Join us for the unveiling of "Cultivating Community/Cultivar la Comunidad" mural and announcement of expansion plans for "Tennis Court Farm."
The colorful mural at the entrance to ECO City Farms presents two parallel “fish-eye” perspectives of what a healthy community looks like with food at its center. The pleasure and community benefits of growing healthy organic food are depicted through elements including an earthworm, honeybees and their comb, ompost, a forest of rainbow chard and a waterway rippling through hands representing the diverse people of the Port Towns communities.
Artist Matthew Gifford and project manager Sonia Keiner, both of Hyattsville, are the creative team behind the mural. The project was made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Our thanks go to the Port Towns Community Development Corporation, the Town of Edmonston and the summer interns of the Port Towns Youth Council for their support and assistance.
After a long process of community input and collaboration with our partners at the Maryland National Capital Park and
Planning Commission, we will be expanding operations to include the former tennis courts adjacent to our farm. Tennis Court Farm will include the FOODshed, a low cost, replicable commercial kitchen in a shipping container designed for processing farm products and producing
value-added foods from our farm produce. We will also use the new space to increase and diversify our vegetable production, and create a public space, separate from our main farm operations, for farmstand sales, farming and
cooking demonstrations, and community gatherings.