News from Truck Farm
News from Truck Farm
2013 Garden Contest Highlights
Our third annual Truck Farm Garden Contest delighted us with unexpected ways to plant seeds. We want to share a few of the highlights:
This year’s winner was 7-year-old Ava Appleton, shown below with her golden friend. Ava transformed a shopping cart into a mobile garden parked outside of her elementary school in Minnesota.
The shopping cart was planted with hay, and a garden in a cat litter pan was added to the lower level. Soon, others students at Ava’s school added a sled farm and a wagon farm to the tableau, and eventually Ava’s cart was joined by over 20 gardens planted in recycled containers. She started a movement!
For Mary Luongo in California, a tiny sunflower seed took root in a discarded wine crate. She plans to plant tomatoes next.
Below, high schooler Mykin Lopez planted these super cool “Garden-A-Gallons” for the Feast on the Street food festival in Phoenix, Arizona.
Eleven-year-old Julia Hogendorf in New York is growing her own colorful sprouts in a crayon box on her windowsill.
Thanks to all who entered!
2013 Truck Farm Garden Contest open!
We invite folks of all ages to get planting for our 4th Annual Truck Farm Garden Contest. It’s easy! Just plant a seed in the most creative place you can think of (a shoe? a football helmet? surprise us!), snap a photo once your seed sprouts, and submit your entry to our special guest judges using this online submission form.
The deadline for submissions is June 1, so plant those seeds soon! We can’t wait to see what you grow.
Photo courtesy of our fleet member Truck Farm Omaha - way to grow!
Truck Farm and Food Day
More Truck Farm Garden Contest highlights
You already met the winners of our 2012 Truck Farm Garden Contest, but we wanted to share a few more highlights from the submissions:
This Mr. Potato Head Scarecrow was made at Chilmark Preschool with the help of Island Grown Schools on Martha's Vineyard. Photo by Emily Duncker of Edgartown, MA.
Meghan Kelly, of Québec, Canada, spends much of her time doing “theatrical education about environmental living in high schools across the province.” She planted a mobile bike garden.
Mark O'Connor's tomato plants are livin' it up on his roofotop in Camarillo, California.
Carolina Salguero planted this herb bucket garden aboard the tanker Mary A. Whalen, docked in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Jana Eichhorn filled a treasure chest with a String of Pearls plant in Racine, Wisconsin.
Potatoes, peas, and carrots -- hold the beef! -- in this crockpot garden by Steve Carroll of Winchester, Virigina.
Garden Contest winners!
Thanks to everyone who entered and helped spread the word about our third annual Truck Farm Garden Contest! Special thanks to our judges, Michael Pollan and Marion Nestle.
First place, with a gift certificate for the Seed Savers Exchange, goes to Karlie Cole of Minnesota. Karlie wrote, “Inspired by Truck Farm – but with no truck and no sun except on the driveway – my Prius became a greenhouse!” Check it out:
Second place, with a Truck Farm DVD and trucker hat, goes to Steve Madewell of Maryland. Steve created a vertical LEGO garden:
Steve wrote, “I’ve been experimenting with ways to encourage children and families to invent their own methods of growing fresh food at home, regardless of where home may be… It turns out LEGOs drain fairly well, are easy to reconfigure for plant growth, and most plants don’t seem to mind being grown in and around toys.”
So much creativity! Keep on planting.
Inaugural 2012 Truck Farm visit
Ian Cheney and the Brooklyn Truck Farm recently debuted some new sprouts and new (old) wheels with our first educational visit of 2012, at the Friedberg JCC. We miss the ’86 Dodge, but so far, so good, ’96 Tacoma!
A plexiglass panel is a great way to let kids check out the roots and soil.
A family of shoe farms greeted us on the JCC steps!
2012 Truck Farm Garden Contest open!
The Truck Farm Garden Contest last year was so much fun we’ve brought it back!
The contest is simple: plant a seed in the most creative place you can think of, watch it grow, snap a photo, and submit it right here on our website.
JUNE 1st is the deadline for submissions. Judges Alice Waters, Marion Nestle, and Michael Pollan will select the winners in June. We can’t wait to see what you grow!
TRUCK FARM in Hawai’i
TRUCK FARM rang in the new year with a January 6th screening at Sunset Beach Elementary on Oahu’s North Shore. The screening was presented by the Kokua Hawaii Foundation, local literacy mascot Rex the Surf Dog, and ‘AINA Kine Student Farmer’s Market, as part of a terrific event that included a visit by the Windward Nazarene Academy Truck Farm, kid-friendly gardening activities, tours of the Sunset Beach school garden, and a special performance by Truck Farm songwriter Simon Beins with local musician Jack Johnson. It was a blast! Heartfelt thanks to our hosts for organizing the event.
Ian Cheney with event co-organizer Rex Dubiel, a teacher at Sunset Beach Elementary, and creator of Rex the Surf Dog, a youth literacy mascot
Planting gardens to take home
A Hawaiian truck farm!
Ian Cheney and Simon Beins chat with the young truck farmers from Windward Nazarene Academy about what they're growing.
Event co-host Jack Johnson and Simon Beins get a dance party going at Sunset Beach Elementary.
Jack Johnson and Simon Beins
Harvest party at home/made
Last Sunday, the TRUCK FARM team, with our talented and dear friends Monica Byrne and Leisah Swenson of home/made in Brooklyn, hosted an end-of-summer harvest party to thank our local sponsors and supporters. Monica and Leisah provided delicious food and the perfect place for a festive gathering and outdoor screening. Before the film, Simon Beins performed a few songs that didn’t make it into TRUCK FARM, and a few that did.
Enormous thanks to our talented and generous hosts, Monica and Leisah, to the awesome staff at home/made, and to all of our TRUCK FARM supporters in NYC and beyond.
The truck farm parked at home/made in Red Hook for our end-of-summer harvest party
Ian with Monica Byrne and Leisah Swenson of home/made