraising campaign. If you haven't donated yet, please do so via our Kickstarter page. We need to raise $15,000 by this Saturday, April 23 or we lose the generous pledges of over $11,000 that we've raised so far and I may not be able to get this bus on the road by June. Please donate. And tell your friends.

Let them eat cake (in the shape of a school bus)!

Last night, during my weekly volunteer shift at Brainfood, we learned about cake decorating. Since there were enough cakes for volunteers, too, I had a chance to design one of my very own. And what did mine look like? Well, a school bus, of course! It's true, I'm obsessed. And I'll be bringing it with me to tomorrow evening's happy hour at Lounge 201.

Come and laugh at my pitiful first attempt at working with fondant and enjoy a slice of the tasty-but-not-overly-large school bus cake. If you arrive on the later side, there will still be tasty, free appetizers featuring beef from White House Meats and a cash bar with seasonal cocktails, but I can't promise there will be any cake left....

So get there early (and bring a credit card to make a secure online donation).

a PSA from Arcadia fans at Georgetown

Excitement about what Arcadia is up to seems to be spreading!

A number of folks came up to me to ask for more information on the mobile market after I gave a little talk following a screening of The Economics of Happiness (part of the DC Environmental Film Festival) on Saturday evening. The little stash of school bus pins on the information table probably didn't hurt.

I went to the doctor yesterday -- I seem to have sprained my back (what am I, 83 years old??) -- and after he handed me a prescription for muscle relaxers the head of Internal Medicine walked out of the exam room with a school bus pin in his lapel and an assignment to get in touch with the local health outreach coordinator to see if we just might figure out some kind of partnership at a healthy eating event.

Then, just today, I heard back from a student at Georgetown University with the final product of her group's class project... check out their PSA that promotes healthier food options in DC Wards 7 and 8 through the mobile market.



Love it! Come on, folks, we've just about $7500 left to raise by April 22! Tell your friends! Tell your neighbors! Tell your PTA! Tell your church congregation! This is a community effort, with food for the people and by the people, and we need your help to get this bus on the road!

Let's reach 201 pledges at Lounge 201 this Thursday!

I just checked our Kickstarter page and thanks to Arcadia supporters, we've raised nearly half of the $15K goal so far. Woo hoo! Thanks to all who have contributed, whether through a direct financial contribution or by helping us spread the word about this exciting project -- keep up the great work!

For those who may have missed the kickoff event at Churchkey earlier this month, please come join the Arcadia team at Lounge 201....

WHAT: Happy hour to benefit DC’s first mobile farmers’ market

WHEN: Thursday, 31 March from 5-8pm

WHERE: Lounge 201 (201 Massachusetts Avenue, NE), near Union Station

ON TAP: Complimentary appetizers featuring local, sustainable beef from Arcadia’s friends at White House Meats. Special cocktails made with local spirits.

Come and learn about Arcadia’s Mobile Market, bring your friends, and don’t forget a credit card to make a secure online donation to our Kickstarter campaign on one of the on-site laptops. Lounge 201 has generously agreed to donate a percentage of sales to support the mobile market.

We need the community to pledge $15,000 on Kickstarter by April 22.
If this doesn't happen, we get none of the money raised on Kickstarter and it gets a lot harder for us to bring healthy, local food to folks who need it. (And nobody wants that to happen.)

Here's a link to the facebook event posting (if you're into that kind of thing).

We're getting there...

Hello, wonderful local food lovers, and Happy Pi(e) Day! (3.14... get it?)

I just checked the stats and so far we've raised 37% of our $15,000 goal to get my mobile market on the road! I'm still shopping around for a bus, but I spent much of yesterday helping a great group of folks remodel and convert an old school bus to run on veggie oil. Oooh, I'm getting excited to have my own mobile market to work on soon!



Now, I am not at all trying to divert attention or funding from my own project, but you really should check out what the cool folks behind Pick Up America are doing. Their veg-powered bus should be hitting the road any day now as they head out on a cross-country, roadside trash pickup odyssey....

Getting back to Arcadia and all things sustainable food, I hope to see you all at our celebration barbecue at the farm this May. Remember: we can only throw a party if we meet our goal.... We still have over $9,000 left to raise by April 22, so if you haven't donated yet, please check out our online campaign!

Donate now to get our food bus on the road!

While Farmer Mo's been nurturing baby seedlings in greenhouses around town and getting our property at Woodlawn ready for spring planting, I've been running around the city with a flipcam these past few weeks.... With the help of a dedicated group of cinematic wonderwomen, we've managed to pull together one of the most fun 2-minute videos ever. Behold, our Kickstarter campaign video:

Spread the word, eh? I think we can definitely raise well over the $15,000 goal we've set. The sky's the limit, I say!

(Though if this thing goes viral on YouTube I'm going to kick myself for not wearing any make-up that day. I mean, seriously, couldn't SOMEONE have suggested I put on a little lipstick? And my hair. Oh man. My mother is probably shaking her head right now. Actually, Eminem is probably shaking his head, too.)

C'mon, can you think of a better cause than a school bus that brings healthy food around the District? Click here to donate.

If you're in the city tomorrow, come meet the Arcadia team in person during our happy hour event at Churchkey: a donation of $25 or more earns you a complimentary beer. Not that you're in it for the beer. No, you're in it for the free t-shirt. Um, I mean because it's a good cause.

Bus + Beer Bash: Help us get the Mobile Market on the road!

Looking for something to do on Mardi Gras? Come support Arcadia’s effort to bring fresh, local food all around the city via the District’s first mobile farmers’ market.

From 4-8pm on March 8, come by for complimentary small bites and a cash beer bar at Churchkey — one of DC’s newest hotspots, located at 1337 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20010.

While you’re there, learn about the exciting work going on at Arcadia, choose from hundreds of delicious craft beers, and make a donation to our online Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to get the mobile market on the road. Onsite laptops will be available.

Come celebrate with good food, beer, and people! You might just find yourself calling it Mardi Bus next year….

A FEW NOTES:

• Folks are welcome to check out/donate to our Kickstarter campaign, regardless of whether you are attending this event. The webpage will go live on March 7. (If you check before then for "Arcadia's Mobile Market," you won't see it.)
• A qualifying donation to Kickstarter ($25 or more) will earn a complimentary beer at the event. If you donate online before coming to the event at Churchkey, be sure to bring a printout of your donation receipt to secure a complimentary beer ticket.

Bring your friends. This is going to be AWESOME.

Buses everywhere

You know those people who get their first apartment and start drooling over vintage sofas in shop windows and can't stop talking about furniture? You know those new parents who seem to have some kind of obsession with strollers and seem incapable of walking past one without commenting on it? I think I have that sickness... but for school buses.

Take today, for instance. As I was biking to meet a lovely young woman about helping me to make a video for our upcoming Kickstarter campaign, I rolled right past a veritable treasure trove of buses and couldn't help myself....



It's a sickness, yes. Soon I hope to have my own 25-foot bus filled with local, seasonal fruits and veggies. But for now, I'll continue to ogle anything bright yellow with four wheels and a flip-out STOP sign.

Sustainable fuel

So I'm getting closer to determining what size bus I need. Next up is the matter of retrofitting it (design under development) and converting it to run on biofuel. Yep, I plan to alter a diesel engine to run on recycled cooking oil. Like that stuff you use to fry chicken or donuts. (From what I've heard, the connoisseurs opt for donut oil's aroma and stay far, far away from oil previously used for french fries or fish.)

I'd first heard of running vehicles on vegetable oil from my friend Joel on my way down the California coastline about a year ago and have been rather taken with the idea ever since. I'll be driving a bus with a diesel engine, most likely, so the switch to biodiesel shouldn't be that big of a leap. And Arcadia is ALL ABOUT sustainability, right? Finally, considering our link to the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, it seems like a no-brainer. I mean, what the heck else do chefs plan to do with the used oil that, say, Evening Star Cafe has after they make their irresistible, fried Tofu Parmesan? It can run my bus!

Now, I became rather adept at checking the engine oil on our family's '86 Toyota Tercel that I drove on occasion during college, but that was many moons ago and I have a feeling this diesel engine conversion is a more complicated endeavor. I'm going to need help. Who the heck does this sort of stuff around here, anyway? I started asking around, pretty quickly learning of my friendly neighborhood biodiesel expert, Adam. Here he is next to his home-on-wheels that, you guessed it, runs on biofuel.



Among many other awesome pursuits -- sustainable farming, building bike-powered blenders, and developing a community kitchen -- Adam is the driving force behind Mount Rainier's biofuel co-op (that, alas, isn't currently accepting new members). About a week ago, after a tour of his impressive DIY bus abode, Adam sat me down to explain the basics of biofuel. I took notes, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around some of it.

My brother got the engineering brain in the family. (I got the food obsession and wanderlust genes.) But my take home messages from my chat with Adam were:
1) It'll take a chunk of change to build a conversion system to fuel my mobile market on recycled veggie oil, and a small investment in fixing up the bus to be able to run on this renewable energy source.
2) You have to admit it does make sense: aside from the recycled nature of this fuel source, as gas prices rise again -- and they will -- it makes economic sense, too.

Speaking of moolah, keep your eyes open for a Kickstarter campaign in coming weeks to raise funds to purchase, convert, and run my beloved farmers' market on wheels....

Bus shopping and the "baby bear" phenomenon

Greetings, local food lovers and blog enthusiasts. Ibti here -- your friendly neighborhood mobile market manager!

Here I am next to the super cool, Richmond-based Farm to Family bus about two weeks ago when Erin and I stopped by for a visit at their CSA drop-off site. Isn't it rad? I want one. A school bus filled with seasonal, sustainable, fresh foods, that is, but not one nearly quite so... large. I am used to maneuvering a bicycle, after all.



Since throwing myself headlong into mobile market research at work these past few weeks, I've been lusting after school buses. I see them everywhere. On the way to work. Walking home from yoga. While running errands around town. Soon they will probably be sitting in the traffic of my dreams.

The first piece I am trying to work out is what size bus I will need. Like a modern day Goldilocks, I haven't yet found the right one for me. My friend Susan refers to this as "the baby bear phenomenon"....



Too small.



Too big.



Just right? Hmmm. Possibly. It's maybe, what, a bit under 25 feet long? I didn't have a chance to catch up with this one with my tape measure amid rush hour gridlock during my bike ride to work the other day -- it's hard to get my winter bike gloves off that quickly and rummage around in my backpack -- but something along this size could work nicely for a few neighborhood market stops each day. I can fit a lot of produce in there and still be able to navigate the narrow, potholed streets en route to Deanwood, say.

Stay tuned for updates as the mobile market project develops. Meanwhile, if anyone has a lead on a good diesel mechanic in the DC area, send 'em my way. I may be able to drive the thing, but I'll definitely need help with repairs, and my regular automotive consultant (aka, my little brother) doesn't do diesel....