New urban farm coming alongside Recovery Cafe

MercyCo, Community Lutheran Church and the Center for Land-Based Learning completed an agreement in mid-December to bring a new urban farm to church-owned property alongside the Recovery Cafe.

CLBL will operate the quarter-acre farm, located at the corner of Drever Street and Jackson Street in West Sacramento. Produce from the farm will be made available in the cafe (and a lot of other places), and the farm will also be the site of School for Recovery classes in gardening and growing.

“What's so exciting is the short distance the food will travel from the field to the plate,” said the CLBL’s Ric Murphy. “Just over 100 feet from harvest to kitchen.  You really can't get fresher than that! 

“And this 1/4-acre farm will be right in the middle of the community.  It's so beneficial for people to not only see where their food is coming from, but to know where it's going, too!"

CLBL’s partnership with the Recovery Cafe, with its emphasis on serving individuals impacted by trauma, is unique amidst the urban farm movement in California. Future plans call for the Mercy Coalition to place one or more of its JAM Academy interns into paid one-year employment on the farm - both serving and being served by these complementary pieces of the Mosaic Village.

“We're very much looking forward to our new partnership with Community Lutheran Church and Mercy Coalition,” said Murphy. “We've begun our preparation of converting the land and have planted a winter cover crop of legumes and grasses, which will protect the soil and add nitrogen to it.  In the spring we'll start building beds to be planted into, starting with cool weather crops like greens, root vegetables and herbs.  For the summer we'll plant a mix of tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, cucumbers and much more."