Cultivar Farms is an initiative sponsored by the Hill Country Mission for Health focusing on educating the public about vegetable growing and its nutritional benefits. Members donate instruction and leadership designed to reach across socioeconomic and age barriers, encouraging the enjoyment and experience of gardening.
Located at 122 COMMERCE AVENUE in BOERNE among industrial and commercial buildings, the Cultivar Farms garden was built to support the clients of Hill Country Mission for Health, which provides basic health needs to citizens who would otherwise be unable to afford health care, and Hill Country Family Services, which provides counseling, food, clothing, and emergency financial assistance to families in need. Our purpose is to improve our clients’ knowledge and habits of good nutrition. Volunteers work on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to maintain the garden, welcome visitors and answer their questions about this garden and those at their homes. The produce we harvest is distributed to our clients. In 2017 that came to 1240 pounds of food.
Texas Hill Country Master Gardeners lead hands-on classes for local youth groups, such as Girl Scouts and vacation bible school classes, and coordinate community volunteers from Rotary Clubs, churches, and neighbors who join us to share gardening tips and work together to serve our clients.
Special events each year keep the community engaged and the work fun. Every third Saturday we host a workday for volunteers who cannot come during the week. Two of these are our Spring and Fall Planting Days partially funded by the Thrivent Financial Action Team program. Each summer we hold a watermelon party and each fall we enter our produce in the Kendall County Fair. In our effort to introduce our clients to new nutritious foods, we have cooked diabetic and heart healthy recipes with our produce and offered them to visitors to the health clinic.
The one-half acre garden includes sixteen 3 x 36 foot rows, eight 4 x 8 raised beds, three 4x4 beds, and wading pools, tubs, and other containers for our vegetables, herbs, and flowers. We garden using organic principles and IPM strategies as we are able. Financial and in-kind donations have helped us develop water lines, deer-resistant fencing, a pergola with tables and benches, compost bins, a storage building, a walking path, and landscaping.
Visit our Facebook page to stay up to date on all the fun. Please feel free to "Follow" us and click the "Like" button at https://www.facebook.com/CultivarFarms
Project leads are HCMGs, Shirley Smith and Judy Beauford. Every year we try something new and every day we learn something new about gardening. To learn more about how you can become involved, email Judy Beauford at beauford@uiwtx.edu.
