Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
USA - MARYLAND: Local Farmers Work Together To Sell Produce With Online Ordering And Delivery
“The goal of Garrett Growers is to feed our community, help our farmers and protect agricultural land in the county,” said Hannah Frazee, one of the coordinators for Garrett Growers
OAKLAND — Local fresh produce from a variety of local farms is now available for purchase online through the Garrett Growers Online Ordering System.
Individuals can order from the website and pick up at one of several locations throughout the county.
The online local fresh produce ordering system is one of the services provided by Garrett Growers to connect participating local agricultural farms with consumers.
Garrett Growers is a farmer’s cooperative located in Garrett County.
Currently participating farms include DeBerry Farm Fresh Produce, A.L.L. Produce, Naaman Miller Farm, Fawn Valley Farm, Whistle Pig Farm, Fred Petersheim Farm, Yoder’s Tomatoes, Lynndale Produce, Philip Schrock Farm, Jay Maust Farm, Backbone Food Farm, David & Martha Yoder Farm, Punky’s Place, Simon Yoder Eggs and Stemple Brothers Farm.
“The goal of Garrett Growers is to feed our community, help our farmers and protect agricultural land in the county,” said Hannah Frazee, one of the coordinators for Garrett Growers. “By opening up an online store, we can give individuals the convenience of being able to purchase fresh, local produce from our area farms anytime through their computer or mobile phone. This is extremely important for individuals who find it difficult to get to a produce market or who may be avoiding crowds due to COVID.”
Pickup is available on Thursday afternoons each week throughout the summer. Individuals can order online any time up until 3 p.m. on Wednesday for that Thursday’s pick-up.
Pickup locations include: University of Maryland Extension Office in Mtn. Lake Park; Deep Creek Pharmacy in McHenry; Firefly Farms Creamery & Market in Accident; and High Country Creamery and Market in Grantsville.
Other services offered by Garrett Growers include an ordering and delivery service of local produce for restaurants, grocery stores, caterers and institutions along with a weekly Veggie Box program.
According to Frazee, individuals who would prefer home delivery can purchase a Veggie Box on the same online ordering system.
Veggie Boxes can be home delivered as long as the residence is within the delivery radius. Residents can check to see if they live on the delivery route by emailing Garrett Growers at garrettgrowers@gmail.com.
“Some of the same challenges that have affected other industries because of the pandemic have also affected local farm sales, so it is more important than ever to support local agriculture,” said Frazee. “Fresh produce is often healthier because of the shorter time between picking and purchase, so the vegetables and fruits retain more nutrients. Plus, the one thing I generally hear is how much better local, fresh produce tastes. But something else that does not receive as much focus is the fact that local food production strengthens the local economy and helps to protect our local agricultural land. There are just so many benefits to purchasing local produce.”
For more information about Garrett Growers and the online ordering system, individuals can visit the co-op website at www.garrettgrowers.com or email garrettgrowers@gmail.com.
For information about other farms selling local products or to find a farm to visit, check out www.GarrettFarms.org.
Lead photo: Jacob “Jake” Hauser, delivery driver for Garrett Growers, stands in front of one of the delivery vehicles. Photo by Hannah Frazee
This Vertical Farming System Was Designed To Build Up Community And Accommodate The Urban Lifestyle!
Urban farming takes different shapes in different cities. Some cities can accommodate thriving backyard gardens for produce, some take to hydroponics for growing plants, and then some might keep their gardens on rooftops
03/19/2021
Following interviews with local residents, Andersson set out to create a farming system that works for the city’s green-thumb community.
Urban farming takes different shapes in different cities. Some cities can accommodate thriving backyard gardens for produce, some take to hydroponics for growing plants, and then some might keep their gardens on rooftops. In Malmö, small-scale farming initiatives are growing in size and Jacob Alm Andersson has designed his own vertical farming system called Nivå, directly inspired by his community and the local narratives of Malmö’s urban farmers.
Through interviews, Andersson learned that most farmers in Malmö began farming after feeling inspired by their neighbors, who also grew their own produce. Noticing the cyclical nature of community farming, Andersson set out to create a more focused space where that cyclical inspiration could flourish and where younger generations could learn about city farming along with the importance of sustainability.
Speaking more to this, Andersson notes, “People need to feel able and motivated to grow food. A communal solution where neighbors can share ideas, inspire and help one another is one way to introduce spaces that will create long-lasting motivation to grow food.”
Since most cities have limited space available, Andersson had to get creative in designing his small-scale urban farming system in Malmö. He found that for an urban farm to be successful in Malmö, the design had to be adaptable and operable on a vertical plane– it all came down to the build of Nivå.
Inspired by the local architecture of Malmö, Andersson constructed each system by stacking steel beams together to create shelves and then reinforced those with wooden beams, providing plenty of stability. Deciding against the use of screws, Nivå’s deep, heat-treated pine planters latch onto the steel beams using a hook and latch method. Ultimately, Nivå’s final form is a type of urban farming workstation, even including a center workbench ideal for activities like chopping produce or pruning crops.
Taking inspiration from community gardens and the local residents’ needs, Andersson found communal inspiration in Malmö.
Backyard and patio gardens are popular options for those living in cities who’d still like to have their very own gardening space.
Lead photo: Designer: Jacob Alm Andersson.
US (CA): Vertical Farm Launches Personalized Cultivation and Delivery Service
South Bay Area residents will be the first to experience Farming as a Service through Willo’s innovative cultivation technology. Residents within 20 miles of Santa Clara, Calif. can subscribe to an exclusive plot in Willo’s farm starting at $99 a month at willo.farm
Indoor vertical farming startup Willo debuted a brand new direct-to-consumer delivery program in San Jose to provide a custom produce experience in the Bay Area. Founded by brothers Samuel and John Bertram, Willo’s personalized cultivation and delivery service connects consumers directly to their own plot in Willo’s local vertical farm.
South Bay Area residents will be the first to experience Farming as a Service through Willo’s innovative cultivation technology. Residents within 20 miles of Santa Clara, Calif. can subscribe to an exclusive plot in Willo’s farm starting at $99 a month at willo.farm. The membership grants access to regular deliveries of customizable packaged salads starting in August. A single purchase option is also available for $49. The rapidly growing list of available crops currently includes Toscano Kale, Red Mizuna, Pea Shoots, Protein Crunch and Genovese Basil. Willo will add additional fruits and vegetables to its farming capabilities as it scales.
“Willo is unleashing the power of plants on human health,” said Samuel Bertram, co-founder and CEO of Willo. “For the first time, fresh food will be grown specifically for the person consuming it. Personalization exists everywhere except for the food industry; and we’re here to give the market what they are asking for. By letting people configure their own plot in Willo’s farm, we can grow the specific fruits and vegetables they desire, while making recommendations tailored to their health needs. Willo plans to build farms in every major city on Earth with the mission to eliminate diet-related disease through personalized plant-based nutrition.”
A strong proponent of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), Willo also announced a partnership with HomeFirst Services of Santa Clara County to further extend the positive impacts of sustainable local indoor farming practices. Willo will deliver fresh produce from its farm to assemble 40 ready-made plant-based meals each month for homeless individuals and families in the San Jose area.
“This is a really important part of a well-balanced diet that is difficult to procure on a large scale for homeless shelters,” said Lori Smith, director of development and communications at HomeFirst. “Together with HomeFirst, Willo will bring tasty, nutrient-dense produce to shelter guests and the at-risk community served in Santa Clara County.”
Scalable and sustainable farming in cities
Willo’s technology is optimized for scaling into urban settings with the intent of making local farming a global reality. Willo currently delivers within 20 miles of its farm, and the consumer’s hands are the first to touch it. Willo’s highly automated farming techniques remove pesticides and contamination, and produce essentially zero water consumption by recycling the water supply.
Following the success of the Bay Area launch, Willo will continue expanding the Farming as a Service model to urban communities across the country with planned expansions to cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, New York and Washington D.C. in the next 24 months. Willo aims to scale its technology to every major city globally to make local and sustainable farming accessible to everyone.
For more information:
Willo
willo.farm
Publication date: Mon 15 Jun 2020
Successful CSA Strategies For Small Farms
With grocery store shelves empty in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, customers all around the United States are beginning to consider their regional food systems in a new light
BY ALLIE HYMAS
With grocery store shelves empty in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, customers all around the United States are beginning to consider their regional food systems in a new light.
“We have never seen this kind of demand,” Vera Fabian of Ten Mothers Farm near Hillsborough, North Carolina, says. “If ever there was a time to be getting into the CSA business, this would be the moment.”
For the last ten years, Fabian and her husband, Gordon Jenkins, have been raising organic vegetables using the Community Supported Agriculture model. Today, Ten Mothers Farm supplies boxes of vegetables on a seasonal subscription basis to 184 households, and they’re pleased with how this format has allowed them to feed their local community, both in good times and bad. “Something that gives me hope in this time is that people are trying to figure out how to have more resilient communities, whether we’re talking about climate change or the coronavirus.”
Ten Mothers Farm’s CSA strategy and offers timely lessons for farmers who wish to build their business around this model and those who simply want to try this approach to reach customers during the stressors of a health crisis. For Fabian, running a CSA is more than just a method of moving her products. “We are more motivated than ever to feed more people and spread the word. If more businesses were run like a CSA then the world would be in a different place!”
Gordon Jenkins, Vera Fabian and Luke Howerter run Ten Mothers Farm. Photo credit: Scott Kelly.
The Ten Mothers Farm Story
The Ten Mothers Farm website explains their name: “there’s an old saying from India that ‘garlic is as good as ten mothers,’ which to us means that food is medicine, as nourishing and powerful as ten whole mothers.” Having met as employees at the Edible Schoolyard in Berkley, a school started by Alice Waters, Fabian, and Jenkins bonded over a mutual love for cooking and an interest in farming, both as a means of social justice and for supplying food.
While Jenkins’ food journey began in the restaurant industry, Fabian discovered gardening with the intent to participate in agricultural relief work in sub-Saharan Africa.
“I wanted to save the world, but simultaneously I found that I loved cooking, which felt like a frivolous thing, and I felt conflicted between the two of them,” Fabian says. “I studied abroad in West Africa in a women’s garden cooperative and I observed these women solving these huge problems of hunger and education through growing food.” Upon her return, Fabian was gripped with the sense that organic agriculture would be her opportunity to make an impact. “I thought maybe my love of food and desire to fix problems could come together.”
The couple took a diligent, methodical approach to begin their farming journey. After working for food-related nonprofits for five years, Fabian and Jenkins took their saved resources and years of research and apprenticed themselves to Bob Cannard at Green String Farm and then to Eliot Coleman at Four Seasons Farm.
“These were two farmers that we really looked up to and knew we would get a great education from. We learned a ton and shook the city life off,” Fabian says.
Having weighed their options between finding land in Jenkins’ home state of California and Fabian’s of North Carolina, the couple chose the more affordable land prices and water accessibility of North Carolina and spent two years working at Maple Spring Gardens, learning how to farm there.
In 2015 Fabian and Jenkins felt prepared to start their own operation and began renting land from a local family. “For our first three years we started really small,” Fabian says. “Farming is definitely an expression of your personality, and we are pretty careful, methodical people. Farming is so risky and we wanted to reduce as much of the risk as possible.” With Fabian working halftime off their farm for a nonprofit agricultural organization serving refugees from Burma, the initial Ten Mothers Farm endeavor was rolled out with the bigger timeline in mind. “We had thought we would be a market farm, but the markets around here are difficult to get into, so we said ‘Okay, I guess we’ll be a CSA!’” Fabian says. Having operated the CSA successfully for five years, she is grateful that circumstances dictated this model for this business. “It’s especially great during this moment in time!”
“We started with 34 CSA families, and we’ve gradually increased it as we felt ready,” Fabian says. Ten Mothers Farms served 54 households the second year, 74 the third year, followed by 125, and this year they will feed 180 families. “We sold a little bit to restaurants too, but the demand for the CSA has felt strong, so over time we’ve focused more on the CSA and less on restaurants.”
Junie with the whole farm and rows of green in early November. Photo credit: Scott Kelly.
Collaborative Land Purchasing Success
The first iteration of Ten Mothers Farm was on a rented quarter acre. “It was really just a big garden,” Fabian says. “Those first three years we stayed at a quarter acre — but we got better, so we were able to grow more food.” Throughout Ten Mothers Farm’s early years Fabian and Jenkins were searching for land in a pricey real estate market. Aware that they could access a more suitable property by joining forces with other buyers of a similar mindset, the couple chose to search for land with several friends. “It was challenging,” Fabian says. “We almost gave up.”
Their search became more heated when the owners of their rented land sold the property. “At the eleventh hour, when our lease was almost up in the summer of 2018, we happened to find a piece of land that was perfect both for us and the friends we were searching with, and we all bought it together!” To make the purchase, Fabian, Jenkins, and their friends formed an LLC through which the purchase was made and then subdivided the land with a parcel for each of them and a parcel held in common. “We’re all folks that want to have a land-based life but also people who want community out there and not be isolated.”
In the winter of 2018, Ten Mothers moved to its new location. “It was a bare field!” Fabian says. “There was no electricity, no water, no infrastructure of any kind. We quickly did the work of turning this field into a farm.” Fabian and Jenkins are currently building a house on the land and hope to move in June. “There are a lot of wonderful things about sharing the land,” Fabian says. “What we were able to afford as just the two of us would have been really small and unsuitable for farming. ”
Fabian says their space-saving strategies at Ten Mothers Farm have come from limited access to land, but their efficiency can actually offer encouragement to others who might never be able to afford a large property. “For our 180 shares, we farm only one acre of land. Being able to farm on such a small footprint means that it’s so much more accessible to people.”
Selecting Varieties to Offer in a CSA
In choosing varieties, Ten Mothers Farm started with what they enjoyed cooking and eating. “For a CSA, we have to grow a ton of different things to keep our customers happy,” Fabian says. “We grow 60 different vegetables.”
Fabian recommends CSAs keep close tabs on what their customers want.
“Every year, towards the end of the year, we send out a survey and use that survey directly to crop plan for the coming year. That way we’re growing more of what people want and less of what they don’t want.” Always mindful to make sure their products pencil out financially, Fabian notes that there are vegetables they can’t offer because the numbers don’t work, or their methods won’t allow them to grow or harvest those offerings. “For example, we don’t grow potatoes because we’re not a tractor farm,” Fabian explains. “The labor just doesn’t work out.”
As long as a vegetable offering can be produced with financial, space, and labor efficiency, it’s just a matter of taste.
“We are into strange vegetables!” Fabian says with a smile in her voice. “One year we tried molokhia, or Egyptian spinach, which does beautifully in the hot, humid summers that we have, but people hated it! It’s just too weird!”
They’ve found at Ten Mothers Farm that customers enjoy experiencing one or two new vegetables occasionally among a steady offering of recognizable staples. “Most of the time people want to see the things they love and know how to cook.”
Amid the changing climate, Fabian thinks about how certain varieties of vegetables offer more resilience and have adapted to their bioregion better than other foods that may enjoy customers’ favor. Using their weekly newsletter, Fabian is constantly working to educate CSA members on how to use new foods or varieties that are particularly hardy to their bioregion.
“We’re constantly explaining why we grow things and when, and as people have that kind of background information they become more open to trying things and more understanding when they don’t have broccoli in July.” They also host events at Ten Mothers Farm to teach their customers about the farming process. “That really brings it all to life; some of our CSA members haven’t been to the farm yet, and it’s our goal to get them all out here.”
Overcoming Challenges
Fabian encourages farmers to consider starting a CSA to be aware of its unique quirks. “It’s a lot of logistics: lots of crop planning and then executing to make sure you have enough vegetables for everybody. It’s a lot of different crops.” Fabian recommends that potential CSA farmers get used to staying aware of details and putting in place good tools to help keep abreast of the various tasks and considerations. “Making sure you’ve packed the right boxes and didn’t pack boxes for people on vacation.”
The second element Fabian brings forward is marketing and customer service. These elements are both critical to this direct-to-consumer, subscription-based model and will either make or break the business. “When we talk to new and beginning farmers we recommend you go with your personality,” Fabian says. “We happened to really like customer service stuff. We like answering our questions and writing the weekly newsletter. But if you don’t like customer service, you probably shouldn’t do a CSA.”
Fabian also recommends that new CSA operators pad their estimated timeline and hold it loosely. “Everything has taken longer than we’ve planned.” She says. “We try to be patient and not too hard on ourselves when things haven’t happened as quickly as we’d hoped.”
Jenkins and Fabian had part-time off-farm work and slowly built up their customer base before making a big land purchase – an excellent example of how being flexible with the timeline is necessary for smart business planning. “Farming and land are so long-term. We’re talking about either the rest of our lives or at least the next 30-40 years. You have to have a long-term vision or else you’ll get frustrated that it’s not all happening in a year or two.”
Collaboration has been another winning strategy of Ten Mothers Farms. While Jenkins’ and Fabian’s landmates are not partners in the farm, they are working on adding another business partner, Luke Howerter. Fabian says adding additional opinions and voices must be done thoughtfully, but such collaborations can make big things happen on the farm. “You have to keep reminding yourself what can we do together that we can’t do alone: it’s a lot of things! We’re more resilient as three people than just as two of us.”
Regenerative Farming is Giving Back
“Farming regeneratively for us means giving back more than you take,” Fabian says. “ We try to think about how we can give back more both in terms of the land and the people. We often leave humans out of the equation when we talk about sustainable agriculture. One doesn’t really work without the other.”
In addition to structuring Ten Mothers Farming practices and land-use strategies around environmental considerations, Jenkins and Fabian are mindful of how their farm can care for those who work there. “A lot of customers ask ‘is this GMO’ or ‘is this sprayed,’ and our methods address those issues, but they might not be asking if the person who grew their food is making a living.”
Given the legacy of extractive agriculture, both of the soil in extensive tobacco farming and of humans in the enslavement of African families, Jenkins and Fabian are hyperaware of how their farming model needs to put nutrients back into the soil and resources into the community. “If you’re going to farm organically in NC you have to be giving back a lot more than you’re taking because you simply can’t grow anything if you’re not giving back a lot.”
In their first year on their current property, the Ten Mothers Farm team amended their soil according to soil test results and found their soil nutrition was still so low that their spring crops would not grow. “We spent the past year doing so much to increase soil fertility.”
No-till farming is another aspect of how Ten Mothers is practicing regenerative agriculture. “We started out no-till for practical reasons: we heard it reduced weed pressure, we didn’t have money for a tractor, we weren’t particularly interested in tractors and we preferred small hand-scale tools. It turns out doing those things is really great for the soil!”
Thanks to their small footprint and their on-the-ground approach, Ten Mothers Farm has been able to improve their soil quickly through major additions of compost and close observation of soil and plant health.
“I think a lot of growers hear about no-till and they’re skeptical. They assume it wouldn’t be too labor-intensive or just wouldn’t work. We’re so used to tillage it’s hard to give it up.” Fabian says. “A turning point for us was when we were able to visit Singing Frogs Farm. They were a small, no-till operation and their soil and vegetables were beautiful and they were making it work. Then, we knew it was possible! Now, so many small farms are switching to no or low-till. We visited Singing Frog Farm in California just to see an example of how it was done, and they have such great soil. It’s so productive. They made it feel totally possible, and now we’re seeing so many farms doing no-till.”
Fabian recommends the No-Till Growers podcast to hear directly from farmers practicing no- or low-till methods.
Building Trust is the Best Strategy
Fabian is always excited to hear about farmers who want to try the CSA model. “Make sure it’s something you’re excited about – you’re asking people to become a member of your farm, and that’s a big commitment,” Fabian says focusing on just one or maybe two sales strategies have worked for them. “We’ve been able to build a loyal customer base through the CSA because we weren’t trying to do a bunch of markets or different income streams. It takes a lot to keep customers engaged each year. If you spread yourself thin, your CSA members will notice and your retention rate will decrease.”
Fabian’s secret sauce for CSA success is gratitude, trust, and sharing. “Your members are making it possible for you to farm,” she says. “Part of them coming back the next year and the next year is giving them the feeling that they’re deeply appreciated members of the CSA. They have to learn a whole new way of meal planning, cooking, and eating, and you have to be their coach. You have to share your love for your produce and the farm with your customers. Part of what they’re buying when they join a CSA is you, your story and your passion for the food and the work.”
To this end, Fabian says it’s tempting to take on too many members at once, but this should be avoided. Doing well with a small batch and working out the kinks in production and distribution will establish the trust that will lead to more customers. “Build a loyal customer base and they will be your marketing; they will get their friends and neighbors on board.”
Having established trust also helps when crises like the COVID-19 pandemic arise. Showing customers online and in a newsletter the additional sanitation practices should be a reinforcement to the work that’s already been done all along in maintaining a good relationship between producer and consumer. Fortunately for Ten Mothers Farm, while farm sales outlets like restaurants and farmers’ markets are drying up, the boxed CSA model is already compliant with increased health restrictions.
Fabian says, “I’m very inspired to see how farmers around here are figuring out ways to cooperate more to sell their goods during these uncertain times.” In addition to their partnership with additional local farms to include a flower and grain share in their boxes, Ten Mothers Farm is working on adding meat and maybe eggs from other local sources, both to help their fellow farmers and to safely provide customers with more local food. Fabian and Jenkins are also working out ways to offer boxes to unemployed members for little to no cost. “Everything’s happening so fast, and we certainly haven’t figured this all out yet, but it’s clear that we’re all going to have to cooperate more and be more generous in the days ahead.”
About Eco-Farming Daily
EcoFarmingDaily.com is the world’s most useful farming, ranching, and growing website. Built and managed by the team at Acres U.S.A., the Voice of Eco-Agriculture, all our how-to information is written by research authors, livestock professionals, and world-renowned growers. Join our community of thousands using this information to build their own profitable, ecological growing systems.
The Land Over The Fence: How One New Yorker Moved To The Midwest And Built Her Urban Farm
There’s a stereotype about New Yorkers that we can’t see west past the Hudson River. When I moved here, my family repeatedly asked if I was warm enough and offered to send extra blankets despite the fact that I was just two states away
Reader Contribution By Jodi Kushins, Over the Fence Urban Farm
9/16/2019
I spent the bulk of my childhood and young adult years in metro New York. The daughter of two hard-working physicians, I wasn’t born to be a farmer. And still, I’m sitting here today with dirt under my fingernails and a to-do list that includes water the seedbed, harvest tomatoes, and clean the coop.
In 2003, I moved to Columbus, Ohio, to attend graduate school at Ohio State University (OSU). OSU is so big it has its own zip code. So, while I never lived on campus, it was the center of my world. I didn’t consider myself a resident of the city as much as the university. All that changed when I graduated and decided to make Ohio my home.
There’s a stereotype about New Yorkers that we can’t see west past the Hudson River. When I moved here, my family repeatedly asked if I was warm enough and offered to send extra blankets despite the fact that I was just two states away. I had driven across the country once or twice by then, but I never really got out beside the National Parks and big cities. I had no sense of life in the Midwest before I got here beyond the faint notion that people worked hard and they grew things.
What I learned was that Columbus is a city where people make things and make things happen. Ideas take root here and people support and celebrate the pursuits of their friends and neighbors. Perhaps there are lots of places like Columbus. I hope so.
Finding Land and Taking Advice
The land Over the Fence, November 2013. Photo by Jodi Kushins
When I met him in 2005, my husband was living in a house he bought from his grandmother; the house his mother grew up in. His grandfather had kept a large kitchen garden out back and his grandmother had a canning station in the basement. Dan was also an avid gardener, but he had two kids, a dog, and a job and was trying to keep it all together. Together we slowly resurrected his grandfather’s corner of the yard.
I took advice from a wide range of sources. One friend encouraged me to keep on top of weeds before they became a problem. One extolled the importance of watering, deeply and regularly. Another taught me how to lift sod and soon our backyard was transformed from a patch of crabgrass to an ever-evolving menagerie of flowering and fruiting trees and shrubs. I subscribed to MOTHER EARTH NEWS magazine and I read about backyard sharing. And by 2013, we devised a plan to increase our space.
Over the fence from our garden sat a patch of land that was rarely walked on other than the person who mowed it. Our kids played back there from time to time, but our neighbor on that side was elderly and it was more than she needed. I devised a plan to lease the land from her but just as I was preparing to approach her, she had a bad fall and was moved to an assisted living facility.
When her children were ready to sell the house, Dan and I bought it with the intention of turning the yard into an urban farm and the house into a rental property. In a twist of fate, his parents wound up moving in and we have all enjoyed the inter-generational proximity, to one another and to the land.
Starting an Urban CSA
In full bloom, August 2017. Photo by Jodi Kushins
I will never forget how we took possession of the house one day and rented a sod lifter the next. After initial amending and tilling, we planted our first crop of garlic (about 100 feet) that week, and it was the best decision we could have made. A few months later, the farm was bursting with new growth. Those initial beds served as our beacon. We had already done something right.
Over that winter, I reached out to our family and friends with invitations to join our CSA. We got a small group of supporters, enough to help us pay for start-up supplies. Our first season was more successful than I could have imagined. We had tons of help from our members establishing beds and tending plants throughout the season.
We’ve had high points and low since then. The weather is a never-ending source of aggravation and sometimes wrangling folks to work feels a lot like herding cats. But I get out there every day and find something to marvel at, something to nibble, something to question.
When we started the project I hesitated to call it a farm or myself a farmer. Six seasons later, it feels like home.
Photos by Jodi Kushins
Jodi Kushins owns and operates Over the Fence Urban Farm, a cooperatively maintained, community-supported agricultural project located in Columbus, Ohio. The farm, founded in 2013, is an experiment in creative placemaking, an outgrowth of Jodi’s training as an artist, teacher, and researcher. Connect with Jodi on Facebook and Instagram, and read all of her MOTHER EARTH NEWS posts here.
Tags: urban homesteading, urban agriculture, community supported agriculture, placemaking, Ohio, Jodi Kushins,
Farmland Is Vanishing, And Old Agricultural Practices Are Dying. Local Innovators Are Looking For The Future of Farming.
With Papa Spuds, which delivers more than two hundred products to households throughout the region, customers can select fruits, vegetables, meats, and other locally sourced foods—even custom-ordering recipe kits the way you might with a meal-planning service like Blue Apron
BY ANDREA RICE, MELISSA MCGOVERN
August 27, 2019
Jade Wilson
Vera Fabian, a co-owner of Ten Mothers Farm in Cedar Grove
Raleigh native Rob Meyer says he took inspiration from the local food supply chains he observed in Ecuador while working with the Peace Corps when he founded the online delivery service Papa Spuds in 2008. Ecuadorian families support each other’s businesses, he says, selling food and homemade goods at community markets. He wanted to build a similar model in the Triangle.
With Papa Spuds, which delivers more than two hundred products to households throughout the region, customers can select fruits, vegetables, meats, and other locally sourced foods—even custom-ordering recipe kits the way you might with a meal-planning service like Blue Apron.
This is a form of community-supported agriculture, or CSA, an emerging model designed to create a direct line between farmers and consumers. Based on what’s in season or abundance, most CSAs offer boxes of pre-selected produce for consumers to pick up weekly or biweekly at a designated location (some, like Papa Spuds, deliver). There are about twenty-five hundred CSAs around the country, including about a hundred in North Carolina—among them Infinity Hundred Urban Farms in Raleigh, Maple Spring Gardens in Cedar Grove, In Good Heart Farm in Pittsboro, and Transplanting Traditions Community Farm in Chapel Hill.
Their goal is to create a more localized—and thus sustainable—food system that works for farmers, consumers, and the environment.
“People need to start caring more about the local land,” says Vera Fabian, a co-owner of Ten Mothers Farm in Cedar Grove, who previously ran the CSA program at Transplanting Traditions.
The old system is no longer viable. Farmland is vanishing. During a twenty-year period from 1992–2012, the American Farmland Trust documented some thirty-one million acres of farmland lost to urban and rural development. In North Carolina, the average farmer is sixty years old, according to a 2017 agricultural census; nationally, there are six times as many farmers over age sixty-five as there are under thirty-five. In the near future, many of today’s farmers will fund their retirements by selling their land to developers. Their large legacy farms, which have in some cases raised livestock and commodity crops for generations, will vanish.
There are lots of factors at play, but the bottom line is that, for new farmers, margins are tighter than they used to be. Land costs are rising, and unpredictable weather patterns associated with climate change are reducing crop yields.
CSAs allow farmers to reduce packaging and transportation costs, which puts more money back in their pockets. Fabian says she’s seen a trend of younger farmers developing smaller operations with less overhead and less risk, much like the one-acre farm she and Gordon Jenkins started in 2015. CSA programs enable them to leverage support from their communities in ways bigger farms can’t.
This, she says, may be the future of farming.
But a sustainable supply chain will also require us to throw away less food away. Nearly a third of all food produced around the world, and half produced in the U.S., ends up in a landfill. Farms account for some of this waste—less than 20 percent—but the bulk comes at the consumer level, from households to restaurants to grocery stores that toss “defective” produce.
Here again, innovators are tackling this problem in creative ways.
In June, the five-year-old Baltimore-based company Hungry Harvest—a recipient of a $100,000 prize on the TV show Shark Tank—which repurposes food that would have otherwise been discarded, merged with the Durham-based produce-delivery service Ungraded Produce. The company, which has locations in Raleigh, Detroit, New York City, Miami, and other big cities, encourages farmers and growers to embrace the idea that a bruised peach or apple is still valuable—and edible—and delivers these imperfect products to consumers.
Most grocery store chains don’t accept suboptimal produce, so farmers don’t bother harvesting these fruits and vegetables but instead till them back into the soil to recycle their nutrients. For many farmers, the so-called ugly produce movement might seem like a fad; for their livelihoods, it’s far less consequential than rising land costs and declining crop yields.
Still, these things go together: Reducing farm waste and stimulating the local food economy is one small step in rethinking how we produce what we eat and decrease the carbon footprint it leaves behind. And in the process, we might just make farming a viable enterprise again.
Comment on this story at food@indyweek.com.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
TAGS
FARMING COMMUNITY-SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE TEN MOTHERS FARM FOOD UNGRADED PRODUCE AGRICULTURE HUNGRY HARVEST
New City Map Shows Farm-Fresh Produce In Queens, New York
Fresh produce can sometimes be hard to find in many underserved New York City neighborhoods. That is why City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, the acting public advocate, created an interactive Farm-To-City Food map of the five boroughs, highlighting the importance of access to fresh and healthy food for all New Yorkers.
In Queens, the map shows 17 Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs), 20 farmers markets, 2 food boxes and 4 fresh pantry projects.
Source: qns.com
CSAs are partnerships between a farm and a community that allow neighbors to invest in the farm at the beginning of the growing season when farms need support the most, in exchange for weekly distribution of the farms’ produce from June to November. Food Box programs aggregate produce from participating farms and enable under-served communities to purchase a box of fresh, healthy, primarily regionally-grown produce.
Source: qns.com
City Roots Owners Talk About Their Decision To Downsize
Urban Farm Gets Back to Its Roots.
By Bach Pham
Sep 26, 2018
Bach Pham
There was a sense of calm between City Roots owners Robbie and Eric McClam as they worked on the field at the farm last week, preparing for the Glass Half Full Festival. After a busy first half of the year, the quiet moment was a welcome turn for the father and son.
The change came by choice.
Founded more than a decade ago, City Roots occupies a few acres in Columbia’s Rosewood neighborhood, near the Hamilton-Owens Airport. But recently, the community-minded urban farm began growing faster, expanding production at a second site.
“This past winter and spring we were scaling the farm from three acres to about an additional 30 acres to which we were planting a dozen or so acres of vegetables,” says Eric McClam. “We basically had five farms: a microgreen farm, a mushroom farm, a flower farm, a vegetable farm, and an agrotourism farm spread across two locations, 15-20 minutes apart. That was fun and exciting, but had its own new set of challenges.”
The size and scope of the changes was immediately felt. City Roots was branching in several directions with production, and struggling to make it all connect.
“We had over 200 different things we were growing between the farms,” Eric says. “No one can do 200 things well.”
The complexity of the farm’s rapid growth brought as many technical issues as it did benefits. City Roots was doing everything: growing, processing and delivering to local restaurants in Columbia and food hubs in Atlanta, Greenville and Charleston nearly every day of the week.
“We had three deliveries going on a day at one time on some occasions,” Robbie says. “We had vans in the shop, car repairs all the time.”
The breaking point hit over the summer when Eric fell ill and was forced to take some time off.
“What precipitated the scaling back and hard look at everything was I literally got shingles from stress this summer and had to stay home for a period of time,” says Eric. “While at home, I had time to take a hard look at what was holding that stress and recognizing that it was the diversity and scale of the farm. Everybody has a grounding moment in their life and says, ‘OK, what is important to me?’ The farm and family are important.
“So after making the hard decisions, we scaled it back to fit what works well for the farm. We recognized that getting better at what we do well and letting go of things that were painful to let go, especially reducing staff — some of whom had been here for many years — was something necessary for the direction of the business.”
Eric calls the decision to lay off employees “the hardest decision.” The farm went from 23 employees to about 15.
“We hope we are still in a good place with everyone. We just didn’t have the ability to retain them. We had to be nimble and change course. My role as the head farmer is to steer the ship. We were heading for a ditch, and we needed to get back on course.”
The McClams made several major changes in the past few months. Production at their second site was halted, and the community supported agriculture (CSA) program was cut.
“When we first started, the CSA was exciting and a good business model for us,” says Eric. “We never could quite get the volume of CSA we needed to make that diversified larger scale work, though. … We realized that we’re better suited to do a variety of things and bringing those to market and doing it that way.”
While the field side of the farm struggled to find the right identity, two parts of the farm actually have grown over the years: microgreen and mushroom production.
Microgreens went from being a small portion of the farm in the beginning to quickly becoming the biggest component of City Roots, seen not just in Columbia, but everywhere in the South from menus in Charleston to shelves in every Whole Foods in the Southeast.
“A lot of people grow organic vegetables, but not a lot of people grow microgreens and mushrooms,” says Eric. “Those are what we’re most known for, that’s our niche market and what works really well for us.”
City Roots plans to shift their focus to sharpening their microgreen and mushroom production, maintaining some small-scale flower production, and simply putting more time into the urban farm itself.
“We’re going to be putting more landscaping around the farm, more shrubs and trees, making the farm a prettier place and improving it as an event venue,” Eric says. “I’m excited about putting more emphasis here at the home farm and getting back to the roots at City Roots.”
Eric still plans to maintain the educational aspect of the farm. This year they doubled the number of school tours from last year, and plan to continue finding ways to share the farm with the community. They have also been exploring pickling, dedicating a portion of the farm to growing root vegetables and plants like ginger to contribute towards different recipes to sell at the farm.
There is still hope to do some large-scale gardening, especially with one particular product that has become a much-talked about agricultural item: hemp. The farm applied for the industrial hemp pilot program run by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture and is currently in the running to be one of the 40 farms certified to grow hemp in South Carolina.
“We are excited about that potential,” says Eric. “It’s a new niche market that we see a lot of potential for growth.”
5 Urban Farms Around The U.S. Changing Their Communities For The Better
In abandoned lots, in parks, on rooftops, and even in hospitals, urban farming is thriving.
BY KOTY NEELIS
In abandoned lots, in parks, on rooftops, and even in hospitals, urban farming is thriving. As more people want to know where their food comes from, community leaders across the country are seeking creative ways to grow fresh produce for residents in their city. But urban agricultural does more than just provide access to locally grown food — it boosts economic growth, lowers carbon emissions, and tackles issues surrounding environmental degradation, public health, poverty, and more by giving people greater control over the food system.
From quarter-acre farms run by elementary students to green roof gardens feeding thousands, here are a few urban farming projects aiming to make their community a better place.
1. Detroit Dirt
Detroit Dirt's mission is to create a zero-waste mindset throughout communities and drive forward a low-carbon economy. It's a compost company that helps complete the “circle of life” in food production by regenerating waste into resources. Pashon Murray, the leader behind the composting revolution in Detroit, is diverting tens of thousands of tons of food waste a year away from landfills and into a closed-loop composting system Murray built entirely from the ground up.
2. Boston Medical Center
As more hospitals move towards growing their own food for their patients and the community, one New England hospital has become a leader in this movement by placing a farm right on the hospital's rooftop. Boston Medical Center is not only the largest rooftop farm in Boston, but it's also first hospital-based rooftop farm in Massachusetts. The 7,000 square foot farm grows more than 25 crops and aims to generate 15,000 pounds of food every season, along with a couple of beehives to produce honey.
3. Ohio City Farm
Located in Cleveland, Ohio, Ohio City Farm is one of the largest contiguous urban farms in the United States. With over six acres, the farm aims to provide fresh, local, and healthy food to Cleveland’s underserved residents, while also boosting the local food economy and teaching the community about healthy eating. It's also home to Refugee Response, an employment training program that helps the city’s newest immigrants acquire the needed skills to succeed in their new communities by growing and selling organically farmed fresh produce
4. SAVOR…Chicago
Located on top of McCormick Place (the largest convention center in North America), this roof top farm is the largest soil-based rooftop farm in the Midwest, according to the Chicago Botanic Garden, which maintains the farm through its Windy City Harvest program. SAVOR serves about 3 million people a year at McCormick Place and has been recognized for its sustainability leadership and innovation including Green Seal Certification and International APEX certification in sustainability.
5. Acta Non Verba
Located in Oakland, CA, Acta Non Verba is a youth urban farm that's planned, planted, harvested, and sold by local elementary and middle school-aged kids. Founded and led mainly by women of color from the surrounding neighborhood and larger community, the quarter-acre nonprofit farm aims to challenge oppressive dynamics and environment with urban farming. ANV designs their monthly farm days, camps, and after-school program, so that young children have the opportunity to experience nature in a safe and welcoming green space, learning, creating, and accessing healthy, nature-based experiences that will empower them.
The World’s First “High-Tech Eco Village” Will Reinvent Suburbs
A half-hour commute from Amsterdam, a piece of farmland is slated to become a new kind of neighborhood. Vertical farms, along with traditional fields and orchards surrounding homes, will supply food to people living there. Food waste will turn into fish feed for on-site aquaculture. Houses will filter rainwater, but won’t have driveways. A “village OS” tech platform will use AI to simultaneously manage systems for renewable energy, food production, water supply, and waste.
The 50-acre neighborhood, which will be nearly self-sufficient as it collects and stores water and energy, grows food, and processes much of its own waste, was initially planned for construction in 2017. The developers, called ReGen Villages, struggled with red tape–the area, on a piece of land that used to be underwater but was reclaimed in the 1960s when a seawall was constructed–has regulations that make it difficult for someone other than an individual homeowner to build on land that is mostly used for farming now. But after the project finally got government approval this month, it’s ready to take its next steps.
![[Photo: ReGen Villages]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c8695d5016e11e71be1d83/1534760237080-2520TS7R23O8T7ZR9D2M/eco+village-2.jpg)
[Photo: ReGen Villages]
“We can connect a neighborhood the way it’s supposed to be connected, which is around natural resources,” says James Ehrlich, founder of ReGen Villages. If the project raises the final funding needed to begin construction, what is now a simple field will have new canals, wetlands, and ponds that can soak up stormwater (the area is seven meters below sea level, and at risk for flooding) and attract migrating birds. The land will be planted with trees, gardens, and food forests. Vertical gardens inside greenhouses will grow food on a small footprint. The 203 new homes, from tiny houses and row houses to larger villas, will provide needed housing in an area where the population may double in 15 years. The houses range in cost from 200,000 to 850,000 euros.
As cities become increasingly expensive and crowded, Ehrlich believes that this type of development may become more common. “In the last few years, we’ve really seen that the market has shifted and that there’s a hollowing out of cities,” he says. “They are really expensive and the quality of life is going down, and as much as millennials or younger people really want to be in the city, the fact is that they can’t really afford it . . . the trends are really moving toward this kind of neighborhood development outside of cities.”
![[Photo: ReGen Villages]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c8695d5016e11e71be1d83/1534760323234-E8PYCK6PT7ZLEV48UXZ5/eco+village-3.PNG)
[Photo: ReGen Villages]
There’s also a need to rethink infrastructure so it works more efficiently, with a lower environmental footprint. The new development considers everything–from electricity to sewage–as an interconnected system, and software links the pieces together. Electric cars, for example, which will be parked on the perimeter of the neighborhood to keep streets walkable, can store some of the extra power from the neighborhood’s solar panels and other renewable energy.
The neighborhood works differently than most. Because of the expected arrival of self-driving cars in coming years, and to encourage walking and biking, the houses aren’t designed with parking; a new bus line along the edge of the neighborhood, with a dedicated bus lane, can take residents to the town of Almere or into Amsterdam. (As in other parts of the Netherlands, separated bike paths also connect to the city.) Water will come primarily from rain collection. The on-site farming, including raising chicken and fish, will supply a large portion of the local food supply. If neighbors volunteer for the community–to garden, or teach a yoga class, or provide elder care, for example–the community will use a blockchain-based time bank to track their hours, and then provide a discount on their HOA fees.
![[Photo: ReGen Villages]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c8695d5016e11e71be1d83/1534760367146-N6LO14QFMR1T625FFX3A/eco+village-4.jpg)
[Photo: ReGen Villages]
A “living machine,” a system that uses plants and trees to filter sewage, and a separate anaerobic digester, can handle the neighborhood’s sewage and provide irrigation or water reused in energy systems. A system for processing food and animal waste will use black soldier flies and aquatic worms to digest the waste and create both chicken and fish feed. Other household waste–like cans and bottles–will be handled by the municipal recycling system, at least initially.
It’s a design that Ehrlich believes is feasible elsewhere, though it may not easily fit into existing regulations, and it would need political support. (Some other “agrihoods,” neighborhoods with built-in farming, do already exist, like Kuwili Lani in Hawaii, which also uses renewable energy and harvests some rainwater.)
“We know that governments around the world are in a desperate situation to build probably over a billion new homes around the world,” he says. “It’s a terrible housing crisis. At the same time, they wrestle with a number of things: the commercial interest of farmers, the commercial interests of traditional real estate developers, material companies who have a way of doing things that they’ve been doing for 100, 150 years. Most of the rules on the books relate to this district-scale thinking–of grid-based electricity, of district-scale water, of district-scale sewage.”
Financing is another challenge: While typical real estate developers look for large rates of return and quick exits, ReGen Villages plans to stay involved in its developments and get long-term, single-digit returns. The company is still raising the last round of money needed for the new development. Because Almere has regulations that don’t allow for high density, the initial development will also be more expensive. But once it’s built–something that Ehrlich expects to happen in 2019–others can follow more quickly. “We have access to a lot of really big money that’s waiting for us to finish the next pilot, and so we need the proof of concept,” he says.
The company has plans to build future developments near cities like Lund, Sweden, and Lejre-Hvalso, Denmark, and it ultimately hopes to bring a low-cost version of the neighborhoods to developing countries. “We can imagine going to rural India, sub-Saharan Africa, where we know the next 2 [billion] to 3 billion people are coming to the planet, and where we know that hundreds of millions of people are moving into the middle class,” he says. “And [we want] to get there as quickly as we can to provide new kinds of suburbs, new kinds of neighborhoods.”
8 Memberships To Get Local, Farm-Fresh Veggies In Grand Rapids, Michigan, This Summer
AUSTIN LANGLOIS APRIL 14, 2018
8 Memberships To Get Local, Farm-Fresh Veggies In Grand Rapids, Michigan, This Summer
Turnip for what? For local fruits and veggies!
Did you know that Michigan produces more than 300 different agricultural products on a commercial basis, like blueberries, cherries, cucumbers and floriculture products?
If you’re looking for a convenient way get your hands on local produce while supporting local farmers, try out Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs or produce delivery services.
CSA programs are a unique way to get farm-fresh produce, and often overlooked — they’re basically the OG subscription service before it was a thing. In short, farmers devote a portion of their produce as “shares” to the public. A share is usually a box of produce, but it might also include other farm items like honey, eggs or meats. You buy a share (or a half share) and then you pick up your box of produce each week. The contents vary inside from week to week — so it’s a fun way to try to out new fruits and veggies. However, unlike regular subscription boxes, there’s a shared risk in joining a CSA. Paying upfront for the whole season means that if the weather is bad or crops don’t yield as much as expected, members aren’t usually refunded. As Local Harvest explains, “the result is a feeling of ‘we’re in this together.’”
BLACKBIRD FARMS
Coopersville-based Blackbird Farms has application forms for its CSA is up online. Produce can be picked up on Wednesday or Thursday evenings, and their season runs for 20-22 weeks, from June to October. $525 will get you a full share of produce. While the shares vary from week to week (weather and conditions depending), a large mid-season share might get you: One head of broccoli, two summer squash and zucchini, one bunch of beets, three peppers or two eggplants, one bunch of kale, one bunch of chard, two onions, one bunch parsley, cilantro, or dill, one kohlrabi, one head of lettuce, two tomatoes, one bunch basil and three pounds of potatoes. If you opt for a small share ($290), you’ll receive half of the large share. Deadline to register is May 31, 2018.
EARTHKEEPER FARM
Located north of town, Earthkeeper Farm offers a work share, where CSA members help out at a set time each week for a minimum of four hours (like in the field, harvesting or at the farmers market). In exchange, they receive a share of produce. The season runs from May-October. Contact Rachelle at rachelle@earthkeeperfarm.com for an application.
BLANDFORD NATURE CENTER
Did you know that your favorite nature center also offers a CSA? Blandford Farm has been growing chemical-free produce since 2010 in a 4,000-square-foot greenhouse. Their full-share (21 weeks of produce valued at $25) is the recommended size for a family, while the half-share is valued about $15 of produce a week (perfect for CSA newbies or couples). Prices vary depending on if you want to pick up your shares at the farm or a market — and Blandford Nature Center members get a discount on shares. The season runs from June to October. Deadline to register is June 4, 2018.
GREEN WAGON FARM
Green Wagon Farm, located in Ada, offers an extensive CSA program, from year-round to summer weekly or bi-weekly memberships. Choose from three different sizes (small: 4-6 veggies / medium: 8-10 veggies / large: 12-14 veggies). Green Wagon Farm features a unique “design-your-own-share” pick up, where members can choose from 15-20 vegetables and herbs based on a point system. Their summer season runs June to October.
NEW CITY FARM
New City Farm is an urban farm to provide job and life skills to local high school youth. They offer several different share options. Their main season runs from May 31 to Oct. 25, and you can extend your season by purchasing an additional share of produce from Nov. 1 to Dec. 13. One share not only gives you great local produce, but also it helps provide employment and training for 12 high school students. A 22-week full share costs $495 (good for a family of four) while a half-week share costs $295.
SCHULER FARMS
Based in Caledonia, Schuler Farms offers a 20-week CSA membership. Buying a share will get you organically grown produce from mid-May to the end of October. A full share is $550, while a half share rings in a $375. Opt to add eggs ($4.50) to cut out that extra grocery store run. Memberships are limited, and you can join by visiting their website.
MUD LAKE FARM
Mud Lake Farm features a unique Salad CSA, highlighting its 40+ varietals of hydroponically grown lettuce. Because they grow year-round, they add new member all year long. A $25 signup fee and $5 a week gets you a pound of lettuce a week from spring to fall. Winter shares are a little smaller as the lettuce grows slower and the heads are smaller. We love that you’re emailed monthly statements rather than requiring a large up-front cost. Sign up and learn more at their website.
DOORGANICS
For folks for whom the CSA model isn’t a fit, try a produce delivery service like Doorganics. They partner with more than 50 farmers and producers to deliver a wide range of organic fruits and vegetables in a weekly produce box. The menu is posted online (and on their new mobile app) each Thursday, and you can swap out produce for other choices (like if you don’t like carrots but you love blackberries). You can also add other products like breads, cheeses and meats. Choose from small, medium or large produce bins, or all-fruit or all-veggie bins. Prices range from $29.99 to $39.99.