Bismarck Urban Harvest

2010 Annual Meeting

Please join us for our ANNUAL MEETING to be held March 11, 2010. We will be meeting at 6:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (click for google map) in Bismarck.

We are very excited about our upcoming season and look forward to sharing our plans with the public. We will be discussing vendor guidelines, local foods, our upcoming book club selections, and market activities.

Please plan to attend – we’d love to see you there! Refreshments will be provided!

2009 Urban Harvest

August 13, 2009

The last market of the season turned out to be a beautiful, hot August day. There was not much of a breeze (which is nice for the vendors as products stay where put unless by the hands of customers!). Check out this great video recorded today at Urban Harvest. Thanks to Lisa for being in contact with 50 in 52. Check out the blog to learn more about the whole journey.

2009 Survey

We are quickly wrapping up the fifth season of Urban Harvest. In an attempt to better understand what the community wants and needs from our market, we’ve created a very short survey (3 questions). Please take a minute and participate in our survey – it is greatly appreciated!

Click here for survey

Thank you!

August 6th, 2009

Today we all had our eyes on the radar. The weather service was predicting severe storms to arrive around noon. We had many vendors, understandably, pack up for the day and in order to reach home before the worst of it hit. Funny thing is, in typical North Dakota fashion, we had nothing more than a light mist. But again, it was a cold and windy one, too.

Weather does not stop the entertainment at Urban Harvest. For children’s hour, we had a fantastic time with the Suzuki School of Music. Thank you to the students, the parents and the director for sharing with us – everyone loved it!

Our farmers are quite busy right away in the morning. Stop by either booth and pick up tasty veggies or a beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers. Bring them home to your mother, she’ll love them!

Another fantastic day, musically speaking. Phil McMahon over the noon hour, Trifecta at 6pm, and The Levee closed us down at 8pm… The young and the old placed their feet to the rhythm of the beat on the streets of our town!

July 30th, 2009

I would like to thank Sia from the Coffe Break on the corner of 3rd and Main in Bismarck for providing hot coffee for Urban Harvest volunteers, participants, and vendors. There have been a couple of chilly mornings this season and hot, strong coffee (and maybe some Mini Donuts) help to fuel the fire that keeps each day exciting. Today,  Northern Plains Dance performed Peter and the Wolf  for children’s hour. The costumes and dance were great – thank you!

For our noon hour performance, we had the first installment of the John Krueger band. John joined us again for our first evening performance with his saxophone quartet. Both groups were fantastic and really helped provide for a musically interesting day. We much appreciate all of the perfomers!

Our second performance of the night was The Midnight Noise Orchestra. This was a super fun set and I look forward to seeing them in other settings around town as well. The kids really enjoyed the full use of percussive and kitchen instruments for interactive participation. Forever live the joy of banging pot lids, ice cream scoops, and roasting racks to the beat of some sweet tunes.

July 23, 2009

Our third market of the season was a hot one -- 95 degrees with clear blue skies. It felt like summer in North Dakota for the first time! A huge thank you to the Bismarck Veterans Memorial Library for leading our children’s hour today. The morning started with a great puppet show and demonstration, followed by stories and songs by two of the children’s librarians.

I sincerely apologize for my lack of photos of our noon hour performer, Grady Jackson. A special thanks to Jacobsen Music for delivering an acoustic piano to our location for Grady’s performance.

Today, we also had a performance (two, actually) at 1pm. First, Sleepy Hollow performed pieces from their next show, Into the Wild. Shade Tree Players also joined us with pieces from Tom Sawyer. Both groups of kids did a great job.

We had a great night of music tonight. The Jim Geiger band opened the night -I couldn’t resist getting a bit of video of a couple on the Urban Harvest dance floor. (Note to self: keep the camera horizontal when taking video, yo!)

Cottonwood was a great end to the evening. Beautiful melodies, harmonies and chatter in between. The perfect end to a beautiful North Dakota day…

July 16th, 2009

We had another successful day at Urban Harvest today. It was a bit cold and windy for mid-July North Dakota but whatdoyado? Drink hot coffee, I guess – which, is located at the Urban Harvest booth each week.

Please stop by the Urban Harvest booth for our fundraiser cookbook. We’ve compiled recipes submitted by board members featuring produce available from our local farmers. We also have beautiful canvas bags created by Luke Graner, a talented artist and musician. Each is different so take your time to find the one that strikes your fancy…

We had the priviledge of a performance by Kris Kitko during the noon hour. We feature music from noon until one each market day so make sure to visit for music and fantastic food from The Walrus, Smoothie Operator, My Grandpa’s BBQ, and Camly Cuisine.

Each Thursday we feature two performances per night. Tonight we had Coned – a young band based in Mandan; and The Dedbeats. Make sure to stick around for both performances each week. Of course, we are a family friendly event!

July 9th, 2009

The first market of the 2009 season was a great success! We had fantastic weather (despite the wind), great vendor and participant turn out. Many, many thanks to all of the volunteers that came to help set up and take down the market -- it couldn’t have been done without you. I look forward to seeing you all again on July 16th!

Gateway to Science led the Children’s Hour with Lego Mania

Sleepy Hollow performed scenes and songs from their upcoming show The Wizard of Oz. Their show starts on Sunday -- break a leg, kids -- but not you Melissa! Congratulations!

We had the special priviledge of having The Healing Force perform for our evening show tonight. I was contacted by a couple who own The Sybil Center for Life Enhancement in Stanley, ND. The Healing Force brought a message of happiness and love that is the heart, in my mind at least, of Urban Harvest.

Come down and visit the dance floor at Urban Harvest! You’re always welcome…

Volunteer Duties

In the comments box (at the bottom of the page), please leave the following information if you are interested in volunteering to help with Urban Harvest:

Name 

(please email contact information to director@bismarckurbanharvest.org)

Dates and shift available (am or pm)

Duties (see list below)

2009 Urban Harvest Dates (Thursdays):

July 9^th                                                   July 16^th                                               July 23^rd                                               July 30^th

August 6^th                            August 13^th

Morning duties (8:30 am – will take about an hour depending on the duty you sign up for)

•1.       Electricity:

• Retrieve electricity carts from Downtowner’s office (on location)
• Run power cords from stage to carts
• Tape down extension cords in walk ways

•2.       Prepare Community Corner Table

• Retrieve table and two chairs from Downtowner’s Office (on location)
• Set up table and chairs at Market
• Attach signage to table and indicate community organization that will attending (provided by director)

•3.       On site advertisements and garbage cans

• Retrieve sandwich boards from Downtowner’s Office (on location)
• Position sandwich boards on North end of 4^th Street and East end of Broadway
• Staple entertainment schedule (provided by director) onto sandwich boards
• Retrieve garbage cans, line with trash bags and place around market area

•4.       Urban Harvest Banner and Stage Banner

• Retrieve Urban Harvest Banner and stage banner from Downtowner’s office (on location)
• Retrieve banner hardware
• Hang banners behind stage area

•5.       Seating

• Move picnic tables into the right of way (on location)
• Retrieve bistro sets from Downtowner’s office (on location)
• Set up bistro sets around market area

•6.       Urban Harvest Booth

• Retrieve UH booth items from Downtowner’s office (on location)
• Help UH board member set up booth items such as canopy, table, chairs, canopy weights, and merchandise materials

Evening duties (8:00 pm – will take about an hour depending on the duty you sign up for)

•1.       Electricity:

• Remove power cords from stage to carts
• Remove tape and extension cords from walkways
• Return electricity carts/extension cords to Downtowner’s office (on location)

•2.       Community Corner Table

• Take down Community Corner table and chairs at Market
• Remove signage from table
• Return table, two chairs, and CC sign to Downtowner’s Office (on location)

•3.       On site advertisements and garbage cans

• Remove sandwich boards from North end of 4^th Street and East end of Broadway
• Remove entertainment schedule from sandwich boards
• Return sandwich board to Downtowner’s Office (on location)
• Retrieve garbage cans and deliver garbage to designated location (on site)

•4.       Urban Harvest Banner and Stage Banner

• Remove Urban Harvest Banner and stage banner from hardware
• Tear down banner hardware
• Return banners and hardware to Downtowner’s Office

•5.       Seating

• Move picnic tables out of public right of way (on location)
• Remove bistro sets from market area
• Return bistro sets to Downtowner’s Office

•6.       Urban Harvest Booth

• Help UH board member tear down booth items such as canopy, table, chairs, canopy weights, and merchandise
• Return UH booth items to Downtowner’s office (on location)

Urban Harvest Book Club

Let us all just pretend that we didn’t see snow yesterday, ok? In less than a month, school will be out for the summer and Urban Harvest season will be upon us. To kick off this season, Urban Harvest is hosting a book club on May 28th and June 25th. We will be reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (discussion May 28th) and The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (discussion June 25th). The public library has copies, as does Barnes and Noble. Make sure you say “hi” to Lisa Kyes if you stop by – she’s our new board secretary and the manager of B&N (and a mom to two kids, and a dog, and a cat… whew!). She will also be facilitating the discussions. Don’t worry if you don’t have time to read the whole book; we are looking forward to having a discussion on how individuals are choosing to shop locally and investigate their food choices.

Please join us!

May 28th 7pm-9pm
Bismarck Veteran’s Library
Book: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

June 25th 7pm-9pm
Bismarck Veteram’s Library
Book: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan