Thanks to everyone who has donated so far to our project!  We've reached our initial goal of $10,000 and will be able to purchase the lot for our new community based urban farm! However, there are still two weeks left on our Kickstarter campaign, so we are now looking to raise $16,000 by January 30th so that we can hit the ground running.

Did you know that it can cost up to $1000 to hook up city water? This will be one of the first things that we will have to do, as we'll need water on the lot to water the beds and wash produce. We'll also need shade and storage, and so we'll need to build a tool shed to house our tools and a shaded seating area to use as a gathering space for workshops and work days.

We need your help to transform this land ASAP, so please donate today!

Thanks to all of you who have given so generously!  We wanted to fill in some details on what we're attempting to do.  First, the $10,000 that we are trying to raise will be going to pay for the land.  The Kickstarter ends on January 30th, and it looks more likely every day that we will reach this goal. 

This winter, we will be meeting with our team of friends and advisers to create a business plan, feasibility study, and outreach in the surrounding neighborhood to start building this urban farm in to a sustainable community based business.  In other words, another cooperative creating its own surpluses.

We have a lot of ideas, but as our friend John Parker says, there is no real limit to ideas!  We're going to work toward blending the experience and analysis of folks like John, Ed Whitfield at F4DC, Ernest & Camryn Smith of Neighborhood Allies, and others with Bountiful Backyards experience, the desires of the neighborhood to create a viable, neighborhood based, and cooperative community enterprise. 

The land itself is fairly ideal for our purposes, but it is a vacant lot with some logistical issues.  First and foremost is water access.  At Two Ton, less than 3% of our water needs were met by municipal water sources, but we still do need to hook this up to provide back up water resources and water for humans.  The cost on this could range anywhere from $700-$1500. 

We also will need to build some kind of structure to capture rainwater for our main irrigation.  This structure would also be very useful for hosting workshops, work with neighborhood youth, and other courses, as well as providing shade and a safe place to for conversations, sharing skills and knowledge, and hanging out.  We've tossed around the idea of building a timber frame structure with a tin roof that could accomplish these goals.  The cost on this we're estimating will be around $5000-$6000. 

Other costs include garden materials (soil, amendments, tools, plants etc, $3000-$3500) for building the garden in to an abundant community based farm, filled with beautiful spaces for pollinators, beneficial insects, people and regenerating soil! 

As we are a cooperative and not a traditional non-profit, our work with youth has not been funded thus far, but until the farm starts earning revenue, we would also be ecstatic to have money to put toward stipends for the youth we will be continuing to work with this Spring and Summer as we get things rolling ($2000-$3000).

So, in addition to the purchase price of the land, we will need to raise an additional $10,000-$15,000 over time.  Of course we're happy to go above our goal on Kickstarter, but we thought that $10,000 was a reasonable starting point and would slay the biggest cost for any would be farm, the price of the land.  Getting that out of the way will be huge.

Thanks again for your support, Happy New Year, and we look forward to hearing more of your questions about the Angier Avenue Neighborhood Farm!