We invite all Houstonians to join our free Open Farm Days at Skyfarm, POST's one-acre urban food farm operated by Blackwood Educational Land Institute. It is your chance to experience the Blackwood Skyfarm for after-school/after-work education each and every week. Each Open Farm Day begins with a one-hour interactive tour of the Skyfarm followed by an hour-long food or farming lesson.
Each week alternates between a Community Food Lesson or Community Farm lesson:
Community Food Lessons
Hands-on sessions where you will learn how to make simple nutrient-dense foods or plant-based medicine using seasonal produce and herbs, and maybe even take something home!
Community Farm Lessons
Also hands-on experiential learning sessions where you become an urban farmer for the day, picking up tips on how to start and nurture your own home, school, or community garden.
Programming Topics:
“Growing Onions in Houston.”
"Seasonal Lacto-Ferments & Kim Chi"
“Herbalism & Plant Medicine for Beginners"
“Gardening with Changing Seasonality"
“Seasonal Garden Pestos”, and more.
Admission for all Open Farm Days is free, with RSVP required to communicate on special instructions. RSVP here >>
Private Group Experiences
Click here to view all Blackwood Skyfarm's current offerings for private group experiences, ranging from 1 hour to full days. All group experiences are donation-based with a suggested donation of $10 per person.
Schedule by emailing info@blackwoodland.org with preferred date/time options.
Tours and Volunteer Opportunities
Visitors can also experience the Skyfarm by scheduling a tour or joining one of the upcoming volunteer days. Learn more at blackwoodland.org/calendar.
About the Artist
About the Exhibitor
More About the Program
Skyfarm is a community partnership led by Blackwood Educational Land Institute and POST Houston. This nonprofit teaching farm is a living laboratory that showcases regenerative, climate-smart, and equitable urban food systems.
Our primary commitment as farmers is to the health of our soil, which contains countless microorganisms that collectively constitute the soil food web. This interdependent web, which includes plants and wildlife, is what we as humans need to survive. Like Houston, a healthy soil food web is vibrant and diverse.
As a visitor to Skyfarm, you bring a unique personal microbiome of bacteria and fungi spores from your own neighborhood, making Skyfarm a uniquely biodiverse community garden for the 21st century. Knowing our role in the soil food web is key to understanding and addressing critical issues in the health of ourselves, our city, and our planet. Local action, global impact.
We grow — organic vegetables, fruits, and herbs in 12” of specially formulated lightweight soil.
We are — the largest rooftop farm in Texas and one of the top 10 largest in the world.
We aim—to model a closed-loop food system with zero food miles & emissons.
Credit
- The Blackwood Skyfarm is open for educational experiences from one to four hours for kids of all ages and adults. This includes field trips, volunteer days, and intensive urban agriculture lessons. Email info@blackwoodland.org for opportunities and to schedule.
- The Skyfarm is also the nexus of an educational pilot program with the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department, which operates the County's three juvenile detention facilities. Through this pilot program, which began in May 2023, Blackwood provides free food, farm, and nature education to youth at each of the facilities, and residents at the pre- and post-adjudication Downtown Juvenile Detention Center start and care for seeds which will be planted at the Skyfarm. Programming also touches on issues of food inequity, social determinants of health, and climate justice for Harris County's youth of color.
- The Blackwood also partners with the University of Houston Downtown Center for Center for Urban Agriculture and Sustainability to employ and train three farm apprentices each summer.
With the Support of
Weekly on Wednesdays, year-round
3/20 - 9/18 (Between Spring and Autumn Equinox)
Wed 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Before 3/19 & After 9/19 (Between Autumn and Spring Equinox)
Wed 4:30pm - 6:30pm
Free Admission for all Open Farm Days
RSVP here, required to communicate on special instructions.
Farmer's Market on the 1st and 3rd Sundays. Learn more at blackwoodland.org
