Urban Roots sign
If you’re downtown and go about two miles west down Fourth St., Urban Roots Garden Classrooms will be on your right. You would probably miss it if it weren’t for a big sign at the end of the driveway at 3001 W. Fourth St. And you might still, like I did my first time visiting Urban Roots. From the road, you can’t see the small farm that Urban Roots has created there. It’s tucked behind a building with various tenants—one used to be a bar, but Urban Roots now occupies that space—and some sagebrush and trees.
But once I parked my car and walked behind the building, I saw the hoophouse, chicken coop, teaching areas, plants and farm cat that signaled I was definitely at the right place.
Urban Roots is a nonprofit organization that uses their farm for teaching purposes—mostly for kids but also for adults. Kim Daniel is the education director at Urban Roots and has an obvious passion for farming and gardening education.
“The broad mission of Urban Roots is to connect people to where their food comes from, so our mission is growing healthy bodies, minds and communities through seed to table education,” Daniel said. “Basically, we want people to understand where their food comes from and then have a connection to why healthy food is important.”
Hoophouse
Urban Roots has one hoophouse that allows the farm to grow all year long because it has wind and weather protection.
Currently, there are different types of lettuces growing inside. Outside, some kale made it through the winter, too. The summer is a more active time of year for the farm.
“In the summertime, we grow anything that we can get to grow,” Daniel said. “We grow lots of tomatoes, different kinds of herbs grow here all year long, but we grow broccoli and garlic and really, we’re willing to try anything. Cauliflower, cabbage are popular, too.”
Farm Cat
The farm has some lively year-round residents as well. The chicken coop currently has four hens, and they expect a few more in the spring. A bunny and a farm cat also call Urban Roots home. The farm cat is adorable, orange and very friendly. He jumped on the table when Daniel and I were talking and insisted on being petted, switching back and forth from her to me.
Also in the summer, Urban Roots usually plays host to a sheep or goat from one of the local farms. This is mostly because that’s when Urban Roots has most of their Farm Camps for kids ages five to 12. The summer camps are each one week long and run from June 16 through to Aug. 8. There are also camps during some of the school breaks, including the two weeks of Washoe County School District’s spring break this year from March 31 to April 11. Each week has a different theme and will teach children various different kinds of
Chickens
things.
Urban Roots works with schools in the area to create and maintain gardens on their campuses, too. And if your child is homeschooled, there are various options for Farm School classes.
“We use gardens and farming as a vehicle for science education,” Daniel said. “We do camps and we work with schools and their school gardens. We do teacher trainings, and we also teach volunteers how to work with schools and to garden themselves.”
Another portion of Urban Roots includes education programs for adults.
“We do adult education programs, which focus on permaculture, which is sustainable agriculture, and folk art stuff, which is—now that we’ve grown all this stuff, what else can we do with it? How can we can? And those sorts of things,” Daniel said.
And for college-age students, Urban Roots works with the University of Nevada, Reno for their FarmCorps program focusing on agricultural research. In this program they look into things like what an be grown in the area and if there are better methods for growing those things.
Urban Roots is constantly changing and growing. The old bar space they now occupy was a recent addition to the organization. They moved into it at the beginning of this year and have been renovating it to use as indoor teaching space—mostly for when the weather doesn’t cooperate.
But their goals and mission stays the same: connect people to their food.
“I think that we just have gotten really disconnected from how food is really manufactured and that people don’t necessarily understand that you don’t have to have manufactured food,” Daniel said. “There are things that you can do at your house or at your school to have really fresh food, which is typically healthier for us. And with sort of an epidemic of obesity and disconnect from the land, I think this is an important step to get people to live healthier, more fulfilled lives.
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- Farm Cat
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- Chicken Coop
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- Urban Roots
The Heart of Reno's Roots 