Celebrate a Belated Earth Day at Urban Oaks Organic Farm.
Saturday, April 26th, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm
Its that time of year again. We need to get the farm cleaned up and ready for Spring planting. And after the loss of Tony last year, we’re a little behind. So we can use a helping hand.
There are seeds to plant, weeds to be gone, garbage to pick up, tomato stakes and plastic to pull up, and oh, so much more. And some beautiful Spring weather to enjoy.
Please call: (860) 223-6200 or email: urbanoaks@earthlink.net and let us know if you plan on attending. Wear clothes that you don’t mind dirtying and gloves if you have them.
This year we really need your help! – Mike
Friday, April 18, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Urban Oaks in the News
Friendly atmosphere, fertile soil grow jobs and hot tomatoes
By RICK GUINNESS, Herald staff
NEW BRITAIN — As one happy customer after another left Urban Oaks Organic Farm with purchases, an old gray cat named Grumpy — who has only been friendly for about a year — presided over the transactions from his perch on a picnic table.
Like a scene from decades ago, the regulars seemed to know all the farmers, and everyone greeted each other.
Also like decades ago, the food at this local nonprofit organization is fresh and chemical free.
Customers come for both reasons.
“Shopping at Urban Oaks is a social thing,” said Tom King, a genetics professor at Central Connecticut State University, as he and his wife, Beth, left the farm with several bags of vegetables and fresh eggs. “I don’t mind paying more, because I am supporting my community.”
“The vegetables are wonderful — and there is nothing like their tomatoes,” Beth King said. “I have had greens that last me three weeks in the refrigerator.”
She noted that most lettuce is trucked from California and is already several weeks old by the time it hits the supermarkets.
Urban Oaks General Manager Mike Kandefer, one of the founders of the farm project, recalled how he and co-founder Tony Norris leased a farm in Bolton before founding Urban Oaks in 1999.
As New Britain residents, he and Norris got tired of driving back and forth to Bolton every day. They saw a chance to start a farm at a most unusual location: New Britain’s old Sandelli Greenhouses, abandoned since 1983.
The Sandelli Greenhouses Inc. consisted of four properties — 212, 218, 222 and 233 Oak St., the last of which was a 2.27-acre parcel once occupied by greenhouses and a thriving florist business, according to U.S. Department of Environmental Protection records.
Two of the parcels had greenhouse structures, but they had become overgrown and were suffering from use as a neighborhood dump.
The site needed much repair and remediation, which could only happen with the help of state, local and federal government.
In 1997, the city got $200,000 from a brownfields program to conduct environmental assessments in the community. New Britain spent $39,512 on the Sandelli sites and their surroundings.
In 1999, with the help of grant funding and the work of Ken Malinowski, the city’s municipal development director, the site was cleaned up, the greenhouses repaired and the farm opened for business.
It was a hit.
“I have been coming here since the first year they were open,” customer Beth Peterson said recently. “The summer crops are the best I’ve ever had. I come here for the coffee, the bread and some vegetables, and to say hello to my friends.”
The farm also became more than just a seller of organic produce and a friendly place for customers.
According to a federal Environmental Protection Agency report from 2003, “The urban, organic farm provides education for the city residents and school groups in organic gardening methods, sustainable agriculture, nontoxic farming techniques, composting and other environmentally friendly farming techniques.”
It has also created jobs — four full time and four part-time — and provided opportunities for volunteers and part-time employees.
Teens and a supervisor work five days a week from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Kandefer said, often performing the backbreaking task of pulling weeds.
Kandefer said he wished there was an organic herbicide, but until someone invents it, the weeds growing around the plants in his fertile soil must be picked by hand.
The teens don’t seem to mind. Far from it.
New Britain High School student Carlos Rosario, 18, of Arch Street, is one of four part-time employees. To work on the farm, he attends night school.
“I like getting a paycheck every week,” he said, but he is also getting an education learning the names of vegetables — the farm offers nearly 100 varieties of tomatoes — and the techniques of farming.
Kandefer fired Rosario last year for talking too much on his cell phone, but Rosario was rehired and Kandefer is glad to have him back.
They joke about what turned out to be a character-building incident.
In addition to having a steady paycheck, Rosario indicated that the job has its perks.
“I like the tomatoes,” he said.
Kandefer said he is still just getting back into things after losing Norris, who died Nov. 18 after a long battle with cancer.
They sowed a good farm and a strong business, one that has grown to $150,000 in gross receipts from a low of $70,000 in 1999; neither suffered when Kandefer stepped back.
The most recent soil tests on the property’s fields came back about as good as dirt can get — nothing but nitrogen and other nutrients.
The soil and the produce are filled with “North Oak nutrients,” Kandefer said.
According to the EPA, Urban Oaks Organic Farm was a major success from an environmental standpoint, and probably no site has been under more scrutiny.
Some of the farm’s biggest customers, Kandefer said, work at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.
Organic farm invites neighbors to share fruits of its success
By Rick Guinness
Herald staff
NEW BRITAIN — Urban Oaks Organic Farm, a local nonprofit organization, supplies some of the finest restaurants in the state with its fresh-picked lettuces, tomatoes, herbs, peppers and wide varieties of rare crops.
With such a strong demand for its produce, the farm, based at 225 Oak St., is planning an expansion for this summer — leasing a brick retail sales headquarters just south of the 3-acre operation, expanding Friday hours and adding Saturday sales and turning a vacant lot across the street into fields.
But only 25 percent of its customers are from New Britain.
So the organization is reaching out to people in the North Oak area to see if they would be interested in becoming customers.
“Come into the farm and buy some of our lettuces,” John Nedosko, chairman of the farm’s board of directors, told residents at a recent North Oak Neighborhood Revitalization Zone meeting at St. Ann Church on North Street. “Put them in your refrigerator ... They will still be fresh in a week.”
Residents had some questions, and concerns.
Some wondered if farms’ organic produce, which is more expensive than that from grocery stores, was within their budget.
The price of organic vegetables is only 10 percent more overall than produce from a chain grocery store, Nedosko said. Urban Oaks resells some vegetables from other organic farms, but the markup is only 60 percent, as opposed to supermarkets that charge customers double the cost of organic produce.
Urban Oaks has been trying to find a way to give discounts to people in the immediate area, assuming the community is interested in such a thing, Nedosko said. It would probably entail an identification card or a similar system.
Several people at the meeting asked why the farm is open for business only from 3 to 6 p.m. Fridays. It’s to ensure the sale of everything the farmers pick, Nedosko explained.
Urban Oaks started small in 1999. When demand increased dramatically, Urban Oaks had to buy produce from other farms to supplement what it grew. In the agricultural world, the farm’s 3 acres is “a postage stamp size,” Nedosko said.
But for a while that caused surpluses that threatened to spoil. “Every week we went downtown and gave it away at the Arch Street soup kitchen,” Nedosko said.
He wiggled his fingers as though typing on a keyboard, and explained that “the Internet took care of a lot of our problems.” Online orders — placed at Urbanoaks@earthlink.net — helped the farm anticipate sales and balance stock.
The name Urban Oaks is on the menus of some of the best restaurants in towns such as Farmington, West Hartford, Hartford, New Haven, Westport and several other upscale communities, and restaurant buyers and affluent people from other communities file in every Friday to shop or pick up orders. But few people from the area frequent the farm.
“We are better known in Fairfield County and Westport than we are here,” said Urban Oaks General Manager Mike Kandefer, one of the founders of the farm project.
Now the organization is focusing more on getting local recognition and working with neighborhood and city officials to get those great organic vegetables onto residents’ dinner tables.
“The goal is up to you,” Nedosko told the North Oak residents. “We want to work more closely with our neighbors. We just want to let you know we are here.”
Rick Guinness can be reached at rguinness@newbritainherald.com or by calling (860) 225-4601, ext. 236.
By RICK GUINNESS, Herald staff
NEW BRITAIN — As one happy customer after another left Urban Oaks Organic Farm with purchases, an old gray cat named Grumpy — who has only been friendly for about a year — presided over the transactions from his perch on a picnic table.
Like a scene from decades ago, the regulars seemed to know all the farmers, and everyone greeted each other.
Also like decades ago, the food at this local nonprofit organization is fresh and chemical free.
Customers come for both reasons.
“Shopping at Urban Oaks is a social thing,” said Tom King, a genetics professor at Central Connecticut State University, as he and his wife, Beth, left the farm with several bags of vegetables and fresh eggs. “I don’t mind paying more, because I am supporting my community.”
“The vegetables are wonderful — and there is nothing like their tomatoes,” Beth King said. “I have had greens that last me three weeks in the refrigerator.”
She noted that most lettuce is trucked from California and is already several weeks old by the time it hits the supermarkets.
Urban Oaks General Manager Mike Kandefer, one of the founders of the farm project, recalled how he and co-founder Tony Norris leased a farm in Bolton before founding Urban Oaks in 1999.
As New Britain residents, he and Norris got tired of driving back and forth to Bolton every day. They saw a chance to start a farm at a most unusual location: New Britain’s old Sandelli Greenhouses, abandoned since 1983.
The Sandelli Greenhouses Inc. consisted of four properties — 212, 218, 222 and 233 Oak St., the last of which was a 2.27-acre parcel once occupied by greenhouses and a thriving florist business, according to U.S. Department of Environmental Protection records.
Two of the parcels had greenhouse structures, but they had become overgrown and were suffering from use as a neighborhood dump.
The site needed much repair and remediation, which could only happen with the help of state, local and federal government.
In 1997, the city got $200,000 from a brownfields program to conduct environmental assessments in the community. New Britain spent $39,512 on the Sandelli sites and their surroundings.
In 1999, with the help of grant funding and the work of Ken Malinowski, the city’s municipal development director, the site was cleaned up, the greenhouses repaired and the farm opened for business.
It was a hit.
“I have been coming here since the first year they were open,” customer Beth Peterson said recently. “The summer crops are the best I’ve ever had. I come here for the coffee, the bread and some vegetables, and to say hello to my friends.”
The farm also became more than just a seller of organic produce and a friendly place for customers.
According to a federal Environmental Protection Agency report from 2003, “The urban, organic farm provides education for the city residents and school groups in organic gardening methods, sustainable agriculture, nontoxic farming techniques, composting and other environmentally friendly farming techniques.”
It has also created jobs — four full time and four part-time — and provided opportunities for volunteers and part-time employees.
Teens and a supervisor work five days a week from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Kandefer said, often performing the backbreaking task of pulling weeds.
Kandefer said he wished there was an organic herbicide, but until someone invents it, the weeds growing around the plants in his fertile soil must be picked by hand.
The teens don’t seem to mind. Far from it.
New Britain High School student Carlos Rosario, 18, of Arch Street, is one of four part-time employees. To work on the farm, he attends night school.
“I like getting a paycheck every week,” he said, but he is also getting an education learning the names of vegetables — the farm offers nearly 100 varieties of tomatoes — and the techniques of farming.
Kandefer fired Rosario last year for talking too much on his cell phone, but Rosario was rehired and Kandefer is glad to have him back.
They joke about what turned out to be a character-building incident.
In addition to having a steady paycheck, Rosario indicated that the job has its perks.
“I like the tomatoes,” he said.
Kandefer said he is still just getting back into things after losing Norris, who died Nov. 18 after a long battle with cancer.
They sowed a good farm and a strong business, one that has grown to $150,000 in gross receipts from a low of $70,000 in 1999; neither suffered when Kandefer stepped back.
The most recent soil tests on the property’s fields came back about as good as dirt can get — nothing but nitrogen and other nutrients.
The soil and the produce are filled with “North Oak nutrients,” Kandefer said.
According to the EPA, Urban Oaks Organic Farm was a major success from an environmental standpoint, and probably no site has been under more scrutiny.
Some of the farm’s biggest customers, Kandefer said, work at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.
Organic farm invites neighbors to share fruits of its success
By Rick Guinness
Herald staff
NEW BRITAIN — Urban Oaks Organic Farm, a local nonprofit organization, supplies some of the finest restaurants in the state with its fresh-picked lettuces, tomatoes, herbs, peppers and wide varieties of rare crops.
With such a strong demand for its produce, the farm, based at 225 Oak St., is planning an expansion for this summer — leasing a brick retail sales headquarters just south of the 3-acre operation, expanding Friday hours and adding Saturday sales and turning a vacant lot across the street into fields.
But only 25 percent of its customers are from New Britain.
So the organization is reaching out to people in the North Oak area to see if they would be interested in becoming customers.
“Come into the farm and buy some of our lettuces,” John Nedosko, chairman of the farm’s board of directors, told residents at a recent North Oak Neighborhood Revitalization Zone meeting at St. Ann Church on North Street. “Put them in your refrigerator ... They will still be fresh in a week.”
Residents had some questions, and concerns.
Some wondered if farms’ organic produce, which is more expensive than that from grocery stores, was within their budget.
The price of organic vegetables is only 10 percent more overall than produce from a chain grocery store, Nedosko said. Urban Oaks resells some vegetables from other organic farms, but the markup is only 60 percent, as opposed to supermarkets that charge customers double the cost of organic produce.
Urban Oaks has been trying to find a way to give discounts to people in the immediate area, assuming the community is interested in such a thing, Nedosko said. It would probably entail an identification card or a similar system.
Several people at the meeting asked why the farm is open for business only from 3 to 6 p.m. Fridays. It’s to ensure the sale of everything the farmers pick, Nedosko explained.
Urban Oaks started small in 1999. When demand increased dramatically, Urban Oaks had to buy produce from other farms to supplement what it grew. In the agricultural world, the farm’s 3 acres is “a postage stamp size,” Nedosko said.
But for a while that caused surpluses that threatened to spoil. “Every week we went downtown and gave it away at the Arch Street soup kitchen,” Nedosko said.
He wiggled his fingers as though typing on a keyboard, and explained that “the Internet took care of a lot of our problems.” Online orders — placed at Urbanoaks@earthlink.net — helped the farm anticipate sales and balance stock.
The name Urban Oaks is on the menus of some of the best restaurants in towns such as Farmington, West Hartford, Hartford, New Haven, Westport and several other upscale communities, and restaurant buyers and affluent people from other communities file in every Friday to shop or pick up orders. But few people from the area frequent the farm.
“We are better known in Fairfield County and Westport than we are here,” said Urban Oaks General Manager Mike Kandefer, one of the founders of the farm project.
Now the organization is focusing more on getting local recognition and working with neighborhood and city officials to get those great organic vegetables onto residents’ dinner tables.
“The goal is up to you,” Nedosko told the North Oak residents. “We want to work more closely with our neighbors. We just want to let you know we are here.”
Rick Guinness can be reached at rguinness@newbritainherald.com or by calling (860) 225-4601, ext. 236.
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