Blog / City Orchard

BFC’s City Orchard, in Beltsville, MD, grows fruits and vegetables for our clients nearly all year long! In October and November 2017, the Sustainable Agriculture division harvested almost 5,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables. This equates to over 3,000 servings of fresh, local, nutrient-dense produce distributed to DC residents through our farm to pantry operations.

The Sustainable Agriculture team engaged almost 300 volunteers at orchard workdays, including MG2, FINRA, The Field School, and several returning client volunteers. Read on to learn more in our City Orchard Fall Report!

The late summer brought a big harvest at City Orchard – over a thousand pounds of apples, Asian pears and watermelons! We continued to get a heavy harvest from our #VeggiesToo, with summer favorites like okra, tomatoes, sweet peppers and eggplant, the beginning of fall vegetables including kale and collard greens, and a few flower bouquets to brighten up people’s dinner tables. Read on for an update on the end of the summer at City Orchard!

In June and July of 2017, the Sustainable Agriculture division harvested about 3,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables and cared for the orchard and vegetable plot to ensure long-term food production. This equates to over 2,600 servings of fresh, nutrient-dense produce distributed to DC residents through our farm to pantry operations.

In May 2017, the Sustainable Agriculture program harvested about 460 pounds of strawberries and cared for the orchard to ensure long-term food production. This equates to nearly 800 servings of fresh, nutrient-dense fruits distributed to DC residents through our farm to pantry operations.

This spring (March and April) at City Orchard, we have focused on spring cleaning and preparations for a fruitful summer. In addition to harvesting the greens University of the District of Columbia (UDC) generously offer us from their hydroponics greenhouses, we weeded, mulched, trellised and pruned our fruit trees and berries to prepare for the summer ahead.

If you’ve never visited one of our rooftop gardens or City Orchard, you are REALLY missing out! Look at how much fun you could be having!

We’ve TRIPLED our harvest compared to the last three months, thanks to the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) and Purple Mountain Organics who let us glean vegetables from their sections of the farm. With the decline in the production of early summer berries, our team has shifted focus to summer vegetables.

We’ve got a great crop of apples coming in from City Orchard this season and now is as good a time as any to thank YOU, all of you, who support our work to provide among other things, fresh fruits and vegetables to our Food Program clients.

The following apple fritter recipe is compliments of Martin, one of our amazing urban agriculture staff members, and avid farmer and chef.