OUR STORY

 

I have been gardening my whole life under the tutelage of my mother. Being a new refugee to the country, she couldn't help me navigate my youth. However, she used gardening to teach me about patience, resilience and creative problem solving. We grew in the heart of North Minneapolis in the Sumner Housing projects; a small close knit community but a hard place to grow up. Riddled with crime and lacking access to food, my mother did her best to keep us out of trouble. She worked tirelessly to grow food to ensure we had access to fresh veggies. Once I entered my later teens and became a more active member in my community, I  would hear the term “food dessert” a lot and people talked about the lack of access to fresh food in our community. I became very aware of this issue. When I graduated college and became a resident in my old beloved neighborhood, I always kept a garden in my yard. As a younger person I selectively ate from my garden. I would share whenever I would plant fruits and veggies on the outside of my fence and gave access to neighbors and passersby to pick them.  When I got chickens, I would share the eggs. I would use my garden to form relationships with my neighbors and get closer to my community. By the time I entered my late twenties, having spent my whole life chasing a career, I eventually became burnt out with work. Feeling unhappy for some time, I had spent the last decade choosing my career over things that I cared for and was passionate about. This began to greatly affect life at home and made me not present and became emotionally unavailable. My wife and I knew that this couldn't continue.

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In 2020, I left my stressful career to pursue my dream in creating a small homestead. A place where my children can run, be free, and learn to navigate the world. This was a place where I can grow my own food and be more in tune with the world around me. Maybe one day I hope to help teach others how to grow their own food.

 

We raise poultry for meat, eggs and compost. We have goats that help us clear brushes and provide milk. We tap maple syrup from our many maple trees. Along with that we keep honey bees that help keep pollinate our garden and provide us with honey.

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