As you may have already heard, Sweetwater Farm will be celebrating 20 years this February.  To mark the occasion, we are having a Farm to Fork celebration sponsored by  Boca who will provide delicious food made with our farm-fresh veggies and local ingredients.

The Farm to Fork community event is open to the public and will be held at the Samba Room on Sunday evening, February 10th, from 5:00-10:00 pm.  Enjoy craft beer and wine, or a cash bar.  Tickets are on sale now for $50 each and will provide funds necessary for continued development of our field trip program and infrastructure at our Children’s Home location.  With plenty of room and the generosity of our sponsors, we hope to bring 150 people together to share in our excitement and party like a bunch of 20-year-olds!

Please join us.  Purchase tickets to our celebration by following this link to our website.

This week the farmers are hard at work preparing beds at our farm at The Children’s Home for our spring potato crop. The potato seed will go into furrows, which will be hilled several times and harvested towards the end of the season. This week we’ll be taking the seed potatoes and prepping them for plantings. We receive the seed potatoes whole and need to cut each potato into smaller pieces. Each seed potato will produce several separate potato plants! Some of the varieties we’ll be planting this season include All Blue, Yukon Gold, Prairie Blush and Dark Red Norland. We have also propagated some of our spring plant starts including Sungold tomatoes, Black Cherry tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant and Basil. In the fields the carrots are coming in very nicely. We are growing a few different varieties this season including Yaya, Cosmic Purple and Nelson. This week we’ll be harvesting beautiful Yaya carrot bunches for the share, which are crisp and sweet!

Join us for some work out in the fields.  There’s plenty to do!

Our small urban farm brings so much to so many people.  From fresh organic veggies to an old-fashioned gathering place, and many things in between.  After 20 years of farming and growing, we have reached yet another new milestone.  We have more parking!  I know, it doesn’t sound very exciting, but for those of us that stress about the happiness of our neighbors or the well-being of our vehicles, the fact that we have added another 90 parking spaces brings big smiles to our faces.

For years we have put “Parking” and “No Parking” signs out on the street, and handed out parking maps, and put notices in the newsletter to discourage folks from parking along the street in front of our neighbors houses.  (We are in a residential area after all.)

Last Sunday one of our neighbors finally had enough and called the police to have cars towed from in front of her house.  It was bound to happen, and will no doubt continue to be a costly lesson to folks if we do not make some immediate changes.

Effective this Sunday, we ask that all Sunday CSA Members and Sunday Market goers bypass the turn onto Sawyer and instead go straight to Hanley Avenue, and then onto Comanche to park on the west side of Sweetwater Creek as we have attempted to direct people in the past.

We now have an agreement with two property owners for secure parking on Comanche Avenue (on the WEST side of Sweetwater Creek) from Hanley Road.  Both the church and the owners of the “tan building with the green roof” will allow us to use their parking lots on Sunday for our CSA pick-up and Sunday Market.

We now have 3 secured parking areas on Comanche Avenue from Hanley Road:

1.  Park along the chain link fence as usual

2.  Park in the parking lot of the “tan building with a green roof” (7318 W. Comanche Ave) – there are about 30 parking spaces available.  Look for the Sweetwater parking sign!

3.  If both the parking lot and the fence parking are full, there are another 70 spaces available in the Church parking lot on the corner of Hanley and Comanche (5601 Hanley Road).

Soon you will see new parking signs and parking maps to direct you, and more notices posted at the farm.  Please let us know if you encounter any problems or have any questions about this new parking policy.

Happy neighbors help ensure a sustainable community farm.  Thank you for your help.

Happy Holidays to all our members and supporters. With the new year quickly approaching we have some exciting news to announce. In February, Sweetwater will be celebrating 20 years. We began with seven members and an idea to build something special for our community, where people working together could grow great food and children could come to re-connect with and see how their food is grown. Since these humble beginnings over 20,000 children have visited our farm, we have grown our farm to 6 acres of production and now serve more than 300 members. Our Sunday Market, Tampa’s first, has a become a mainstay in peoples lives, with a great live Music Series and loyal vendors who together, add to the Sweetwater magic.

We have two important announcements we would like to share with you. One is that Sweetwater has purchased the farm property from me, to insure that Sweetwater can continue long into the future. This is an important step that I have always envisioned. An equally important step is that Andrea Harms, who many of you already know, has agreed to become our next Executive Director. I am so honored and proud to have Andrea succeed me in this critical role. We are fortunate to have such a talented and dedicated person leading our organization. I will not be going anywhere. With my new title as Founder, I will be focusing on mentoring our farmers, continuing to participate on our Board of Directors, and most of all enjoying the work of our young and talented staff as I sit down to a Sweetwater meal as I have done for the last 20 years.

So please welcome Andrea in her new role as we all look forward to the next 20 years of Sweetwater magic. Thanks to all of you for your vital support in making this all possible and for being part of our “Farmily”…

Happy Holidays.

In deepest gratitude,

Rick Martinez

Be sure to join us this Sunday at our weekly Farmer’s Market from 12:00-4:00 and enjoy the live holiday-themed music, some locally-roasted coffee, and pick up your last-minute gifts!

This week and next week we will be on our normal CSA schedule since Christmas falls on a Tuesday.

Happy Holidays from our “Farmily” to yours…

Every year we have a handful of visitors from “up north” that come to our Sunday Farmer’s Market in December and January and are amazed at what they find.  Although it makes sense conceptually, visitors (and some locals) still find it hard to grasp a farm-fresh salad on their dinner table in December.  Just like wearing shorts and flip flops, or driving with the windows down, the notion of beautiful greens freshly plucked from the fields just feels mischievous a week before Christmas.  But of course, it is simply one of the fringe benefits of living in the Sunshine State – our growing season is opposite that of up north. As farms in Iowa or Maryland hunker down for the winter, ours are gearing up for high growing season.

At Sweetwater we are still harvesting warmer weather crops such as peppers and eggplant due to the mild weather we are experiencing. Towards the end of this month we will begin starting our spring tomato seedlings. We will be growing two varieties, Sungold and Black Cherry, and these should be ready for spring harvest towards the end of the season. We are also planning our potato crop, which we will plant the second week of January and harvest in April or May. Some of the varieties we’ll be growing include All Blue, Yukon Gold, Prairie Blush and King Harry. This week we’ll have tatsoi and white stemmed pac choy in the share — these Asian greens are great in stir-frys, soups, or sauteed with your other share vegetables.

Enjoy the Florida winter, and your locally-grown food!

Did you know Sweetwater Farm not only provides the freshest organic veggies to it’s members, it also serves as an education center to our surrounding community? In addition to the hundreds of kids that come to our farm each season for a field trip, we also offer gardening and healthy living workshops every month! Our workshops are open to the public and offer valuable information from local experts.

Check out our next workshop on Sunday, December 16th from 12:30-2:00 with lifelong gardener and local favorite, Jim Kovaleski. He’ll teach you how to increase the fertility of your soil and grow an abundance of food in small spaces using natural methods such as hand tools and worms! Check our website for the latest workshop information each month and join us!

Also, be sure to make time in your busy holiday schedule to volunteer at the farm. We need help as usual on Thursday and Sunday mornings to harvest and wash veggies for the CSA pick-up. The more volunteers we have, the more we can harvest for the share!

And don’t forget to bake some extra cookies this year for the Sweetwater bake sale happening on 12/16, 12/20 and 12/23. Wrap them up and bring them to the farm!

See you at the farm.

It’s that time of year again.  You can feel it.  Thanksgiving is over and families are trying to get back into their routine.  But looming, just around the corner, is another holiday.  It is exhausting to think about.  The planning, and cooking, and cleaning, and shuffling kids around, and the shopping.  The dreaded shopping… sigh…

But have no fear – the Sweetwater Sunday Market is here!   Think about the wonderful gifts you can give your family and friends.  Truly beautiful gifts because they don’t come from a big box store or a web page.  They come from local people.  Friends in our Community that have taken the time and the care to create them, just for you.

Please visit our Market Vendors this Sunday (and every Sunday through the end of May) from 12:00-4:00 and support LOCAL.  Bring a friend, enjoy the live music and a fresh fruit smoothie… and do all of your holiday shopping face to (smiling) face.

At this time of year we are reminded how thankful we are for the many supportive members and friends we have at the Farm. It is because of you that sustainable agriculture thrives in Tampa, Florida. Since 1995 Sweetwater has provided the freshest, local, certified organic veggies in Tampa Bay. Thank you for being part of our community.

This week we begin harvesting Hakurei Turnips at the Children’s Home farm. These turnips are very sweet and can be prepared in many dishes or even eaten raw. The greens of the turnips are also delicious and packed with tons of vitamins too! The edible marigolds, Lemon Gem and Tangerine Gem, will also be harvested this week. Edible marigolds can add fun and color to your meals-try adding them to your Thanksgiving meal in a salad, deviled eggs, or sprinkled on top of dessert or even on the table as edible decoration!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.

This week we are preparing more of the fields at Children’s Home farm for plantings. These fields are spread with layers of compost and then will be tilled and planted. We have many seedlings in the greenhouse which will soon be ready to be planted in these newly prepared fields; including broccoli, kohlrabi, cabbages, asian greens and chard. This week we begin harvesting Curly Kale which is a variety of kale with light green ruffled leaves. You can prepare this variety of kale just as you would Red Russian or Lacinato, in salads, soups, stir-frys or even Kale Chips! As always, thank you to all of our volunteers and interns for all your hard work in the fields. If you would like to volunteer with us please stop in any day Wednesday-Sunday from 8:30-5!

It’s official, the first week Members seem to be happy with their choice to join a CSA and were very excited to pick up their first share of the new Season!

The Farmers been working hard in fields preparing for the first shares of the season. Luckily it’s been dry and the weather has cooled down a bit. Our pepper harvest is very strong as the plants are doing well both at Children’s Home and Sweetwater fields. Expect to see the Ace variety of bell peppers and the hotter varieties, Hungarian hot wax and Jalapenos again this week in the share. Some crops were hit harder than others by the extremely wet conditions early on in the season. The summer squash and cucumbers in particular are having a hard time rebounding from their stressful start in flooded fields. These crops do not thrive in wet conditions and due to this we may see a small fall harvest of both summer squash and cucumbers.

There are plenty of other crops in the fields which are flourishing. In the upcoming weeks expect to see more kale, collards, mustard greens and turnips!

This week marks the start of Sweetwater’s 18th Season as a certified organic CSA community!  Welcome new members and welcome back to our returning members.  We have been working diligently over the Summer (amidst all the rain) to bring you the first harvest of the Season!  The first share will have about 8 items, but will grow to more items as we dry out a bit.

This Season we have a new Farm Manager, Casey, and a new Assistant Farm Manager, Claudie.  They will be working with returning farmer Alberto and new farmers Kaitlin and Chris to bring you the freshest, local, organic veggies each week.  We also welcome our line-up of farmer interns who have already been getting plenty dirty!

If you are a new or returning member and have questions about your pick-up, please do not hesitate to ask one of the farmers or other staff members.  Or you can CONTACT US by email anytime.  Be sure to pick up a CSA pick-up schedule and info about our upcoming workshops.

See you at the Farm!

Hello Members and farm enthusiasts. The time is fast-approaching for our first harvests of the new Season. This summer, unlike any of the our first 19 years, we experienced record rains that have caused delays of getting healthy crops in the grounds. We are not alone in this experience as we have been hearing the same from our farmer friends from across the state. It has simply put, been miserable out in the fields. Our crops were planted on schedule and our team has diligently struggled through rain and mud attempting to salvage our first planting. But Mother Nature cannot be denied. So we have had to adjust by, for the most part starting over with subsequent planting that are finally doing well in the more normal weather conditions. As a result, our initial harvests will not be what we are used to. We hope for 6-7 share items the first couple of weeks. It is certain that things will be back to normal shortly thereafter, but we ask for your patience and understanding in these difficult first few weeks of the season.

We must take our hats off to our team for their persistence, the smiles on their faces and their wonderful positive attitude.

Thanks for being part of our very special farm family that Sweetwater has become. We will keep you updated on progress in the coming weeks and will look forward to seeing you all very soon.

Sweetwater’s growing Season will officially kick off this year on Saturday, October 13th with our 10th Annual Planter’s Ball event.  This is a fun-for-the-whole-family type event for everyone.  Don’t let the term “Ball” scare you – it’s as casual as it gets with attendees bringing a vegetarian potluck dish to share.  The Ball starts at 6:00 with dinner and live music going until 10:00.  Free admission this year!  In lieu of collecting ticket money, we hope that our members and visitors will consider making a donation to our Field Trip fundraiser.  Our goal is to raise $14,000 of which we have raised $4,000 since May.  The money we raise will be used to bring public school children on a field trip to our farm to learn where food comes from.  Due to school budget cuts the last two years, 700 fewer public school children were able to take part in this important program.  Please help us continue the program for the kids that need it the most.  A minimum donation of $10 is suggested per person.

Another great event you will want to consider is a Farm to Table event with the Centre Club in Tampa (on Westshore Blvd.)  A group made up of professionals that want to raise money for local charities and enjoy a good meal.  Open to the public, so please join us.  Tickets are on sale now.

Also note our CSA pick-up calendar is on our website.  We will have the same set-up as previous seasons with a Thursday and Sunday pick-up and a Week A or B for the Half Membership folks.  If you are new to our community, we suggest attending our CSA New Member and Volunteer Orientation and Farm Tour on Saturday, October 27 starting at 10:00 am.

The grand opening of our Sunday Market will be the first Sunday in November (11/4/12).  This season we will be offering organic produce in our produce stand to supplement the items you pick up in your share.  And your favorite vendors will be returning along with new vendors, as well as our morning yoga class and the best live, local music around!

Tomorrow:  please visit Whole Foods Market on Wednesday (9/26) from 9:00am-9:00 pm to stock up on groceries and supplements.  Whole Foods will be working with Sweetwater again this season and will be donating 5% of the sales for the day to the farm.

See you there!

Welcome new CSA Members for the 2012-2013 Season!

The Farmers are busy preparing for another season here at Sweetwater! In the fields we are growing our covercrops, which are Sesbania and Sorghum. Covercrops help to protect the soil from weeds and erosion during our hot summer months. We have begun mowing some of the covercrop into the fields, which helps add more organic matter to our soil. We are also preparing sections at the Children’s home for our first plantings. Discing the fields prior to plantings helps to break down the mowed covercrop matter and deter weed seeds from sprouting. Soon we will be planting our winter squashes, Red Kuri and Spaghetti, which should be ready to harvest by November. Other crops which we have begun propagating in the greenhouse are peppers, eggplant, onions, scallions, kales, collards, celery, and edible flowers. We have also been busy making tons of compost. The compost will be spread onto the fields in preparation for our fall crop plantings. If you’re interested in coming out to volunteer with us we have one more “volunteer day” scheduled for the summer on September 15th from 8:30-12.

Thanks for supporting local organic agriculture!

It’s been another remarkable season at Sweetwater and we have many, many folks to thank.  (Unfortunately too many to list individually, but you know who you are!)  It takes quite a crew of people to pull together all of the elements of the wonderful programs we offer at the farm.  Many of the people that keep the programs running are volunteers and work-trade folks.  We also had the support of some really good companies and organizations in Tampa Bay.  The Sweetwater Board has really gone above and beyond this year.  And of course none of this would be possible without our hardworking and dedicated farmers and staff.

So thank you Sweetwater Community for another great season.  Your support and dedication to local, organic, and sustainability keep us strong.

We hope you’ll stay in touch over the summer and sign up for your CSA Membership for next season if you haven’t already.

Last week of the season! Hope everyone has enjoyed yet another successful season of fresh organic Sweetwater produce and community. We have come a long way this season, having established our new growing site at the Children’s Home, which is now ready to begin in full production this coming fall. Thank you to all our supporters, donors, countless volunteers and hard working staff for coming together to create another urban food system.

I would like to take this opportunity to say farewell to this community, since I will be moving on next season. My family and I will be living on a sustainable homestead in the mountains of Costa Rica. We are very grateful for having had the opportunity to farm, learn, play and grow at Sweetwater which has been a central part of our lives and community here in Tampa for over six years. We take with us many valuable lessons, wonderful memories and dear friendships.

The farm production will now be in the capable hands of Casey Frosch, I am very confident that she will be very successful and continue to grow and improve the farm. Casey has been with Sweetwater for 3 seasons and has continued to impress us with her creativity, hard work and great personality.

I am forever grateful to the Sweetwater community.

Peace –

Roberto, Sweetwater Farm Manager

Last two weeks of harvest and the fields keep on providing. We have been very pleased with the yield and taste of the potato crop this spring. This week we will also have some large ‘Candy’ Onions in the share. This is a very sweet bulbing onion that has been growing in the fields since last fall. They still have the tops on them which are as delicious as the bulbs.

We will also have more fennel this week, remember the entire plant is edible. You can eat the bulb and leaves raw in a salad or juice, saute it with some oil, stir-fry or bake it. This plant is a very good digestive aid, the leaves can be made into a tasty tea to help with belly aches.

There is still much to do in the fields in order to get everything harvested and get the fields prepared for the summer. Come out and join us Wednesday through Sunday the rest of the month to help ensure that we harvest everything that’s available. If you can’t come early just let us know when to expect you. Thank you for supporting this community project. Peace

Potatoes are here and they are delicious! Last week we began digging the ‘Praire Blush’ potatoes, an heirloom variety similar in taste to the Yukon Gold. We also have some ‘King Harry’ white potatoes and some Russet on the way. These first harvest are new potatoes because we have not given them a chance to cure prior to digging. This simply means the skins are thinner and need to be eaten within a couple of weeks.

We only have a small amount of lettuce left that has been standing up to the warm weather, hopefully enough for the remainder of the season. The summer squash have slowed down a bit but the green beans are starting to produce very plentiful, so enjoy.

We have still been pretty busy in the fields harvesting and prepping everything for the summer and next season – so come out and help us Wednesday through Sunday!

Peace, and Happy Mother’s Day!

Every year toward the end of season, usually around the first week of May, we get all geared up to have our annual farmer and community celebration.  It’s an “end of season” party, it’s a fundraiser for our vitally important education program, and it’s a community-building experience for all of us.  It’s our biggest and best event of the year.

This year is our big two-O.  TWENTY years of PestoFesto!  It’s a wonderful tradition.  Volunteers and farmers come together the morning before to harvest basil and get it in the cooler.  That evening more volunteers come to the farm to pluck the basil leaves from the stems and prepare it to be made into pesto the next day.  The pasta gets par-boiled and a “test” batch of our soon-to-be-famous Pesto Pasta is prepared and tasted to make sure it is going to be just right.

Saturday morning starts with setting up tables and chairs, cleaning the barn and the kitchen, and getting the grounds ready.  By afternoon volunteers are washing and chopping veggies for the big farm-fresh salad.  Dressings are being prepared using herbs from our garden.  Our “Pesto Crew” shows up and gets busy making batch after batch of pesto and pasta.  Signs and more tables are set up as beer, wine, and coffee folks arrive.  The Urban Gypsies roll in and set up their equipment and say “hi’ to old friends.  Another round of volunteers come in to make the last minute preparations such as decorating tables with table covers and flowers.  Other volunteers get the serving tables ready to go and others head to their volunteer posts to help folks with parking, greeting folks at the entrance, or selling raffle tickets.

Before we know it, 6:00 is near and the first smiling members, visitors, and guests arrive to the farm.  The tables are set, the beer is cold, and the smell of pesto is in the evening air.

Once again our community comes together to work toward the simple, common goal of sharing a meal and supporting this local farm that provides us with fresh and healthy food and a place to learn and to be.  We think that’s reason enough to have a Festo, don’t you?

Hope you will join us, tickets are available online through Friday for $20 or pay $25 at the door.