New American Farming in Austin with Green Gate Farms

One of the most exciting recent developments in community building, farming and sustainability is the explosion of locally grown food and farmers markets across the country.  The local food movement is powerful because it influences so many important aspects of society.  When food is produced, sold and consumed locally, it is an economically re-localizing, ecologically restorative, and socially reconnecting activity.  When you experience the magic of a thriving farmers market, you begin to understand that there is a lot more going on than just food being bought and sold.  Trust is being fostered between producer and consumer, and community is being built before your eyes.

A few years back, I decided that I wanted to participate in this magic.  Living in England at the time with a plan to return to the states, I spent countless hours poring through website postings for farm internships, WWOOF (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) opportunities, and similar work exchanges.  My search led me to a farm in New Mexico, but I was also very impressed with a farm in Austin, Texas called Green Gate Farms.

Skip Connett and Erin Flynn established Green Gate Farms in 2006 by restoring a historic farm site that had been swallowed up by city expansion.  The blighted east Austin neighborhood that now surrounds the farm is a ‘food desert’ with predominately liquor stores and gas stations nearby.  The farm store supplies the neighborhood’s only fresh food. The farm motto says it all:  “Cultivating healthy food and communities.”  For all of human history, the two have been linked.  When people share life-giving food, community thrives.  Green Gate Farms clearly operates out of this understanding.

Green Gate has grown significantly since I first encountered them three years ago.  They now distribute some of their produce through a 125-member CSA with several drop locations throughout Austin every week.  And they run a thriving farm shop with a wide range of fresh produce from the farm where they also sell pastured pork, free range eggs and raw honey.  They are passionate about opening their farm to the community for events such as their upcoming Slow Food Feast, November 19, and their regular Farm Camps for kids.  Skip Connett is demonstrating what the new American farm can be!! What an inspiration!