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Among Downtown’s concrete sidewalks and stucco buildings, Alvarado Urban Farm sticks out like a sore, green thumb.
The farm, located a block away from The Box Performance Space and Lotus Nightclub, is a hub for homegrown produce. The farm opened for business in September 2011 after farm asset manager Rick Rennie and the City of Albuquerque struck a deal with the Historic District Improvement Company (HDIC). The half-acre strip of land was to remain a patch of dirt before Rennie stepped forward with a solution.
“I did not want to see it be dirt, so I made a proposal: ‘Let’s make it a farm,’” Rennie said.
The urban farm has 82 beds for gardening where volunteers can plant, raise and harvest plants. Anyone interested can also play pétanque, a game that combines marbles with bowling, at one of the five courts. Rennie said the farm attracts volunteers of all ages and backgrounds, including students at ACE (Architecture, Construction & Engineering) Leadership High School to Albuquerque veterans.
“It means a lot when I drive by and see what used be a piece of dirt, and I see 50 people out there playing pétanque and having a good time; it makes me feel good,” Rennie said. “When I see veterans out there, working the farms and I see one crying, I ask if he’s OK, and he says ‘Yeah, this is the only place where I can go that I don’t have nightmares,’ that makes it all worth it 50 times over.”
The city agreement to run the farm ends Oct. 15, and Rennie said he is working to get the agreement renewed.
“The dream is to have tables set up there, food trucks there, and people there to eat at the farm on an afternoon,” he said. “The theme is really growing together.”
Rennie and HDIC project coordinator Zoya LoPata began a 12-week program in December to distribute local produce from the Alvarado Urban Farm and other local farms to customers.
“The ultimate goal is that we can get enough people buying local produce so that we can get prices close to the produce you can get at the store,” Rennie said. “Typically, you pay more for local, but the more we can close that gap, the more we can get healthier food in everyone’s hands.”
Amy Black, owner of the Supper Truck, works alongside HDIC and the farm. Her food truck is a pickup point for customers signed up for the produce program. Black said she had always wanted to open a food truck, and her volunteering at the urban farm became her path to doing so.
“I wanted to be involved and have a connection with an urban farm and eventually get within that circle of being able to grow what we serve in the truck,” she said. “We haven’t completely gotten there yet, but we’re moving towards that direction.”
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Black’s food truck sells small bags of produce every Friday for $10 to those signed up with the program. Black said each bag is a varied mix of vegetables: last week’s contained an assortment of salad greens, two cloves of garlic, carrots, potatoes and a loaf of bread from Bosque Baking Company.
Black said she’s glad to be a part of the city’s growing interest in local food and local produce.
“It’s all about the local aspect of things — people can buy local produce to take home and use, they can buy a dish off the food truck that’s a local business that utilizes that produce, and we buy from other local farms,” she said. “It’s really about the circle of local.”
