The sunflower is a hardy, drought resistant pop of color that help absorb harsh chemicals from the soil, as well as being a beautiful calling card to birds and bees (due to their seeds and nectar). However, they do need nutrient soil to grow. Otherwise, they thrive and manage in the harsh and dry Texas environment, and our roads and gardens would certainly look much drearier without them.
Did you know some Native tribes use sunflower seeds to make sunflower flour and their vibrant petals for dye? The stem was also used as a building material. Additionally, some traders managed to take seeds with them back to Europe and Russia in the 1500s, and by the 1800s over 2,000,000 acres of sunflowers had been planted in Russia! It seems it’s not just those in America who love the sunny flower.
The sunflower is quite versatile, from the edible petals to the seeds, and the stem… but did you know in a recent trend, you can also eat the head and buds? Sunflower flower buds can be cooked similarly to artichokes, can be eaten as part of a salad, or cooked in things like stir fry and taste both green and fresh. Meanwhile, the head is recommended to be harvested before the seeds harden, when the petals are still on the flower but beginning to go, and can be grilled up with just some oil in minutes, and utilized fairly similarly to corn (you can read here for further information).
If you try it out, let us know how it goes by tagging us on social media @Urbanrootsatx!
Additional Source:
Happy Farm Fact Friday, folks! This week we’re covering something that might be unexpected. It’s something smelly, messy, and “gross” but helps us improve soil health and nutrients, as well as reduces waste: the important farm practice of composting.
In short, composting is the process of turning organic material (anything we grow that doesn’t make it into consumable produce, like food scraps, weeds, leaves, etc.) via decomposing organisms that break it down like worms into fertile soil. It keeps food waste out of landfills, where it can’t properly decompose without oxygen and creates methane and carbon dioxide.
There are two different types of composting. Hot compost requires materials high in nitrogen at a specific high temperature to kill potential disease and weeds over time. Technically it is a faster process, taking some months, though maintaining the temperatures required.
Cold composting, which we utilize on the farm, is a slower process that may take up to a year to provide nutrient rich dirt. However, it does require less maintenance as you can add whatever material you have that works for composting, and only requires mixing to ensure it breaks down together and takes time. Without the temperature, it’s more important to ensure that weeds are properly disposed of so you aren’t spreading them with your soil, and that you keep any crop waste with disease out of it, to ensure it isn’t spreading.
On the farm, we use cold composting. We also utilize fertilizer and mixtures of things like chicken manure that create the healthy, nutrient rich soil we work with and grow with. You can compost on a small scale, with products you can purchase to use inside your home, or you can compost in a corner of your garden.
You can learn to compost at home, learn more about the components of composting, learn about the do’s and don’ts of composting, and learn more about the differences of hot and cold composting here.
Watch our beekeeper, Brandon Fehrenkamp (you can check him out on Instagram), show you the Urban Roots bees! You can see here as the honey bees are rebuilding their nectar storages in spring, which they had eaten throughout the winter. This spring nectar will go into helping make drone and worker bees for the blooming season ahead. They will continue to rebuild their storages as they pollinate the farm and gather nectar to make into honey through the summer and fall for another winter, and will repeat the process once again.
We’re seeking applications for our Fall 2022 cohort of our Food and Leadership Fellowship! The Fellowship is a hands-on, paid leadership development program on the farm for young folks between the ages of 17 to 23. Not only do Fellows learn to grow large quantities of sustainable produce, they learn professional development skills like leadership, task management, and mindful communication skills, and deepen their understanding of food justice and equity. The Fall 2022 session will run from September 20, 2022 through December 16, 2022 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. The program will be in person, and Fellows will earn $13.50/hour for their hard work. The application deadline is Friday, September 9th. Apply today!
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We’ve successfully wrapped up our summer Farmers’ Market season, and we owe a big thank you to the Sustainable Food Center’s Sunset Valley Market for letting us participate! We’re grateful to everyone who came out to talk with youth, buy our farm fresh produce, and to support Urban Roots. The booth went great, and we can’t wait to come back again in the fall! We’ll be returning November 12th, and running the booth those consecutive Saturdays until December 17th; keep an eye out on our upcoming newsletters and social media for more details.
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Urban Roots is hiring for an all new position, a Stewardship and Database Coordinator, who will be a key member of Urban Roots’ Development team and responsible for executing donor stewardship activities. This individual will work closely with colleagues across the organization to ensure the impact of giving is consistently and clearly communicated to Urban Roots’ community of supporters. This person will be responsible for accuracy, efficiency, and retrieval of donor records in Urban Roots’ Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) database. Want to join the team? Learn more here and APPLY TODAY! The application period closes August 15, 2022. Questions? Contact us at jobs@urbanrootsatx.org.
This role requires the Stewardship and Database Coordinator to work from the office, but will work out a schedule with the Development Director on which days and how often they will need to work in the office versus at home. The Stewardship and Database Coordinator’s tasks will include, but are not limited to the following. Click the link above to read the full description.
– Enter new or updated constituent, gift, and grant award information into Urban Roots’ CRM database to
ensure accuracy of donor/corporation/foundation profiles and accounting
– Process donations within 48 hours of receipt in adherence to Urban Roots’s contributed support
practices
– Produce and deliver timely donor acknowledgement letters and assist in the benefit fulfillment process
– Produce regular donor stewardship communications (e.g. letters/emails/calls) that demonstrate philanthropic impact
– Properly code both donors and incoming funds in database for tracking and targeting purposes
– Work closely with the Finance department to reconcile entries on a regular schedule
– Perform regular database maintenance of gift and donor data to ensure accuracy
– Create mailing lists and other reports for annual fund campaign and other donor outreach
– Support the coordination of special events, fundraising events and stewardship programs for donors, corporate partners and other affinity groups
– Support a culture of cross-organization communication, collaboration and information sharing
– Other duties as assigned
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“O, let America be America again –
The land that never has been yet
–And yet must be –
the land where every man is free.”
Langston Hughes
Today is June Nineteenth, or Juneteenth, which marks the anniversary of federal troops marching into Galveston, Texas in 1865 to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, and ensure all enslaved people were freed. It’s certainly a day for celebration, but also a day to be critical, as while slavery has been abolished, the accompanying discrimination is still present and deeply baked into American systems and infrastructure.
Urban Roots will always stand for educating our youth about racial injustice and the current inequity in both food access and agriculture. In our programs, youth learn about how race intersects with food inequity with activities like food mapping, which visually demonstrates where food is located and what types of food is there. This creates a conversation about why, especially as it pertains to Austin’s history of purposefully racially serrated geography. We also discuss how Urban Roots and similar programs can have positive short and long-term effects on these communities. Overall, we aim for our youth to continue building healthy, personal relationships with the land and to learn to support equitable, local food systems while acknowledging and respecting agricultural history, and the land that we’re on.
The evolving forms of discrimination are still present, so we must continue to advocate for and demand racial justice. While it is something that cannot be fixed by one person or in a day, we can all do our parts by educating ourselves (for instance, by learning about how racism exists in your local systems), listening to Black voices, and supporting your local Black business or organizations. Click here for a short KXAN piece on the subject and here for additional reading. Austin has plenty of businesses and services to check out, as well as organizations you can support (and resources for having these conversations with children, as well as some learning resources) here.
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Gilbert Baker, the activist who made the quintessential queer pride flag, said what inspired him about the flag was that it represented the “rainbow of humanity.” It’s Pride Month, and we want to celebrate the enduring bravery and ever growing legacy of love of not just the Stonewall Uprising and ensuing movements. We want to celebrate and honor the similar stories around the world, of radical love and rebelling against oppression. We want to remember both these larger movements made of countless hands and voices brought together, but also of the individual stories told and lost to time of our siblings, brothers, and sisters before and after.
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It’s been two long years since we’ve sold produce at farmer’s markets, and we’re ecstatic to share that we’re returning to the stalls! Urban Roots will be attending 4 farmer’s markets over the summer, on Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Sustainable Food Center’s Sunset Valley Market. Said Saturdays will be June 18th, June 25th, July 2nd, and July 9th, where Urban Roots youth will be running the market booths. We’re happy to say that our neighbors can use cash, credit, Lone Star (SNAP), WIC, P-EBT and FMNP benefits at our booth, and double that with SFC’s Double Up Food Bucks program. If you want to come meet our amazing youth or get some delicious farm fresh produce straight from Urban Roots, come see our booth!
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