At Urban Ranchos I and II, citified Angelenos learned how to raise chickens and keep bees in their backyards, how to identify the bugs in their gardens and how to make their own beer. A baby lamb received a full body massage administered by preschoolers. Display tables featured everything from grey water reclamation and compost to wildflower seed bombs and jams and jellies.
Serving it up at last year's Urban Rancho event
Saturday evening Urban Rancho returns to Northeast L.A. with Urban Rancho ¡Noches!, its first evening event—this time in Sycamore Grove Park on North Figueroa. There will be more beer making, papel picado banners, fruit and vegetable cocktails and mocktails, cooking lessons for kids and adults, glass suncatcher making and more farm animals to pet.
Urban Rancho is a collaborative effort to introduce historic locations to the people that live near them while promoting sustainability and garden-to-table eating. The event is presented by Gung Hoe Garden Girls and the office of Los Angeles City Councilmember Ed Reyes.
At the first Urban Rancho event, Reyes praised Gung Hoe Garden Girl Katharine Parrra for giving local residents a tool to learn their about their neighborhood.
“With a 40% local dropout rate, with more than our share of gangs,” said Reyes, “this becomes a tool to understand a sense of history, so that streets are not just a number worth getting killed over…[Urban Rancho] gives a sense of identity.”
Parra’s goal for the Urban Rancho events is to help people discover or rediscover their history—and to have a great time doing it, a goal she saw as accomplished in the first two Urban Rancho events.
Urban Rancho ¡Noches! – A Sustainable Garden Party. June 22, 5 to 9 p.m., Sycamore Grove Park, 4701 N. Figueroa Street.
5:00 – Urban Rancho Noches! opens. Food demos/samples, crafts throughout the evening
5:30 – Story time with Erica Silverman
6:30 – Los Angeles in Maps – with Glen Creason, Map Librarian for the Los Angeles Public Library, author of Los Angeles in Maps and Glassell Park resident
7:15 – Castano, a band which has performed locally at The Echo, M Bar and Mr. T’s Bowl
8:00 – Indie Rockers The Hebert Bail Orchestra
Gerald Schiller, a regular performer at the Magic Castle and a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians will be strolling the garden, performing up-close magic.
Admission is free. Donations will be collected during the course of the evening for the non-profit preschool up the street, La Casita Verde, which has been introducing young children to gardening. Food trucks Auntie’s Fry Bread, Attack of the Killer Carnitas, Lomo Arigato and the Flat Iron Truck will be on hand.
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