On Saturday, I joined over 400 other intrepid cyclists in braving the 25 degree weather to partake in Edible Austin’s Urban Farm Bicycle Tour. The Tour kicked off Edible Austin’s Eat Local Week, a celebration of locally grown and made food.
The leisurely paced ride took in a nice sampling of all the local food scene has to offer. Starting with established Saturday morning farmer’s markets in Sunset Valley and downtown, the ride also stopped at Hope Market, a new Sunday afternoon market just east of downtown on East 5th St. Located in the Pine Street Station warehouse and running from 11 AM- 3 PM, this markets promises to be a food and artisan market with comfortable space to hang around on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Also include on the Tour were stops at a dozen community gardens sprinkled throughout south and east Austin. These small plots of land are divided up to provide people in the neighborhood a spot to grow their own food. I stopped by the new Festival Beach Garden located next to the RBJ residential tower just north of Lady Bird Lake in the Festival Beach Park area. This garden is just beginning and marks the first time the City of Austin is providing park land for community gardening. The large empty grass area next to the IH-35 access road has gone largely unused and is being converted to a collection of 20′x20′ plots available for anyone to do gardening. There are also plans to plant fruit trees and create some community gathering space for events and parties.
Finally, the focal point of the ride was the urban farmers. These are commercial ventures that are tucked into plots in the middle of urban neighborhoods including the Boggy Creek Farm and Rain Lily Farm. The tour ended with a stop at the Hands of the Earth Farm out near The Driveway on Delwau Road. This farm hosts the high school students who participate in the Urban Roots Youth Launch program. The beneficiary of funds raised from the tour, this youth development program uses sustainable agriculture to effect lasting change for youth 14-18 years old, and to nourish East Austin residents who have limited access to healthy foods. I toured the farm with some of the students in this program seeing the diverse several acres of farm land.
Compared to some organized rides in Austin, the Urban Farm Bicycle Tour was a diverse and accessible ride to all levels of riders and families. It was well supported with mobile mechanics provided by Bicycle Sport Shop and offered real treats to the senses. This was one of the few rides I’ve see lately to have more women than men riding and spandex was the exception, not the rule. If we are to move to broader success getting people on bikes, we need more events like this opening up the option of sustainability in transport as well as eating.
Edible Austin’s Eat Local Week continues through this Saturday with tastings, movie viewings, and special markets throughout Austin.
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- Boggy Creek Farm Picnic ride wrap-up ...
- Tasty Touring organizes trailer bicycle tour for February ...
- OrganicAthlete puts on Tour D’Vegan food tour this weekend ...
on Dec 7th, 2009 at 10:51 am
My husband and I talked about going on this ride and skipped it for two reasons:
1. Weather — too cold. Is there a reason we can’t have it in May or October instead of December? I have recurring nightmares about last year’s jingle bell ride.
2. Cost — $40 per family. I would have appreciated an option in the range of $10/person, since I could have done this ride alone for no cost with just a map — I know the money goes to a great cause, but you are biking yourself around town under your own power, right?
Anyway, I only bring these up as a way of pointing out things that could make other such events more accessible. But my husband and I bike a lot already, so maybe we aren’t the target for making things more accessible.
on Dec 7th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Alicia,
Putting together an event like this does cost money, for advertising, for staffing, for printing maps, etc. There was also food included at several stops on the tour. Also, it was self paced so $10 and a map would have been no different than what occurred. It was a fundraiser for a worthy cause and based on the turnout on a 25 degree day, I’d say most people didn’t have a problem with the price for a chance to experience the eat-local scene.
on Dec 7th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Alicia,
If you’d like to come by the shop, I’d be happy to get you a map to use at your leisure. In addition to awareness, this is a tremendous fundraiser where all funds benefit Urban Roots Youth Launch program. The family $40 option is for families of 2 or more. This year we had several schools participating as a family which exposed our youth to alternative transportation and these sustainable “gems” in our city.
This was the 2nd year the Tour launched Edible Austin’s Eat Local Week which begins the 1st weekend of December every year. Check out more Eat Local Events at http://www.edibleaustin.com
We hope you can join us next year. Every participant received one raffle ticket at every Tour stop and garden they went to. A drawing will be held next week with an opportunity for them to win a bike, as well as the following local business gifts: 2-$20 Kirby Lane, 2-$25 Natural Gardener, $50 Greenling Gift Cert., 2- dinners for two ($40 value each) at Eastside Café, 2-$25 gift certs: Soup Peddler, $50 gift card-Uchi, 2- $100 gift cards from Great Outdoors, 3 dinners for 2 at Blue Dahlia ($50 value each), 1 dinner for 2 from Cipollina, and one $100 gift cert to Parkside.
Keep on riding!
on Dec 7th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
elliott, thanks for your great post! Good to get feedback on the Tour this year, as we tried hard to consider all the feedback we had last year and improve this year’s Tour accordingly.
Alicia, it did warm up to 50 degrees or so by noon and most of the people I talked to said it was a very pleasant ride, weatherwise. We did have a per-person cost of $25, so there was a more affordable option than the family rate for just an individual, and as Elliott said, the event is a fundraiser and the funds are very much appreciated by Urban Roots.