Tucson Village Farm

The second part of our visit to the Pima County Extension office was a tour of the Tucson Village Farm.  Tucson Village Farm is a working urban farm built by and for the youth of Pima County.  The farm is overseen by the Pima County 4-H office and offers a number of different programs.  Our visit coincided with the Growing Forward program, in which 100 youth visit the farm every Tuesday and Thursday all year round.  Two Tucson schools, Miles Exploratory Learning Center and Fruchthendler Elementary were visiting while we were there.

The cow milking station

The Growing Forward program is very interactive and aims at connecting the visiting students with agriculture.  The students cycle through a number of stations, each of which shows them a different piece of the food production puzzle.  At various stations they'll learn about food production, building healthy soils, composting, vermiculture, nutrition, pollination, and more. There are also stations where the children watch a cooking demonstraion, milk a replica cow, and move around and be physically active.  Other programs at the farm include the Digging Deeper Middle and High School Service Learning program, and Family Fun Fridays,which offers farm activities, a family friendly movie, and popcorn made from corn grown on the farm.

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Tucson Village Farm is funded through grants, donations, and the $4 per child charge for Growing Forward program and also relies heavily on volunteers. I was very impressed by how many people throughout Tucson supported the farm, and it's a testament to how good the programs at Tucson Village Farm are that so many want to be part of it.  As just one example, students at the University of Arizona (in I believe the Graphic Arts department) made signs for a number of vegetables grown within the farm that are colorful, descriptive and contain a QR code, which when scanned takes you to a recipe highlighting that vegetable on the Tucson Village Farm website.  Try it if you're phone has a QR app, or just click here.  

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I was also impressed by how every part of the program we saw had an educational component and everything was connected together.  For instance, after the students handled the worms, they had to be sure to clean their hands before going to the next station, where they'd be making popcorn.  Because water is scarce in Arizona and particularly important to the function of the farm.  Tucson Village Farm managed to turn this in a teaching opportunity by building a handwashing station with a drainage basin.  Water collects in the bottom of the basin and is diverted through a pipe to the fruit tree section, so each time a group of students wash their hands, which is 8 times per day every Tuesday and Thursday, the fruit trees get a 1-2 minute long watering through their drip irrigation system.

It was also interesting how the farm incorporated local culture.  After receiving some grant money, a mural was built on the farm, depicting skeletons breaking open a pinata containing fruits and vegetables instead of candy.  The skeletons are a reference to the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) holiday, which celebrates and honors the dead.  It is an important holiday in Mexican cultures, observed on November 1st.  Each year Tucson celebrates Dia de los muertos with the All Souls street processional, an event where anyone can participate as a means to honor their deceased loved ones.  The fruits and vegetables in the pinata in this mural are meant to show a healthy alternative to the candy that would normally be inside.  I walked away from Tucson Village Farm very impressed by the thought and effort that went into all parts of the farm and its operation.

A close up of a section of the Dia de los Muertos mural, giving bilingual recommendations for healthy eating.