Youth In Action: Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture

June 21^st, 9 a.m. Youth In Action met at the office of Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture. It’s a quaint little house from the outside; the backyard contains a chicken coop and the world’s sweetest dog trying to play with us and not caring that chickens were all around him. To the right of the house is a community garden plot and one the corner of the street is a well established demonstration garden. The rows are organized and neat; it is obvious that careful, experienced hands created this garden. The plants are big and healthy; there are no chemicals used in this garden, simply compost and care.

Daniel from CCUA educating us.

The food is technically not organic, since that word can not be used without federal approval. My favorite plant to see growing was the blue berries. Since Missouri weather is not ideal for blue berries, as Daniel put it, “You have to trick them.” Growing this fruit requires digging trenches and filling them with straw to make them think they are in a bog.

The CCUA Farm at Smith and Fay.

After the grand tour we made the ¾ of a mile walk to the CCUA farm at Smith and Fay. It’s a large farm, around the size of an acre. Currently half is nice and neat; it looks well established
like the demonstration garden. The other half is a work in progress. YIA focused on this part—shoveling dirt to help prepare the land. After a couple hours of hot and hard work, we put down the shovels and learned how to plant bulbs. Everyone was enthusiastic about planting; who doesn’t love to play in the dirt!

Youth In Action learns how to plant bulbs.

Planting the bulbs.

Youth In Action contributed to Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture, a relatively new non profit in Columbia. Here’s their purpose statement form their website http://columbiaurbanag.org/about/

“Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture exists to help facilitate the development of a local food system in all of its many interrelated and complex components. These include but are not limited to compost, gardens, education, markets, commerce, policy, transportation, job creation, and city planning.”

Moving dirt to prepare the land.