Food, Health and Jobs Urban Farm
Operating as usual
September 28th come out to the Farm on Ogden (3555 W. Ogden) to learn more about and how you can help protect our water sources, air quality, and wildlife habitats.
Enjoy delicious tamales provided by and get a tour of The Farm on Ogden!
Click the link in our bio to register and learn more!
September 28 come out to the Farm on Ogden (3555 w Ogden) and learn more about The importance of and how you can help on this years ballot!
Food will be provided and gets behind the scenes tour of the Farm on Ogden. Click the link in our bio to learn more!
REPOST• When land and water is conserved, native wildlife thrive. The referendum in Cook County will restore and improve 35,000 acres of natural areas, providing wildlife habitats for plants and animals that call the home. Learn more at the link in our profile.
Check out the prairie garden extension the AVI apprentices designed and built. We grow native plants and collect the seeds to help replant out our natural areas in Cook County. Plus they bring natural organic pest management to our farms. Interested in a career in horticulture, local food, and working outside? Click the Apprenticeship link in our bio.
Our 2022 Apprenticeship students had a blast during their hive inspection at our Rodeo farm. 🐝 Look out for our hyper local honey this fall at The Farm on Ogden.
Click the link in our bio to learn more about the Urban Agriculture Resilience Program! Application are due November 1st.
REPOST• The , Windy City Harvest, and the American Public Gardens Association are accepting applications for Urban Agriculture Resilience Program Capstone Cohort awards to support public gardens in facilitating collaborative urban agriculture, community gardening, and other food-growing programs.
The Cohort will comprise a small group of established urban agriculture projects seeking to sustain and institutionalize their work. Eligible projects may be previous awardees or established urban agriculture projects new to the Urban Agriculture Resilience Program. Awardees will receive mentoring and technical support from Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest to help build the sustainability of their programs.
Award amount is $50,000. Applications are due no later than 8:00 p.m. EDT/ 5:00 p.m. PDT November 1, 2022.
Learn more about your eligibility, see the criteria, and access the application form by clicking the link in our bio.
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Farm on Ogden market will close early tomorrow, Friday 9/16 at 3pm. We will resume normal hours on Saturday, 9/17 from 11am-5pm. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your support!
Windy City Harvest and Chicago Botanic Garden are supporting referendum in Cook County! Join us to help protect our water sources, air quality, and wildlife habitats.
Click the link in our bio to learn more.
REPOST• This November, Cook County voters will have the opportunity to to protect our water sources, air quality, and wildlife habitats. Join the Garden in supporting the referendum in Cook County. Learn more at the link in our profile.
Check out our 2022 Incubator Farmers! We lease 1/8-1/4 acre plots to Windy City Harvest Apprenticeship graduates that also took a small farm business course through our partner . 2 of our incubator farms are GroupGAP certified (peep the intense audit)! Congratulations to Chicago Urban Farm Solutions and One Family Farms! .willingham (CUFS)
If you love food, being outside, and being part of the Chicago local food movement, check out our Apprenticeship. Link in bio.
Join us for a Meet and Greet with Keli Stewart at the Farm on Ogden! Learn how she helped curate and create poems for the instillation! 🌱
REPOST• Join us at the Farm on Ogden on Sept. 10 from 11 a.m. – noon for a Meet & Greet with poet Keli Stewart. Learn about how she worked with participants and staff to curate and create poems for the installation “Of Earth and Sky.”
The benefits of Horticulture Therapy have been known since ancient times! Using therapeutic horticulture activities, our Horticulture Therapists enhance participants well-being with plants and plant-related activities.
“Wherever life plants you, bloom with grace!”
Don’t let the winter season stop you from growing. Come to our season extension workshop on September 16 1 PM to 2:30 PM at PCC Austin farm (330 N. Lotus Ave.) Learn which crops perform best in Chicago winters, specific techniques to build low tunnels and cold frames, and overwintering.
Thank you to the for hosting an apprentice field trip to learn about roof top farming and job opportunities. Apply to the Apprenticeship today! Link in bio.
Want to learn tomato trellising, pepper training, and diversified vegetable farming? Apply for the WCH Apprenticeship today. We have upcoming information session to learn more. Link in bio.
Congrats to our 2022 Corps graduates of cohort 2!! 🥳🎉 We are so proud of them for and appreciate all of the hard work that went into these 13 weeks. Can’t wait to see what their future holds!
It’s wet and cloudy but our farm stand is bright and cheery!
We are open every Thursday 10am-12pm. PCC Austin
330 N. Lotus
Want to farm? Want to learn about and experience urban farming in Chicago? Ready to take the next step into local food? Check out the Windy City Harvest Apprenticeship! The 2023 application period is now open. Link in bio.
One of our amazing apprenticeship interns working hard at the PCC Austin farm stand. Interested in urban agriculture? We are currently enrolling students for our 2023 Apprenticeship class! Email [email protected] for more info!
Behind the scenes of our photo shoot showcasing our wonderful partnership with Savor. Our McCormick Place rooftop farm aims to highlight the farm to table process.
Washington Park youth farmers are learning about plant propagation!!They’ve taken cuttings of grapes, elderberries and more to make new plants that they can take home. They’ve also learned about native plants and pollinators and added some extra diversity to our landscape. 🌷🌱
Want to be an Urban Farmer? Want to be a professional food grower in Chicago? Want to help make our Chicago Food Shed more resilient? Just like being outside, working with your hands, and interested in a new career?
Our 2023 Apprenticeship application process is open!
Click the link below to fill out the interest form and learn more.
https://www.chicagobotanic.org/urbanagriculture/apprenticeship
Windy City Harvest Apprenticeship About the Program How to Apply The Windy City Harvest Apprenticeship program is offered annually from last week of January through the third week of October, and applications for the program are due in the fall.
Public tours are back! Every Saturday at 1pm come to the Farm on Ogden (3555 W Ogden) to tour our facilities. Get a glimpse of Aquaponics, North Lawndale Youth Farm, aggregation, and more! Preregistration is not required but groups of more than 20 should call.
General Admission: $10
Students (With ID): $5
Residents of zip codes 60623, 60624, 60608: FREE
A job well done to our North Lawndale Youth Farmers today! Our students were hard at work moving mulch to our east and west gardens. 🌷
Cucumbers and cherry tomatoes will be available this week at PCC Austin Farmstand! Every Thursday 10am-12pm.
330 N Lotus
North Lawndale Youth Farmers this summer have been learning about career opportunities within urban agriculture and landscape architecture through immersive hyper focused groups. Students have been learning about productive growing seasons, harvesting, native and non native plant identification along with nutritional goal setting. 🌱
Join us for a workshop on Healthy Soils and Home Composting at the PCC Austin Farm (330 N. Lotus Ave)
Healthy Soils & Home Composting
Date: Friday, July 29, 2022
Time: 1:00PM – 2:30PM
Location: PCC Austin Farm
Overview:
Healthy soil is the key to healthy plants & nutritious food! At this workshop we will learn what makes up our soils and compost. Learn how to monitor and improve soil health to grow more nutritious food. Learn about composting, vermicomposting, cover cropping, and other soil-building techniques.
We were honored to spend time with Senator Durbin at UCAN this week. Our program has worked closely with UCAN over the years to refer their program participants to employment on our farms. UCAN provides critical violence prevention services, counseling, and family program for Chicago communities. We’re proud to partner with them and we are especially proud of the UCAN alumni on our team. We’re especially grateful for Senator Durbin’s support of Windy City Harvest and UCAN.
Congratulations to our 2022 Corps graduates of cohort 1! 🎉👨🌾 We are extremely proud of them and can’t wait to see what their future holds.
Get ready for your cookout this weekend- TOMORROW ONLY FRIDAY 7/1, all produce at Farm on Ogden will be 50% off! We will be open from 11am to 5pm. A reminder that Farm on Ogden market is closed on Saturday 7/2 in honor of Fourth of July. See you all tomorrow!!!
We can’t believe our Harvest Corps crews have been working with us for 13 weeks already this year. The time has flew by but we have seen our farms transform each week.
Big shout out to our South Corps Crew that has been rocking it out at our farms in Bronzeville and Washington Park
Eat the rainbow! Stop by the PCC Austin Farmstand every Thursday, 10am-12pm, (through Oct.) for fresh produce, grown on-site! 🌈🥬🥕🧅
What a successful month of kickoffs with our allotment gardeners! We are so excited to see our gardens blossoming with produce and people! 👩🏾🌾👩🌾🌱🫑🥕🍅👨🏾🌾🧑🏿🌾
We kicked off the Youth Farm summer season at Lake County Youth Farm! Our teens braved the heat to harvest lots of cases of collards, kale and swiss chard.
Don’t worry we still had time to have some fun picking crew names and building a custom playlist for the summer session 🎵🪴
Thank you to for an awesome lunch!
Juneteenth is the celebration of the Black community, of Black triumphs, and mourning the tragedy of stolen freedom and forced labor of enslaved people. For many Black Americans, the upcoming Fourth of July holiday is not a celebration of freedom. In 1776, the United States declared Independence, however Black Americans were not free until 87 years later, June 19th, 1865.
Juneteenth was an important victory in history against racism in the United States.
African Americans still face anti-blackness and racism across the country. We will never be able to undo the trauma and pain the Black community has endured, but we will always advocate for a more equitable world. We will continue to help dismantle systems of oppression that marginalize the Black community. We are committed to continuing the conversation and the work to address institutional racism within our organization.
Happy Juneteenth; Black Lives Matter.
Last week our team had the pleasure to talk with USDA Deputy Secretary Jewel Bronaugh! It was an honor to speak with her about the work Windy City Harvest is doing to support and sustain local food systems though our VeggieRx and incubator programs.
Great harvest at our Lake County Youth Farm today. 15 cases of fresh vibrant produce gearing up to go to Midwest Foods! 🥬
2022 Apprentices getting the AVI hoop house ready for cuke season.
Hi everyone! Please note the following days our retail store will be closed this weekend: Friday 5/27 and Saturday 5/28. We will reopen next Wednesday 6/1. Thank you for all your support!
Putting up our shade tent at Lake County. Will the wind blow it away this year? We think KNOT! 🪢
Wonderful morning prepping Beds at !
2022 Apprentices trellising hops and pruning hawthorns on this beautiful day at McCormick places rooftop farm!
We kicked off the first day of spring programming at all three of our Youth Farms today in Notth Lawndale, Washington Park and Waukegan🐝🥳🪴 We toured the farm, met our crew, planted scallions, thinned radishes and set community standards for the season!
It’s that time of the year again! Join us for our annual plant sale on Saturday, May 21st from 11am-4pm and get your garden starts! We will have a variety of different plants and seeds! Enjoy some Yvolina’s Tamales and donate a bike (gently used) to Working Bikes. We will also have Ecopods and you can learn all about their work! Hope to see you all then!
Our Corps info sessions are Thursdays from 9:30-11am. If you are an adult with a criminal background or is a veteran come see us at the Farm on Ogden (3555 w Ogden) to learn more about Corps, our 13 week paid job training program.
Info sessions will be every Thursday, 9:30- 11am through May.
It’s 2002 and we’re standing on a 1.5-acre farm located in the Lake County Forest Preserve with 13 teens and one staff member. I know what you’re thinking, 13 teens running a farm?! Angela Mason was up for the challenge! Since 2002, Angie helped grow Windy City Harvest to what we are today. Her passion for Urban Agriculture & Workforce Development is what expanded Windy City Harvest from one Youth Farm to 15 farms and 8 dynamic programs! Through her guidance she has developed our farm and programs through amazing partnerships. Some of those innovative partnerships include:
-Developing the WCH certificate program in Sustainable Urban Agriculture in partnership with
-Building our transitional job program, Harvest Corps, to provide full-time closely mentored jobs for justice-involved individuals in partnership with Department of Family and Support Services.
-Small farm incubator business program in partnership with
-Envisioning VeggieRx, our food as medicine program working with federally qualified health centers (LC HC] PCC Wellness Center ) and Chicago partnership for health promotion.
-Angie led the creation of our food hub headquarters in partnership with LC HC].
Over the last 20 years Windy City Harvest has grown through the innovative and dedicated leadership of Angie Mason who is also Acting Chair, Urban Agriculture and Innovation Production Federal Advisory Committee with the United States Department of Agriculture. Today we celebrate our Associate Vice President as she moves on to lead the Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange Texas. We are extremely proud and forever grateful for all she has done.
“The last 20 years have been some of the best years of my life. I will miss each and every one of you. 💚 my WCH family. Until next time!” - Angela Mason
Our Corps info sessions are Thursdays from 9:30-11am. If you are an adult with a criminal background or is a veteran come see us at the Farm on Ogden (3555 w Ogden) to learn more about Corps, our 13 week paid job training program.
Info sessions will be every Thursday, 9:30- 11am through May.
WE’RE HIRING! Come to our job fair at The Farm on Ogden (3555 W Ogden) April 5th between 9-1pm for on site interviews and apply in person! 🎉 we have multiple openings from Farm growers, delivery drivers, coordinators and more!
WCH JOB FAIR! We’re hiring for various positions within our organization! Stop by The Farm on Ogden (3555 w Ogden ) April 5 from 9-1 for walk-in interviews and to learn more and apply to our open positions!
It’s a bright and sunny day at PCC Austin farm. Our apprentices are planting Gold Coin onions that’ll make you weep with joy! 😆 How are you enjoying this beautiful weather? 🌱☀️
3555 Ogden
Chicago, IL
60623
| Wednesday | 11am - 5pm |
| Thursday | 11am - 5am |
| Friday | 11am - 5pm |
| Saturday | 11am - 5am |
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#BrunchGoals at the Arturo Velasquez Institute. #WCHApprenticeship alum Violet feeding the fish in our 1,500 gallon #aquaponic system. These tilapia are hard at work growing lettuce mix for the Farm on Ogden Market 💚🐟🥬
Updating our library with the help of @openbooksprograms 📚 Come check out our new additions from African American authors about African American stories and books. #blackhistorymonth
Behind the Plate | George Washington Carver. #BlackHistoryMonth
Behind The Plate: this week Chef Maria talks about Frederick McKinley and his contribution to America’s food systems. 🌱 #blackhistorymonth
Join @theechefmaria as she shows us how to perfectly execute the #threestepbreading method to make ripe #friedgreentomatoes from @justrootschicago. Come in to Farm On Ogden Wednesday-Saturday 11am-5pm and get them while they last.
We are incredibly excited to introduce the newest edition to our jam series, STRAWBERRY RHUBARB! Both the strawberries and rhubarb were grown on Windy City Harvest farms and harvested at peak freshness. This is just one of the ways we’re striving to save tasty, nutritious produce from being wasted. Come get it before it’s gone. Bring your #waterbathcanning ideas to @theechefmaria or put them in the retail comment box and you may see it on the shelf 😉 #extendtheseason #haccpcertified #backyardgardens #preserves
🗣Our kiwi pear jam is back on the shelves!! 💥Come quickly...the first batch sold out in TWO DAYS!!! 💥Available only at Farm On Ogden Wednesday thru Saturday 11am-5pm. See you soon ☺️ #preservationkitchen #extendtheseason #valueaddedproducts
Chicago South Shore Farmers Market
S. Cottage Grove Avenue