Category: Service Organizations

Communication, Community, Connection, Down On the Farm, Food Justice, Gratitude, Neighbors, Non-Profits, Nutrition, Opal's Farm, Relationships, Respect, Service Organizations, Service to Others, Simplicity, Social Justice, Spirituality, Thoughts From the Porch, Unity Unlimited, Inc., Urban Farming

Welcome Funkytown to Opal’s…

gregoryjoel

It’s a beautiful, but still hot, Sunday morning here in Fort Worth. The record for triple-digit days in September was demolished days ago. It’s been 100 degrees or more for most of the last twenty days and nights are offering little relief. However, that’s supposed to change this week with highs in the nineties and lows in the seventies. Seeds will finally be able to germinate with lower ground temperatures. The seventy degree nights offer a chance for the soil to recover and maintain a lower, more constant temperature. My fiftieth high school reunion was this weekend in Denver, Colorado. I would’ve loved to enjoy the cooler climes of Colorado and see folks I haven’t seen except on Facebook for the last fifty years, but I have a fantastic week coming up at Opal’s Farm and couldn’t be there. There’s way too much work to do. Think of me guys while I’m sweating away…

We want to make a major announcement this week at Opal’s Farm this week. In 2021, our friends Cort DeHart and Kent Bradshaw formed a non-profit called the Funkytown Food Project based on the model created by The Food Project in Boston. For the last five years they’ve built an amazing community and youth-based project offering paid internships to students at Conundrum Farms in Crowley. Please check out their website at www.funkytownfoodproject.org to learn more about their youth and community programs.

This year they expanded their summer program to the academic year, and I’m pleased to announce that yesterday Funkytown Food Project began working at Opal’s Farm for the Fall semester. Our first day was amazing. Each of the student interns has been through the summer program and experienced a working farm. It’s such a joy to partner with Funkytown and share in the benefits of not only experienced farmhands, but young people that exhibit the values of respect for the land and other people, true leadership, and diligence and creative thinking rarely seen in the workplace anymore. I was inspired and uplifted by each of the students.

The students work in the morning and then spend the afternoon learning leadership skills, social and food justice issues, and community-building – the things often overlooked in school. It’s these values that are core to Opal’s mission as well and this was a perfect partnership to be a part of. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to have Funkytown Food Project at Opal’s Farm and can’t wait to see them all on the coming Saturdays.

We’re still low on produce this week. The record-breaking heat we’ve had this month has slowed our production to a crawl. Although new items will be available soon, Opal’s Farmstand is still open each Saturday. If we don’t have much produce, Tabor Farms is there each Saturday with their produce. Please don’t forget the herbal teas, salves, and the jams, jellies and pickles available each Saturday as well. We have two new neighborhood vendors who’ve applied to participate in the farm stand as well. We’re still open during our summer hours from 9AM until noon through October 3rd. We’ll be changing hours the following week from 11AM until 2PM on the 10th. Hopefully, the worst of our summer heat will be gone!

Community, Down On the Farm, Events, Farmers Markets, Neighbors, Opal's Farm, Service Organizations, Service to Others, Summer, Thoughts From the Porch, Unity Unlimited, Inc., Urban Farming

Market Days!

gregoryjoel

Happy Sunday morning my friends! We had a fantastic Cowtown Farmers Market and Opal’s Farm Stand yesterday. The predicted rainy Saturday turned out to be a beautiful summer day. It waited until the evening to start pouring down so Opal’s Farm received a huge blessing with God’s irrigation!

If you haven’t had a chance to visit the Opal’s Farm Stand you need to come by and visit. We’re at the corner of Rosedale and Evans (1109 Evans) every Saturday from 1 PM until 4 PM. We’ve been blessed to have other vendors asking to come down. Stephen from Tabor Farms is there frequently with an abundance of produce grown right here in Fort Worth as well as Demetria’s incredible herbal teas and salves to meet your wellness needs. We’ll be adding two new vendors in the coming weeks so please come out and join the fun.

Tomato season is well under way. First time market goers may want to come early as tomatoes tend to sell out quickly. There’s nothing better than a real tomato – locally grown 100% organically! A warning though, you may never want to eat grocery store tomatoes again…

Please remember that next Saturday, June 13th, from 8 AM to Noon, is Cowtown Farmers Market’s 40th Anniversary Festival. It will be a special day for all of us. We hope to see you there.

Community, Composting, Down On the Farm, Events, Faith, Food Justice, Gratitude, Non-Profits, Opal's Farm, Service Organizations, Service to Others, Spring, Thoughts From the Porch, Unity Unlimited, Inc., Urban Farming, Volunteers

Spring(ing) Forward

gregoryjoel

Good Sunday morning to all from Opal’s Farm! It’s been a great week at the farm. Volunteers (almost a hundred of them) came from Bank of America on Friday, and I’m simply amazed at the job they did. The farm looks great! Beds are prepped for more Spring planting this coming week, tomatoes are trellised, compost and mulch laid down, and you won’t believe the pile of weeds that were pulled. Thank you to Margo, Eric, and Aaron for getting their respective teams for putting this day all together. Thank you so much to Bank of America. They’ve been such a good friend of Opal’s Farm and the National Juneteenth Museum as well.

We didn’t have Opal’s Farm Stand yesterday due to the much-needed rain we had yesterday. However, the farm stand will be open today from 1PM to 4PM at the corner of Rosedale and Evans. We have a good selection of produce this week with even more coming as Spring moves forward. We hope to see you all there.

Community, Down On the Farm, Faith, Food Justice, Friendship, Grace, Gratitude, Heroes, Non-Profits, Opal's Farm, Persistence, Prayer, Service Organizations, Service to Others, Spirituality, Spring, Tarrant Regional Water District, Trinity River, Unity Unlimited, Inc., Urban Farming, Volunteers

Bumps in the Road

gregoryjoel

Farming has its challenges. The weather is either too wet or too dry, too hot or too cold; equipment breaks down at the most inopportune time; pest pressure; the list goes on. The latest challenge – water level on the Trinity River, which provides water for irrigating our crops, dropping lower than our pumps can reach, leaving us high and dry with new Spring seed in the ground. The Tarrant Regional Water District has construction going on by the Fourth Street dam just upstream from us and had to lower the water level in our section of the river to complete the work. It may be a month before the water level returns to a normal level. The farm can’t go for a month without water, and the weather forecast isn’t looking favorably for us. “Houston, we have a problem…”

The immediate issue was getting water on the new seed as quickly as possible. To make a long story short, it was too muddy to get our other pump close enough to the water to get to suction hose in, so I filled four fifty-gallon water barrels at home each morning, drove to the farm, and hand watered the new seed, all the while praying to seek a better solution. The process was long, slow, and really hard work for this old man.

I trust that God hears my prayers and always answers even though I don’t always listen very well (and if I’m honest, I’ll still try to figure out things my way because I don’t like the answer, but that’s another story). Still, I’ve gotten better as I’ve gotten older at watching and listening for God’s instructions.

This week, the answer came from one of our regular volunteers and friends of the farm, Amir (I haven’t asked his permission to use his full name and picture on social media yet). Amir is one of my favorite people. He comes most Thursdays and Saturday mornings to help at the farm and often brings his young son as well. He believes his son needs to learn the value of helping others (that won him Father of the Year in my book). When he saw our problem, he called to meet me at Opal’s Farm on Friday morning. He wanted to put our heads together to see if we could find a solution to the irrigation problem.

We pondered our options and then it occurred to Amir that we could pull the pump from its pipe to the river, extend the Pex piping and electrical wire and push the pump farther into the river. Great idea! I was fully expecting Amir to have to go on to his work and do it over the weekend. He looked at me and said, “If we can get the parts this morning, we should have water this afternoon”. Needless to say, after a very long Friday and very cold Trinity River water we have irrigation again.

The reason I mention this is because I need to tell you how blessed I am to have great volunteers, and especially Amir. He sees his time as an investment in Opal’s Farm, our mission, and our future. He gave up his work time to help at a critical moment. That’s the kind of people that God has blessed me with over the last seven years at Opal’s Farm. I just want to give him a special shout-out.

Texas Farm Bureau Day

We were also blessed to have a group of college students from around the state and the Texas Farm Bureau come by on Saturday morning. Many of these folks have production farming experience so the amount of work and the initiative they brought to Opal’s on a Saturday morning was beyond amazing. Thanks to these young people our tomatoes are planted, most of the trellises up, and the beds are weed-free (at least until the next rain…). Thanks to Kyndal with the Texas Farm Bureau for putting all this together!

If you would like to volunteer as an individual or as a group, please feel free to call 817.602.8225, but hurry as Spring dates are going fast.

Community, Down On the Farm, Events, Faith, Farmers Markets, Food Justice, Gratitude, Neighbors, Non-Profits, Opal's Farm, Regeneration, Service Organizations, Service to Others, Spring, Uncategorized, Unity Unlimited, Inc., Urban Farming, Volunteers

Winter’s Last Gasp…

gregoryjoel

Winter will be making its last gasp (hopefully!) later today here in North Texas. We go from a high temperature of eighty degrees to a Monday high in the fifties with a frost warning for the morning. Weather in North Texas, particularly this year, can be diagnosed with severe bi-polar disorder. We go from extreme highs to extreme lows in a flash. It’ll be ninety degrees by Thursday. It looks like our tomatoes and peppers will be covering my kitchen floor tonight…

I picked up our transplants of tomatoes and peppers on Thursday. Tarrant County College’s Northwest Campus Horticulture students grew our starts again this year as they have for the past five years. I’ve been so grateful to have such a wonderful partner for the farm at TCC. Instructor David Cole has not only grown our starts every year, but he’s also brought his Food Crops class to Opal’s for a workday and tour each semester. We love having them out and the ongoing volunteer relationships that develop.

Steven and David

This year we had an additional treat as Steven Nunez, of Mind You Garden Urban Farm and Grow SE, joined TCC as head of the Horticulture. Steven and his wife Ursala have been a vital part of Grow and done amazing work with Mind Your Garden – a homestead farm in southeast Fort Worth.

I also had the privilege of hosting some of the IM Terrell Academy seniors for a volunteer day this past week. It’s always such a pleasure to see young people working hard and enjoying a day at the farm. They were a tremendous help and accomplished more than I could have imagined in their morning with at Opal’s Farm.

IM Terrell Academy Seniors

 I also had to reschedule our Grand Opening for Opal’s Farm Stand to April 4th (the first Saturday) and make some changes to the proposed days. We will be at 1115 Evans (Evans and Rosedale) every Saturday from 1 PM to 4 PM. We’ll still be taking some produce to the Funkytown Mindful Market, and they will have our produce available for sale as well. We are so excited to be serving our Historic Southside neighbors.

Y’all stay warm tonight and have sweet dreams of fresh Spring veggies!