What Kind of Farm is FranMo?
FranMo Urban Farm Stuff
FranMo Urban Farm does not have chickens. Or cows, pigs or goats. We grow vegetables, flowering plants and trees. As stewards of the planet, we do our part to maintain and preserve a beautiful conservation parcel of land, located near former chestnut orchards. We don't grow chestnuts either. But, you've really got to check out our tomatoes!
This season, we started several different Heirloom Tomatoes from seeds. Tomatoes included Indigo Rose, Early Girl, Better Boy, Seattle's Best, CHarlie Chaplin and an assortment yellow pear and tumbling Tom cherry tomatoes. This year 40 plants will be donated to the Magnuson Park P-Patch where gardeners volunteer to grow fresh produce for Seattle's Giving Gardens Network. These fresh vegetables are distributed to some of the smaller Food Bank at locations on campuses and in low-income communities throughout Seattle.
What the heck are Mason Bees?
Pollination Queens
This is our fourth season raising, harvesting, and pollinating our gardens with Mason Bees. This unusual little creature can pollinate 100x more than a Honey Bee. They are solitary bees, meaning they don't participate in communal activities. So basically they are loners to some degree.
The primary worker bee is female and they are all queens. Male bees only live long enough to leave sperm samples with as many Female bees as they can, they get a week or so, then their life is over.
The queens however will go through a daily routine of collecting pollen in their furry little bodies and nectar in their mouths. Then making a ball of food, laying a egg, deciding whether it should be male or female and making it so. They will collect mud, build a wall and begin again -- building little chambers and filling them. She will continue to do this every day for about three months. Once her wings are worn out she will pass away in her sleep.
The eggs that were laid will become larva who will eat the food left in their chamber, create a cocoon and go to sleep until spring. Around mid-April to as late as May 15, then the cycle will begin again.
Click Here to buy cool FranMo Merch
Bride & Groom, Bride & Bride, Groom & Groom Face Masks
FranMo T-shirts, Resurrected Public Domain Images & lots more!
Fundraising Merchandise for our Non-Profit Friends
100% of all profits from the sales of merchandise in their individual collections goes to the organizations. Other design will note where funds are donated in the description.