Amy Courtney: Freewheelin' Farm

Urban Farm DB summary

An oral-history interview record with Amy Courtney, founder of the Freewheelin' Farm CSA in Santa Cruz County, California, USA, conducted by Sarah Rabkin on January 16, 2009. Courtney, a 1997 graduate of UC Santa Cruz's Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture, started the farm in 2002 using almost no motorized vehicles, incorporating used equipment and recycled materials; CSA shares are still delivered by bicycle-drawn trailer six miles into Santa Cruz, with farming partners Kirstin Yogg and Darryl Wong. Courtney's background includes work with school gardens, the Santa Cruz Homeless Garden Project, the United Farm Workers, the AFL-CIO, and an agricultural extension program in Cuba. The farm collaborates with "Food, What?!," a youth empowerment program based at UCSC's Life Lab Garden Classroom, and hosts a community art show, yoga classes and cooking instruction with Zen priest Edward Espe Brown. At the time of the interview, Courtney and her partners had just signed a lease for an additional parcel, multiplying the farm's acreage eightfold.