LB Fresh has long been an organization that understands the importance of green space and foodways. And their upcoming Long Beach farm and garden tour exemplified that dedication to all things green.
“The spaces that our farm and garden tour features are innovative places for food production, growing community, and building economic resilience,” said Tony Damico, co-director for LB Fresh.
So what, exactly, is this Long Beach farm & garden tour?
The event will be spread across three timeframes on Saturday, Aug. 24: a morning tour from 9:30AM to 1PM, an afternoon tour from noon to 4PM, or a full-day tour spanning the entirety of the spread. Participants will explore some of our city’s most treasured and underrated spaces for vegetables, fruits, flowers, and more.
“Long Beach has a diverse urban agriculture scene with local farms and community gardens.,” said Ryan Smolar, co-director of LB Fresh. “This tour by LB Fresh will connect more people with these green gems across our city. Attendees include many experts in local sustainability efforts, green space stewardship, and food projects.”
Tickets range from $25 for the morning or afternoon tours and $45 for the full-day tour. Click here to purchase.
And what farms and gardens will be seen?
Ticketholders will see:
- Santa Fe Community Learning and Teaching Garden is a learning space hosted by the Long Beach Master Gardeners that doubles as a kitchen garden for Westside Peruvian restaurant Casa Chaski’s, providing them with all of their vegetables. Those who participated in Long Beach Food Scene Week and visited Casa Chaski’s for their special? The entire dish was made using ingredients from this space.
- Grow2Zero is a veteran-led project that utilizes the City’s Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Program—or UAIZ—which provides a tax abatement to the commercial property owner in exchange for turning the vacant lot into a community agriculture site. Grow2Zero provides local food distributions and urban agriculture training across the city.
- Farm Lot 59 is a long-loved, women-lead agriculture project at Willow Springs Park. Originally growing food for chefs at some of our city’s best restaurants, current food production is sold to Food Finders for local food distribution. Farmer Sasha Kanno has led the field in local and responsible flower production. Their farmstand and a U-Pick Flowers event will be happening simultaneously during this visit led by LB Fresh.
- Long Beach Mushrooms is a mom-and-pop indoor operation that has made a big splash on the scene by providing unique mushroom varieties they sell directly to top restaurants like Heritage, Marlena, Chez Bacchus, Selva, and more while also being at the Harbor Area Farmers Market.
- Long Beach Organic Zaferia Junction Garden is one of the largest community gardens in the city. It occupies a unique space that used to be a Pacific Red Car right-of-way. This popular garden has 90 plots (with a long waiting list to join in on the farming action). Luckily, Long Beach Organic runs sites across the city where gardeners can join.
But why is the Long Beach farm & garden tour important?
“They’re exciting on one hand because they show us vibrant paths forward for a local food system, yet on the other hand, they’re inspiring because they’ve found ways to reinvent themselves to serve Long Beach’s diverse communities best and regenerate our local environment over the years,” Damico said. “These places hold incredible stories about the people who have built them, made even richer by the fruits of their labor.”
And if there is one thing I’ve long supported through both my food writing and city promotion, it is the ideal that we must know our foodways better. Even more, this is not just about restaurant food but also about food at every level. It is about learning who grows our food. Learning who accesses that food and who doesn’t.
In other words: Go.
The LB Fresh Long Beach Farm & Garden Tour takes place on Saturday, Aug. 24. Click here to purchase.
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