A Catholic Urban Farming Community

I am starting a Catholic Urban farming group, the Saint Isidore Society, in the Denver metro area. Our goal is to build a local, sustainable food supply and economy, while at the same time building a real community instead of the dust of disconnected individuals our cities have become.

We are using the principles of Permaculture, but individual members can be more or less permacultural. We hold that Permaculture fits well with the teachings of the Catholic Church, and that these teachings can be used to change the world.

We have an urban farm site, which we started work on in August. We also are working on various projects to improve member's yards. We are building beehives to provide wax for the altar candles of a local church, and will be starting a seed library this fall, when our first seed harvest comes in.

If you are in the Denver metro area, and would like to be part of this, come and join us! We meet almost every week. In the summer we will be meeting twice a week. You can contact us through our website. If my signature is working, there should be a link at the bottom of the page.

Yet another way permaculture infiltrates life. <g>

So, your members live in their existing homes and meet at a common plot regularly where you brainstorm and work the plot? Do you affiliate with the local pastors at all?

Best luck.


Rufus

Hello Rufus,

The pastor of my parish is very supportive, and he lets us meet in the parish hall. So that is where we generally hold our discussion meetings. Our members all live in their own homes, and meet at the parish, at our community farm, or in a member's back yard.

Update;

Since I last posted on this thread, we have had a highly successful year on our primary urban farm. We had huge harvests of tomatoes, winter and summer squash, cucumbers, and eggplant. (We had some failures too; our peppers were eaten by slugs, and our biggest watermelon was the size of a baseball.)

We recently hosted an Advent wreath festival at a local parish as a fundraiser. We used pine branches cut from a member's mountain property.

We have started experimenting with rocket and biochar stoves.

We are busy planning for next year: a remodelled green house, wicking planters, more fruit trees and bushes, geese, solar cookers, and many other projects are in the works.

For more details on all of this, follow the link to our website in my signature.