Hoophouses at the Wood Street Urban Farm allow Growing Home to grow throughout the winter.

The overwintering spinach transplanted into the hoophouses last October is biding it’s time under row covers until the sun returns enough in February to begin growing again. The mizuna/mustard greens are appreciating the unusually mild winter we’ve had so far.

Winter crops are covered to prevent freezing.

Cold weather promotes sweetness in overwintered spinach and other greens.

Winter is a time to prepare for the new season ahead. For the urban farm staff the biggest change approaching is our first season at our new urban farm site. This extension of our Wood St. Urban Farm, the Honore St. Farm, will provide space this season for an additional hoophouse and more outdoor field space. We’re excited to have the ability to grow more produce for our customers, but also for the additional work opportunities this site will provide for participants in Growing Home’s transitional jobs program.

Ground posts for the new hoophouse are already installed, and the structure will be completed by early spring.

The first plantings of the season this past week were a reminder of just how soon the farm will again be overflowing with produce and bustling with activity!

-Tim Murakami
Urban Farms Manager

To apply, please download the full job description. The description explains position requirements and application instructions. No phone calls please. The position is open until filled.

The organizers of Chiditarod describe it as “a mobile food drive that combines elements of Alaska’s Iditarod with a costumed race and Chicago’s own unique brand of social activism.” On March 3, 5-person teams of racers will don hilarious costumes while pushing shopping carts filled with canned food through the streets of Chicago.

The Chiditarod draws together over 800 people as participants and spectators, and has raised over 46,000 pounds of food and over $21,000 in direct donations since its inception in 2006. The food items will be donated this year to The Greater Chicago Food Depository, a nonprofit food distribution and training center that supplies 69 million pounds of nonperishable food, fresh produce, dairy products and meat to 650 pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters for feeding more than 678,000 adults and children in Cook County each year.

Many teams will also conduct a fundraising drive as part of their race, and the recipient for 2012 will be Growing Home, collaborating on a community garden project with the 8th Ward. Thanks to our current matching drive, donations will go twice as far!

We are excited to be a part of The Chiditarod! Register before February 18 to participate in this fun, worthy event! Then sign up here to set up a fundraising page for your team, to benefit Growing Home.

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Thank you for your encouragement and support! We look forward to 2012!

Growing Home is the lucky nonprofit that receives 10¢ for every bag that is reused while shopping at Chicago area Whole Foods Markets until December 31st.

Our job training program for formerly incarcerated and homeless individuals stands to make up to $20,000 through this campaign. We will use this money to pay our program participants wages, create opportunities for healthy fun with our neighbors in Englewood, and purchase seeds and other farm supplies for the 2012 growing season.

Thank you Whole Foods! And thank you to everyone who recycles, reuses, and brings their own bag when they shop at Whole Foods!

Thank you CBS Chicago!

In June of 2011, photographer, Emily Schiffer, began a project on food security and urban agriculture on Chicago’s Southside. Her captivating photographs and project are on Time Magazine’s photo essay section this week.

An intern at Growing Home's Wood Street Urban Farm. Copyright, 2011, by Emily Schiffer.

In the summer of 2010, David Hanson, Edwin Marty, and Michael Hanson traveled across the U.S. in a vegetable-grease powered bus documenting successful urban farms. Their book, Breaking Through Concrete, goes on sale this coming January.

An image of a hoophouse interior at Growing Home's Wood Street Urban Farm. Copyright, 2010, Breaking Through Concrete.

Additionally, Carrot City, a recently published book showing that design can enable the production of food in cities, includes a section on Growing Home. It grew out of the exhibit “Carrot City,” which emerged from work done at Ryerson University in Toronto in 2009.

The interior of a hoophouse. Copyright, 2009, Carrot City.

In 2011, Cordia Pugh approached Growing Home about creating a new community garden in Englewood. In a recent Youtube slideshow Glenda Daniel of Openlands speaks about Cordia’s courageous effort and the successful first year of this garden.

Englewood Community Gardens, 2011.

Growing Home, Inc. is a Chicago-based nonprofit with a mission to operate, promote, and demonstrate the use of organic agriculture as a vehicle of job training, employment, and community development. The administrative office at Clark Street is responsible for the fundraising and management of the Employment Training, Urban Farming, Rural Farming, Outreach, and Special Projects departments.

To see the full posting and learn how to apply please download the full job description.

The whole Growing Home team has been working hard to make our CSA program better than ever this coming year. We hope you’ll like the changes as much as we do. If at any time you have questions about these changes or about anything else feel free to shoot us an email.

• We’ve added an “Individual Size” share. This size is well suited for households with around 1-3 people, or people who want to suppliment their CSA share by shopping at the farmers market. Our “Full Size” share is a 5/9ths bushel box packed full of organic produce, and tends to last a family of 4 who eat a medium or “normal” amount of veggies for a week. The new “Individual Size” share comes in a Growing Home tote bag and is about 2/3rds the size of our full share.
• Along with our usual Chicago area sites in Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Evanston, Edgewater, and Logan Square, we’ve added a pickup location in Bucktown. (Along with these Chicago area sites you can pickup in Joliet or Marseilles.
• We’ve also extended the both spring and fall seasons by a week.

To find out more read our CSA Membership page.

Growing Home Inc. is in the process of applying for a grant from the IEPA Brownsfields Revolving Loan Fund to help fund environmental remediation activities associated with the clean-up of a portion of the parcel of land at 5814 South Wood Street, to comply with environmental regulations.

An information repository is available for review at the Growing Home Office from December 6, 2011 – January 5, 2012:
2732 N. Clark Street, Suite 310
Chicago, IL 60614

A public meeting to discuss and solicit comments to the repository documents will be held on Friday, December 16, 2011 from 1 pm – 2 pm at the Wood Street Urban Farm, 5814 South Wood Street, Chicago, IL 60636.

For more information, please contact:
Katy Collier
Growing Home
773-434-7144
info@growinghomeinc.org