There are very, very few events that would make me clean my bike and fight with the air pump machine, but Eden’s Garden CSA Farm has one on Sunday, October 14 that’s making me reconsider. Barn Aid 2012: Le Tour de Farms mixes everything that’s good (healthy eating, exercise, grocery shopping, and philanthropy) into a single afternoon of fun and bike riding. Here’s how it works: You check in to Lake Highlands Community Garden at 1 p.m. Then, over the course of the afternoon, you either bike or drive your way through 32 miles of roads. On the way, you’ll be making pit stops at places like Urban League’s Community Garden at Parkland on Elam and the We Over Me Farm at Paul Quinn College, where you can harvest produce and pick up some organic veggies. Once you reach your destination at Eden’s Garden CSA Farm, sit down to a community-style, three-course meal prepared by the bearded chefs of Dallas (Mark Wootton of Garden Cafe, Graham Dodds of Central 214, and Chad Houser of Café Momentum). Pretty simple, right? But I’m not done. At dusk, doors open to the public, and everyone’s invited to watch a free screening of Urban Roots and listen to Lorynn the Redhead play angst-ridden folk music.
To attend, buy your tickets here. If you’ve read this post all the way down to this sentence, and you’re still on the ticket-buying fence… well, consider this: A portion of your money is going to the Youth Village Resources of Dallas’ gardening program. Charles Plummer, the guy who teaches teenage boys at the Youth Village how to grow organic crops, will put that money to good use. He might even make more of his compost tea with it.
