Crown Point Ecology Center

Programs: The following are service programs provided by crown point in 2017: our farm manager, assistant manager and team of four interns had a successful year, serving 125 community supported agriculture (csa) clients and donating over 2000 pounds of organic produce to the akron canton regional foodbank. In addition, we donated over 15,000 starter plants to area school and community gardens after our annual plant sale in may with an estimated value of 56,000. This year's farm yield was equivalent to last year's, but it is important to note that we reduced the number of acres in production 10 to four as we work to restore the vitality of our soil. Soil restoration has been long overdue at crown point, and we began in earnest this year to implement a soil-building plan that includes incorporating compost into our soil and rotating cover crops. We are working to shift some of our produce farming from annuals to a permaculture strategy, which is better for soil health, less labor intensive and less expensive over time. This season, we added asparagus, strawberries, currants, gooseberries and blueberries to our produce portfolio, which will provide a bountiful harvest in years to come. Thanks to a grant from nrcs, we recently built three hoop houses on the property, which will allow us to extend our growing season by at least two months - adding time in early spring and late fall. Four interns participated in our farm internship program this season. In addition to being involved in all of the daily tasks of operating an organic vegetable farm, our interns participated in four field trips - one to the osu extension in wooster and three to area farms focused on production of agriculture goods not featured at crown point. Building up our pollinator habitats on the property has been a high priority for the farm. We have expanded our beekeeping activities (and included beekeeping training in the farm internship program) and have designated locations around our 115 acres where we have started to plant robust vegetation to attract birds, bees and butterflies. We offered a solid lineup of youth education and community engagement activities in fy17: students involved in our lady of the elms' environmental club received a grant to start a pollinator garden on the property last spring. They will continue to care for their garden in seasons to come. Our annual summer farm & science camp welcomed 134 campers this year, 39 of whom attended on scholarships. Camps were held over eight weeks between june and august. We held a soil science field trip workshop for 123 6th graders from akron city schools. In addition we invited many school groups for different field trips. With support from bath community fund, crown point was able to build a cob pizza and bread oven on the property this year. We hosted a two-weekend workshop to build the oven, which was led by an experienced cob builder named uncle mudd. A cob oven is environmentally friendly, built from mud, sand, water and straw - abundantly available materials used for millennia to create beautiful, durable structures. The project has allowed us to model sustainable building practices, enhance facility rentals, attract new visitors and use the oven for crown point events. Summer farm & science camp participants used the oven weekly as did several guests holding meetings on the property. We also hosted a cooking class around the oven in late july (see below). With 5. 5 miles of potential hiking/walking/running trails on the property, staff and volunteers began the work of cleaning up our trails to attract more visitors to the property. Work on this will continue into fy18, thanks to a grant from the ohio and erie canalway, which will allow us to create signage and produce self-guided tour materials, in addition to planting a tremendous display of flowering crab apple trees. Crown point hosted its first-ever earth day 5k and family fun run in april 2017 and the pumpkin patch dash 5k run and one-mile fun run on oct. 28. In partnership with mustard seed market and caf, we hosted four sold-out healthy dinners in winter 2017, featuring guest speakers with expertise in a variety of areas of nutrition. In july, we partnered with the cleveland-based local abundance kitchen to host a cooking class centered on the use of our cob oven, taught by an iraqi asylee. The event sold out. Local abundance kitchen educates and assists refugees and immigrants to offer cooking classes and workshops that will provide them with an empowering and enriching path to meaningful income. We continued to offer our monthly labyrinth walks through the year and our weekly yoga classes in fall, spring and summer. The 19th annual taste of earth gala, the colors of summer at crown point, was held in august for a full house of guests who dined on our our beautiful produce and enjoyed a sustainably prepared local meal. We host meditation workshops and regular meetings to study pope francis' encyclical "care for our common home" our venue continues to grow as a venue for weddings and business and civic meetings. These opportunities not only bring new visitors to crown point, but also provide an important revenue stream that supports our organic farm and educational programming.