hello welcome to Kate's Ag i'm here with the founder farmer-in-chief of Sprout City Farms Meg
Caley which is just incredible and we actually met at the National Farmers Union convention
which is amazing and such a wonderful experience could you share with me a little bit more about
your farm and i'll actually be touring it today yes i'm so glad you can make it out there uh when
we got started i mean sprout city farms in general um got started in 2009 2010 and we just had this
vision that there is so much underutilized land in urban centers in denver especially
what can we do with that let's really like there's a lot of communities in cities that need
more access to green space and nature and places to connect with each other and their neighbors
let's use farms as a platform for not only food security and food sovereignty
but social cohesion and ways for people to connect with each other
and so the first project that we identified and built out a partnership for was the Denver Green
School community farm where you'll be going our experience been at the national convention
being an urban farmer we feel like our role is really as an ambassador for all of agriculture and
that's fantastic so we want to be educated about all of the other awesome things that are going
on and and also the challenges so that we can communicate to all the consumers that we interact
with on a regular basis this is what we need you to stand up for these are the problems here's the
solutions let's be all in this together and that is so important i just want to thank you for the
work you're doing with farm to table it's truly incredible thank you now i'm here at Sprout City
Farms with Stefan which is just incredible thank you so much and we're going to be taking a tour
and what's incredible about this is it's part of the school yep absolutely so um my name is
Stefan um and i'm the program manager for Sprout City Farms and we've been we had a farm here at
this school for the last about 10 12 years about 12 years ago is when we started getting started
in farming in the denver area we've since built three other farms so we actually have built four
farms over the time but this right here this denver green school this is kind of our bread
and butter this is our first farm and yeah the connection with the school is incredible so we're
to take a tour through the farm today kind of give you an idea of what an urban farm might look like
and then we'll also kind of talk about some of the educational stuff we do as well so and then
any questions you have that's amazing thank you so much i'm very interested and fascinated by
urban farms because farming in Montana is very much large scale and my family has a wheat farm
so it's very different oh cool awesome yeah very different yeah we only have an acre i don't know
how many acres you have probably thousands in Montana to earn a living yeah absolutely so
yeah so we'll kind of show that different aspect of things so if you want we can start walking
this way kind of tour actually we'll go through this gate right here and um we'll get into the
farm that would be great thank you yeah absolutely we're always kind of trying to utilize new spaces
so it keeps growing a little bit the space is a little bit bigger than an acre we can plant
a little bit more but within an acre we're able to supply food to about 70 households every year
every season we also supply food to the farm it's a school cafeteria program we donate to
the food pantry and then we also set up farm stands kind of around the community to really
try to get our food out there as much as possible that's fantastic and the students are also able
to come and help farm yeah absolutely yeah so we we're actually currently working on a usda
grant farm to school grant to revamp all of our curriculum that we work with with the school
that way we really know that each grade is going to be really purposefully coming to the farm
and one of the cool things about our farm you can see right over this kind of fence here
is actually a community garden a community garden and a school garden so oftentimes the students
will come out here from the school they'll learn how to plant potatoes they'll learn how to you
know harvest peppers and then they get to go down to their garden plot their school plot
and actually get to do that and implement those techniques and and all the amazing things they've
learned yeah absolutely so it's really i i've only been here at sprout city farms for about a
year and i've just fallen in love with everything that we do here so as we're walking trying to get
more to the fields and we've been practicing we we try to practice no-till or low-till as much as we
can the first year in 2010 when we were building the farm we did we tilled all of this this was
a huge plot of grass turf you know really kind of underutilized spaces and that's really what
sprout city farms is about is taking advantage of underutilized spaces connecting with larger
organizations like denver public schools city of lakewood other organizations that have these
under utilized pieces of land and really figuring out exactly how to how to make it better how to
how to fit within the community with what the community wants and to root farming in
the community which is pretty cool that's really great yeah so we practice no-till we actually as
you can see obviously it's winter so we don't have a lot of things growing right now but we
do have everything covered we have coffee chaff covering some we have straw covering others and
really we're just trying to make sure that we're keeping our soil really really healthy um because
again before we were here this was a bunch of turf and not the healthiest of soil yes and soil
is the foundation of everything absolutely yeah so if you take a look behind us this is kind of
our main space here um it's the off season so we do have some things in a little bit of a ray but
the cool thing is is this big open space you can kind of see right in between those sheds
in just a few months we got a grant recently to turn that into an outdoor kitchen space so we'll
be able to not only help kids learn how to farm and where their food comes from but we'll also
be able to help the the students of the school and other members of the community learn how to
prepare food and learn how to you know really make the kinds of meals that we're growing the food of
which is really important we we grow things like kohlrabi all kinds of interesting
really delicious and healthy vegetables very cool often times people don't know what to do with them
so we're going to help show people what to do and actually hey maybe you want to come back out and
and do a cooking talk with us yes i would love to well we'll keep you in mind for when that
gets up and running but yeah so we really do try to do everything here on the farm
um the only thing we can do is keep seedlings it looks kind of like a greenhouse but
we don't have enough space in there to grow all of our seedlings so we do also partner with other
organizations in the area we're actually working right now with a technical college that has
greenhouse space has a horticulture program and they're actually going to be the ones to help us
get all of our seeds going for the year which is cool because that's both an educational experience
for them they get to work for an actual production farm getting seeds going and then we get a lot
of help from them as well that's amazing how the communities can support each other absolutely yeah
and that's actually kind of perfectly leads into the other part of what this farm is about is about
kind of uplifting the community economically so one of the biggest things about being a
non-profit farm is we're always trying to ensure community wealth building we really want to help
the folks in our communities whether it's this community that surrounds denver green school
some of our other farms we have a farm in longmont we also farm in lakewood colorado
and really we're trying to really engage the communities directly surrounding that area
and just help uplift in any way that we can so all when we move our farm stands actually
you can kind of see if we walk over here a little bit i didn't pull it out because it
has some things on top of it but in the back of the shed you can see the back
of our veggie mobile so it's a converted pedicab it's an e-bike um it's 100 sustainable
that is amazing and it's it's insulated i can try to open it up so we can see the inside of this
as well um we got tables and things everything we need to kind of get a farm stand up and running
minus the food and some of the other signage but it's an insulated box that we can then bike this
thing around anywhere in the community both of our denver based farms have one of these
and it allows us to set up farm stands anywhere to get into apartment complexes that might be
you know affordable housing units or or even just coming to the school we can bike it around
to the front on on days when the school's extra busy or something so it's it's really cool it's
also really fun to ride a tricycle is pretty cool and it goes like 20 miles an hour so it's pretty
quick oh my gosh wow that's super fast yeah and what we try to do at all those farm stands is we
also invite folks from the community that might have um you know a business they're starting they
might be a local artisan they might be a baker we have someone who's actually doing macro may plant
hangers so pretty minor things but we're able to still uplift those and help people start their
businesses here alongside us with with this really cool community that we've been able to build
with the farm being at the school and that is so great how you're able to use agriculture in such a
positive way to connect everyone in the community as well as connect people with their food
yeah absolutely i mean that's really the the big goal with all of us in agriculture right is that
we want to be able to connect people with where their food comes from so that people care about
where it comes from we just like in natural resources or wildlife or anything like that we
want to protect the things that we're passionate about yes and i have the same mission although i
come from a much different background farming yeah absolutely well cool well that's really
great do you want to keep walking and i'll show you some of the cool things i'd love to thank you
yeah so we talked a little bit about how we got a lot of the fields covered right now with straw
and leaves and even some coffee chaff that's what this big bag right here is actually it
smells amazing it's like it doesn't smell like coffee it's got a sweet smell to it i know that
folks folks online won't be able to actually if you just want to like take a little bit
kind of don't sniff too much or so light goes in your nose but coffee chaff works really really
well it's kind of uh if you know about composting you always want to have some green and some brown
material nitrogen and carbon coffee chaff works really really well at being that brown or that
that carbon aspect to it and then it also then we get the green aspect and the actual coffee grounds
which are spread all around the place but so we have straw leaves with the coolest thing we're
doing here one of the most innovative kind of sustainable ways that we're managing our beds
as you'll see these here that have these big sticks laid up on top yes big logs along the
side and they kind of continue all the way this way and if we keep going this way we'll get to
some of the older ones but these are mushroom beds or or miloseum beds really yeah so we have been
cultivating with a local person from the community actually within this neighborhood who is a
mycologist he came out when we were just starting to get started as a farm and i was like i would
love to work with you all i would love to help figure out how we can get a whole row inoculated
with really beneficial fungus that's going to help feed all of our plants so while typically
you don't want to plant and a whole bunch of mulch and sticks because what happens is it
slowly composts down it takes nutrients out of the soil and holds it inside of here until it breaks
down all the way because we've inoculated it with with uh mushrooms it's oyster mushrooms and a few
others that are edible they might not actually ever produce but they're they're hyphy and their
monocle mortgage growing all throughout here and it gives that perfect connection with plants to
be able to to reach down with their roots make a connection with that fungus and take the nutrients
out of the soil we had a 30 increase in yield in the tomatoes that we grew in these versus the rows
we did outside of them really it's been really really cool so we don't have any official study
going on right now we're looking for a partner who wants to come out and do a more scientific
study of all of this but we've really enjoyed kind of getting started with this and being
on a local prototype if you would so it's very fascinating yeah and really amazing yep and i mean
that is in essence we have our big hoop hoop house oh my goodness that's a hard word to say sometimes
uh caterpillar on the on the far side we have a small one on the other side of the farm as well
and both of those are what's going to help us get our season started a little bit sooner going to
help us even extend it a little bit oh and we're also getting a visitor so we have a farm cat
because we're in a neighborhood her name is bonnie she is the sweetest cat in the world i hope she
comes out she usually hears my voice or someone on the farm and she's making her way she'll be over
here we'll see or something but yeah this is the farm it it changes so drastically every year we
go from looking kind of like this where things are working really well we're taking care of our soil
um and then pretty soon we're going to start broad forking we'll get the big broad fork in
here because we don't till start rocking it back and forth get our nutrients down into our soil
and then we'll start planting and i would love to be able to send you pictures or have you
all back out in the height of the season to see this all again because it's just magical as you
know how farms go from these empty fields to these beautiful especially with wheat
i can't even imagine i there's a wheat farm that i used to grow up by and every windy day i'd go like
watch the wheat field because this looks like waves it looks like the ocean oh it's beautiful
yeah absolutely beautiful so yeah so we are primarily a vegetable farm we do have chickens but
we don't sell our eggs it's more of an educational purpose actually our second graders in the school
actually grow or raise the chickens from eggs in their classroom get to see that experience
and then they get to go live in the garden which is where we have the coop at which is really cool
that's amazing so they get to see the whole life cycle and how it's incorporated but what
we're actually producing here on the farm is all vegetables so we do everything from greens
to tomatoes to peppers to our root veggies we really try to grow a wide variety of things
because we're doing that csa box and those farm stands and growing just one item for us
wouldn't really fit into our community as much so we do a really diverse planting even within
tomato varieties we have two three four five different varieties of tomatoes we try to grow
and we and we try to grow it all with organic practices obviously we can't stay organic we're
not certified organic but we really try to do everything we can to be as sustainable as we can
and also as healthy as we can not only for us as humans but also also for the earth around us yes
so my favorite thing we grow is probably that's kohlrabi if i have to pick something that i love
it's the weirdest thing we grow i don't know if you've ever seen a kohlrabi i don't believe i have
it's that weird most people haven't it's in the brassica family so it's related to broccoli and
cabbage and just that huge giant family that's evolved so much but it's this weird alien looking
bulb that's got these long leaves that come off the top of it and it's just it's it's delicious
but it also is like very strange and i like being able to teach people about it so that's why
absolutely um we also do keep bees we have uh we partner with local beekeepers as well and
we really try to part if we want to do something we always try to partner with others to have it
have them do it for us and so with our bees we're really we partner with someone named uh brian he's
a local beekeeper in the area he actually has bees at both of our denver based farms
and he leads workshops for our interns as well as the the kids of the school so that's really
amazing traditional rural like agriculture land it was originally an alfalfa farm so it's it's
not the best for farming veggies and what they've done in the last couple years is they actually put
in five acres of solar panels and so what we've been asked to do is come in and grow underneath
them see what that's like we really just want to um see what we can do we have a total of three
acres that we're going to be farming up there we're also going to open up a part of that land
to be an incubator plot area so anyone who wants to farm who wants to learn how to farm needs land
needs guidance whatever it might be we can help them supply that help give them the guidance
just the fact that there's a lot of these bigger organizations that are thinking about that and
wanting to put in local food systems local farms into their communities is just really encouraging
that is encouraging and it's fantastic that you're really being a visionary moving forward how can we
use agriculture in different ways and the land that we have available to us to really promote
education and connect people with their food yeah absolutely again that's all that's really what
we're going to do is connect people with their food make sure there's healthy and nutritious
food for the community and protect the earth a little bit oh here oh we've got the farm cafe yep
so this is bonnie um bonnie come here she is the sweetest cat she loves when people are on the farm
she lives in one of the houses that surrounds the farm honey come here she has a favorite chair on
the farm that she likes to sit in i know you just want to explore huh do you want to say hi hello
okay okay and what has the feedback been from the students oh they love it actually so again i've
only been here for about a year but i've had about a full year of experience working with
the students and they're great there and it's been it's just been a cool ride to be on to figure out
exactly like what the community wants from us how we can continue adapting and changing and how can
people support your organization yeah oh that's a great ad yeah thank you for asking that um we
do have volunteer days if you're in the denver metro area we'd love to have you out on any of
our seasonal volunteer days that happen on every friday at each one of our farms from 10 to 12
we also have volunteer engagement happening on some weekends and those all listed on our website
sproutcityfarms.org and we'll also be able to to pretty soon be welcoming people to our virtual
cooking demonstration classes once we have our outdoor kitchen space and all of that so
those are ways that people can support us by just being part of our community
we do also have wade we have you can join our organization as a cultivator which is a
a financial supporter of our organization anywhere from like five to however much you'd
like to donate each month is a great way we have different donation campaigns throughout the year
as a non-profit different funding sources are really important to us so donations from donors
getting grants from the government or other local nonprofits or foundations it's really
how we keep funded and because of great support from our community we're able to this year also
start paying all of our intern now we are in the garden where the students can actually
grow their own vegetables and everything and that is just amazing yeah so we work really closely
with the school garden teacher her name is tanya she's wonderful and whenever we bring kids out
to the farm we bring students out to the farm we try to teach them something that hopefully
they can bring back to their garden so you can kind of look around we have a couple plots that
are behind us here with numbers in them we're kind of always trying to figure out what the
best system is but last year what we did is there was a bed for each class and so they were able
to kind of plant whatever they wanted to if they wanted to have all peppers and do a salsa at the
end of the semester great if they wanted to hang out with us on the farm and they had fun doing
potatoes and they want to do potatoes they can do that as well and this was really intentionally put
in place in mind with the farm so that they both could work together this is like the practical
implementation space of the skills they learn on the farm and what's really great is you can grow
everything and then make something out of it at the end so you can really see how food ties to
the goods you're eating absolutely yeah i know for a fact that some of the classes make salsa
they do jams there's a berry patch around here um yeah all kinds of cool things and then they
get to actually taste it right then and there and that's one thing we always do on the farm if we're
ever harvesting something we always want to have kids get to eat whatever they're harvesting yes
absolutely thank you so much and what is and what is your background in agriculture sure yeah so i
got started in agriculture when i was in college i was actually going to school for natural resources
but i had a job as a horticulturalist at a local garden center and just fell in love with it
getting my hands dirty working with plants um and talking to people about plants which
i really enjoyed and so over the next few years i got into the education world kind of gained my
experience being an educator and then really was was ready to get back into horticulture and start
bridging those two together so i'm a educational horticulturalist i like to teach people about
horticulture teach people how to grow plants and and where they come from and yeah and so i'm so
happy to be at prosthetic farms and getting to continue our mission here of having educational
urban farms that that perpetuate and extend the food system and help really drive the community
wealth so that's incredible and thank you so much for what you do here absolutely thank you so much
thank you so much for watching i hope you learned a little bit more about how your food gets to your
table make sure to like and subscribe and if you'd like to learn more about Sprout City Farms you can
visit www.sproutcityfarms.org you can also check us out on facebook and instagram that's incredible
i will definitely be following thank you so much absolutely thank you again for watching bye