The History of Bayside Park

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) began at Bayside Park in 1993 when a group of Humboldt State University professors (including Susan Ornelas and Deborah Giraud) approached Arcata City Manager Alice Harris about the potential of partnering with the city to create an Educational Farm.

The Bayside Park Farm became the first CSA in Arcata and is funded to this day by the community; shareholders pledge their support in the spring and receive a share of the harvest every week for the growing season. As well as being a running CSA, the Bayside Park Farm is a permaculture park, demonstrating sustainable farming practices and appropriate means of energy use. Over the years, this farm has been managed by many generations of student farmers. Many notable farmers within the community learned how to farm here.

Addition of Community Garden

In 2000 a series of community visioning meetings were held in which the community celebrated the value of the Bayside Park Farm and created the framework for the addition of a Community Garden onsite adjacent to the Farm. Additionally, it was during this time, that the site (which had formerly been zoned as a soccer field) was deemed as a wetland. In 2010 the Bayside Park Farm became a program under the City of Arcata with Educational Farmers working as employees of the City.