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Preparing for the 2022-23 Season

Come join us as we prepare for the upcoming growing Season! Our programming includes ADULT INTERNSHIPS, GROW CITY YOUTH, GARDEN SHARES, COMMUNITY PLOTS & more. We will be adding events such as school tours and volunteer days, nutrition education, mindfulness/yoga, growing classes, and more in 

Digging for Sweet Potatoes

As we near the end of November, it’s still a crazy busy time of year for the garden. We are nearly finished transitioning from our summer-fallow fields to planted rows. That means weeding and prepping beds, transplanting, weeding, and continuing to start seedlings. And weeding….. 

Everything is Growing

Despite the August heat, our first eggplant and pepper seedlings are sprouting in the nursery (they love the heat!) together with broccoli and mini-broccoli, cauliflower–including the new varieties that everyone liked so much last year–kales, tatsoi, cabbages, and many of the others that will start off our 2021/2022 produce season. Which, unlike most of the country, starts in the Fall and runs through Spring. While some days it feels like we spend most of our summer weeding, we’ve actually had much more going on. We had a record harvest of fruits, including pineapples, bananas, mangos, sugar baby watermelons, mulberries, surinam cherries, and passionfruit. Our cover crop of cowpeas (for soil improvement) has been cut, dropped, and the fields mulched, letting the remains of the plants, the mulch, and the hot rainy weather work their magic. 

This summer we’ve planted a variety of sub-tropical and tropical fruit and spice plants, including real coffee (arabica), black pepper vine, cacao (chocolate), vanilla (an orchid), culinary luffah squash, two new varieties of carambola (starfruit), a lemon tree, and a variety of butterfly-attracting plants in our new butterfly garden area around the pergola. We thank the folks who donated cuttings from their own interesting specimens, those who donated whole plants (especially those for our butterfly garden), and the donors who provided the funds that allowed us to purchase some interesting new fruit and spice trees. Peanuts, roselle, sweet potatoes, a wide variety of herbs, and okra round out our summer plantings. 

Our GrowCity leaders—drawn from teens who completed our 12-week GrowCity Youth program over the past year or so—spent April and May with us working in the garden and advancing their management skills as paid interns. It was so fun suggesting ideas for the garden and then watching projects come to life as our teens formed teams, made their plans, and then executed them. A few of these projects: building a series of four new 10-by-4-ft. raised bed gardens along the front of the garden (and planting them), propagating and planting out lemongrass for our upcoming season, building and placing trellises for new plantings, preparing an area of the garden for our first “earthing” event at the garden, leading many, many garden tours, and (not least) working for several weeks with Chris and Sunny on pretty much all phases of building the garden’s amazing new chickee. 

The garden relies heavily on our amazing volunteers. Whether you want to come out occasionally to work with us on our monthly Volunteer Work Days (the third Saturday morning of each month), more frequently like our weekly volunteers who come out for a few hours to help, or all the way up to our adult intern program of six scheduled hours per week, we would love to see you! There are always a range of projects that may connect with your particular interests — get in touch with us and come out for a garden tour to see what we do! (Our adult interns receive a share of vegetables and greens in recognition of their critical help planting, taking care of plants, and harvesting for our CSA program and produce donations.)

Speaking of our CSA program, we will start taking reservations for our Garden Shares, Large Garden Shares, and Leafy Greens Shares over the next few weeks. Unlike many CSA and “buying club” programs, every single item in our baskets is grown at the Fruitful Field locations in Pompano – super-fresh, super-local, and super-flavorful. Our subscribers choose a pick-up day and location, then stop by our gardens to pick up a basket each week throughout our November through March/April season. If you are interested in being on our list to get more info regarding our garden shares, please e-mail tracyd@thefruitfulfield.brightpinkagency.com; we’ll send more info shortly. 

Our New CSA Season is Growing – Reserve Your Share

Our New CSA Season is Growing – Reserve Your Share

Here at TFF, we can’t believe it’s already the beginning of the growing season. Even in these late-summer 90-degree days, tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings—as well as kales, cabbages, colorful swiss chards, broccolini, cauliflower, and more—are growing nicely in the nursery. And by the way, 

A Summer of Building

A Summer of Building

Noah, one of our summer volunteers, and I plucked two ripe figs from our Brown Turkey fig tree, tore them open to see the glistening pink and white flesh, and then popped them, still warm from the sun, into our mouths. If you’ve had a 

Bug Hunt

Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019

Insects are everywhere in the garden, but, as our GrowCity Youth discovered on Saturday morning’s Bug Hunt, that’s not all bad news. Some are beneficial, acting as natural predators to our less-favored garden pests (like that very pretty cabbage looper that wants to eat all of the broccoli). Others help with pollination. We are especially fond of our garden spiders, which set up webs in among the tomato plants and catch stinkbugs. As it turns out, our GrowCity Youth are pretty good bug hunters, too! (Insects were released back into the garden after examination and discussion.)

A big Thank You to our Volunteers!

While summer is officially over and school has begun here in South Florida, here at the garden the early September subtropical heat is still brutal. Our nursery is filling up with seedlings; we’re preparing our fields for new plants, and the new season is beginning! 

Spring Thing — Come Out This Saturday, March 16, to Celebrate Spring

Our vegetable season may be nearing an end, but we have many reasons to celebrate. We’re holding an open house at the Garden, 9:30-noon Saturday, March 16. Come see how the garden greets spring and meet our GrowCity Youth, beekeepers, adult interns, garden volunteers, and 

Our Garden is Growing — Shares Reservations for 2018-2019 Season are Now Open

We’ve been working hard in the fields and we’re excited to see green beans, arugula, mizuna, eggplants, zucchini, and other heat-tolerant greens growing nicely in our wide rows. The sprouts of our first french breakfast radishes and little sweet white salad turnips have popped up out of the ground in the past few days. And with the help of our hardworking adult interns, we transplanted more than 250 tomato seedlings from our nursery to the garden. Each week we transplant more and more into the garden — we’re getting ready for you!

We invite you to reserve your garden share for our 2018-2019 season now, so that you can start picking up a weekly share of our fresh, local, nutritious, and tasty vegetables, greens, and herbs starting the beginning of November.

Like last year, choose from three Buy/Give share options:
• Garden Share (vegetables, greens, and herbs)
• Leafy Greens Shares (leafy greens only, plus culinary herbs)
• Large/Family Share (larger variety of vegetables, greens, and herbs)

See more details and options here: Garden Shares

What Our Farmer Did This Summer

In addition to weeding, mulching (and sweating) through the hot South Florida summer days, we have spent much of the past month researching ways to increase production in our current space. The goal is two-fold: To serve more of the people who want to join 

Month of March– Part 1: Spring Thing

On March 10th the garden opened its gates and with GrowCity youth as their tour guides visitors were lead through our garden fields to see what’s growing and taste the splendors of springtime in South Florida. In addition the Broward Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 

This Season’s Farm to Table is Feb 10th – Tickets now on Sale

We’re very pleased to announce this year’s Exclusive Farm-to-Table event on Saturday, Feb 10th starting at 6 pm at Pomodoro Restaurant–and you are invited!.

Join us to support the garden and the GrowCity Youth Program! This special evening features multiple courses which showcase vegetables from our garden alongside other essential Italian ingredients classically prepared by Chef Piero and served by our staff. Wine and dessert accompany this unique and delicious experience.

 

 

Get your tickets now–SOLD OUT.   Farm-to-Table events Sell Out to rave reviews. Now is your chance to get a seat at the table and enjoy it for yourself!

You will be introduced to Pomodoro, a local, family-owned business passionate about real food. You’ll be inspired by the stories of the impact the garden is having on local at-risk youth and learn about how the Fruitful Field grows amazing food and provides creative hands-on learning opportunities to so many people.

This is an exclusive dining experience for up to 10 people. Tickets are $100 per person and 50% of the ticket is tax-deductible. I hope you can join us for this one of a kind south Florida event!

 

Patricia Davis Community Garden is now open

We’ve partnered with the NW neighborhood of Pompano to build and grow a Community Garden/ Micro Urban Farm. Stop by on Saturday morning to start gardening a plot or find out more about this exciting community space!!!