​Edinburg First United Methodist Church

In 2016, UTRGV Department of Agro-ecology and Edinburg First UMC entered into a partnership to transform an unused church lot into vegetable gardens. These gardens will be used for instructing agriculture classes and for growing a community garden. In summer of 2019, work preparing the land for planting began. 2020 produced our first crops, which were either sold in our farmers' market or donated to food pantry clients.

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The crops are starting to slow down as summer heats up, and our first full season of farming at the Hub is winding down. We've made so much progress this year thanks to your support and prayers:

 

• We've established irrigation for 12 plots, each 1/10 of an acre in size, that will be cover cropped for weed suppression and soil nutrition over the summer to prepare for food production again starting in late August.

• Several student research projects on native cover crops, soil microbial communities, and weed suppression will also continue through the summer.

• The past month of online farm sales through the Open Food Network have been very successful. We plan to start up online sales again, perhaps accompanied by an in-person farmers market, in October.

• We'll continue to accept volunteers this summer on Saturday mornings (8 am-12 pm). There's plenty of room to socially distance and lots of projects to help prepare for our second growing season.

• I'm always happy to answer any questions at stephanie.kasper01@utrgv.edu or 361-649-8450.

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--Stephani Kasper, Church Farmer & UTRGV Community Garden liaison