RECREATION

Bike and learn about urban farms

Tour raises awareness of what's growing right in our city (and just outside)

By Ian Dille
SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Friday, December 05, 2008

Boggy Creek Farm's five acres of neatly grown radishes and cabbage, its quaint chicken coop and colorful lemon trees and its massive oaks, which provide shade to an 1800s farmhouse and market stand, reside just three miles from the Capitol. The farm is a favored resource of local chefs and is so close you could practically ride there. In fact, you should bike there, and to a number of other farms within the city limits, during Saturday's Urban Farm Bike Tour.

"So many people don't realize we have these urban farms in Austin," says Marla Camp, the owner and publisher of Edible Austin Magazine, which is promoting the Urban Farm Bike Tour in conjunction with Bicycle Sport Shop. "What better way to discover them than by bike?"

The Urban Farm Bike Tour officially kicks off Edible Austin Magazine's second annual Eat Local Week fundraiser. Running Saturday though Dec. 13, Eat Local Week events encourage Central Texans to explore the abundance of locally grown and produced food. The Urban Farm Bike Tour will start from the downtown Austin Farmers' Market at 10 a.m. following a proclamation by city officials and a 20-carrot salute (the sound of 20 kids snapping carrots at the same time). Additional start locations include Bicycle Sport Shop and the Sunset Valley Farmers Market, both departing at 9 a.m. Route distances vary depending on the start location and range from 10 miles to 24 miles primarily following official city bike routes and trails.

Proceeds from all the Eat Local Week events (including the Urban Farm Bike Tour's $25 entry fee, or $40 for families) will benefit Urban Roots, a youth development program that hires kids, mostly from East Austin, for a yearlong internship on an urban farm. In 2008 the Urban Roots interns — many of whom had no prior affinity for vegetables — set out with the modest goal of growing 10,000 pounds of produce. They harvested nearly double that amount, donating 40 percent to hunger relief programs such as Caritas of Austin and selling the rest at local farmers markets.

By taking an optional route extension down Delwau Road, a single, tree-canopied lane, cyclists can easily access the Hands of the Earth Farm, from which Urban Roots leases an acre. The Hands of the Earth Farm, along the banks of the Colorado River, functions primarily as a community-supported agriculture service, distributing weekly baskets of produce to subscribing members in the Austin area.

As added incentive, Edible Austin Magazine and Bicycle Sport Shop will provide prizes to select Urban Farm Bike Tour registrants, including a commuter bike fully outfitted for grocery shopping. Cyclists need not worry about going hungry, either; each farm will offer samples of its freshly harvested produce.