Rural Agriculture Park at Mineral Hills City-owned conservation land Mineral Hills has the potential to be a rural hub that could house district-specific processing equipment and business consultation for Rural District farmers, and demonstrate agriculture practices that limit harm to ecosystems. Its central location in the district along Sylvester Road makes it relatively easy for people to get to and bring food products for processing and distribution. The 20 acres of flat open field along Sylvester Road is an area that could support a hub building for processing equipment like commercial-scale juicers, nut huskers, and flour mills, and for canning, packaging, or slaughtering facilities. These facilities and equipment are likely to be the ones most necessary for the foods produced by perennial gardens and livestock in the Rural District. The hub building could include an outside pavilion for meetings and workshops on the various topics of rural agriculture, food processing, and distribution. Educational activities could help aspiring and current farmers use best management practices and generate viable business plans. An education space could accommodate school children as well as older students, and provide information for Apple press, food processing agro-tourists, which could be an income source. One possible downside of developing Mineral Hills into a hub is that it will be expensive to build a brand new facility rather than repurposing an old one.
Case Study for Agriculture Park Sunol AgPark, created by Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAGE) and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, is located on the edge of urban neighborhoods, agriculture lands, and wildlands. Sunol is an education, demonstration, and business-development hub where agriculture and natural resource stewardship are integrated (Kraus 2005). Sunol’s links with the local community are formed through outreach and education for children and adults. Its mission is to provide a tangible understanding of how food is raised and develop strong relationships between consumers and farmers.
Sunol also offers plots to aspiring farmers without land, and provides consultation to make their ventures economically viable. Sunol offers cooperative processing equipment like a commercial kitchen that growers can rent to create valueadded products. The Sunol Agriculture Park also owns wildlands that it stewards alongside its agricultural practices. The wildlands are a living demonstration of the region’s ecology and are used as an outdoor classroom. The forests provide seasonal foraging as well, where guided tours take local residents and tourists into the forests to find mushrooms, wild Sunol AgPark; Sunol Valley, CA. fruit, and wild vegetables. Photo courtesy of SAGE
Certified Kitchens in Northampton Churches A food-processing hub could be housed in one of the many churches throughout Northampton where there are existing commercial kitchens. These kitchens, already certified by the Board of Health, could be used to make value-added products like canned and dry goods, honey, herbal tinctures, and a variety of other prepared foods. These kitchens could also be used to prepare locally raised produce for community dinners that serve people who are food insecure in Northampton.
Village CSA Incubator at Hospital Hill A potential hub could be sited on 300 acres of Hospital Hill to serve as an addition to the existing community gardens there to eventually become a village CSA with large-scale greenhouses; serve as a distribution center; host an outdoor farmers market and CSA pick up-site; and support a small-scale dairy operation. Located on the border of the Suburban and Urban Districts, the site is accessible to residents of both districts. Stakeholders have said that the existing community garden is in high demand with a long waiting list for garden plots, and that the APR land at Hospital Hill is “underutilized.” This hub could connect to the surrounding community assets to include Smith Vocational, the Northampton Community Gardens, and Smith College, bringing various forms of education, a diverse population, well-financed institutions, and community involvement to the hub. This hub would combine education, cultivation, processing, and distribution for the surrounding neighborhoods.
Feed Northampton System-wide Hubs
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