Ave 33 Farm, owned and operated by Eric Tomassini and Ali Greer, is an urban farm located in Lincoln Heights – just east of downtown Los Angeles. Before falling in love with farming, Eric taught science at the high-school and college level, and Ali has 13 years of experience working on farms. She has also been running a small worm casting production for eight years. For Eric and Ali, the most exciting part about being accessible to so many people in the greater Los Angeles area is that they can share the farm with community members and discuss the importance of soil health.
The first piece of the project is to physically build the classroom. They have almost completed the construction on an outdoor work space and are seeking funding to outfit the space with materials to run classes. They have partnered with Dave Ellingford to help with the building of the teaching space. Wesley Thatcher will be designing and building the shade structure along with storage walls and areas for displaying educational materials. Once the educational materials are in place, Ave 33 will partner with community organizations to teach lessons about regenerative farming practices.
To further the education component, they plan to continue the work that Eric developed at The Salvation Army, where he developed a culinary job training program, by providing nutrient dense produce along with healthy eating classes for those who are food insecure in Los Angeles. They are also working with Schools in Action to support their Farm to School program, as well as El Rio Community School, and are excited to develop more relationships to support school gardens and healthy eating programs in Northeast LA.
The goals for Avenue 33 Farm are to shift sales to EBT and community-funded produce boxes and expand community outreach through partnering with local schools and community organizations focusing on food access in Los Angeles, with guidance and inspiration from organizations like Polos Pantry, People’s Pantry, and the American Heart Association. In addition to growing their community, Eric and Ali are consistently working to build their carbon sequestering capabilities by planting trees and perennials, increasing the soil health through biologically active amendments, and developing their online resources for people looking to grow in the Southern California climate. With the addition of a large worm bin, they’ll host classes and workshops about keeping a worm bin and they’ll sell biologically complete amendments to community members looking to increase their own soil health.
