FREE, self-guided, featuring 18 urban farms

 

The fourth annual Urban Farm Day returns this August, highlighting local growers in a variety of spaces and inspirations. Join us for talks, tours, markets, and activities throughout the day. Interact with the growers and groups that strengthen and support our food community.

Look for a PDF map to be posted here closer to the event you’ll be able to print out at home.

  • Reserve your free spot touring an indoor mushroom farm

  • Learn about Farmer Pirates compost operation – and why they’re called Farmer Pirates

  • Shop produce grown by farmers from seven African countries and the U.S.

There’s something for everyone!

New this year:

  • Bake and Share - A Community Bake where visitors can experience cooking in an outdoor wood-fired oven.

  • Join a plant poetry station to celebrate urban growers through language

  • Ride an urban farm bus tour with Explore Buffalo

 

Participating Urban Farms

Open 10am-3pm except where noted.

  • Big Big Table & Lugar Hermoso de Pedro Community Garden - 272 Hudson St, Buffalo, NY, 14201

    Open 10am-2pm.

    Located directly across the street from the Lugar Hermoso de Pedro Community Garden on Buffalo’s West Side lies WNY’s inaugural pay-as-you-can community café, Big Big Table.

    At most restaurants, you pay money for your meal, but Big Big Table offers a unique twist. Guests are encouraged to contribute whatever they can – be it time, money, produce or groceries – in exchange for their meal. Through this innovative participation-based model, Big Big Table aims to build healthier individuals and communities, while also providing a dignified response to food insecurity and fostering a culture of community support.

    In addition to providing the community with accessible, healthy food options, Big Big Table is ardently committed to minimizing food waste through food rescue initiatives. Our incredible kitchen team curates weekly menus which incorporate donated items, excess and/or distressed produce, and seasonal, locally available produce. In collaboration with lead gardener Kelsey Worth, the café integrates greens, vegetables, and an array of herbs graciously contributed by the community garden.

    So grab a seat at the (Big Big) table and enjoy a delicious lunch in a space that truly welcomes everybody. The café is open for lunch Tuesday-Friday from 11am-2:30pm. Learn more or sign up to volunteer at bigbigtable.org.

  • Bolyard Garden - 223 Broad St, Tonawanda

    Meander through this four year old food forest to find organic produce, medicinal herbs, mushrooms, crafting materials, dye, honey, gathering spaces and fun. Permaculture principles are put into action in a confluence of humans and nature. We’ll be hosting a plant sale with food forest and medicinal herb plants.

  • Brewster St. Farm 36 Brewster St., Buffalo

    Produce available for purchase.

    Open 9am-3pm.

    The Brewster St. Farm is part of the Green Shoots for New Americans program at Journey’s End Refugee Services, providing training and resources for refugee clients who wish to pursue agriculture as a skillset or business opportunity. The farm is functioning, providing organic produce to food-insecure populations and the urban community of Buffalo. We grow a variety of produce including culturally relevant vegetables and flowers to our clients, while also offering annual 20-week CSA shares and farm stand access to the public.

    Pick up for the CSA and the farm stand are in the Tri-Main Center lobby on Thursdays from June-October. We are a part of the Greater Buffalo Urban Growers community and partners with Cornell Cooperative Extension, Grassroots Gardens WNY, and We Radiate.

    We will also have a farm stand available with limited produce, value added products, and potential seedlings. We may also have a volunteer opportunity for individuals while they pass through.

  • BFLO Worm Works – 317 Ensminger Rd., Tonawanda

    We are an urban worm farm. We convert food scraps into living soil. We offer food scrap collection service and produce Super Soil for retail sale.

  • DeeplyRooted Community Garden - 98 Luksin Drive, Tonawanda

    Growing from its inception in 2022, this community garden and food forest bridges traditional raised bed annual gardening with regenerative practices to heal the soil and bring soulful purpose to this public space. We reduce off-site inputs with rainwater catchment and composting to organically water and feed the garden. Local waste streams such as arborist logs and wood chips provide useful carbon rich material. And among the fruit trees and shrubs, the reintroduction of a diverse selection of plants provides native wildlife habitat and forage. This is a place to connect with neighbors as well as nature, reconnecting passersby with the beauty and resiliency of our natural spaces.

  • Farmer Pirates Compost – 0 Gittere St, Buffalo

    Farmer Pirates Compost LLC, formed in 2013 by a group of urban farmers who recognized the need for locally produced compost is now officially operating as a Worker Owned Co-op, providing an ownership track to all who are employed with us. Starting with just 20 residential pickup composting clients, we have grown to provide both residential & commercial composting pickup service, neighborhood and municipal drop off composting programs, serving over 500 households and businesses across the Greater Buffalo area. Since September 2023 we are partnering with the city of Buffalo in the implementation of Scrap It! Curbside, a pilot composting program offered to 2000 city residents.

    Our operation supports a closed loop economy by using locally generated food scraps to make compost that feeds our local farms and gardens. In 2023 we kept 940,042 lbs of food scraps out of the landfill, composting them instead!

    Farmer Pirates Compost staff will be happy to show you around the compost site, where you can witness the transformation of food scraps into rich compost; they will share their insights, enthusiasm, and love for the soil with all who attend.

  • FeedMore WNY – 91 Holt St., Buffalo

    Open 11am-2pm.

    Feedmore’s community garden is used to grow fresh produce which is sold on our mobile farm market trucks. Our farm market trucks take that produce, along with everything we grow in our hydroponic container farms and other options we source from local suppliers, to be sold at an extremely affordable price, on-site, to our neighbors in need who live in food insecure places.

  • 5 Loaves Farm - 1172 West Ave, Buffalo

    Produce available for purchase.

    5 Loaves Farm is an active participant in the renewal and redemption of Buffalo's Upper West Side. Now in our 13th growing season, we produce healthy, organic food on one acre of land in the heart of the city on what were previously vacant lots.

    Our work includes providing neighborhood youth with their first job experience, including on-the-job skill training and mentorship. A unique feature of 5 Loaves Farm is our cultural garden, where we grow culturally significant crops reflecting our diverse community. We distribute food to the neighborhood through a CSA program, an on-site farm stand, and the Elmwood Village Farmers' Market. We are also able to provide nearby Buffalo Public Schools with fresh salad greens during the growing season. You can find us at Elmwood-Bidwell every Saturday morning from May- October, and at our on-site farm stand Thursday afternoons from July-September.

  • Flat 12 Mushrooms - 37 Chandler St, Buffalo

    Produce available for purchase.

    Open 9am-2pm.

    Founded in 2014, we’ve focused from the beginning on a neutral carbon footprint. We grow all our gourmet mushrooms on site using organic raw materials year-round at our one-of-a-kind urban farm. Our now expanded indoor farm harvests 800 pounds a week, including the lions mane variety, touted to help your brain and nervous system. Our retail space grew out of the pandemic, and offers fresh and dried mushrooms, medicinal mushroom extracts, mushroom pastries, mushroom scallops, lions mane chili crisp, lions mane hot sauce, lions mane brownies, lions mane coffee, mushroom vegan pate, and compound cream cheese! All things mushroom. We are open Wed-Fri 12-6pm; Sat-Sun 9-2pm

  • Grassroots Gardens - 389 Broadway, Buffalo

    Grassroots Gardens of WNY is a small non-profit that helps communities start and develop community garden spaces across Buffalo and Niagara Falls. The community garden adjacent to Grassroots Gardens’ office is a teaching and demonstration garden that also serves as a growing space for the surrounding neighborhood. We utilize the space for workshops and programs, while also growing free vegetables for our neighbors. In this teaching garden, we have 13 raised vegetable beds, a rain garden, and a few ornamental growing areas planted with pollinators in mind. Multiple neighbors, as well as a group from the Office of People with Developmental Disabilities, steward some of the beds in this space, while our staff grow and share the produce from the remaining beds.

  • Groundwork Market Garden, 1698 Genesee St., Buffalo

    Produce available for purchase.

    Groundwork Market Garden (GMG) is a certified USDA Organic urban farm that grows a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, as well as mushrooms, herbs, flowers and honey. We are committed to improving our soil health and using regenerative agricultural practices. We have produced and distributed tens of thousands of pounds of affordable and cost-subsidized fruits and vegetables, hosted on-farm events and educational programming, and partnered with local organizations to increase food access in east Buffalo since 2015. GMG serves its community through an on-site farm stand, a community shared agriculture (CSA) program, and through local restaurants, businesses, and institutions. Visit the farm stand to shop our weekly offerings every Tuesday in June-October, open 4-7pm! Volunteer opportunities available. Visit our website www.groundworkmg.com for more info.

  • Isle View Produce Urban Farm - 234 Wadsworth Ave, Tonawanda

    Produce available for purchase.

    This is a visually stunning market garden hidden in the suburbs with 4000 square feet of intensive gardening. We grow both vegetables and cut flowers. An on-site produce stand offers locally grown food for the community, and will be open on Urban Farm Day.

    A highlight this year will be a do-it-yourself "Bouquet Bar" where visitors will be able to create and purchase their own beautiful bouquet to take home.

  • MAP - Massachusetts Avenue Project - 387 Massachusetts Avenue, Buffalo

    Produce available for purchase.

    Started over 20 years ago, the Massachusetts Avenue Project is the oldest urban farm in Buffalo. With a little over an acre of land in production, chickens, bees, a micro orchard and many medicinal herbs, MAP has long been a part of our local food system: participating in food production on a farm, food processing in a commercial kitchen, distribution on a mobile market, and community education and policy work. MAP employs teenagers, and believes that the revolution will be cultivated!

    MAP will be open and selling produce on Urban Farm Day from 10-3

  • Pelion Outdoor Classroom (est. 2011) - 212 Best St, Buffalo

    Produce available for purchase.

    This huge outdoor classroom engages 250+ students with the natural world and enriches their curriculum through hands-on learning opportunities for students in topics of: plants, nutrition, science, WNY agriculture, eco-literacy, and stewardship. Volunteers transformed 4 blighted city lots across from City Honors School into a space that is 50% edible, has over 9 fruit trees, several pollinator buffets that support native bees, a vertical growing space, First Nation planting area, and contains one of the largest rain gardens in the city. We train students, teachers, and community members alike in a variety of growing methods and sustainable living. Come make a batch of Fairy Ice Cream! Farm stand will include: fruit jams, pickles, honey samples, bee houses, U-Pick herbs & compost worms Plus, U-DIG native perennials and shrubblings.

  • Providence Farm Collective - Farmers Market: 130 Grant St, Buffalo (M & T Bank lot)

    Produce available for purchase.

    Open 10am-2pm.

    Providence Farm Collective is a 37 acre not-for-profit farm collective located in Orchard Park with our seasonal farmers market on Grant Street! Officially founded in 2019, PFC provides access to farmland and agricultural resources to under-resourced communities with an ultimate vision of empowering just and equitable access to food and farmland. Providence Farm Collective’s (PFC) diverse farmers represent communities from Somalia, the Congo, Burundi, the United States, Liberia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Ethiopia.

    PFC’s mission is cultivating farmer-led and community-rooted agriculture and food systems to actualize the rights of under-resourced peoples. PFC directly supports refugee, immigrant, Black, and low-income farmers with access to farmland, agriculture and business education, technical assistance, markets, and opportunity to farm for income. Through its programs, PFC uplifts the next generation of diverse agricultural entrepreneurs and community farmers with an emphasis on promoting self-sufficiency and advancing ecological and human health. Many community members voice the same reasons for farming at PFC: To build fresh food and economic security within their communities; grow culturally relevant crops key to food traditions; connect to agricultural heritage; enjoy the outdoors; and reap the physical and mental health benefits the farm provides. In 2023, PFC was home to over 230 farmers and 34 summer youth employees representing eight unique communities who worked together to manage 27 diversified, organic farms!

    Come meet our farmers, learn more about PFC, and discover some new varieties of produce at our farmers market on Grant Street Saturdays from 10am - 2pm! www.providencefarmcollective.org

  • Rader Garden - 1547 Love Rd, Grand Island

    I have been working on my urban farm for 7 years, filling every inch with raised beds full of vegetables, fruit trees, berry bushes, herbs and flowers.

    The garden scraps get fed to the animals, who in turn provide fertilizer for the plants. My rabbit hutch holds two does and a buck, who supply meat several times a year. My small chicken coop holds three hens who give me white, tan and green eggs on a daily basis. And there are two bee hives for honey for myself and neighbors. My goal is to grow as much of my own food as possible with minimal outside inputs and cost.

    I hope to show visitors what can be done on a small urban lot. This is the future of agriculture if we are to save the planet.

  • Urban Fruits & Veggies - 117 Zenner St., Buffalo

    Buffalo Go Green's urban farm is a mix of vertical hydroponic container and soil-based growing in five heated greenhouses.

  • Wilson Street Farm - 360 Wilson St

    Open 10am-2pm.

    Since 2009 we have been growing and selling vegetables on Buffalo's East side, seeking to be a part of bringing peace and hope to a struggling neighborhood. When available, we offer for sale a variety of fresh, chemical-free, in-season vegetables at our on-site farm stand on Saturdays, beginning in July. Tomatoes are our specialty! Come by on Saturdays for your tomatoes - green, red, or heirloom, fresh herbs, or other vegetables in season.

    We sold our last CSA's in 2020 and switched our focus to intentionally building a healthier, more biodiverse island in a neighborhood of neglect. This intentional approach to agriculture provides much needed green space and food for people, birds, insects, and animals, as well as an area of quiet and peace - precisely what our society needs in this age of instant digital everything and its accompanying mental illness and purposelessness. We want our farm to be a living metaphor of redemption, and an example of what husbandry was meant to look like.

    We have also been collaborating with Cornell University on urban soil studies. How can we bring fertility and life back into the land we have once abused, but now so desperately need to provide us with the building blocks of survival? Our main approach has been the use of various cover crops, but what this looks like on the challenging soils of the city is the subject of on-going study.

    We offer garden beds for lease for folks who would like to grow their own flowers or vegetables but who don't have enough space to do so. Please email us at wilsonstreeturbanfarm@gmail.com for more information.

 

Tours, Talks,  Workshops, and More

TOURS

5 Loaves Farms

Times: All day!

Guided tours are available on request throughout the day.


Farmer Pirates Compost Site

Times: All day!

Guided tours are available on request throughout the day.


Flat 12 Mushrooms - Free Reservation Only Tour **

Timed Tour: 10am

Come enjoy a walk through an indoor mushroom farm.  Approximately one hour, it will include the history of the buildings and the farm, the life cycle of mycelium - from inoculation through waste stream management.  Bring a bag, and take home free mushroom substrate for your garden.  Our retail space will be open for purchase of a range of products from fresh mushrooms to mushroom cream cheese to fresh mushroom pastries.   

** Registration is required - space is limited to 25 people.  Free registration will be available on Monday, August 12th.  

BFLO Worm Works

Timed Tours: 10:00am, 10:45am, 11:30am, 12:30pm, and 2pm.

We teach visitors to have a higher awareness and knowledge of composting and the power of worms, called vermicomposting.  You’ll learn worms’ lifecycle, and how to compost your food waste.  Learn the differences between the worms in our soil, and those used for composting, including the different breeds in our bins. We teach you how to harvest vermicompost safely, the components of soil, and how to add worm assistance to your soil.  This is all in the service of producing and building high quality soil to produce healthy plants and food.

Big Big Table - Abundance & Creativity, Challenging the Paradigms of Food Insecurity

Time: 10:00am

This workshop will focus on innovative ways to address food insecurity in a sustainable and dignified manner. We will discuss the transformative impact of participation-based community cafes in the fight against hunger and the principles of sustainable food rescue that guide our mission at Big Big Table. Stop by to be part of this insightful conversation as we navigate creative solutions and collectively contribute to a more food-secure future.


Brewster St. Farm 

Timed Tours: 10:00am and 1:00pm

Join us for a tour of our urban farm where you can see the green house and our raised garden beds filled with a wide variety of produce from all around the world!

MAP - Farm Tour

Time: 11:00am

A 45 minute guided tour of the farm will be offered, including hoop houses and the farmhouse, and a discussion of MAP's history and current projects.



WORKSHOPS & MORE!

Bolyard Garden - Food Forest Gardening

Times: 10:00am

We’ll lead a tour of the garden with the purpose of educating participants on what is planted, why it was chosen, and what to think about when designing one’s own permaculture garden.


Plant Poetry Station at MAP

Time: 10am-3pm 

We will use the rich multisensory experience of farms and gardens and transform them into poetry -- the colors and smells of flowers, the taste of a fruit or vegetable, the feeling of soil. Urban Farms and Gardens are incredible sources of material for creative expression. The Plant Poetry station will give visitors the opportunity to celebrate our urban farms and gardens through language that captures human connection to the plant world and highlight the positive associations that make such places so necessary for our communities.  

The station will be led by University at Buffalo Environmental Humanities Postdoc Kacey Stewart, a poet and gardener. Dr. Stewart will provide prompts to guide the creative process and materials for writing. New poems will be added to an exhibit that will grow throughout Urban Farm Day for other visitors to see. Poems will later be collected into an anthology online or through a small local press. 

Children are welcome and encouraged to join.

Bolyard Garden - Free Reservation Workshop Get Started - Design Your First Guild **

Time: 11:00am

We offer a free, sit-down workshop** which will walk participants through designing a well-rounded permaculture guild on the spot, immediately following the 10 a.m. tour. This will equip participants with the tools needed to plan their own design project: where to put the garden, what plants to choose, and what environmental, biological or neighborhood factors to consider that may influence these decisions. 

** Registration is required - space is limited to 12 people. Free registration will be available on Monday, August 12.


Groundwork Market Garden - Community Bake

Time: 11:00am - 3:00pm 

To contribute to the many events of Urban Farm Day this year, we will be offering a “Community Bake Day” using our community-built cob oven. Community Bakes are a day where people from all walks of life with wide-ranges of experiences in baking/cooking come together to create delicious foods using a wood-fired oven.  It is a time to share, experiment, educate, build community and most importantly eat.  Participants are encouraged (not expected) to BYOD (bring-your-own-dough) but can also bring anything that goes into any oven including meats, vegetables, pastries and more.  At the start of the event, the oven will be its hottest ideal for pizzas/flatbreads.  Over time the oven will gradually cool, opening the door to bake breads, roast vegetables and sear meats.  Come break bread with us! All ages, cuisines, knowledge, and experience-levels are welcome! 

Deeply Rooted Community Garden - Bountiful Beds

Time: 12:00pm

Come learn how you can get the most from a small garden space, including production and diversity, with careful planning, seed selection and layering.


Pelion Garden – Fairy Ice Cream Making

Times: 12:30pm & 1:30pm

Come make Fairy Ice cream.  Fairy ice cream requires people to learn about and harvest edible flowers.  This will last approximately 30 minutes. We will have 2 of our hand crank ice cream makers on-site so folks can come help us make small batches of Fairy Ice Cream.  Children are welcome. 

We will have voter registration forms available at ALL our events this year.


Brewster St. Farm – Meet and Talk with lead farmer, Bir Rai

Times: 1:00pm-3:00pm

Bir Rai is known for his gentle smile and Nepali cucumbers! As the Agricultural Business Apprentice, Bir Rai and the team of farmers he leads at the Brewster Street Farm build community by providing Buffalo with fresh, organic produce through Journey’s End Refugee Services. 


Bir Rai started farming at the age of 10 by helping his father tend to the family farm in his home country of Bhutan. He did not receive formal education, instead provided for his family. As Bir Rai grew, so did tensions in his home country. Many discriminatory laws were put in place to limit the social and cultural impact of the Nepali-speaking community. Disputes between ethnic groups resulted in violence. Bir Rai left with his family at the age of 29. 

Bir Rai and his family lived in a refugee camp in Nepal for 22 years. Bir Rai worked with limited resources in the camp to start his own home garden. He earned a special certification to grow produce for fellow refugees. 

Bir Rai learned of the Green Shoots for New Americans program at Journey’s End after resettling in the states. Having an extensive background in agriculture, he started training for the program in 2014. He is using his agricultural and business skills to provide fresh produce to individuals who may not have access to affordable, nutritious food. He is an important part of our community. 

Stop by Brewster Street Farm to see his work on Urban Farm Day!

 

In 2023, visitors had a wide range of experiences at the nearly 20 Urban Farm Day sites. There was the joy of learning something new. The surprise of being inspired. And the simple pleasure that came from being part of the day.

Big Big Table was so pleased to again be a part of Urban Farm Day this year! We appreciate opening our doors to introduce additional community members to our unique mission and highlighting our relationship with the community garden across the street. Many of our UFD visitors were first time guests. One in particular had a long conversation with our AmeriCorps member, Morgan, and took quite an interest in BBT. She then followed up on Monday with an email sharing that she is the director of a small private foundation, and invited us to submit an application for discretionary funding as soon as possible. Our board president did so, their decision making review meeting was just a few days later, and to our surprise, we had an award notice the following Thursday and a personally delivered $7,000 check in on our hands that Friday!

This was such a wonderful example of a very tangible fruit of the seeds planted through the community-wide exposure we received as an Urban Farm Day participant. For our agency, it resulted in a funding opportunity that might not otherwise have been open to us without that foundation representative visiting us for the first time that day. Thank you again for including us in this special event. We look forward to next year! 

-Stephanie, Big Big Table