{"id":153316,"date":"2019-08-30T08:01:46","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T12:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=153316"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:16:13","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T16:16:13","slug":"uconn-extension-produces-bumper-crop-urban-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/08\/uconn-extension-produces-bumper-crop-urban-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Extension Produces Bumper Crop of Urban Farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a warm summer Saturday, and Partha Loor has come to the Danbury Farmer\u2019s Market to sell the produce she and the other members of UConn Extension\u2019s urban agriculture program harvested the day before. Customers cluster around the tables bearing mounds of eggplants, beets, cabbages, lettuce, cilantro, zucchini, and onions as Loor and her daughter, Amira, bag vegetables and take payments.<\/p>\n

The urban agriculture program<\/a> was started in 2014 by German Cutz, associate extension educator for sustainable families and communities. A group of Hispanic men and women from Danbury wanted to learn to grow the vegetables they missed from their homeland, and he\u2019d promised to look for a program of study in Spanish. Serendipitously, about the same time a farmer in nearby New Milford called Cutz\u2019s office at the Fairfield County Extension Center<\/a> in Bethel to offer a section of his farmland for UConn Extension\u2019s use in teaching people to farm.<\/p>\n

\"German
German Cutz, German Cutz, associate extension educator for sustainable families and communities, speaks with customers at the Danbury Farmers\u2019 Market. (Sara Putnam\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a nationwide search failed to turn up a suitable Spanish language curriculum on growing vegetables, Cutz embarked on developing his own, based on the nationally approved Master Gardener program. He visited with the New Milford farmer, Carl Dunham of Candlelight Farms, who was enthusiastic about Cutz\u2019s proposed project. With the availability of farmland, Cutz\u2019s vision had evolved from teaching vegetable gardening to a few people to the establishment of a market farming operation. The urban agriculture program was born.<\/p>\n

\u201cUrban agriculture is focused on producing food with the intention of selling it,\u201d Cutz explains. \u201cIt has three components: producing, processing, and distributing. If you meet those three criteria, you\u2019re doing urban agriculture.\u201d \u00a0His hope was that participants in the new program would see not only the prospect of growing their own vegetables, but a business opportunity as well.<\/p>\n

The program has three integrated parts: classroom modules in soils, botany, entomology, integrated pest management, and vegetable production; hands-on production using organic methods; and entrepreneurship. \u00a0Substantial commitment of time and energy is required of participants, most of whom have jobs and families and little or no previous agricultural experience. Classes run from November to November, production from April to October, and selling is from June through October at local farmers markets. All three components are essential to the participants\u2019 \u2013and program\u2019s\u2014success. In addition to passing the five classroom modules with a grade of 70 percent or higher, participants must perform 80 hours of work at the farm and 40 hours of sales at the farmer\u2019s market.<\/p>\n

At the market, business is brisk. In this, the entrepreneurship component, the new farmers see firsthand the demand for their produce. The first item to disappear is the cabbage; a short time later the last eggplants go, then the cilantro. Loor says cilantro is their most popular product. It\u2019s special; they\u2019ve learned that the Danbury market\u2019s largely Hispanic clientele likes it grown to full maturity, while other groups prefer the taste of younger cilantro. Seeing how well the cilantro sold, the group has started offering it in bundles with other products: tomatoes and onions to make salsa, for example. Cutz says the participants continually assess customers\u2019 preferences, choosing crops and planning their growing season accordingly. They practice crop rotation, intercropping, and succession cropping to keep supply steady through the season.<\/p>\n

It is well known that low-income urban areas are often food deserts<\/a>, lacking supermarkets or other retailers that offer affordable nutritious food. Residents often have to rely on convenience stores carrying mostly expensive, high-calorie, low-nutrient packaged foods laden with salt, sugar, and preservatives, bringing both economic and health consequences. The urban agriculture program\u2019s new farmers are helping to improve access to fresh food for residents of Connecticut\u2019s low-income urban areas. During the 2018 growing season, the Danbury group produced 15,000 pounds of vegetables on its 1.5-acre plot at Candlelight Farms.<\/p>\n

The Danbury Farmer\u2019s Market places a heavy emphasis on nutrition. On the other side of the green, two of Cutz\u2019s co-workers, Assistant Extension Educator Heather Peracchio, a registered dietitian nutritionist, and Program Aide Julianne Restrepo Marin are conducting their second nutrition class of the day. After reviewing USDA\u2019s Choose My Plate dietary guidelines, they\u2019re preparing \u201cmarket salsa,\u201d with ingredients for sale that day. Peracchio and market director Peggy Zamore have worked with a private donor to underwrite $15 market vouchers for those who attend the class. The tent is packed with market goers listening intently in preparation for cashing in their vouchers on Connecticut\u2019s summer bounty.<\/p>\n

While the urban agriculture program was originally developed to serve lower-income urban residents, others hearing of the program wanted to participate. In seeking to address the scarcity of fresh food, Cutz felt he couldn\u2019t afford to turn anyone away. His current Danbury cohort is a mix of English and Spanish speakers, some professionals, others who work in construction or service industries, and others who are un- or underemployed and living in poverty. Cutz now teaches the classes and hands-on field work in English and Spanish simultaneously. All text materials are in both languages, English and Spanish pages and slides are used side by side, and his lectures in the classroom and in the field are done in both languages as well. In fact, the Danbury program is now listed as an ESL class.<\/p>\n

When word of the urban ag program began to get out, Cutz heard from groups in other cities eager to organize similar projects. He now conducts a program in Bridgeport in partnership with the Green Village Initiative, where growing space was available but there was no one to teach aspiring farmers, and a new program may start this fall in Hartford, in partnership with KNOX.<\/p>\n

\"UConn
UConn Extension members Heather Peracchio, left, and Julianne Restrepo Marin give a nutrition class in English and Spanish at the Danbury Farmers\u2019 Market. (Sara Putnam\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The income from produce sales goes back into the program, for seed and inputs, as well as small stipends for the participants to help defray the cost of their participation. Cutz works in partnership with other UConn Extension educators and faculty to obtain grants that are the primary support for the program.<\/p>\n

At the end of the farmer\u2019s market, all that\u2019s left are a few large zucchini, which will be distributed among the program participants. When larger amounts remain, the produce is donated to food pantries or shelters.<\/p>\n

The ultimate goal is for graduates of the program to establish independent growing operations. Three graduates of the Bridgeport program have done just that, and, in what Cutz calls an unintended outcome, three of the Danbury graduates have been hired by area farmers. Says Cutz, \u201cMore than 99 percent of urban residents don\u2019t produce their own food. With this program, we\u2019re working to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This project was sponsored by the USDA-NIFA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program Award #2016-70017-25416 and Farm Credit East # 6208260<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn Extension’s urban agriculture program brings fresh produce – and the skills to grow it – to Connecticut cities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":153349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,2192,2231,2387,2225],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1934],"class_list":["post-153316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-fairfield-county","category-health-well-being","category-sustainability","category-uconn-storrs"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-02 19:04:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153316"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153385,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153316\/revisions\/153385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/153349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153316"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=153316"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=153316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}