by Andrea Ness & Andy Friedberg
We are an Urban Farm start up on the Westside trail of the Beltline in Atlanta, GA wanting to bring local produce to our community.
The Beltline is currently one of the most important and largest sustainable redevelopment projects not only in Atlanta, but also in the United States. As a part of the Beltline’s efforts to increase locality, the committee in charge decided to place an urban farm along a section of Beltline in an area called Adair Park.
That’s where our story begins: we are a couple of farmers, handpicked from a long competitive process, who are passionate about local ingredients brought to the community’s plate and popular restaurants in Atlanta.
We practice regenerative farming. We want to be beyond sustainable and transform the farm’s soil and landscape to be better than before. Not only are we determined to heal this damaged land, but we are also determined to give back to the community. Currently, the availability of fresh produce in Adair Park is very limited. We aim to serve the community by increasing access to farm fresh vegetables while also adding to our neighborhood’s green space.
We want to build up the community and the Beltline by offering a local source for fresh produce, and also develop Adair Park Urban Farm into a hub for regenerative farming in Atlanta. Visitors on the Beltline would be able to stop at our farm stand to purchase vegetables, and also come to learn about community building and sustainability through classes and volunteer opportunities.
Our goal is to better the soil and the community around us through our farming efforts. In order to do that, we need a few things to help us begin our work. We have already begun farming in a separate greenhouse as we begin construction of a greenhouse on-site. However, in order to maintain our efforts, there are a few things we still need, mainly a walk-in cooler.
The walk-in cooler will be able to store our produce, maintaining freshness and quality. However, in order to build a walk-in cooler, there are other expenses that need to be addressed as well, such as laying a concrete pad, building a shelter, and delivery and installation. This leads to a total cost of $12,000.
Stretch Goals:
Our main goal is to raise funds for our walk-in cooler, but there are still more things we need for our farm. Therefore, we have established some stretch goals: Drip irrigation for raised beds and field plot ($1200) Buying a farm truck for deliveries and other related farm work (up to $10,000)
Here are some things that are already growing in our greenhouse! We are well underway to building this urban farm into what it can be. With these fresh microgreens, we will be able to begin selling to our popular partner restaurants such as No. 246, Leon’s, and Kimball House.
Filming and production done by Jun Ha.
Our main concern is the inability to provide the vegetables as quickly as we would like. Because of the Beltline being developed right along our farm, there can be several prohibiting circumstances that we might come across. There have been several setbacks already because of the construction the city is doing. But these things are nothing new to us and have learned to work our way around it thus far. We will keep you guys updated on anything that comes our way and further developments of the farm!