It’s nine o’clock on Labor Day evening. A cool front blew through yesterday and the low nineties seems like a harbinger of the coming Fall. The nights need to cool off a bit before we can finish the fall planting, but there’s still plenty to do at Opal’s Farm.
August is one of our slowest market months of the year. It’s too hot to have much of a harvest. The tomatoes go dormant awaiting the cooler nights of Fall. We skipped market for August and donated the August harvest to some of our neighbors.
Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer. We’re back at Cowtown Farmers Market. We missed both our fellow farmers and our loyal customers! It was great to see you all again. We’ll be there this coming Saturday with Purple Hull Peas, tomatoes, and five varieties of peppers.
We have a huge demand for our Purple Hull Peas. Half and full bushels are available but you need to place an order earlier in the week so we’ll have them Saturday. Orders will be filled as they come in. Please feel free to call Opal’s Farm at 817.333.8367 and let us know!
I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout-out to Jamie, Melissa, and the brave volunteers who ventured into the Texas heat to help trellis tomatoes, weed, and harvest this summer. we love and appreciate you all so much.
The days are getting shorter (and hopefully cooler) and our volunteer schedule is picking up. We hope to see you soon at Opal’s Farm.
Good Morning Y’all! Saturday was eventful (and busy) for Opal’s Farm. We were unable to be at Cowtown Farmers Market due to the Dig Deep Conference at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) and Community Resource Day 2021 at McDonald YMCA.
I was honored to be a presenter at the Dig Deep Conference this year. Dig Deep is a growers conference held annually by the Tarrant Area Food Bank and the Tarrant County Food Policy Council. I was excited to talk about Opal’s Farm, “Empowering Communities Through Food”, and giving everyone a seat at the table. I am proud to be associated with the sponsoring organizations. I attended several great breakout sessions and got to network with new friends and old. Kudos to Chef Robyn Frascella who prepared an incredible lunch for the attendees. The food justice community in Fort Worth – farmers, activist, and advocates – is an amazing group of people!
Stacey Harwood, our Volunteer Coordinator, manned our booth at Community Resource Day 2021. We want to thank all who attended and for the overwhelming support for Opal’s Farm. We especially want to thank Dr. Belay Reddick and Community Resource Day 2021 for taking this time to give special honor to Ms. Opal and Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Brooks for their service to our community. Well done, Dr. Reddick!
It’s Monday and the start of a spectacular week at the farm. We’ve started Fall planting and beginning to get a handle on the weeds that sprouted after the wet May. Moderate temperatures (a cold front is coming tomorrow!) and unusual July rains have stretched the tomato season into mid-summer. Purple Hull peas are in abundance, squash is producing steadily, and the test beds of bottle gourd and bitter melon are going well. We will have cantaloupe on Saturday as well. We hope to see you all Saturday at Cowtown Farmers Market.
We’d love to have you come by the farm too! We love our volunteers and we’re always happy to provide a bit of dirt therapy for all.
As always – if you’re unable to volunteer at Opal’s Farm you can always support our work by going to www.unityunlimited.org, the Opal’s Farm page and clicking on the donate button. Every dollar goes to the farm and providing food for your neighbors.
We had a great 4th of July celebration at Opal’s Farm last night. An enormous thank you to everyone who came to eat and celebrate with us. I was so busy I forgot to take pictures (we cooked a lot of hamburgers and hot dogs!). Over fifty of Opal’s Farm volunteers, their families, and friends of the Farm shared food, fellowship, and lots of fresh grilled veggies. Our neighbors came in droves to enjoy the best spot on the Trinity to watch the fireworks. Our first annual “4th at the Farm” was a resounding success.
Preparations for next year are starting today. We want to make next year bigger and better. This year was an idea and a test run. We will keep you posted (and give better notice!). Of coming events at Opal’s Farm for everyone!
We want to offer a very special thanks to our biggest supporter, friend, and sponsor – the Tarrant regional Water District for making Fort Worth’s 4th of July Celebration the best in North Texas. Thanks TRWD!
Hey Opal’s Farm Volunteers! This is just a reminder that Sunday is almost here. That means our 4th of July festivities at the farm will begin at 6 PM. Opal’s Farm is one of the best places in Fort Worth to watch the Fort Worth 4th fireworks show. We have a 360-degree view of the other fireworks displays all around Fort Worth.
The area around our “barn” is being prepared to host the 4th with cold drinks, hamburgers, hot dogs, and grilled fresh veggies (from the farm of course!) for all our volunteers and friends of the farm. Many of our neighbors will be there as well.
You don’t have to be a volunteer to come out and join us. Food and drinks are free for all our volunteers in appreciation of the incredible job they do every day at Opal’s Farm.
We’ve been celebrating freedom since Juneteenth (A FEDERAL HOLIDAY, y’all) and the 4th of July party well be the culmination of a very special, historic time for all of us.
This is a come-and-go affair so please come by even if you can’t stay the evening. We’d love to see you!
If you can’t come, then please feel free to help Opal’s Farm by going to www.unityunlimited.org and donating on the Opal’s Farm page.
It’s difficult to believe it’s already May. April flew by in a scurry of activity. What’s even harder to believe is that all the Spring planting is complete except for the okra that goes in next week. Opal’s volunteers stepped it up and made early Spring a huge success!
April showers showed up just in time to give all the veggies a huge growth spurt. We closed out the month moving into “abnormally dry” as opposed to “moderate drought” status that started the month. The official rainfall total was four-and-a-half inches, but we over five inches at Opal’s Farm. The last few days of rain made access and work onerous but also allowed us some time to catch-up on some things we’ve put off due to Spring planting (like this blog…).
On April 24th, we had a group from my son Adrian’s church, The House Fort Worth, come down to the farm. They have regular “Love Your City” workdays and provide volunteers for projects all around Fort Worth. They did an amazing job getting furrows mulched and ready for the coming summer heat! Thanks to each one who came and Pastor Mark Ortiz for getting us on the list!
The House Fort Worth volunteers!
Our National Resource Conservation representative for urban farms, Mr. Michael Higgins put us in touch with two exciting new endeavors for Opal’s Farm. The first one is with Bashira Chowdurry, a native Houstonian working at Auburn University. Bashira is helping us develop new produce such as Bottle Gourd and Bitter Melon, which are staples in South Asian food. The seeds she sent are growing in our test beds. We’re trying them out to see how they work in North Texas. If all goes well, we’ll be able to grow produce for our South Asian community here in Tarrant County.
The second new project is with new immigrants from East Africa. We eagerly gave a third of an acre plot to Sylvia, Christian, and Gerard, new urban farmers here at Opal’s. They have been hard at work preparing beds and getting Spring planting in. It’s exciting to see the passion of our new farmers. My heart jumped a bit when Sylvia said it reminded her of home! We hope to be a part of making them successful as they meet the needs of the East African community and all our neighbors in Fort Worth.
This Spring has brought new volunteers to Opal’s Farm. We’re so happy to share this journey with other people who want to help us address food insecurity and food apartheid here in Fort Worth. Food brings people together. No one should have to be food insecure or denied access to healthy, fresh produce. No one should have to go without the sense of community that we have at the farm. Visit our website www.unityunlimited.org and sign up for your time to farm with us.
If you don’t have time to volunteer right now, please help us with your financial support. Every dollar you contribute goes to helping your neighbors get access to nutritious fresh produce!
P.S. Cowtown Farmers Market is getting busier with all the Spring crops coming in. The varieties of fresh, local produce may sell out so come early every Saturday so you don’t miss out!
gregoryjoel.com 