Spring Discovery Day at Forest City Farms: Explore the Farm in Your Backyard!

We are excited to announce the first annual Spring Discovery Day at Forest City Farms on Saturday, May 20, 2017, from 1-4 pm, 1100 River Road in Middletown (rain date: Sunday, May 21, same time). Bring your family and come explore the farm in your backyard!

This free event will feature fun for all. Plant your own pumpkin, go on a tour of the farm, learn how your fresh produce is grown and the importance of healthy soil, investigate what lives in our soil to help make plants grow, learn how to make compost, and visit the farm stand, along with other kid-friendly hands-on fun!

Forest City Farms is a small organic farm on City owned land along the Connecticut River in Middletown, focused on contributing to the local sustainable food community in which farm manager, Gabe Russo, his wife Allison, and their two young children live. They grow a wide variety of vegetables and culinary herbs that are sold at farmers markets and distributed in local farm shares. The farm’s goal is to grow food ecologically and ethically, and to be a community farm with educational programs to engage local children and families. A portion of the farm shares are subsidized for low income residents, and the farm is approved for SNAP/EDT. The summer CSA begins in June and runs to September; and the fall CSA runs from October to November.

The Forest City Farms Spring Discovery Day is part of a Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District project to enhance urban agriculture in Middletown, funded by a grant from the National Association of Conservation Districts. Project partners include Forest City Farms, Long Lane Farm, the City of Middletown, Middletown High School Agricultural Science and Technology Program, North End Action Team, the Macdonough and Farm Hill School Family Resource Centers, and the Middletown FoodCorps program. Funding for a pilot program to plan and hold two on-farm educational events at Forest City Farms, the first of which is the Spring Discovery Day, was provided in part by a generous grant from The Rockfall Foundation, Middletown, CT.

The Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Middletown, CT, works to conserve the natural resources of towns in the lower Connecticut River watershed and coastal areas. For more information about District technical and educational programs and services, visit us at www.conservect.org/ctrivercoastal, or www.facebook.com/ctrivercoastalcd/.