Chicory Grove

06/17/2022

Hey, y'all! We're gathering next week ~potluck style~ with other beginning growers at 1924 8th St- one of Tooth Farm's urban plots! Join us to talk all the things farming and growing, and just to connect and share space with others committing to tending the land and soil and our communities. Its on Thursday, June 23, at 5:30 pm. Register here so we have enough food!

https://practicalfarmers.org/events/field-days/summer-beginning-farmer-social-with-des-moines-urban-farmers/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=06.08.22&fbclid=IwAR0t9oHUZ4aCrOZietienuYuyvtFH0YQxGtter10bpgF7RY8r3g8FSC2Epw

Thursday, June 23 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. Hosts: Monika Owczarski and Amy Joens Sweet Tooth Farm | Chicory Grove Farm Address: 1924 8th St. | Des Moines, IA 50314 Start the 2022 growing season connecting with other beginning farmers during ...

06/14/2022

We love seeing events in our community getting food out to families. We are excited to support our neighborhood school pantry at Lovejoy Elementary with lots of delicious and fresh produce from Chicory Grove!

01/02/2022

Please consider contributing to this family. I get to work with their sweet kids in school, and they live right down the street from us. Their father passed away this week, and their mother passed away a few months ago. Thank you for helping how you can.. it takes a community to support each other.

My name is Pastor Eugene Kiruhura. It is with heavy hearts we are askin… Eugene Kiruhura needs your support for Funeral expenses and support for the children

12/30/2021

We loooooove savin’ our seeds ‘round here, but the follow through isn’t always perfect, lol. “Butternut, maybe?” 🎃

It’s about to be a fun squash seeding sesh in a couple months! The effort is so there, though, and its still food so we’ll keep ‘em. Maybe we’ll try out a squash patch with broadcasted seeds and see what comes up. 😹

In looking at all these goofy seed packets, it seemed a pretty apt depiction of life during 2021 and what it was like to live and try to grow things this year. Do what you can do in that moment, toss something into the wind though you had a very different plan in mind, nurture and care for the things you did do and make and who you could be in those moments, and see what comes of it all with an open and agile heart. There’s still so much to be grateful for, even in the jumble.

We do have lots of properly identified envelopes of saved which we should be able to accurately depend upon next year- these were just the funniest ones. Sometimes you rediscover a towel on the top shelf by the window with dried seeds on it and have to make your best guess, and thank your past self for trying. 🌱Seeds are life, no matter what variety… and we look forward to seeing what beauty springs up in the coming year from the remnants we’re carrying with us from this past year.

10/11/2021

Meet our new Farmer-for-the-Day, Lo! Lo is a nibling of Chelsea’s, and spent a lovely day calling the shots at Chicory Grove.

Apologies for the radio silence over here… the entry of fall has diverted our attention slightly! We’ve been spending time with loved ones, flipping beds with fast growing fall veggies, planting cover crops, raising our ducklings, building a duck coop/run, taking trips to see some wonderful people and places, finding fun insects, celebrating birthdays (happy birthday, Ken!), starting new jobs, preserving all the foods, making pies and muffins, and going to markets.

We enjoyed spending yesterday afternoon with and for an amazingly delish fall harvest celebration.

We have some more food and have opened the online market this morning so you can get you some. Love! Hoping these first fall weeks are bringing you some goodness, too.

09/17/2021

Come see us and our colorful spread (which now includes melons!) at the Vegan Summer Market Sunday, August 19 from 12-3pm at Cowles Commons! 🍉 You can also still order from our website and pick up at the market, or we’ll deliver to your house Sunday. Along with the melons, we will have available tomatoes, peppers, onions, potatoes, garlic, leeks, eggplants, sweet potato greens, and maybe some celery! 🍅🌶🧅🥔🧄🍆🥬

09/16/2021

Welcome home, duckling friends! These adorable babies are just two days old, and settling into their brand new temporary home… a brooder in the shop before they graduate to their coop outside. They’ll grow fast and become much less fluffy and a lot more noisy and smelly, but ooooof.. savoring these days and moments with these most precious babies. Grover started off nervous about these strange creatures, but stepped bravely into curiosity later on. We hope they become besties. 🦆🐕‍🦺

By the way, the online market is opening up today, and we will do deliveries on Sunday. Visit chicorygrove.com/market to order! You can also pick up your order at the Vegan Summer Market- we will have a booth there on Sunday from 12-3 at Cowles Commons! (Ducklings not included)

09/04/2021

Stoked to hang with Sweet Tooth Farm this afternoon at the Heart of Des Moines Farmers Market! We’ll be there 4-6pm and wanna see you! Come get yourself some tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants.. to keep soakin up the summer while we’ve got it. And some delish and just picked cilantro… yummm. Forest Ave, between 6th and 8th. Excited also to share space with Wren & Willow, veggies, TuTus FlowersPlants AndThangs, Mamá Laura Meals, Indira for Des Moines City Council and .khash_andco !

09/02/2021

First ever newsletter just went out... Wanna subscribe? You can get there from our website, or just message us your email and we can add you directly. Musings, recipes, garden tips, pretty pics. Also, our online market is open for this week! We'll deliver Friday and Saturday this week, or you can pick up at the Heart of Des Moines Farmers Market on Saturday afternoon... We'll be there sharing a stand with Sweet Tooth Farm this week! 💚

08/31/2021

Sooo… this is us! Apologies for throwing y’all straight into the veggies without a proper introduction.

Here are the folx behind Chicory Grove: the dreamers, growers, thinkers, builders, makers, holders of this vision to live in community together, to actively confront and oppose racism, patriarchy, and capitalism together, and to make and grow beautiful things and keep food central to what we are doing. We’ll have more to share in coming weeks on who each of us is individually, but for now you can enjoy the funny photo shoot of this crew that loves growing and eating vegetables while also trying to dismantle systems of oppression.

A little more on what we believe, just for transparency and clarity’s sake…
🥬BLACK LIVES MATTER,
🥕Reparations are needed for Black and indigenous folx for slavery, land theft, genocide, Jim Crow, redlining, wage theft, land and labor laws, and everything else has been put in the way to block people of color from accessing land and generational wealth (and humanity in general),
🌽White folx (including those among us!) have lots of work to do in de-centering ourselves, understanding our privilege, and opposing white supremacy,
🍒love is love is love, q***r people are beautiful, and justice (and more humanity too, while we’re at it) is required for our LGBTQ+ friends and family,
🍆We need each other,
🍑Everyone should be able to have their basic needs met (which means that some of us need to share our excesses),
🌶Everyone deserves to eat quality, nutrient-dense food if they desire (which is why our food is priced on a sliding scale and we’re working on ways to make that better, too),
🍉Science is real,
🫐The health of our community matters as much as our own personal health,
🍐(thus) getting the Covid-19 vaccine and wearing masks are incredibly important to keep each other safe,
🍅Aaaand… there’s probably more to share but we’ll close this with our belief that life is beautiful and abundant and joyful and rich and full and there is enough goodness and love and decency for all of us.

Oh, lastly! Our dog’s name is Grover. He’s a boopie. Thanks for bringing us into your lives and being a part of this community with us!

08/27/2021

How about a basketful of this bounty? You can still place an order at chicorygrove.com/market!

08/25/2021

Hey, potato people (and everyone else!) Thanks for your patience on our mini-hiatus as we took a week to visit with family and spend some time in the wilderness.

The online market is LIVE at chicorygrove.com/market and beckons you to join us in nightshade land… we’ve got tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants galore! Along with onions, cabbage, basil, and chicory for sale this week. Order now until Friday morning, and we’ll deliver to you by Friday afternoon/evening!

Can’t wait to get you this delicious food, complete maybe with an anthropomorphized vegetable
🥔 =👼