City Soil Farm

Address: 1200 Monster Rd SW, Renton, WA 98057

Stewardship contacts: Charity Villines

Types of fruit grown within this orchard: apple, plum, fig.

 

Background and history:

“City Soil Farm is a 1.5 acre demonstration farm located at the King County Wastewater Treatment Plant in Renton.  It was once an unused area of the treatment plant’s grounds.  It has been transformed into a teaching farm and native tree nursery that showcases sustainable farming and accessible, local food.  The farm is managed in partnership between King County Wastewater Treatment Division, King Conservation District, DIRTCorps, and White Center Food Bank” (King County, 2022).  City Soil strives to be a community gathering and learning place where individuals can explore sustainable, salvage-based building and growing strategies.  Learn more about their mission and their use of recycled water and Loop® biosolids compost. 

 

The orchard is home to 20 apple trees, 13 plum trees, and 4 figs, which are maintained by volunteers organized by the City Soil Farm team, with occasional support from City Fruit for pruning and harvest.

City Fruit 2021 AmeriCorps volunteers help to harvest plums at City Soil Farm during a booming plum season!
Harvesting can be like a game of hide-and-go-seek!
Some harvest years bring a boom of plums! You can easily harvest hundreds of pounds of plums from a single large, mature tree.
Some plum varieties have thin skin that is easy to rip, which can make harvesting by hand (instead of fruit picker) the preferred method.