Urban farming
Finca Tres Robles will relocate, with big plans to serve more East End families
Finca Tres Robles, an urban farm that’s served Houston’s East End community for more than seven years, will pause field operations at the end of 2021 to move onto bigger and better things. The team will soon sign a lease with Harris County for a permanent space that will move them closer to their long-term vision.
The new location — whose exact address remains undisclosed for now — is in a former parking lot in the East End. With this arrangement, the team will be able to invest in infrastructure on the property to host more programming and increase its output to residents in the area.
Finca’s current home, a 1.25acre farm at 257 North Greenwood Street in Second Ward, feeds 150 families a week through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares, weekend farm stands on site, and distribution to food-insecure families in the neighborhood with the help of El Centro de Corazón. Finca accepts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, which are matched by Double Up Food Bucks, a program that stretches SNAP further when purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables.
Co-founders and brothers Tommy, Daniel and Mark GarciaPrats see turning unused land into small neighborhood-centric farms as vehicles to fix systemic inequities from the ground up.
When they started Finca Tres Robles and its umbrella organization, Small Places, in 2014, the farm was meant to be the first of many in Houston. But establishing a farm and roots in a community takes time, and the limitations of the temporary space on North Greenwood held them back. Now, as they prepare for Finca’s next chapter, they are actively looking for other opportunities to lease land for a couple more farms.
Small Places is currently transitioning to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to allow the team to access grants, fundraise, and ultimately expand its footprint in Houston.
The Garcia-Prats brothers have been working with Harris County Precinct 2, Commissioner Adrian Garcia and the Harris County Engineering Department to find a permanent home for Finca Tres Robles. It was particularly important to them to stay in the East End and build on the work they’ve done in the community. The team hopes to sign the lease on the 1.5-acre lot, which is owned by the county, by the end of the year, but there are still some details to hammer out.
“We’re just trying to let people know: Look, we're not going anywhere,” said Tommy. “We’re excited about what’s happening, and we'll have more information soon.”
Finca hosts a variety of programming, including educational workshops, volunteer shifts, pick-it-yourself experiences and other community events. But it was always difficult to do so comfortably on their current land, where they weren’t permitted to create any permanent structures or even put in bathrooms. They had two shipping containers, one used as a tool shed and office, the other for events. It was, as Tommy puts it, “rustic.”
The new location will allow them to build classrooms, a retail store and a covered pavilion on site.
“We intend for the space to be active every day from sun up to sun down,” said Tommy. “People are going to be working the farm, (others) coming for field trips, coming to purchase from the store, not just once a week but six or seven days a week.”
The official last farm day at Finca will be Dec. 31 and the last farm stand will be Dec. 18. The crew will tarp over their land and put it to rest. Tommy says they hope to move their soil to the new spot, which has never been cultivated before.
The CSA shares will stop that same week. Through a partnership with Common Market Texas, they will continue to provide produce in 2022 to the food-insecure families and seniors who rely on their distribution every week.
Fundraising for the new project will start in the spring of 2022, with the hopes of having the site up-and-running in 18 months. But for the remaining couple of months, there’s one priority that rises above others.
“We just kind of want to party and bring people together before the farm pauses,” said Tommy.
Finca will host festivities to celebrate its new chapter, some for CSA members only, but a trio of events called Tres Noches con Tres Robles will be open to the public.
There will be a free potluck on Dec. 9; a tacos and beer event for $45 per person, catered by Tacos El Nene and with Equal Parts Brewing beer; and a formal dinner for $95 per person, where chef David Cordua of the Lymbar will serve a five-course meal, also sponsored by Equal Parts.
As for the future urban farm locations, Tommy would love to keep the operation in the East End and have the farms be close to one another. There are 30,000 households in the four zip codes around the farm, he says, giving them plenty of opportunities to reach and feed more of the community.