Pick and Gather at Pilsen’s El Paseo Community Garden
Last weekend, I stopped by the El Paseo Community Market in Pilsen. Once a monthly event, the market has recently shifted to a weekly model—bringing more consistent programming to the neighborhood and inviting more foot traffic to the community garden next door.
What sets this market apart is its deep connection to El Paseo Community Garden, a NeighborSpace project that’s been growing in the neighborhood since 2009. Entirely volunteer-run and co-directed by Paula and Antonio Acevedo since 2015, the garden is both a greenspace refuge and a model for food sovereignty.
At the heart of it all is the U-Pick program, where neighbors can harvest produce and pay what they can on a sliding scale. While the U-Pick section is monitored during open hours, the food forest is open 24/7, offering herbs, fruits, and medicinal plants for light harvesting.
As I walked the garden path with volunteer Cristina Sandoval, we spotted dill bursting through walkway cracks, clusters of service berries, the early promise of Concord grapes, and a slew of native plants alive with pollinators.
The U-Pick garden crops vary by the season, but regularly provide kale, lettuce, herbs, flowers, alliums, and if you’re lucky, quail eggs from the garden’s quail coop.
For more about the U-Pick program, weekly market, or how to get involved: elpaseogarden.org.
