Urban and Community Agriculture

East Dallas' Promise of Peace Garden is Moving, and its New Neighbors Aren't Happy

The Promise of Peace Community Garden is in an awful location, shoehorned into a formerly vacant lot in a row of apartments and liquor stores just south of White Rock Lake, reachable only by a narrow sidewalk running along busy Grand Avenue. Nevertheless, the spot has served the garden's needs ever ... More >>

White Rock Local Market Cooked Up Funds for New Community Garden Last Weekend

Last weekend the White Rock Local Market held its third annual Chili Cook-off. The judges for the event included BBQ Snob Daniel Vaughn, The Ticket's Corby Davidson and Matt Tobin of Goodfriends. Jason Dreubert made a cabrito rojo chili, which won for best spicy chili and people's choice award. Tea ... More >>

Community Garden in Deep Ellum Now Taking Applications for Small Plots

Deep Ellum Urban Gardens (DUG), the small community garden that greets travelers from the west when they arrive in Deep Ellum, is now taking applications for 4-by-4-foot garden plots. This project, which is part of the Deep Ellum Community Association, was funded with the help of the local community ... More >>

In South Dallas, Councilwoman Carolyn Davis Wants to Crack Down On Car Washes, Massage Parlors

Eleven years ago, the City Council set aside an enormous, 3,700-acre tract of land surrounding Fair Park and put in place detailed zoning restrictions stipulating what types of homes and businesses could go where. It was an attempt to promote positive development and fight the economic decay that ha ... More >>

At This Weekend's Urban Coop Tour, Everything You Need to Know About Raising Chickens

The Third Annual Peep at the Coops: The East Dallas Urban Coop Tour is this Sunday, May 20, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. There are few rules for the tour. First, you can't bring your dog. (Really? Do we have to make that a rule? If you thought you could bring your dog on a chicken tour, then you're auto ... More >>

Deep Ellum Urban Gardens Could be Hours Away from a Big Donation

Dallas girl Lindsey Cook is in a tight race with Mary Edwards from California as the fan favorite in the Aetna Healthy Food Fight -- a fight that could mean a nice influx of cash for the Deep Ellum Urban Gardens. In case you missed it, through a contest at the State Fair, Cook was chosen to go to N ... More >>

Deep Ellum Urban Gardens Could Get a Major Boost from a Local Woman's Stuffed Peppers

​As an avid runner and cook, Lindsey Cook of Dallas loves to create healthy dishes, like her quinoa and turkey stuffed bell peppers. Easy, versatile and full of deliciousness, Cook was so smitten with the recipe that she entered it in the Aetna Healthy Food Fight contest. From there, the dish ... More >>

The Deep Ellum Urban Garden Needs a Little Push

Proposed DUG Community Garden​A few weeks ago we told you about the Deep Ellum Urban Garden (DUG) fundraising project via Crowdtilt.com. Here's a recap: Through the Deep Ellum Community Association, DUG is trying to raise $25,000 to create a community garden in Deep Ellum. However, they're ... More >>

Deep Ellum Urban Garden Needs Help, and Gets Some, In Effort to Raise Some Green

​A couple of weeks back we noted: The Deep Ellum Community Association is in desperate need of seed money to plant a long-in-the-works urban garden at Canton and Good-Latimer -- $25,000, to be precise, for such things as benches, fences, tools and, ya know, plants. Hence their fund-raising efforts ... More >>

The DFW Truck Farm, Rolling to a Restaurant Near You

Trust me, it's more impressive when it's filled with living produce​There's more to the State Fair of Texas than deep fried my little pony turds, you know. If you find your way past the funnel cakes, Cuban sandwiches and fried beer, you might stumble on the DFW Truck Farm. The pickup truck out ... More >>

A Garden Grows in Deep Ellum

Deep Ellum dabbles in variety of things. The familiar: bars, music venues, restaurants, tattoo parlors and stores filled with vintage tchotchkes. Then there are a few surprises, like a winery, a cheese shop and ninja parking lot attendants. Hopefully soon they'll add to the list of familiar a commun ... More >>

Deep Ellum Community Association Needs Some Seed Money to Plant an Urban Garden

​What you see at right is the urban garden the Deep Ellum Community Association would like to plant on this lot at Canton and Good-Latimer. The idea isn't new: In December 2009 we wrote about DECA's attempt to green up Deep Ellum, and initially they'd looked at planting on the site of the old Rock ... More >>

It's A Benefit In Bloom

What Can You Do With an Old Shipping Container? Turn It Into a Commissary.

The E and H Commissary as it looked during construction on Tuesday before its installation on the SMU campus​Speaking of big doings on the SMU campus ...Next week brings the first-ever Engineering & Humanity Week to the Hilltop, courtesy the Hunter & Stephanie Hunt Institute for Engineerin ... More >>

Chefs Rally Around Paul Quinn College Urban Farm

Bolsa partner Chris Zielke hopes an upcoming fundraiser benefiting Paul Quinn College's Food For Good Farm will help change how people think about Oak Cliff. ​"From the Oak Cliff community standpoint, I want to show people it's more than just Davis Street," Zielke says. "There's a big area ou ... More >>

It Took Forever For City To Craft Hands-Off Garden Law. And That's a Good Thing.

Jeanine AttawayA thing of the past? Perhaps. Fingers crossed. Good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise.​A hundred years ago, when I was a city desk reporter for the Dallas Times Herald, there was a certain dreaded 4 a.m. phone call I used to get from the late Ernie Makovy, one of the great break ... More >>

New Book About Impact of The Great Recession Lands in Leslie Halleck's Urban Chicken Coop

Courtesy Leslie Halleck​Friend of the show Leslie Halleck's adventures in urban chickening have not gone unnoticed, here or elsewhere. But till today I had no idea she's actually featured in a well-received, just-published, just-landed-on-the-WSJ-best-seller-list tome on how the Great Recession's ... More >>

Paul Quinn College Declares Student Farm a Success

Paul Quinn College's community garden, the most visible element of a massive rebuilding effort the troubled school launched earlier this year, produced one thousand pounds of food this summer. Snacks.com​Director of Service Learning Elizabeth Wattley reported on the garden's progress at yesterday ... More >>

At Cliff Manor Tomorrow, Getting Down and Dirty in the New Community Garden

Photos courtesy Wes KeyesWork's already begun on Cliff Manor's new community garden.​Back at the big kick-off lunch for Dallas Justice Revival's Homes for Our Neighbors campaign, we heard about plans to build a community garden for Cliff Manor residents -- an olive branch of sorts between the apar ... More >>

City Hall Still Trying to Find "Best Solution" for Those Who Want to Community Garden

Sara KerensScott and Mariana Griggs at the "West Dallas Country Club," otherwise known as their community garden​You probably forgot all about City Hall's efforts to regulate community gardens -- after all, it's been about two months since the topic came up at the council's Transportation and Envi ... More >>

Slow Food Dallas Wants to Plant a Seed
For Immigrant Neighborhood

​Slow Food Dallas is planning to use a portion of the proceeds from its upcoming $100 per plate benefit dinner to help launch a community garden in a Vickery Meadows area apartment complex. The local chapter has traditionally raised money to send delegates to the biannual Terra Madre conference in ... More >>

Community Gardeners Pledge To Keep Growing Despite "Disappointing" City Regulations

Photo By Mark GrahamMariana Griggs vows to continue her renegade gardening.​The City's slow move against community gardening continues, as evidenced by the latest set of do's-and-don'ts -- the sixth try at this -- given the green-thumbs-up by the council's Transportation and Environment Committee ... More >>

Liveblogging the Transportation and Environment Committee Meeting

​Good afternoon, Friends. Here we gather in City Hall's icy 6ES to commence the Transportation and Environment Committee Meeting, at which is promised discussion of both transportation and environment: street cars and community gardens are both on the agenda, with a bonus presentation on the North ... More >>

Yet Again, City Staff Plants Seeds of Dissention With Latest Community Gardening Proposal

​City Hall's attempts to regulate community gardening in Dallas is the story that won't go away: As I mentioned at the bottom of the budget item on Friday, the council's Transportation and Environment Committee will yet again take up the issue tomorrow -- this'll be the sixth proposal to go before ... More >>

Taking a Bike-Riding Tour of Oak Cliff's Community Gardens, No Permits Necessary

Andrea GrimesThe St. Cecilia's Community Garden was on yesterday's tour​Sunday afternoon, a horde of be-SPF'd cyclists gathered outside Eno's in Oak Cliff's Bishop Arts District to launch an extremely polite two-wheeled assault on Oak Cliff. The "Spring Has Sprung Garden Ride" was more of a summer ... More >>

At City Hall, It's Back to the Drawing Board On Community Garden, Downtown DART Plans

​Well, soon as the Trash-Attack Code Compliance crew cleared out, this afternoon's party at City Hall sure died fast. Blame it on this bummer of a PowerPoint from DART, explaining the long-term impact of having flat sales tax revenues over the last 10 years, referred to simply as "The Lost Decade" ... More >>

City Hall Continues to Bury Community Gardens Under Permits and Procedures

​On this beautiful Saturday morning following National Public Gardens Day, here's the absolute latest concerning City Hall's  deeply felt desire to regulate community gardens.First, the recap: Back on March 8 Kris Sweckard, director of the Office of Environmental Quality put before the counci ... More >>

Turns Out, Paul Quinn's New "Urban Farm" Is Also a New PepsiCo "Social Business Initiative"

The former football field at Paul Quinn College, now an urban farm​A couple of weeks back we noticed, courtesy some video from Central Dallas Ministries' Larry James, that Paul Quinn College was in the midst of transforming its football field into a two-acre "urban farm," in the words of school pr ... More >>

Developer, First Presby Pastor Answer Questions About Low-Income Housing Development Planned for Expo Park

What the proposed low-income housing development in Expo Park would look like, from docs submitted to the state​On Tuesday night, during the public hearing organized by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, developer Graham Greene sat in the audience quietly watching as 50 Deep El ... More >>

Why's City Messing with Farmers Markets When There Ain't Many to Begin With?

​On Monday, Daniel went to the council's Transportation and Environment Committee meeting where council members couldn't agree on how to regulate neighborhood farmers markets -- as in, how much it ought to cost, how many permits vendors would need and how many other roadblocks City Hall could thro ... More >>

When It Comes To Community Gardens, City Hall And Its Crazy Procedures Are Like Agent Orange

City Hall, City Hall, How Does Your Community Garden Grow? Oh, It Doesn't.

​Showed up at Room 5ES in Dallas City Hall this morning at 9 a.m. to cover an officially posted hearing of the Dallas Zoning Ordinance Committee on community gardens. Sat there. Alone.After a span of time I am not willing to divulge, I snapped to the fact that something wasn't right. City Hall bri ... More >>

The Not-So-Secret Garden

In North Oak Cliff They Know You Can't Fight City Hall, But You Can Bike Around It

Schutze has seen the future and it is community gardens-and a bunch of angry neighbors frightened of them

Dallas, Dallas, Quite Contrary, How Does Your Community Garden Grow?

​I covered a community meeting last night at Winfrey Point on White Rock Lake to discuss plans for a community garden off Fisher Road in East Dallas, and ... what can I say? It was pretty much a total rout for the gardeners, portrayed as an ominous invading horde by an angry crowd of neighbors nea ... More >>

We Interrupt Our Regular Broadcast for Schutze to Say Something Positive About the City

Who's Not Happy With That Farmers Market Regulation Proposal? Some Cliffdwellers.

And in other Bike Friendly Oak Cliff news, there's this event forthcoming. Details here.​Those following along Monday read Jim's account of the council committee meeting during which members debated regulating neighborhood farmers markets, in part to protect the city's investment in the downtown D ... More >>

Queen of Kiddie Green

Garden Party

Un-Super Size Me: One Week of Eating Local

One man’s attempt at slow food living in the Dallas metroplex

Cultivating Carnivores

Don't have a green thumb? Maybe a bloody red one is for you.