Mezzacello Winter 2024 Tour
Hello and Welcome to Winter 2024! I wanted to share a bit of the progression of Mezzacello Urban Farm over the last year. The best way I know how to do that is a gallery presentation for the Mezzacello Winter 2024 Tour. Schedule your own tour here!
What’s New and Upcoming?
There is so much going on at Mezzacello Urban Farm this year! We are part of four grants aimed at developing Applied STEM skills around food, nutrition, the climate, ecologies, and even using satellites to monitor the gardens. But that’s not all that’s new!
This year we started the renovation of the 158 year old Italinate House that sits at Mezzacello (and serves as our home and poffices. We are also adding new infrastructure, like an attached classroom, restroom facilities, and a new covered loggia for those rainy days at camps and workshops. We are in the process of remodeling the kitchen, and refitting the cellar with support walls to strengthen the foundation.
Not All Smooth Sailing
“We believe we have built the perfect place to start but without more funds we can’t — but sustainability is NEVER a one-man job.”
We mentioned those foundation walls, right? They were in way worse shape than we thought and the lion’s share of our money went into propping them up and reframing the house to support the two-story porch and classroom space. Now we don’t have the funds to finish the classroom space, even though we have everything we need to do it.
This is a bummer for sure. While we explore alternatives and prep for winter, we hope you’ll consider Mezzacello Urban Farm in your end-of-year giving strategy. We want to change the world and we believe we have built the perfect place to start — but sustainability is NEVER a one-man job.
In the coming year we have lots of fun adventures planned. I am really looking forward to it. But we will make it through the winter and wait for those partnerships and plans to come to fruition.
Cheers and stay tuned to what comes next for our crazy little Applied STEM Learning Lab and Functional Urban Farm in 2025. And again, if you want to help, please, we could really use it right now.
