An Amarillo ‘agrihood’ in the making: New community farm at The Vineyards

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - One Amarillo neighborhood is getting a farm-to-table experience right in their backyard.

The owner of The Vineyards neighborhood in north Amarillo said he first started thinking about a community farm after being inspired by the ‘agrihood’ trend more commonly found in west and east coast cities.

“We thought it was a neat idea and a neat concept, and the importance of knowing where your food is coming from, I think, is going to be more and more important as we go along,” said President of Nielsen Communities and Owner of The Vineyards Thomas Nielsen.

Danny Melius, with Nuke City Veg, who helped start the Square Mile Farm on SW 6th Ave., is the urban farm business behind the farm at The Vineyards.

He’ll continue to run his business while also providing produce to residents of the neighborhood free of charge.

“He produces a list to me, we provide it to the community through either knocking on doors or, we have a website for the community, and he goes and knocks on the door once a week to tell them what they want, and then we go and provide it to them,” said Nielsen.

“They can just come and get the produce. If they want to leave donations, that’s great, as like a tip of thank you, but nothing else is required,” said Melius.

Melius said cold weather set operations back a little bit, but he has been able to grow successfully so far.

“We got started a little bit late, and we didn’t get as much stuff ready as I wanted to before the cold came out of nowhere. So we’re really excited about spring,” said Melius. “Salad mixes, leafy greens, carrots, radishes, onions, we’ll be doing tomatoes, squashes, probably cucumber.”

The establishment of the farm has also been a project for students with Blank Spaces Murals.

They’ve been able to work on painting a mural on the storage shed out at the farm.

“It seemed like just a fun opportunity to try a different surface,” said Executive Director of Blank Spaces Murals Shawn Kennedy. “This location out here is gorgeous, and we get to watch the sunset every day. We get to get involved with great people that are doing wonderful things in our community.”

Nielsen said the long-term goal is to set up a weekly farmers market as well as a mini-farm for kids and families to learn how to grow their own food.

“In stores, you don’t really know where it’s coming from,” he said. “This is a way to know you’re getting 100% organic, non-pesticide, and it’s not going to do any damage to your body.”

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