The Institute of Urban Homesteading presents
Urban Farm Tours 2016
Vallejo & Benicia
Sunday May 22, 2016 9am-3pm
Urban Farms Tours is back! Last seen in Vallejo, 2014, we have gone deeper into the Vallejo-Benicia area to select the very best examples of urban agriculture we could find. Urban Farm Tours offer the public an opportunity to visit private home-scale farms and learn what is possible on a typical local property. The 2016 tour of Vallejo & Benicia offers a foray into the suburban wilderness featuring sites ranging from a miniature livestock operation to a full-fledged food forest. As well as productive food gardening and urban livestock, you will see cutting edge sustainability features, family engagement and innovative micro-economies.
Here at the Institute of Urban Homesteading, we believe that urban farming makes a lot of sense. On a medium sized lot you can raise enough food for your own family with extra to share, at a fraction of the cost for that same organic produce at the market. Add to this, the saved cost to the environment when your food is grown five feet from your kitchen table instead of five thousand miles. With good management, vegetable and animal wastes generated increase soil fertility and reduce soil toxicity with no smell or hazard to neighbors or ground water. Urban Agriculture provides great conversation, a solid connection to the earth and a healthy outdoor alternative to video games for children.
In the Bay Area, the urban agriculture movement is well underway. As it grows, we think it important to look at what is possible, sensible and appropriate for home-scale agrarian practice in an urban environment. Urban Farm Tours invites you to see what established urban farmers are up to and what productive urban agriculture looks like. Ticket-holders will see water-wise gardening, edible landscaping, urban orchards, chickens, bees, goats, rabbits, pollinator habitat, composting systems, coop designs, greywater conservation and rainwater catchment, food forests, hugelkultur, bioswales and much much more. Ask questions, get inspiration and sample some of the bounty these farmers produce! Featured Farms Avant Garden Our staging area is a vibrant community garden in the heart of downtown Benicia Dog Island Farm From weeds to productivity: Bio-intensive row cropping, chickens, turkeys, goats and bees. Benicia Sunset Farm Beauty & practicality: Raised beds, creative re-use, chickens, rabbits, orchard, pollinator & kid friendly Rojas Urban Mini-Farm Focus on livestock & ethical meat: A small vegetable garden is eclipsed by an amazing array of chickens, goats, turkeys & cows, intergenerational farming and neighborhood micro-economy Beyond the Birds and the Bees Permaculture in practice: Food forest, hugelkultur, greywater, bio-swales, no-till gardening The Institute of Urban Homesteading is a small school of urban sustainability based in Oakland, CA and offering classes for adults on a wide variety of topics including organic gardening, beekeeping, canning cheesemaking and other traditional agrarian skills. Urban Farm Tours 2016 Vallejo & Benicia
THE DETAILS
HOW IT WORKS
Purchase a ticket online for a full day or a half day. Full day pass includes our staging area and all four sites. Half day includes staging area and two of our sites (Half day attendee will have some choice of which sites they visit). Tickets will also be available at the door. Show up at our staging area in downtown Benicia to pick up your itinerary. Once you have your itinerary, map your sites and drive yourself there. For those who wish it, we’ll arrange carpooling onsite the day of the event. The box office at our staging area will be open 9am-10:30 and 12 noon-1:30. Please arrive at the staging area by 9:30am for full day and morning only passes, and between 12 & 1pm for half day afternoon passes. WHEN Sunday May 22, 2016 Arrive 9am-9:30am for full day and morning passes. Arrive 12pm -1pm for afternoon passes.
LOCATION
All tour-goers will start at Avant Garden in Downtown Benicia. Corner of 1st & D Streets. Directions and maps to the featured sites in Vallejo and Benicia will be provided to ticket holders.
COST
Advance Ticket Purchase: Adult $30/50/75*
Child $18 Half Day $20
At the Door: Adult $35/50/75*
Child $20 Half Day $25 *
Sliding scale ticket pricing gives you the opportunity to support our work. Proceeds benefit the farmers and the Institute of Urban Homesteading. People who purchase a Friend of the Farm Tour or Patron of the Farm Tour ticket will receive farm fresh goodies from our farmers as a thank you.
TICKETS
LINKS Website http//:iuhoakland.com
Event Page http://www.iuhoakland.com/events.html#VB
Site Descriptions http://www.iuhoakland.com/uft16vb.pdf
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/1084963781563856/
CONTACT iuh@sparkybeegirl.com
