JK Community Farm

03/09/2023

Getting multiple cuttings from our greens allows us to save on seeds, reduce our field work, and provide more frequent harvests for our food pantry partners.

03/06/2023

Our 5th annual Plant-a-Thon is May 19,20 and 21st! Tickets are available here, https://jkcommunityfarm.org/events/2023-plant-a-thon/. Join us in planting over 30,000 seedlings in 3 days which will grow into over 100,000lbs of nutrient dense meals for our food pantry partners 💚

02/28/2023

Kale chips are the perfect way to introduce your kiddos (or yourself) to kale and even better, it’s in season so you can grab it at your local farmers market 🥬

02/21/2023

Our field trip calendar is full through April 20th, if you are planning a visit with your students to the farm this season be sure to schedule your event early💚

02/19/2023

Corporate volunteer events provide an opportunity for teams to connect outside of the office, learn something new, work together on a meaningful project and provide healthy food for food pantries throughout our region.

We would love to see your team at the farm this season!

02/17/2023

We love introducing kids to gardening and where their food comes from, join us this summer with your kiddos at the for volunteering or a self guided field trip🌱

02/11/2023

Join us the first week of March to start 50,000 seeds in the greenhouse in preparation for our annual Plant-A-Thon event🌱

www.jkcommunityfarm.org/volunteer

02/08/2023

We have opened our applications for high school and college age internships. This summer we will host up to 6 interns, who will have the opportunity to learn about food systems, regenerative agriculture, organic farming, food education and nonprofit management while giving back to our community in need.

Please reach out to Samantha at [email protected] for more information

02/03/2023

One of our top requests from our annual surveys with our food pantry partners are for jalapeños, which are so fun and easy to grow! We try to limit our watering of our jalapeño rows so they have an extra kick🌱

01/24/2023

Last season we were fortunate to host 67 wonderful companies in our region for corporate volunteer events. We would love to have your team join us in 2023 for a morning of planting and harvesting for our food pantry partners.
With so many teams working remotely, it’s the perfect way for your company to connect in fresh air while having fun and giving back to our community in need

01/17/2023

Our wonderful volunteers love pairing gardening with the many benefits of volunteering 💚 join us this season, www.jkcommunityfarm.org/volunteer

01/10/2023

Our 2023 volunteer dates are now up on the website for Spring and Summer, we hope you’re as excited as we are! 💚🌱 Email Samantha directly at [email protected] to schedule corporate and large group events. We can’t wait to see you at the farm for another wonderful season of growing healthy meals for our community in need. www.jkcommunityfarm.org/volunteer

01/09/2023

We like to keep our kale growing throughout each season and we typically harvest every two weeks throughout the spring, summer, and fall. Here are our tips to keep your kale growing for multiple harvests 🌱💚

01/05/2023

Thank you to our incredible high yield sponsors for making another season of growing for food pantries throughout Northern Virginia and DC possible.

Our annual partners support our farm throughout the season through financial contributions and volunteer service, and we could not be more grateful for their impact on our community.

JK Moving Services CapRelo MSS Infinitive o2kl Advertising Preferred Corporate Housing Redwood Commercial Real Estate Crisak, Inc.

12/18/2022

We were rained out on Thursday, and our winter kale harvest was rescheduled for tomorrow! Bundle up and join us in getting this fresh kale to our food pantry partners before the holidays💚 www.jkcommunityfarm.org/volunteer

12/08/2022

Join us next Thursday for our final kale harvest of the year, registration is available at www.jkcommunityfarm.org/volunteer

12/05/2022

Thank you all for your support and generosity during our Giving Tuesday campaign! It means the world to us and the families we serve🌱 We are excited for another season of growing for our food pantry partners in 2023.

11/29/2022

A $35 donation will allow us to grow an additional two weeks of healthy meals for a person facing food insecurity, will you help us grow? www.jkcommunityfarm.org/donate

11/29/2022

Over 150,000 people facing food insecurity have access to the food grown on our farm. Will you join us this season in providing them with access to healthy food? Today your donation [email protected] double the impact, www.jkcommunityfarm.org/donate

11/28/2022

As many of you know, tomorrow is and we have a dollar for dollar match. Which means your donation makes double the impact.

We believe that the quality of the food makes all of the difference especially when we are serving families facing food insecurity. It’s not just about providing enough food, but the right food. Join us tomorrow in growing your donation into healthy meals for families in need.

11/12/2022

We were honored to host the first difference day in the US for with , and
150 data center partners came together to build and fill 25 raised beds, and raised over $18,000 to benefit our local pollinator population while growing healthy meals for our community facing food insecurity. Thank you all for your commitment to giving back to our environment and community in need.

11/10/2022

The benefits for volunteering with kids are especially significant today, as kids are at an unprecedented risk of developing anxiety and depression. When done right, teaching kids how to engage with the world in positive ways through service can help them feel connected to a sense of purpose, to something bigger than themselves. We love to see our youth volunteers learning to give back along side their parents.

11/05/2022

Always grateful even on a rainy day to share our farm with the companies who help make it possible💚 Truist] supported our expansion in 2020 to double our produce production and joined us this season for a morning of planting and harvesting for our food pantry partners. Thank you Truist]!

11/02/2022

Eggplants are a nutritional powerhouse and like all blue and purple foods, their color comes from antioxidants which help keep your heart healthy and help fight cancer. Eggplants are low in calories but full of fiber and many essential vitamins and minerals.

Easy Eggplant Recipe:
Cut into 1/4” slices
Brush with avocado or olive oil
Arrange on a single layer sheet pan
Roast at 500 degrees for 15 minutes, turning once half way through.
You can add your eggplant to a salad, sandwich or eat plain!

10/28/2022

25+ Ideas for Pumpkin Seeds Besides Just Roasting Them

25+ Ideas for Pumpkin Seeds Besides Just Roasting Them

Learn ideas for using pumpkin seeds, including how to roast them, with this guide and round-up of 25 pumpkin seed recipes.

10/24/2022

Nearly 60 percent of kale samples sold in the U.S. were contaminated with residues of a pesticide (DCPA) the Environmental Protection Agency considers a possible human carcinogen, according to analysis.
We are dedicated to chemical free agriculture to ensure we are only helping the families we serve. Sourcing your produce from local chemical-free farms can help you ensure your family is free from harmful pesticides.

10/21/2022

Thank you to our friends at CARFAXinc for joining us for another wonderful volunteer event, planting and harvesting for our food pantry partners 🌱💚

10/17/2022

When you find a perfect organic red bell in the field it has to become a harvesting snack😉
What is your favorite pepper snack?
Red peppers pack the most nutrition, because they've been on the vine longest. Green peppers are harvested earlier, before they have a chance to turn yellow, orange, and then red. Compared to green bell peppers, the red ones have almost 11 times more beta-carotene and 1.5 times more vitamin C.

10/14/2022

Ginger harvest and some rainy day fall planting with our wonderful friends from The Geller Law Group 🥰🌱

10/12/2022

Sometimes you just have to help your dad with a little quality control on his planting🌱😉

“Many parents probably recognize that being outside in nature is good for their children’s health. But they may also see a tradeoff: Encouraging their kids to get outside means less time hitting the books. And less time studying must mean less academic success, right?
Wrong. Remarkably, it turns out that the opposite may be true. As research has grown in this area —including my own—we’ve discovered that nature is not just good for kids’ health; it improves their ability to learn, too. Even small doses of nature can have profound benefits.” Learn more here,https://eadn-wc04-796033.nxedge.io/wp-content/uploads/Six-Ways-Nature-Helps-Children-Learn.pdf

10/09/2022

Fresh fig snack for our field trip students this week, and they loved this healthy sugar alternative. Did you know that figs have the highest mineral and fiber content of all common fruits, nuts, or vegetables?

10/05/2022

Our final community volunteer date for the season is this Saturday, we will have a few more of our corporate volunteer groups joining us for the remainder of the fall but the majority will be completed this weekend. Join us for our final pepper and sweet potato harvest www.jkcommunityfarm.org/volunteer

09/30/2022

This season we grew 8 different varieties of peppers 🌶 🫑 which means occasionally our volunteers have to quiz each other on their pepper knowledge while sorting😂
The varieties we grew were green bell peppers, snowballs or white bell peppers, jalapeños, poblanos, Italian frying peppers, shish*to, banana peppers, and a few habanero peppers!

09/26/2022

Fall planting is complete, and this week we will begin planting our high tunnels for winter!
Our high tunnels stay warm all winter long to ensure our food pantry partners have fresh greens even through the coldest months💚🥰

09/23/2022

Thank you to our friends from Leidos for joining us for another season of harvesting for our food pantry partners 💚

09/19/2022

It can be a challenge to teach kids about food and healthy eating with our globalized food system and highly processed snacks everywhere they turn. A few ways we love to help kids get involved with and appreciate food and health are:

1. Visit a local farm! What better way to understand how food is grown than to go to the source and head to a farm. This will allow students to connect with which foods grow on plants, the plant cycle, and to test taste in season produce. We have found students are much more likely to try something new when they have the opportunity to harvest it!

2.Planting a seed, nurturing it, and watching it grow is a time-honored way to teach kids where food comes from. Remember that lima bean sprouting in a paper cup you had as a kid? Build on that idea with the children on your life by planting some vegetables and herbs in your yard

3.Involve your children in food shopping and cooking from an early age to expose them to fruits and vegetables.

4.Throughout the seasons, make sure you buy veggies that are in season, so that you and your family can taste when the veggies are at their peak. You can also supplement this lesson by taking your kids on a field trip to the local Farmers Market, so they can see the veggies that are currently in season.

5.It’s always such great help when kids can help with the chopping. Younger kids can help tear greens or use scissors, but it’s best to start with easy-to-chop ingredients, like zucchini and eggplant. Regardless of age, teach them basic knife skills to promote safety.

09/13/2022

It was an honor to share our farm with Chair Phyllis J. Randall last week, we are always grateful to share the impact our community has made on our farm and for those we serve💚

09/11/2022

Fall planting is in full swing, this fall we will be growing kale, Swiss chard, Kale, lettuce, beets, carrots, radishes, turnips, cabbage and broccoli. What are you planting?

09/05/2022

Join us Wednesday for our next pepper harvest! Our fields are full of peppers and we need your help in harvesting them for our food pantry partners 💚www.jkcommunityfarm.org/volunteer

09/03/2022

The U.S. diet is deadly. Here are 7 ideas to get Americans eating healthier

The U.S. diet is deadly. Here are 7 ideas to get Americans eating healthier

The way many Americans eat is fueling chronic disease. Here are seven big ideas from the White House's upcoming nutrition conference for how to improve Americans' diets.