CONTACT:
Felecia Maxfield-Barrett, Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator
Wasatch Community Gardens
T: 801.359.2658 Ext. 11
E: felecia@wasatchgardens.org
www.wasatchgardens.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 17, 2015
Wasatch Community Gardens' Urban Garden and Farm Tour highlights innovative gardens in Salt Lake City
SALT LAKE CITY, UT- Whether you are a budding gardener, a seasoned grower, a backyard poultry keeper, or an urban dweller wanting to learn about small-space gardening, Wasatch Community Gardens' Urban Garden and Farm Tour has something for you. The Urban Garden and Farm Tour highlights unique and innovative gardens and farm space impacting Salt Lake's local food movement while encouraging its residents to grow and eat healthy, organic, and local food.
Date: Saturday, June 20, 2015
Time: 10:00am - 2:00pm
Location: Various sites in Salt Lake City
Press Pass: Contact Felecia at felecia@wasatchgardens.org
One stop on the Urban Garden and Farm Tour is a located in the midst of an industrial Glendale neighborhood. This stop is a coalition comprised of Backyard Urban Garden (B.U.G.) Farms, Simplephat Homestead, Slam Ranch, and five private residential farming lots that use organic gardening methods, natural pest control measures, and plant richly diverse crops, which demonstrate a unique and innovative rehabilitation of outdoor space as well as a sense of community. In this 2-acre space, a few individuals earn income by selling their produce to local restaurants, grocery stores, through CSA shares, and at farmers markets. This year, B.U.G Farms has 102 members signed up in their CSA program and have already produce more than 1,000 pounds of food in just four weeks. "B.U.G. Farms is excited to participate in the Urban Garden and Farm Tour, because it creates an opportunity to show the public the unique role urban gardening plays in the community. People can see our efforts and imagine the possibilities they can accomplish in their own yards, " explains Carly Gillespie, Farmer & Co-owner from B.U.G. Farms.
Mike Lynch, Community Education Program Director and Urban Garden and Farm Tour Coordinator shares, "When I moved to Salt Lake, it took me a long time to find my community and those with similar interests. The Urban Garden and Farm Tour brings people who share similar interests together and make connections with one another. That is what building community is all about."
Wasatch Community Gardens' Urban Garden and Farm Tour aims to gather energy, raise awareness, and inspire tour participants to take what they have learned and create growing space and community in order to provide healthy food and an educational experience for the entire family. "This event is such a great way for us to reach a wider range of people in our community with our mission to make healthy, organic, and local food more accessible," says Ashley Patterson, Executive Director of Wasatch Community Gardens.
The Urban Garden and Farm Tour offers 16 stops, which includes demonstrations on urban chicken-keeping, small-space intensive gardening, school gardens, water-wise growing, container gardening, vermicomposting, permaculture gardens, small livestock, rainwater catchment, beekeeping, small urban farming, season extenders, and much more!
For event information, visit http://wasatchgardens.org
ABOUT WASATCH COMMUNITY GARDENS: For more than 25 years, Wasatch Community Gardens has provided community members the opportunity to grow their own food in urban gardens. With a mission to empower people of all ages and incomes to grow and eat healthy, organic, local food, Wasatch Community Gardens offers a range of programs for Wasatch Front residents. Programs include; providing support to thirty-three community and school gardens, educating more than 1600 youth about nutrition, teaching in six elementary school gardens located in Salt Lake School District, providing consulting help for groups to start new community gardens, managing more than 1300 volunteers who donate more than 12,000 hours of volunteer time, hosting over 50 educational workshops and community events on growing and eating organic food, and donating more than 5,000 pounds of fresh produce to local food pantries.
###
Media toolkit & event photos: https://wasatchgardens.org/mediatoolkit
Interview Contacts:
Ashley Patterson - Executive Director of Wasatch Community Gardens, 801.359.2658 x 15, director@wasatchgardens.org
Mike Lynch - Community Education Program Director of Wasatch Community Gardens, 801.359.2658 x 10, mike@wasatchgardens.org
Carly Gillespie - Stop on the tour & B.U.G. Farms Farmer & Co-owner, 801.694.6067
Featured image photo credit: Chickens in henhouse © Ivonne Wierink | Dreamstime.com
