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Mill Ave. market to reopen at Urban Garden

NEW OWNERS: This September, the Thursday Night Market will return to the Downtown Tempe Community. Locals will be able to purchase produce that is grown locally in the Tempe Urban Garden. (Photo by Aaron Lavinsky)
NEW OWNERS: This September, the Thursday Night Market will return to the Downtown Tempe Community. Locals will be able to purchase produce that is grown locally in the Tempe Urban Garden. (Photo by Aaron Lavinsky)

Tempe residents can find fresh, locally grown food this September when Mill Avenue’s Thursday Night Market reopens at the Urban Garden.

The garden, located on the corner of Fifth Street and Forest Avenue, has gone through some dramatic changes since its initial startup in early February.

“The garden evolves on a daily basis,” said Lara Skutt, deputy director for Downtown Tempe Community. “One of the most new and exciting things with the garden is the interest levels from our community and surrounding communities.”

The Downtown Tempe Community is a private, non-profit organization that works in partnership with the Mill Avenue District, according to website.

The tradition of the Thursday Night Market, which features local produce, was started in fall 2009 and had been hosted at Centerpoint Plaza in front of MADCAP Theaters.

The Downtown Tempe Community brought the Urban Garden to Mill Avenue to establish a sense of community sustainability, said Casaundra Brown, marketing director for the Downtown Tempe Community.

The garden’s mission is to grow produce that will supply local chefs and Valley members with fresh and organic ingredients, Brown said.

“All of Mill Avenue’s restaurants are participants on some level,” she said. “Café Boa, La Bocca and House of Tricks are all very much on board.”

The Downtown Tempe Community has created this garden with the help of local contributors, hard work and volunteers. This lends to the idea of building community and resiliency, Skutt said.

“We had a zero budget for this project,” she said. “To see the garden now and where it came from is a true reward for all involved.”

The Thursday Night Market will truly help drive the local food movement, Skutt said.

Families and community members are encouraged to come out Sept. 16 to see the new market, when patrons will have the chance to buy fresh local produce, herbs, meats and honey.

Local grower Horny Toad Farms will also be on-site selling products. The garden recently formed a partnership with Horny Toad Farms, which allowed new areas in the garden to be built to grow larger quantities of food, Brown said.

Garden members hope to start giving food to food banks, prepare dinners for the homeless and really do a lot of creative volunteer work, said Jackie Jaap, volunteer coordinator for the garden.

The latest addition to the garden is the community composting program, Skutt said. The program started this summer and the Thursday Night Market allows the community to bring composting material into the garden in exchange for a punch card. When the compost is ready, the visitor can return for their bag of compost.

Students from ASU’s School of Sustainability were able to use the garden as research projects and learned about sustainability from Skutt.

“I spoke mainly about the realities of establishing such a garden, cost analysis and management aspects of it,” she said.

Jaap said although the garden took awhile to get going, it has truly transformed.

“It started out as just an empty lot with rocks,” she said. “People came together and worked so hard toward a common goal.”

Word about the garden is really starting to spread now as well, Jaap said. Different ASU clubs and organizations have already shown interest in doing community service projects at the garden.

“We can always use people for cleaning and maintenance,” she said. “We want the garden to look wonderful for the market.”

Reach the reporter at amoswalt@asu.edu


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