The third annual plant sale at the Grow Hope Urban Youth Farm in East Chattanooga at 1800 Roanoke Ave. will be on Saturday. Doors open at 9 a.m. and the sale will end at 4 p.m.
If rain is threatening, the sale will be inside the gym at the same address
Organizers will sell over 62 varieties of vegetables, herbs and beneficial flowers, including 17 varieties of tomatoes. Plants were raised in a local greenhouse using organic methods, and will be well-priced for the community.
EBT, cash and checks will be accepted.
There will also be three free workshops during the day: at 11 a.m., Composting For Life, with Joel Tippens, noon- Get Rooted in Container Gardens, with Sara McIntyre of Crabtree Farms, and at 1 p.m. - Building Raised Beds with Sunny Day of The Free Garden Community Project and Joel Tippens.
The sale is sponsored by Fair Share Urban Growers, a non-profit organization that has been operating in Chattanooga for four years. Its mission is to achieve food justice in the center-city neighborhoods of Chattanooga through sustainable agriculture; our two urban farms are located at 2401 E. Main Street, as well as the Grow Hope Urban Youth Farm at 1800 Roanoke Avenue. Not by coincidence, these two urban farms are located in the food deserts of Chattanooga -- more than one mile to the closest grocery store -- and the Grow Hope farm is almost four miles to the nearest grocery store.
At the Grow Hope Urban Youth Farm, the only youth farm in Chattanooga, young people spend their summer learning how to grow vegetables and plants that appeal to the neighboring communities: okra, green beans, tomatoes (including green tomatoes for frying), peppers, black-eyed peas, sweet potatoes, and more. They examine the elements of a business plan -- marketing, costs, calculating profit, customer relations, keeping records – and then actually sell their produce each Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. during the summer, becoming the only source of fresh vegetables for miles around. They also spend some time preparing a meal from the fresh food they just harvested - demystifying how easy it is to incorporate fresh food into their diets, and learning about the health benefits of eating fresh- and learn about food justice and solutions for the food problems in East Chattanooga.
All proceeds from the sale go to support the youth farm program.
For more information please contact Brenda Trigg at 786-202-3686 or fairsharegardenBJT@gmail.com.