Exploring the Soil Food Web

Join us at The Eric Waller Mount Washington Community Vegetable Garden as we explore the Soil Food Web!
This field day is a combination discussion and hands-on workshop, focused on the microbiome of healthy soil and the ways that healthy soil supports healthy plants and people! Leslie Lewis, Soil Food Web school certified consultant and Farm Alliance of Baltimore board member, will begin this workshop by discussing the beneficial relationships between microbes and plants to show how and why farming practices are shifting to focus on the biological health of soil.

With a microscope setup on-site, she will then share with participants the techniques for assessing soil microbiology by looking at farm soil and compost samples. Bring your own soil or compost samples if interested in seeing what they look like under the microscope!

More about the speaker: Leslie W. Lewis, Ph.D., had a first career in liberal arts colleges, teaching and supporting the interdisciplinary humanities and sciences and also tending to the business side of higher education. She came to the study of soil health as an academic researcher and writer as well as an organic grower with decades of experience as a vegetable farmer. While teaching the course Growing Food for Justice and Sustainability at Goucher College she met Elaine Ingham, founder of the Soil Food Web School. Leslie now puts hands-on growing knowledge together with living systems thinking for farmers, homesteaders, and residential householders. Her business, Living Systems Soil LLC, offers consulting services that are conceptual, practical, and appropriate to scale, beginning with microscope assessments of soil biology.

About the Farm: The Eric Waller Mount Washington Community Vegetable Garden, founded in 2011, serves Baltimore City families. Spanning about a 1/4 acre, it involves around 60 households growing various fruits and vegetables. The garden, operates on collective decision-making, with input from members through meetings and surveys. They strive to Garden in a natural sustainable manner based on science and best urban agriculture practices. In addition to providing food for their members, they also donate a portion of every harvest to charities within the city. The Eric Waller Mount Washington Community Vegetable Garden is also a member of the Farm Alliance of Baltimore.

This is an in-person workshop. Pre registration is required so we can plan accordingly. We suggest that attendees wear weather appropriate attire, and closed-toed shoes you don't mind getting dirty. Be sure to bring a water bottle! There will be extra masks, waters, hand sanitizer, sunscreen & bug spray on site.

• Parking Information: Street parking is available
• Access to Restroom: no restroom on site
• Other Notes: Paths are woodchips, there is limited shade and seating on site
• Cancellation Policy: In the event that we need to cancel due to weather or unforeseen circumstances attendees will receive an email notification.
• Questions? Please contact [email protected]

COVID and Health Safety Protocol

• Please do not attend if you are feeling ill, experiencing symptoms, or have been exposed to people in your life who are sick.
• Please contact the event organizer/appropriate Farm Alliance Staff to make arrangements regarding your absence.
• If you learn that you have tested positive for COVID within 5 days after an event, we ask that you please notify us so that we can inform participants about possible exposure.

Host or Publisher Farm Alliance of Baltimore