Indianapolis, IN
Even without a garden, you can get farm-fresh produce in Indianapolis
Grow this vegetable and get hooked on gardening
Tyler Gough, director of Indy Urban Acres, says you’ll get hooked on gardening once you start growing your own tomatoes.
Locally grown food is typically more sustainable and fresher than imported groceries, but even in Indiana, where almost two thirds of the state is farmland, local veggies can be hard to find.
Some Indianapolis residents grow fruits and vegetables in their own backyards. Others might join a community garden. Many frequent the local network of farmers markets.
At least half a dozen community supported agriculture groups, known commonly as CSAs, provide another way to shrink the divide between Indianapolis dwellers and their food systems. From Greenwood to Noblesville, neighbors have banded together to create local agriculture cooperatives, buying food in bulk from nearby farmers — some even within city limits.
How CSAs work
Every week during the growing season, the Fisher family, Amish farmers in Montezuma, pack blue mail bins full of cucumbers, carrots and corn and send them to Indianapolis. A driver totes the bins about 80 miles east to the Irvington CSA, which has been connecting neighborhood residents with farm- to- Irvington produce for almost two decades.
“It connects me to the food I eat,” Alyssa Chase, an Irvington CSA coordinator said. “I’ve been to the farm. I know exactly where it’s grown, and I know whose hands are picking it.”
The CSA model is simple. Participants pay farmers, usually smaller scale growers, an upfront fee to help cover season start-up costs. Then each week, the customers receive a delivery.
There’s no guarantee of bounty. CSA members might be blessed with an abundance of greens one week, but they also share with growers the risks involved with farming.
Not only does the local delivery model provide urbanites with fresh food and family farms some much-needed support, it’s more eco-friendly than the grocery store. A bustling network of refrigerated planes and trucks import 90 percent of Indiana’s produce, said Rachel Brandenburg, a food distribution manager at the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.
Indianapolis area farmers also offer slightly non-traditional, more tailored CSA programs, via monthly subscription boxes. Farmers markets offer a way to purchase local produce a la carte (even in the winter). Free food stands like in Fletcher Place and the White River State Park,’s U-Pick garden offer local produce at no cost.
“We’ve got a pretty robust system of urban growers here in Indy, some really shining examples who take the mission to their farms, the mission of feeding their neighbors,” Brandenburg said.
Starting in May each week at the Irvington CSA, members stop by the Downey Avenue Christian Church to pick up fresh produce. The first month can bring greens lettuce, kale and Swiss chard. Next sweet red strawberries appear in the bins, then cucumbers followed by carrots, squash, tomatoes and corn as summer turns to fall.
How to find fresh food near you
The Irvington CSA eventually spilled over into Greenwood, which now runs a separate CSA program delivering produce from the Fisher Farm to the southern suburbs.
Similar programs have popped up across much of Indianapolis:
Kheprw’s Community Controlled Food Initiative offers year-round local produce pick-ups in Midtown, and Tuttle Orchards delivers subscription produce boxes across several area locations, with weekly pick ups at North Mass Boulder, Irvington Vinyl and Books, JCC Indianapolis, Geist Coffee, Wasson Nursery and Indiana Artisan.
Warfleigh resident Ben Matthews delivers his CSA boxes locally — by bike.
Bountiful Farm and Floral, a small urban farm, delivers produce directly to the homes of Irvington members. And Soul Food Project offers CSA delivery and pick up at the Binford Farmers Market, plus at its local farms in Irvington and Martindale-Brightwood.
IndyStar’s environmental reporting is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
Sophie Hartley is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach her at sophie.hartley@indystar.com or on X at @sophienhartley.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The state championship bracket for Indiana high school baseball has been set, with eight teams preparing for the chance of bringing home a state title.
A total of four state title games will be played between Friday, June 19th, and Saturday, June 20th. Classes 1A and 3A will play on Friday, and classes 2A and 4A will compete on Saturday.
All state championship games will be played at Victory Field, the home of the Indianapolis Indians.
The state championship matchups and times are as follows.
Friday, June 19th:
Class 3A state championship: 4:30 p.m. ET
- Guerin Catholic (27-3-1) vs Andrean (30-3)
Class 1A state championship: 8 p.m. ET
- Northeast Dubois (23-5) vs Kouts (31-1)
Saturday, June 20th:
Class 2A state championship: 4:30 p.m. ET
- Evansville Mater Dei (29-3) vs Bluffton (19-10)
Class 4A state championship: 8:00 p.m. ET
- Bloomington South (25-6) vs Lake Central (27-8)
INDIANAPOLIS (WRTV) — Thousands of people ventured to Military Park in Indianapolis Saturday for the 2026 Indy Pride Festival, including members of the LGBTQ community and their allies.
WATCH FULL STORY BELOW:
John-Michael Riggs, of Tennessee, travels to several pride festivals across the country each year. He said they are important because “it gives people the confidence to be who they are, to show you can go out in public and still not be hated upon.”
Erika Holland-Lesch, who came to the festival with her wife, said, “Pride means everything. It literally feels like Christmas for our community… You feel supported, you feel accepted.”
Chris Bultman said it’s the sixth time he’s attended the Indy Pride Fest.
“It’s really important for me that my friends, my family, feel really valued in this city,” he said. “We show up for pride because pride matters to our city.”
WRTV
For Rikki Wydra, it was her fifth Indy Pride Fest. She said this year’s festival seems bigger to her than in previous years, and she takes that as a sign that support for the LGBTQ community is growing in Indiana.
“You’ll never get any free expression like this any other time of the year in Indiana,” she said. “The vibe is the best.”
The festival came as Indiana Governor Mike Braun proclaimed June as Nuclear Family Month, defining the family as a husband, a wife, and children, causing backlash in Indiana’s LGBTQ community.
“That is absolutely ridiculous,” said Stefonya Shirhall. “This month is fully for the gay community as a whole. We have went through so much to get here and it is amazing to celebrate it.”
WRTV
Festival attendees proudly sported creative costumes, wore rainbow clothing, held rainbow flags, and even cooled down with rainbow fans, keeping vendors busy, like Freddy Reed, who has a business selling pride-themed merchandise.
“I do Pride every weekend in a different city,” Reed said. “It’s amazing. Every town we go to, the people are so happy, they have fun. There’s never fights. Everyone’s nice.”
The positive, festive energy at Indy Pride Fest worked in tandem with the seriousness of the cause of standing up for LGBTQ rights.
“It’s important for people, if part of the LGBTQ community, to attend these because of visibility,” Riggs said. “We need to be seen, we need to be recognized and we need to be celebrated. it’s also important for our allies to attend these events to… uphold and uplift the community and to make us feel like a community at large”
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indiana Fever are now tied for the longest winning streak of the season after Saturday night’s win against the Connecticut Sun.
Indiana took down the Sun, 85-75, to mark the Fever’s third straight win.
Caitlin Clark had an impressive night on the offensive end. Clark had 25 points and knocked down five three-pointers in Indiana’s double-digit win.
Fever center Aliyah Boston also had a productive showing. The fourth-year Fever center recorded a double-double with her 13-point and 11-rebound performance. Saturday marked Boston’s third consecutive game with a double-double, and it’s her fourth this season.
The Fever committed 17 turnovers on Saturday, compared to the Sun’s nine. The difference, though, is that Indiana scored 25 points off turnovers to the Sun’s 14 points.
Indiana improves to 8-5 on the season and looks ahead to a home matchup against the Toronto Tempo at 7:00 p.m. this Tuesday, June 16th.
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