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Hello everyone!

Spring has sprung! We’re still waiting for consistently warm days, but a check-in at the food forest revealed that our trees are budding! We continue to plan and prepare for the planting season ahead, most importantly for our upcoming spring workday on April 12th at 12 PM. Sign up here!

We’re grateful to have received grant funding from the Cook County Farm Bureau that will go towards supplies for this planting season. This year, we’re expecting to plant both edible plantings and native non-edible pollinator-friendly plants in our space! We’re also hoping to expand within our little lot, potentially adding plants to the outer rim along the fence.

As a reminder, this winter, our intern Grace helped us to 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!

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

The weather has been very Chicago - warm and sunny one day, then cold and snowing the next. Despite the variability, our trees are budding! We were so excited to see this sign of life and health from our little trees.

Budding fruit tree at Phoenix Farms with First Presbyterian Church in the background

Last year was the first year our trees flowered. It was thrilling, but we cut off the buds so the trees could focus on growing bigger and taller. This year, we’re hopeful they’ll produce fruit for us and our neighbors to enjoy at last. The first apples and cherries are going to be amazing.

We are hosting a spring workday in the coming weeks to gather as a community and prepare our little plot for a bountiful summer. Please join if you’re able - no gardening or farming skills required, and we’ll provide equipment. Details below.

Volunteer Corner

Our volunteer day is Saturday, April 12th from 12-2pm! Please join us if you’re able, and bring gardening gloves if you have them. Sign up here!

At 2pm we’ll walk to Robust Coffee with anyone who’d like to join - coffee is on us as a thank you for the help!

Community News & Happenings

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

Plant Chicago is having a Native Seedlings and Arts event on April 11th from 10-2pm.

Hyde Park Art Center is having a Spring Center Day, open to the public, on April 4th.