Urban food revival. Protecting what is already there.

On August 6th, 2015, Troy Urban Farming Initiative and members of the city wide community began their Urban Orchard Project.  Originally with the intent to take vacant city owned lots and convert them in to public space as a park and orchard in neighborhoods all across the city of Troy, NY.

While working on the logistics, mapping out the location of these often hidden lots located where roads and railroad tracks once ran, checking on suitability to planting fruit trees and if they will remain viable for the long range as well as what to plant, the group realized that through out the city there were stands of existing fruit trees that have been long neglected, some are even remnants from the heyday of victory gardens and self sufficiency that disappeared at the close of WWII, along with the city's industry.  Not to mention the number of abandoned properties that contained fruit trees, mostly apples, that were not owned by the city, yet.

John Cubit, founder of TUFI, commented that "These trees are all over the city.  You just need to get out there and look.  From the bike trail to the river and from North Troy to South Troy, even hidden in areas of Rensselaer Poly Tech campus and the Russell Sage campus there are fruit trees just waiting for people to enjoy the food they are providing."

That is when one volunteer, Francis Magia suggested tracking these sites on-line and sharing with the residents where to go and when to harvest.

Trees after being pruned

The group decided to go ahead and get started while working on the original concept and start revitalizing the current stands of fruit trees through out the city.  Their first stop was on 1st St. and Adams, a once mixed industrial and residential area that other than those living there is a barren site of brown fields, except this little corridor with several various species of apple trees.

A mix of large crab-apples, used for preserves and desserts, to large, very sweet apples that are still ripening.  All the trees but one were filled heavily with apples.  One was completely dead and the group removed that due to the infestation of worm and carpenter ants, but the wood was taken away for use in an art project, since the main trunk was mostly undamaged, other than from the worms that girdled the tree.

Peter demonstrating correct pruning methods

After a brief class on pruning and branch removal by Peter Tarantelli, referred to as Peter the Pruner, the group went at clearing the sidewalks of low hanging branches as well as the roadway.  They removed dead and diseased branches as well.  Though the amount of branches were small they knew that what they did will have a major impact on the health of the tree and its longevity.

John commented that now we need to let people know about these trees. "Come late September, October these are going to be great apples, and they are there for everyone to enjoy."

The group is scouting out another site not to far away for their next guerrilla pruning session as well as still working on a site location for the original concept of an urban orchard, food security is one of TUFI's top priorities, not to mention it helps make Troy a better place to live.

If interested in helping out with the orchard, tree pruning or interested in learning skills to become self-sufficient or developing a urban farm join up and follow Troy Urban Farming Initiative on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TroyUFI or email at TroyUFI@gmail.com.

Who is TUFI?

We want to thank all that attended the Meet and Greet and also need to apologize. It appears that when the event was scheduled the announcement only went to about 19 people, of the 215 members. Not sure as to why that happened.

One of the key points that came out of the meet and greet is that TUFI though a group of food enthusiast, gardeners, farmers and community it is really you. We are here to foster the sustainable food movement and community development through urban farming and gardening. We are here to help each other and help others become part of the movement. TUFI is as big or small as the individual wants it to be. Whether you want to learn how to garden on your property, porch or balcony or working to establish a viable urban farm, that is up to you and we are here to help.

This also does not limit to just produce, but include mushroom farming, food as medicine, foraging, micro-livestock, bee keeping, flowers, habitat restoration whatever your goal.

What we are trying to arrange is a fruit or nut tree planting although we need donations of tree stocks. What you can look for is donations of damaged trees that a nursery might be willing to donate, even if we only get five or ten that would be great. If for some reason we do not acquire some tree stock then we will be doing a class on generating peach, apple and nectarine trees from seeds. A few of us already have or will have greenhouses shortly we can winter over the saplings we generate and plan on a 2016 Tree Blitz. Think of it this way, we have 216 members currently and if each one of us do just one apple tree we could plant a full public orchard. That would be a major accomplishment from a small effort and really carries our message of "One seed, one hand, one community".

Always looking for you input you can always post to the page or send us an email at TroyUFI@gmail.com and of course keep spreading the word on Troy Urban Farming Initiative and lets keep generating roots in Troy!

-John

Join us for our kick off meet and greet!

Interested in sustainable farming? Redefining what farming is? What about urban farming. Want to put vacant lots to work?

Want to be on the board, a worker, a planner or an organizer?  Maybe you want to become part of a co-op and start your own urban farm for your family, neighborhood or community.  Join us Monday April 6th at 6:30 pm. for an informal get together and brainstorming session.  Find out about the concept and how you can help and be part of the sustainable urban agriculture movement.

TUFI is happening, are you going to be part of it?

Location:
Cornerstone Community Church of Lansingburgh, NY
570 3rd Ave, Troy, New York 12182

Call to arms or should we say Call to grow!

Post by Troy Urban Farming Initiative.

Revitalization and job creation through sustainable community farming.

While farm to table and farm to market are seemingly popular catch phrases of the day, the truth remains that urban cities as a whole continue to decline, buildings are razed and often development focus is on city centers over the prime, tax base of the surrounding residential neighborhoods and jobs decline.

In cities like Troy the development of good paying jobs has not happened, many residents are at or below the poverty line, Lansingburgh School district is rated with over 53% of the students below. Development of diverse business base has not happened and the protection of housing stocks has not happened. Troy continues to push forward on development of new housing, catered around the city center, which has seen much revitalization in the past 10 years.

We reviewed the number of city owned properties available for sale 75% of the are vacant lots. Each lot carries a potential agriculture benefit of $1,000,000 of production a year. We are not talking livestock other than maybe a few chickens, a goat or two or even an aquaponics center, then the numbers can increase two fold, but actual fruit and vegetable production.

As a co-operative model TUFI looks to take those currently unused lots and transform them to working farms. Allowing individuals to develop and build solid urban farm businesses that will help the economy of the individual, the neighborhoods, the city and other businesses that need produce. It will redefine farm to table or farm to market to what it is meant to be, fresh inexpensive produce, eggs and fish.

Our goal is not to compete with groups like Capital Roots but help them with supplying more fresh local farm items to our residents and to incubate job creation in the world of urban farming.