UCCS Farm Visit
After tucking sweet babe, Amos, into bed last Tuesday I slipped out of the door to visit the Farm at UCCS. Friends, UCCS has a farm. Holli, who runs the account, started following and commenting a few months ago and I fell in love with their account. It's a big effort to bring awareness to the efforts made in general these days but I can imagine even bigger when you're a part of a huge campus. The university isn't far from us and I see it all of the time, however, I have never noticed the sweet farmhouse on the very east side. It has a precious farmhouse and the garden is beautiful. For the past five years, a woman named Kelly has been working hard at growing produce, composting, expanding the farm efforts into more, receiving grants and putting them to good use and most importantly in all of this, helping our earth. For the past year Holli has joined her efforts and the two of them, alongside =their volunteer team are doing SUCH neat things here.
As I parked out front of the farmhouse I caught a glimpse of the house and oh, the nostalgia. It brought me back to the original home my grandparents lived in when I was little. Stucco and sweet, quaint and accents of old- telling stories all around. Emer, the cat, greeted me with big love and soft purrs. I love him. As I went inside and saw the kitchen that clearly had renovations in the 90's I imagine what the couple or person were like who washed dishes at their sweet sink overlooking beautiful views. Did they know what this home would host in 30 years?
Holli welcomed me with seeds to plant, 2 starters, and produce that had been freshly picked. We've loved all of it. I'll use her seeds next year. Holli is kind-hearted and working hard at the garden upwards of 25 hours per week. She's customized a veggie washing station outside (ft below with her leaning on it), and she knows EVERYTHING about the plants, and humbly gives all credit of her knowledge to her colleague, Kelly! She opened my eyes to several practices and showed me edible plants that I've been calling weeds. What do I know?
While I'm over here learning as I go, she was so helpful for me and the growth of our very own garden over here at Fortitude and Finn.
UCCS composts 7k lbs of waste per year through this farm... No wonder their soil is gold. They've started a mushroom patch and they've recently hosted a beehive to #savethebees - sweet babes. I want their hail guards as we all know that COS is not shy about their hail performances and their greenhouse made my mouth AND eyes water. Goals.
Did you know that you can volunteer at the UCCS Farm.. so if you live nearby and have some time to kill or just want to learn, get your hands dirty and eat some incredibly flavorful foods, reach out to Holli or Kelly via IG. They have classes in the farmhouse, they're working on a cookbook and they dream about hosting yoga in the farm! They also mill grain and work with great companies like COS' very own Nightingale Bakery at the Lincoln School #supportyourlocalfarm rings true here... Thanks for having me. xx-k
