What happens when your real job gets in the way of farming your summers away? You find a way to farm where you are. And that’s just what Anna and Jesse, a young local couple in the Twin Cities are doing with a new venture this summer.

Look at those smiles!

The couple caught my attention because they are farming with the sole purpose of giving all the food to a local food shelf! So, I decided to tag along and lend my mini-muscles to the ‘groundbreaking’ of their newly acquired plot off Marshall and Snelling, nestled up to a parking lot.

My Experience

It was fun, hard work. And I couldn’t stop smiling afterwards. With 5 of us digging in, we prepped about 250 feet row of beds for an early crop of green onions to be followed by collard greens. The other plot will grow radishes, turnips, carrots, baby bok choy and tomatoes with some lettuce stuck into any available holes.

Getting Started

These two have a passion for growing food, and have been figuring out h ow to lend that passion to serve the community. In the spring of 2016, when a call was put out to the Woodland Hills Church community for help planting a garden, the couple answered. During its first season, these two helped build six raised bed gardens outside of the church with the purpose of adding fresh produce to the Merrick Services food shelf housed within the church’s walls.

The gardens produced a small but impactful amount of food that was donated last growing season. “Since we enjoy growing food at a scale that far exceeds what we can consume ourselves, we ended up donating produce from our personal gardens as well. In continued response to what we feel is a calling, we decided to challenge ourselves to dedicate all this year’s growing power and space to produce food for Merrick”, says Anna. Turns out, that’s a lot of growing power!

Digging in, by hand, with big hearts.

Urban Farming

On two small urban lots, they are planning to produce enough food so that each family can take home 2-3 veggies/herbs each week for about 6 weeks this summer. That equals 300-450 servings of veggies per week for the growing season! This food shelf currently assists roughly 150 families every week.  Like other area food shelves, Merrick is trying to increase the amount and quality of fresh produce they offer. Samantha Soriano, the Merrick Food Shelf manager agrees, “we recently surveyed our participants and found a real desire for fresh produce. That Anna and Jesse had conversations with food shelf participants so they could grow what the people wanted shows their level of commitment. We’re excited for the added produce to get onto the plates of the family’s we serve.” Here’s where to find out more about digging in with the Merrick Food Shelf.

Anna and her trusty wheelbarrow

Connected to Community

Being in the local, organic food and farming world has helped them make connections with both land and supplies. Jesse is the buyer at Linden Hills Co-op and Anna has worked on farms for seven seasons, this being her eighth. They were able to scoop up land after another urban food farm, Stone’s Throw  decided to go in a more educational direction. And many of the plants that will soon (next weekend if this weather would just cooperate) be planted out into the fields got their start in a friend’s greenhouse. Gaining access to ‘farmable’ land in the twin Cities is tricky business right now, especially according to the Star Tribune Article from last week, so these two have been very lucky!

The sheer number of people experiencing food insecurity may surprise some of us. Our area’s largest Food Bank, Second Harvest Heartland, helped people gain access to 80 million meals in 2016. The same as 532, 000 people in mid-Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. A large amount of food is lost annually from farm to table, (like 96 billion pounds of pre-market food!) but Food Shelves around the world and right here in St. Paul are forging connections with local farmers, gardeners and distribution chains to divert food from the landfill to plates.

Ready for planting!

“Gleaning” is the term used to describe harvesting food that would otherwise be left on the field. Here’s a cool NPR Story to listen to from a few years ago on gleaning.

I want to “Go Glean” later this season!! Anyone with me??!!!

As for Anna and Jesse, this summer gives them a chance to “…above all, learn and grow ourselves, the project is a creative outlet for us both in different ways.” Way to get growing guys!

“We also not-so-secretly want the lawn around Woodland Hills Church to be turned into a huge garden surrounded by fruit trees and bushes,” mentioned Anna, a glint in her eye.  If these ‘giving gardens’ are any indicator, I’d say see you at Woodland Hills for a harvest party next summer! 

Small-Scale Takeaways

What I learned from talking with and digging with them is that it doesn’t take a lot of land to make an impact – think of how much a 3 pack of organic bell peppers costs at the store or farmer’s market – now think about being able to bring your own extras in a few times a summer. A little goes a long way. And you’ll be smiling longer than I was after our ‘garden groundbreaking’ day.

These two inspired me to add a few more rows to my garden, anyone else inspired to garden a little extra for your local food shelf?  I’d love to hear from you!

And if you’re interested in helping with Anna and Jesse’s farming efforts just leave a comment letting me know and I’ll get you in touch 🙂

Let’s Dig In!

Michelle