Tag Archives: blooming grove

Tater Tot the Pig and His Friends Visit Urban Acres

December 15th, 2012

Today, we were paid a visit by our farmer friends Steve and Kristine Orth of Eden Creek Farm in Blooming Grove, TX.  And they didn’t come alone – they brought their slew of fuzzy farm animals, like Tater Tot the pig!  We love it when our customers get to meet the farmers face to face.

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Kristine Orth and Tater Tot

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Swiss Chard – From The Farm To Your Table…

October 31st, 2012

Swiss chard growing at Eden Creek Farm

Our friends at Eden Creek Farm in Blooming Grove, TX sent this photo a few weeks ago of the swiss chard they’ve been growing for our co-op style produce shares.  Well, it has now been harvested, and you’ll see this very chard in your share this weekend!  How about that for fresh?

The farmers from Eden Creek will be appearing at “Meet Your Farmer Day” at some of our farm stand locations on November 24th and December 1st.  Stay tuned for details.

Try these chard recipes…

Get lots of recipe ideas on our Pinterest page!

Fall Farm Visit: See Where Your Food Comes From

October 18th, 2012

Our team traveled all around Texas this week, visiting some of our local farm partners and picking up tons of fresh produce for you!  We thought we’d share the highlights of the trip so you can see more footage of where your food comes from.  Take a little tour with us…

First stop: Gundermann Acres in Wharton County, TX

We picked up sweet potatoes, red potatoes, butternut squash & acorn squash.  See the hard-working farmer Garrett Gundermann helping load things up…

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Next stop: Johnson’s Backyard Garden in Austin, TX

Our team picked up some great lookin’ green beans, collard greens & kale...

Our brand new Director of Operations, Joe Chou, was workin’ hard on his first day loading the truck!

Here are some pics of onions & lettuce growing at JBG.  You should be seeing these in your produce share soon!

Onion transplants at JBG

Lettuce growing at JBG

Next stop: Sand Creek Farm in Cameron, TX…

Here, our team got to see aquaponic lettuce farming in action!  Aquaponics is a system for farming fish and plants together in a mutually beneficial cycle.  Check out these videos where farmer Clint shows how it works…


Next stop: Richardson Farms in Rockdale, TX…

Kay & Jim Richardson

Pastured turkeys at Richardson Farms

We toured the family farm where one thousand 100% pastured turkeys roam happily.  We’ll be offering 150 of these turkeys to you for Thanksgiving this year.  The Richardson family has been involved in farming for several generations. They are conservation minded in their farming efforts and care deeply about the health and well-being of their animals. All of their livestock are in large open areas/pastures and are free to interact with each other.   We love that.


Last stop: Eden Creek Farm in Blooming Grove, TX…

…Where our team was so tired and full from having tall glasses of cold, raw milk and Kristine Orth’s golden zucchini pie (which tastes better than any apple pie) that they forgot to take photos or video :) .  Farm-fresh food and drink under the stars – the perfect ending.

Thank you for being a part of Urban Acres and supporting Texas farmers and local, organic produce!  We  our farmers, and we you!

Let the Ingredients Do the Talking…

July 2nd, 2012

Photo: Urban Acres

This vegetarian salad is what Urban Acres is all about! You don’t have to slave away at difficult meals. Keep it simple and let the ingredients do the talking.  With delicious, fresh, local and organic Texas produce, your job is simply to arrange it on a plate.

Here’s what we did…

  • Sliced heirloom tomatoes from Johnson’s Backyard Garden in Austin, each topped with a scoop of slow-cooked black-eyed peas from Morrison Organic Farm in Cleburne.   Garnished them with a little sea salt, pepper and olive oil.
  • Sliced some lemony sorrel from Eden Creek Farm in Blooming Grove and spread it around the plate for a touch of green.
  • Nestled in some sliced fresh figs from Gundermann Acres in Wharton County, each topped with a scoop of goat cheese from Caprino Royale in Waco.
  • Sprinkled some peppers from a backyard garden in Oak Cliff.

And voila!  A simple, local meal for you.  Bon appétit!

Our Team Visits 3 Local Farms – Where Your Food Comes From

June 13th, 2012

One of the most important things to us at Urban Acres is staying connected with our farmers who provide you with wonderful local, organic produce.  We make farm trips regularly throughout the year to see how our farmers are doing and check the progress on the food they’re growing that we then provide to you, our members and friends.

This past Monday, a team of 5 Urban Acres staffers traveled for 18 hours covering 650 miles across Texas to visit 3 of our farm partners:

  • Caprino Royale in Waco, TX.   Husband and wife team Eric and Karen have the best goat cheese in all of Texas, hands-down.  Their chevre is used in many top-rated restaurants here in Dallas.  When you know every single goat by name, then you know the cheese is made with love!
  • Gundermann Acres in Wharton County, TX.  Thank goodness we found Garrett and Stacie Gundermann – they have already provided amazing produce for our co-op style produce shares this year!  The Gundermanns met in high school and got married in 2009.  Garrett is a 4th generation farmer.  Their farm started with a peach orchard, and the family added other fruits and veggies in the mid-1990s.  Now they grow everything from peppers to peaches to figs to eggplant.
  • Eden Creek Farm in Blooming Grove, TX.  Eden Creek is owned by Steve and Kristine Orth, an incredibly energetic and friendly couple that loves growing and sharing their beautiful herbs, greens, veggies, and delicious peaches and plums.  They also have a menagerie of animals with fun names like Tinkerbell, Wilbur, and Squeaky.

We wanted to give you an inside look.  So here’s a little slideshow.

First stop, Caprino Royale…

On the road at 5am…in the Volkswagen Rabbit where UA first began

Breakfast at Caprino: homemade pound cake with local blueberries, raw goat milk, and Oak Cliff Coffee – MMMMM.

Samantha and Jeff learn a goat-feeding lesson from Karen at Caprino

Our Liz with Eric at Caprino

Love me!

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Next stop, Gundermann  Acres…

Unconventional setting for our meeting at Gundermann Acres – just how we do business :)

Steven getting a tour from Garrett Gundermann

Hydroponics greenhouse

Our studly Andy

Just a few weeks until these huge, juicy figs make an appearance in your produce share!

Liz experiencing fig yumminess

Andy trying a Gundermann fig

Samantha checking out the bell peppers

Steven chowing down on Gundermann organic sweet corn, straight from the field

Waist-deep in organic sweet corn fields: Liz, Garrett Gundermann, Andy, Samantha

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Final stop, Eden Creek Farm…

Our team (minus Jeff) with the Orths at Eden Creek Farm in Blooming Grove: Steven, Steve Orth, Kristine Orth, Andy, Liz, Samantha

Eden Creek’s potbellied pigs

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Ending the trip with a true farm-to-table dinner under the stars with everything coming from the land at Eden Creek Farm

Thank you, Urban Acres farmers, for working in the hot, the cold, the windy, the rainy, for sacrificing so much to provide the best organic food in Texas for our members and friends.  We ♥ you!

Photos From The Produce Sort Team This Morning…

April 27th, 2012

Our volunteer produce sort team is hard at it this morning and just sent over these photos…look at all the lovely spring produce being sorted into co-op style produce shares for tomorrow’s pickups!

Showing some of the LOCAL items…

Rainbow chard from Blooming Grove, TX

Spring onions from Yantis, TX

Red radishes from Cleburne, TX

Greens from Yantis, TX

Shiitake mushrooms from Denison, TX