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Photo by Erika Schultz/ The Seattle Times
Becky Warner (center, with tiller), a former software engineer, works with Alleycat Acres volunteers at a plot of land the group is developing into a neighborhood-focused urban farm on Beacon Hill. Warner is pursuing a career change into agriculture.
Alleycat Acres, a new urban-farming collective that ultimately hopes to turn bits of unused land into food sources for needy Seattle residents, kicked off its efforts on a plot across from Beacon Hill's Jefferson Golf Course.
By Marc Ramirez
Feb 28, 2010
Seattle Times
The seeds were planted with enthusiasm, sweat and bright-eyed optimism. Task by task on a sunny springlike Sunday, volunteers stepped up on a plot of land across from Beacon Hill's Jefferson Golf Course.
Someone to help build a retaining wall? Check. Someone to smooth over beds of composted soil? Check.
"Who wants to man the rototiller?" asked Scott MacGowan of Alleycat Acres, a fledgling urban farm collective with a simple mission: to turn unused city spaces into gardens providing nourishment for needy local residents.
More hands shot up, and before long, the mostly 20-something crew members were in the mud, preparing this rectangular knoll overlooking Lake Washington in the distance for its eventual rebirth as an urban farm.
"If we can find vacant lots, why not put urban gardens in them and get food to people?" said Sean Conroe, coordinator, or "lead alleycat," of the 11-member, nonprofit collective brought together by green-minded professional interests.
The Beacon Hill site is the first of what Alleycat Acres hopes will be many such volunteer-run gardens throughout Seattle, mostly in areas whose residents lack access to healthy produce. The effort is among a growing urban-farming movement nationwide, including Seattle, where city officials have named 2010 "the year of urban agriculture."
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