About the Farm
The Community Food Basket Happyville Farm is over an acre of wonderfully situated land, located in low income neighborhood without any public parks nearby. The City of Idaho Falls has graciously leased the land to us for a modest annual fee. The farm is directed and worked entirely by volunteers.
2019 Achievements
In 2019, the land was bare dirt with no water, fence or shed, just lots of rock-hard soil and weeds. We started with getting city water installed at the farm with the help of the City of Idaho Falls.
2020 Achievements
We laid out 12 planting plots, each 20 by 50 feet, cleared rocks, forked and raked and fertilized the soil, installed drip irrigation.
Planted 5 plots fully to grow veggies for hundreds of families! The other 7 plots were planted with cover crops to improve the soil.
Built a shed to keep our tools and supplies safe.
Put up 400 feet of fence needed to keep the farm from being driven across and vandalized.
Set up our bee yard with 3 hives, and planted shrubs and the first flower border for protection, pollinator habitat, and beauty.
Earned our Organic Certification!
In September, we took over 600 pounds of carrots, green beans, bags of leaf lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash to the Food Basket. Those went home with over 450 families.
Shed construction
Preparing the first plots
Fence installed
The first bee hives
2021 Achievements
In the spring we planted our south orchard, which consists of apple and cherry varieties and the north orchard, which has pears, peaches, plums and apricots.
Planted asparagus
Built a hoophouse to extend our gowning season
Planted xeriscape demonstration garden.
Planting the south orchard
Hoop house construction
Hoop house in the winter
Native xeriscape plants
2022 Achievements
Harvested the first crops from the hoop house in March
In stalled our first closed-vessel composter. Having our own composting system will save the farm a lot of money, make us more sustainable, and create the high-quality compost we need to grow those great vegetables and fruit!
350 K-6 grade student from Temple View Elementary finished a year of learning at the farm
A roadway to the back quarter-acre was added, thanks to the generous donation of a local equipment operator
Started construction of our shade structure/farm stand
School field trips with summer school students from low income neighborhoods
Fruit trees started producing
Installed a Subpod worm bin to grow red wiggle worms thanks to a donation from Temple View Elementary School 5th grade students
Shade structure construction
Bee lessons to summer school students
Students learning about the benefits of red wiggler worms
First crop of apricots
We acknowledge that Happyville Farm is located on the traditional territories of the Shoshone, Bannock, and Paiute peoples, collectively known as the Newe. The Newe traditional lands were vast and extended into what are now the states of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, and beyond. We honor the path they have always shown us in caring for this place for the generations to come.