Boston Urban Farmer’s Almanac

Our Story

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Our Process

• Workshop 1: Designing Resilience (June 12th, 2025)
• Workshop 2: Designing Resilience (July 30th, 2025)
• Online Survey: 40 respondents (June - August 2025)
• Workshop 3: Zine-Making Workshop (May 6, 2026)
• Workshop 4: Almanac Discussion Circles (Oct 14, 2026)

A Deeper Look into Our Workshops

June 12th, 2025

Designing Resilience Workshop 1

🌐 TimeOut Market Fenway, Boston

Our first interactive workshop was designed to turn local voices into project blueprints. Through three hands-on exercises, we uncovered the real-world pulse of sustainable living in Boston:

• Mapping the Community: We unrolled a zoomed-in map of Greater Boston where participants placed stickers on their home turf to visualize our collective geographical reach.
• Gauging Passions: Attendees voted on the eco-topics they cared about most, helping us prioritize core chapters for the Almanac.
• The Sustainability Spectrum: Participants mapped their daily habits on an interactive board from Least to Most Sustainable. This exercise highlighted hard-earned green wins alongside common friction points, pinning down exactly where deeper community guidance was needed most.

Key Takeaways:

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Strongest Community Wins: Transit and daily waste reduction are deeply ingrained. Bostonians rely heavily on MBTA transit, walking, composting, and food-saving apps (like Too Good To Go)—showing a strong foundation in low-impact routines.

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Core Tension (Convenience vs. Ethos): High digital dependence (10+ hours of screen time, Amazon 1-Day) directly clashes with widespread anti-fast-fashion and thrifting values. People want ethical lifestyles but struggle against convenience culture.

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Top Friction Points: Severe seasonal energy spikes (summer AC/heat pumps), confusing local plastics recycling rules, and systemic reliance on personal vehicles outside core transit zones.

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Emerging Areas: Digital footprints/screen time surfaced naturally as a friction point, while systemic environmental equity needs clearer framing to inspire direct action.

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July 30th, 2025

Designing Resilience Workshop 2

🌐 The Foundry, Cambridge

Building on our first gathering, this workshop moved from individual habits to neighborhood-wide solutions, centered around one core prompt: “What changes do you wish to see in your neighborhood?”

• Breakout Deep Dives: Participants split into nine specialized groups—Food, Waste, Energy, Transport, Lifestyle & Fashion —to dissect local friction points.
• Peer-to-Peer Problem-Solving: Groups openly shared personal obstacles, discussed neighborhood-level solutions, and identified barriers in their daily routines.
• Collective Visioning: Each category team synthesized their insights, presenting a clear road map of what tangible, grassroots change should look like across Greater Boston.

Cross-Cutting Themes

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Circular Systems Over Disposal: The idea of turning waste into a resource appeared repeatedly and in different forms: composting and food-rescue apps (Food), furniture exchanges and clothing swaps (Lifestyle & Fashion, Waste), mushroom cultivation turning waste into food (Waste), and rental models for special-occasion wear (Lifestyle & Fashion). This isn't just "reduce, reuse, recycle" — it's a push toward closed-loop, community-run systems.

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Green Infrastructure as a Shared Priority: Green roofs on bus stops and permeable/recycled-water roads were proposed independently by both the Transport and Community & Culture groups — a strong signal this is a flagship idea worth prioritizing, since it emerged without cross-group coordination.

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