The Farm at Jack’s Solar Garden
The agrivoltaic farm at Jack’s Solar Garden was a highlighted stop on the AgriSolar Clearinghouse national “Follow the Sun” tour in 2022! Watch this video to learn more about Sprout City & partners’ work at Jack’s!
Timelapse of the solar array and field work: early July 2021. Many thanks to Chad Weber (http://cwebervideo.com)!
trailblazing sustainable agriculture under solar panels!
At the Farm at Jack’s Solar Garden in Longmont, Sprout City Farms operates the largest agrivoltaic (agriculture + photovoltaics) research site for vegetable production thus far in the United States!
Alongside research partners, SCF is innovating using multi-crop market-farming techniques within an elevated solar array, using the partial shade to protect tender greens from the scorching summer sun while still producing plenty of delicious sun-loving crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and melons!
Since 2021, the farm at Jack’s has been a site for research, education, and sustainable food production all at once - and you can now join us in enjoying the delicious fruits (er, vegetables) of our labor through the first and only solar-grown CSA!
By producing food in a life-size obstacle course, our farmers are solidifying methodologies and data collection with crops grown in the research farm plot. We work with research partners across the country to track the climate-resilient impacts of consolidating solar panels with vegetable production.
Research partners include:
University of Arizona
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Colorado State University
Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center
We plan to share our findings widely so that more farms can adopt these practices and harvest both crops and the sun as sources of revenue. Stay tuned for more updates as this project progresses!
We even have the first and only solar-grown CSA, where you can get 20 weeks of farm-fresh vegetables from under our solar panels! Learn more and order here, and email us at csa@sproutcityfarms.org with any questions!
Not only conducting trailblazing research, we are also building up our low/no-cost food access programming, where we are supporting Longmont families by distributing farm-fresh food in collaboration with local organizations!
We distribute food to:
- The OUR Center Food Pantry & Cafe
- Longmont Food Rescue
- Saint Vrain Valley School District (Healthy School Meals for All)
- Boulder County Farmers Market WIC & SNAP programs
- Longmont Community Fridges
For the first time in 2024, find our farmers at the Longmont Farmers’ Market on Saturdays from April 13th - November 23rd!
In the coming years, we hope to create plots for aspiring farmers to incubate their businesses, as access to land, capital for infrastructure, and farming networks are the biggest barriers to entry for beginning and first generation farmers. We’ve always been passionate about beginning farmer training and growing the next crop of small-scale sustainable farmers, and Jack’s Solar Farm allows us to take this to the next level!
Here’s a snapshot of the partners and research projects collaborating at Jack’s. SCF is managing all of the food production on site, including working closely with University of Arizona and managing their research farm plot.
