PROGRAM LEADER & FARM COORDINATOR POSITION OPEN
Join the OK family today by applying for the position of Program Leader/KO Farm Coordinator! Learn more and apply below
Helping Hands
Thursday Farm Volunteer Nights!
It takes a lot to run a farm. Make your Thursdays that much more fun by joining in and lending a helping hand! Each week you can exercise that green thumb and watch the fruits of your work, literally! On each given Farm Night a volunteer can expect to be doing the following: pulling weeds, planting, and harvesting, turning compost, spreading mulch, and anything else that may need to be done that day.
Water will be available, but please be sure to bring a water bottle to fill up. The OK Farm also has sunscreen, gloves, and any farm/garden tools we will need. Also, be sure to wear clothes that can get dirty, closed-toe shoes, and a hat is recommended.
Thursdays from April to October. 6-8PM* at the Knockout Farm. *Weather and optimal daylight may affect these times. Questions? Reach out to our Knockout Farm Coordinator, Harlow Righetti, harlow@opportunityknocksnow.org
Est. 2015
HISTORY OF THE OK FARM
OUR PURPOSE ON THE FARM IS TO LEARN, GROW AND CONNECT WITH OUR COMMUNITY WHILE WE PRODUCE HIGH QUALITY VEGETABLES TO FEED OUR ENTERPRISES AND FUEL OUR WELLNESS PROGRAMS.
The Knockout Farm was conceived in late 2015 as a way to give the Warriors a role in the local sustainable food movement by creating a ‘seed to jar’ experience with our Knockout Pickle
production. The idea was to plant, grow and harvest the key supply requirements in order to produce a locally grown and locally made pickle.
The Farm was launched in April through a land partnership with our friends at Reuse Depot and a tremendous amount of support from many others in terms of volunteer hours,
landscape/garden supplies and equipment. In a short period of time, we turned a 2,500 square foot field off Madison Street into lush, handicap-accessible urban farm.
Of course, the Warriors were in on the action every step of the way. Teams from both Life Shop and After Opps shoveled dirt, planted seeds, watered, weeded and harvested crops throughout the summer and fall. A generous donation of crushed gravel enabled us to convert muddy alleys between beds into pathways that were handicap accessible and remained usable during rainy
periods. We also created 22-bed feet of raised boxes that provided crop access to participants in wheelchairs or with limited mobility.
Knockout Impact
FARM STATS
Our purpose on the farm is to learn, grow and connect with our community while we produce high quality vegetables to feed our enterprises and fuel our wellness programs.
Total LBs of produce – 2020 Season
Total LBs donated to the public & the Beyond Hunger food pantry
total # of Busy Bees
Total # of Crops Produced
Biodiversity
The Warrior Way of Farming
Accessibility
Organic Growth
Water Reclamation
Composting
Seed Starting
Growing from seed not only gives you a much larger selection of vegetables and flowers to choose from – including unusual varieties you’re unlikely to find at a garden center – it also lets you get a jump on the growing season by starting many plants indoors. Generally speaking, annual flowers and vegetables are the easiest to grow, and their seeds germinate quickly.
Beekeeping
Knockout Farm received its first batch of Italian, varroa mite resistant bees. We worked with the ReUse Depot to strategize placement for the 10,500 busy bees installed in May. Bees will not produce honey during the first year, however, in the following season Warriors may be able to harvest our first small jars of honey to taste and wax to experiment with value-added products for the farm such as lip balm, candles, soaps, etc.
Innovation
Warriors at Work
Our Fantastic Farmers
MEET THE FARM TEAM
Harlow Righetti
KNOCKOUT FARM COORDINATOR
With Us Since | 2019
David Gebhardt
KNOCKOUT KITCHEN COORDINATOR
With Us Since | 2023
DIANA IBARRA
PROGRAM – ENTERPRISE LEADER
With Us Since | 2022
Sonya Taylor
KNOCKOUT KITCHEN STAFF
With Us Since | 2015
Georgia Hunter
KNOCKOUT KITCHEN STAFF
With Us Since | 2017
Jackie Finn
KNOCKOUT KITCHEN STAFF
With Us Since | 2017
Maddy Gancer
KNOCKOUT KITCHEN STAFF & FARMER
With Us Since | 2018
Charlie O’Connor
KNOCKOUT KITCHEN STAFF
With Us Since | 2018
Jonece Dansby
KNOCKOUT KITCHEN STAFF & FARMER
With Us Since | 2020
Ryan Gravely
KNOCKOUT KITCHEN STAFF
With Us Since | 2022
Nick Sawyer
KNOCKOUT KITCHEN STAFF & FARMER
With Us Since | 2022
Jenna Ricks
KNOCKOUT KITCHEN STAFF & FARMER
With Us Since | 2023
Ron Turner
KNOCKOUT KITCHEN STAFF
With Us Since | 2023
David Espinosa
KNOCKOUT KITCHEN STAFF
With Us Since | 2023
Sonya
Sonya Taylor is from Oak Park where she lives with her mother. Not only does Sonya help make the pickles but she is one of best pickle sellers. You can find her at different farmer’s markets selling our pickles to customers. Sonya is one of our most social members of the sales force who isn’t afraid to go out there and get her sale. Sonya has been a part of pickles from the beginning. Not only does Sonya help make the pickles she also helps grow them on our farm. Sonya is our resident comic who thinks everyday should be her birthday.
Patrick
Patrick O’Rourke is one of our founding picklers. Patrick has been pickling with us for 5 years and is the man behind the slicer. Patrick also has another job at FFC in Oak Park. He is the muscle behind the operation and helps make sure the quality of our pickles are top of the line. His favorite flavor of pickles is spicy. Patrick’s favorite part making pickles is slicing them. Patrick also is vital in growing the pickles on our farm. He is an aspiring super villain who’s dream job is President of the United States.
Katrina
Katrina Jeffries is a student at the OPRF CITE program and has been a Warrior at Opportunity Knocks for three years. Katrina is a recent addition to our pickling team. She currently works in the Rush Hospital kitchen in addition to working for Knockout Pickles. Katrina’s favorite part about being on the pickle team is demonstrating her pickle slicing skills. Katrina is also a member of our Warrior Catering team where she hones her kitchen skills. Katrina is a vital member of the team who specializes in making buckets of pickles for our restaurant customers.Top Skills
Meet the Warrior Farm Team
Aniki Coates
Farm Coordinator
Program Leader for Opportunity Knocks
She is a certified beekeeper, a Master Urban Farmer through the University of Illinois and a graduate of the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest Sustainable Urban Agriculture program as well as an Environmental Literacy Educator. She is also a professional chef and Culinary Nutritionist with a focus on plant-based cuisine and food literacy. The Knockout Farm is “operated with love at its core and incorporates a mission of plant and people growth in its practices.” As a certified Horticultural Therapist, she enjoys incorporating programming activities to develop Warriors in vocational and social skills and while providing physical therapy. Aniki is currently pursuing her graduate degree in clinical mental health counseling. She infuses her Love Warrior mentality and lifestyle into creating effective, holistic programming and methodologies that uproot any notion of lack or incapability for participants. “We all came here as a gift, a solution, as an answer. When we learn to void the internal distractions that try to block this truth, we more readily receive guidance and empowerment to do and become. The world is groaning for us to become.”
Jonece Dansby
Farm Warrior
Jonece began with Opportunity Knocks as a volunteer referred through ‘The Answer Inc program located in Forest Park, IL. Her effervescent personality and heart for others has served Opportunity Knocks diligently for nine years and counting. In 2019, Jonece became the first official Warrior employee of the Knockout Farm where she is honing her skills in sustainable urban agriculture. Aside from learning to grow plants, vocational skills learned at the farm such as record keeping, beginning project management, and paying attention to details are invaluable and transferable to any work she chooses to do in the future! “I love to make people happy and feel good,” Jonece said when asked what was her favorite activity at Knockout Farm. Of all Jonece’s learned skills at Opportunity Knocks, what emanates instinctively and without measure is what she came to share with us and the world, her love for others. Jonece is currently in training to for food farm safety and sanitation and insect and pest management (IPM).
UP & RUNNING
New Projects
Despite the struggles of the nationwide pandemic, OK has worked tirelessly to provide a safe and sanitized environment in order to keep new big ideas underway
Community Supported Agriculture – CSA
What is Community Supported Agriculture? Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a production and marketing model whereby consumers buy shares of a farm’s harvest in advance. Consumers become CSA members by paying an agreed amount at the beginning of the growing season, either in one lump sum or in installments.
By paying at the beginning of the season, CSA members share in the risk of production and relieve the farmer of much of the time needed for marketing. This allows the farmer to concentrate on good land stewardship, growing high-quality food, and most importantly growing the Warrior Mission.
Beekeeping Debut
Knockout Farm received its first batch of Italian, varroa mite resistant bees. We worked with the ReUse Depot to strategize placement for the 10,500 busy bees installed in May. Bees will not produce honey during the first year, however, in the following season Warriors may be able to harvest our first small jars of honey to taste and wax to experiment with value-added products for the farm such as lip balm, candles, soaps, etc.
Farm Coordinator, Aniki Coates, became a certified beekeeper under the tutelage of the Chicago Honey Co-op Training Center. Beekeeping certification covers honeybee biology and life cycle, pests and diseases, foraging habits and beekeeping equipment and techniques. Coates also joined the Cook DuPage Beekeepers Association and a local west suburbs beekeeping group, Westside Apiary eXperience (WAX Bee Group). This has aided in growing KO Farm’s knowledge base and community partners. Over time, Knockout Farm has benefited from the support of the Dominican University Beekeeping Initiative (Ellen McManus – English, Tama Weisman – Philosophy, and Scott Kreher – Biology), the River Forest Sustainability Commission, and the Manaaki Foundation. Newcomers in beekeeping support, Matthew Bachnacki and Bruce Faland, also members of WAX, have been phenomenal and detrimental to our first-year effort.
Don’t Miss
Our News And Events
Programming on the Farm
Enterprise on the Farm
Grower’s School
Helping Hands
Partners
IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO BUILD A FARM
We are deeply grateful to the many volunteers, donors and partners who have showed up throughout the first few seasons of the farm to transform a barren grass field into a highly productive urban farm. Our partners have given endlessly to help us build the infrastructure of the farm. We have called in the pros we know to do so many things. From testing soil and water, to consulting on logistics, water conservation and aggregate acquisitions; to hauling, excavating, landscaping, patio paving, carpentry and more.
That amount of support does not even include our volunteers! We have been fortunate to bring so many friends to the farm to help us with site prep and construction to planting, weeding and harvesting and every other farm job in between. We have received an enormous amount of support from neighbors, friends, staff, community and corporate partners. It has been a community effort in every sense of the word and we are convinced that it takes a village to build a farm!
Sponsors & Partners
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Phenomenal Programs
Groups Getting It done
Our Grower’s School
Seasonal Success
SPECIAL THANKS TO THESE SPONSORS & PARTNERS
SPECIAL THANKS TO THESE SPONSORS & PARTNERS
SPECIAL THANKS TO THESE SPONSORS & PARTNERS
SPECIAL THANKS TO THESE SPONSORS & PARTNERS
