Thank YOU for Celebrating Our 6th Bearthday with Us!

That’s a wrap! Our 6th Bearthday has come and gone but the memories of a good time linger. The presence of 300!of you at our morning bazaar and evening concert was the greatest present, and the $9k we raised to support our mission was the icing on our Bearthday cupcakes. Thank you for helping us succeed in an endeavor we are passionate about: growing the next generation of farmers by connecting our community to sustainable agriculture. For six years we have celebrated Raleigh City Farm’s birthday AND Earth Day at this annual event. It’s a day of merriment on a magical, lush, thriving one-acre site. Standing in the midst of all the beauty and buzz, it seems impossible that just six years ago this was a vacant lot. It was our founders—members of the local community—whose vision sparked a transformation: an unused lot into a high-production urban farm that would be a catalyst for growth in our neighborhood. The first group of dedicated volunteers stood on this site soon after and got ready to dig in. Today we think about that empty, forgotten urban space and we couldn’t be more grateful to see what we saw there on April 21st: a morning bazaar full of kids digging in the dirt wearing farm-made flower crowns, people enjoying the greatest breakfast tacos and micheladas this town has to offer while meeting friendly local vendors, and guests of all ages learning about our Farm and what’s growing here. At night, the scene was no less inspiring: under a clear evening sky we welcomed guests back for a concert with three incredible local bands. We were proud to offer food sourced with the best local ingredients, and wine and beer from local purveyors. We closed out the night dancing under the stars with our favorite people: you. We love days like that, and we’re excited about what the future holds for all of us as we continue to dig in. At this year’s event, we broke ground on a new Community Pavilion designed by LS3P with generous support from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, along with other sponsors and contributors. It’s going to serve as a “Welcome Mat” for RCF, offering shelter from the elements, much needed storage, a space for programming and learning, networking and volunteering and for our on-site farm partners to sell their produce. It’ll be the jewel in our paper flower crown and we can’t wait until it’s complete.Whichever parts of the day you attended, we hope you had fun and we can’t thank you enough for being a part of our community, and letting us be a part of yours.

Please check out our Facebook album HERE with photos of the event by the talented Juli Leonard.

So much gratitude is due to those who partnered with us, shared their goods and services, and contributed to this event in other meaningful ways: 

Spoonflower

Spoonflower

JDavis

JDavis

Smith Anderson

Smith Anderson

Leaf & Limb

Leaf & Limb

Budget Dumpster

Budget Dumpster

Broadreach

Broadreach

Events, GeneralRebekah BeckBearthday, Community, Downtown Raleigh, urban farm