Turn right at the McDonalds, drive a few hundred yards. When you step out of the car and onto the once-vacant lot now carefully tended by Tricycle Gardens and their volunteers, you’ll feel worlds away from anyplace someone might say “Big-Mac-Would-You-Like-Fries-With-That.”
Founded in 2002 to help communities establish thriving community gardens throughout Richmond, Tricycle Gardens has developed workshops, learning gardens, and other programs to foster hands-on experience with urban agriculture in a diverse set of neighborhoods. Their mission also includes offering workforce development skills to those who truly need a little leg-up.
Through its activities, Tricycle Gardens seeks to empower Richmonders to make their lives more beautiful, sustainable, healthy, and delicious.
While most of its community gardens are developed with the goal of handing them over to neighborhood stewards, in 2010 Tricycle established its own Urban Farm (this is the site near McDonald’s). On the one hand, the layout and features of the farm make clear its educational ends: clearly-labeled compost and vermiculture containers help volunteers understand the process that takes local restaurants’ food scraps from plate to soil-nourishing compost. A small apiary, well-marked rows of vegetables, cisterns for drip irrigation, and the beautifully-constructed greenhouses all lend an air of the ideal demonstration project to the farm.
At the organization’s headquarters on Church Hill, the cement apron of an old gas station has been radically transformed into a productive garden through plantings on top of hay bales, miniature greenhouse-style boxes abundantly full of lettuces even in this season, and other creative urban growing methods.
Still, make no mistake: while demonstration and surprising techniques are key elements of their strategy, Tricycle Gardens’ Urban Farm is a productive farm. Even in the dead of winter, this incredibly small plot seems to be one of the city’s only sources for truly local, fresh, and amazingly aesthetic produce. Isabel, my guide on the farm tour, plucked two carrots from the greenhouse for me to sample fresh, and their sweet crunch was absolutely delightful.
The organization’s weekly Farm Stand in Church Hill regularly sells out and they also do brisk sales from their storefront on Relay.
Any proceeds from the farm go back into the organization, to help further develop its mission.
Josh, Tricycle’s farmer-in-chief, handles the planning and has final responsibility for being sure the vegetables are well-tended, but volunteers are also able to be directly involved with much of the work that goes into the farm. Those who volunteer on a regular basis can take on greater responsibility.
How do they choose which vegetables to grow? Isabel, a highly-involved intern with Tricycle, laughed — “we choose things we like! And of course, we try to grow vegetables that people will like but may not be as familiar with. Over time, we hope to provide resources like recipe cards to help community members know how to use some of our favorite vegetables.”
Want to get involved? Contact Tricycle Gardens to be kept up-to-date about their upcoming events, workshops, and volunteer opportunities. Or just try some of their veggies from Relay. You won’t be disappointed!
