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Hi everyone, happy February! While the weather remains frigid, the days are finally a little longer, and we can feel spring around the corner. We are in the midst of planning and preparing for the planting season to come. Winter is a great time for us to take stock of the last growing season, define our strategy for the next season, and anything else that can happen indoors.

Apple fruit growing on a tree at Phoenix Farms

This winter, our intern Grace is helping us expand our network through social media. We are grateful for her work making us our very own Instagram and Facebook pages - follow us for more updates and pictures!

We’d love your help meeting more neighbors. Our food forest relies on having neighbors that want to stop by, take fruit, and even volunteer their time to maintain the forest. If you know someone who might like to learn more, forward this newsletter to them. Thank you!

If you’re new here…

Welcome! We are Phoenix Farms, a small nonprofit organization that maintains a food forest in Woodlawn. We’ve been operating for a few years now on God’s Little Acre, a lot on 64th and Kimbark, in partnership with First Presbyterian Church.

Phoenix Farms seeks to promote access to fresh, sustainably-grown fruits and vegetables for our local community. Our food forest is open to the public, and we encourage everyone to pick and eat our produce completely free and at any time. Produce not picked by our community is donated to First Presbyterian’s Free Food Market. More about the folks running the organization can be found on our about page.

Food Forest Updates

Besides our big social media update, we’ve been starting to think about next year’s planting and forest improvements.

This summer, we’d like to plant a record number of native pollinator plants for us. We’ve noticed over the years the increase in butterfly and bee traffic that our native pollinators bring. These little pollinators not only help our fruit trees flourish, they make our whole neighborhood ecosystem stronger - their happiness is our happiness! In the next season we’ll expand our growing space a bit to make room for more pollinator plants.

While these pollinator plants may not produce food for us, they indirectly boost our edible plants’ production by feeding the pollinators that allow our tomatoes, fruit trees, and more to grow. That’s the beauty of a balanced ecosystem - each piece benefits the next. If you’re curious, the Chicago Botanic Garden has a great article on the benefits of pollinators. Check it out here!

Volunteer Corner

Because the ground is frozen and covered in snow, our Volunteer Corner is quiet this month!

Community News & Happenings

The Free Food Market at our neighbor First Presbyterian is open on Thursdays from 10am-12pm.

The Hyde Park Folk Festival is February 20-21st. See more details about performers and times here.

Harriet Park at 6200 Drexel is hosting a Girls’ Day of Play on February 17th. This day-long free event offers girls ages 6-12 an opportunity to engage in sports, arts and crafts, and fun. No registration is required.

Chicago Park District is hosting a Valentine’s ice skating event at the Midway Plaisance with half-price skate rentals and fun for all ages. Register here.