By Ayotomi Akinlosotu-Williams
with Lavinia Edmunds
Note I asked my students to go out and find stories on farming in the Baltimore area. Ayotomi AkinlosotuWilliams, who took most of these photos unless otherwise designated, discovered this farm in the heart of a Baltimore City food desert in the fall. I visited this week. It is changing the way children eat, cook and farm.
As you enter the alley from around the corner, you hear the soft clucking of chickens which first indicate the presence of the farm. Occasionally in the mornings, a rooster crows. The brown and gray hues of the city slowly yield to the bright greens of foliage, and you are suddenly on a working farm in the middle of Baltimore city, Plantation Park Heights, established almost 10 years ago, has remained an iconic staple in the neighborhood.
The farm brings together people of all backgrounds and ages, from its school-age volunteers to Wes Moore, who visited the farm as he was running for governor this election season.
“I’ll be sitting around a table with someone who’s a professor, someone who’s an immigrant from the Caribbean or something, and a 9 year old who’s lived in Baltimore his whole life,” said Scott, a volunteer at the farm since last September. He and the other volunteers sat in a circle inside the greenhouse, enjoying conversation as they waited for their boss to arrive.
Scott described the farm as a “melting pot”, and compared it to his understanding of Martin Luther King’s dream. “We can all sit together, no one’s considering skin color or where someone’s from,” he said.
The harvesting season begins early spring. Seedlings are placed in black trays in the greenhouse. Lettuce, kale, and other plants that thrive in cold weather are planted in black trays in the greenhouse as tiny seedlings. They remain there all throughout spring and summer, until they are ready to be transported outside and into the ground. There is no cold storage on the farm, so once grown, the crops are harvested and cleaned for farmer’s markets to pick up and sell before each plant’s individual market begins. This process is different from that of a larger, more industrialized farm that would harvest everything atone point.
This farm in particular takes pride in variety, from indigo flowers and bananas to crops like okra and kale.
One volunteer joked, “If it could be grown in Baltimore, Chippy’s probably tried it,” referring to the founder and director of the farm. “If it can’t be grown in Baltimore, he’s probably still tried it.”
Richard Francis, better known as Farmer Chippy provides the inspiration for the grassroots efforts. “As a biomedical field service engineer my travels took me to amazing places with fun people and great food but the daily experience in hospitals, clinics and urgent care facilities continued to be disturbing,. . . . I had a burning desire to explore options that promoted a healthier quality of life for our youngest citizens,” said Farmer Chippy.
“I hope to be the engineer/farmer that popularizes the benefits of conventional medicine while exploring potential new research that brings cleaner, greener food close to less fortunate communities in Baltimore.”
On a visit in January, Farmer Chippy was checking in at the farm which even in the stark winter had la ot going on. Winter is the farmers spring, after all. The farm is adding 55 more boxes for growing more flowers and vegetables. A cluster of men were working on fixing a motor, while volunteers were handing out fresh food boxes; about 50 neighborhood residents in need of food lined up for a fresh vegetable drive-through that occurs each Thursday. Each box contains beets, potatos, apple ,cabbage and greens, all fresh and organic.
Farmer Chippy has carved out his own niche in the farming community. He just returned from a farmers’ organizational meeting in Puerto Rico where he brought seven student farmers to represent the only urban garden at the nationwide meeting of farmers. He says his farm can be a model for other urban communities in need of access to fresh food and nutrition. They make money selling produce in the spring, summer and fall, at three city farmers markets.
The farm’s next venture may be cannabis once legalization takes place. “It’s a gray area right now, but we’re trying to get things in place so that when recreational stuff is all legal we can hit the ground running,” Scott said
Besides growing crops, the farm seeks to educate city folk on expanding their palates for healthy food.
Tiara Matthews , a volunteer who has been working at the farm for eight years, sets up the food demos. Students learn how to make dinner through the demo, then they get the ingredients fresh from the farm and the recipe to take home and make the meal with their parents or grandparents. Today’s dish featured collards, eggs, potatoes and lavender.
To make the farm work, you have to have dedicated people and have to have funding and support, said Matthews. “We have a lot of youth support. Everyone lives around here. And they like to hang out here,” she added.
Farmer Chippy is not into corporate sponsorship but has received grants from sources as diverse as Rite-Aid and the Baltimore Community Fund. “We have our own capacity. We move around on our own dime,” he commented. Most of the money comes from sales to farmers markets.
Recently the farm received a grant to support agriculture curriculum in five city schools. Students will learn how to grow, harvest and market nutrient-dense food. Farmer Chippy points out the farm is one of ten selected by the American Farmers Bureau Federation as the one of the top ten innovative farms in the country.