I had a chance to tour some urban farms and gardens on a business trip to Detroit, and what a treat it was! Detroit’s story is well documented — from the height and heyday as the heart of American manufacturing, to the economic downturns that befell the city after the auto industry packed up and left town.
Everything that you might have heard or read about Detroit is true — and none of it is true. Yes, there is a lot of evidence of poverty and blight, but beneath that rough exterior is vibrant network of entrepreneurs, innovators, creatives, and more working to make the city prosperous again.
Like in many large urban cities, access to fresh, healthy food is an issue. Whole Foods set up shop in midtown, which helps but doesn’t nearly address a more widespread problem. The answer? Grow your own. I found out there is an estimated 10,000+ gardens and farms spread across the greater Detroit area, each one a testimony to personal resilience. I had a chance to spend part of a day touring a few more well know spots.
Brother Nature Produce
It’s a common scene in many Detroit neighborhoods that I visited. You’ll find a few scattered homes on a city lot, surrounded by open green spaces. It’s hard to know where the lines blur between the original city plan and Detroit’s long economic recovery.
But there’s wonderful evidence of a new model of urban food resilience throughout the city, woven into these green spaces. Brother Nature Produce is a great example — a one acre urban farm spread across several open lots surrounding the homestead of Founder Greg Willerer and his family.
Greg was an awesome, down-to-earth guy — a former teacher who made the jump to farming in 2009 and who is at the heart of his neighborhood and an expansive network of growers and farmers.
Brother Nature primarily produces greens and herbs, which they sell through a combination of their CSA program, direct to local restaurants, and at Detroit’s popular Eastern Farmers Market. We walked his site for about an hour, which includes chickens, ducks, and bees.
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Spirit of Hope Garden
After leaving Brother Nature’s site I stumbled upon this amazing community garden just a few blocks away. It’s owned and operated by the Spirit of Hope Episcopal Church. I happened to show up on a day they’re not normally open for business and thought I’d just have to admire the site from outside the fence line. Lucky for me, one of the garden’s volunteer staff arrived shortly after I did and was glad to let me come inside to poke around.
The garden features a diverse mix of traditional and permaculture-inspired horticulture plantings, chickens, and more.
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Michigan Urban Farming Initiative
The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative (MIUFI) is a nonprofit urban farm in Detroit’s North End community that’s more traditional in design, but has audacious goals. They currently grow 230 varieties of produce, which they use to supply restaurants, a CSA program, and local food banks. When you visit the farm, you’re struck by the intention put into the design of the farm itself, but also its buffer to the street and neighborhood.
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I met with Co-Founder Tyson Gersh and walked the farm and future-focused projects located on adjacent lots — each with its own unique land access challenge.
We chatted quite a bit about land access as a common challenge in Detroit. During the darkest economic downturn, the city and out-of-area investors have snapped up property in droves – at a fraction of market value — and holding on to it as . Lots and open spaces that would provide an ideal canvas for urban Ag projects, but whose access has been made divergently difficult by the land barons.
In addition to the main farm acreage, MIUFI has its sites on this abandoned home, which they plan to deconstruct and convert the basement into a retention pond to irrigate the farm.
Across the street, a vibrantly muraled building is the future home of a MIUFI classroom, commercial kitchen, and administrative space.
Midtown Permie and Off-Grid Project
Tyson pointed me to an off-the-grid-permaculture inspired project located less than a block from MIUFI. I was fortunate enough to meet the home’s owner, Greg, an Olympia, WA transplant who bought the house with his wife about a year ago.
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Time ran out on me before I had a chance to visit a couple of other stalwart food justice and urban farming organizations that you should know about, but each is doing amazing work to provide community-wide access to healthy food for to the great people of Detroit.
D-Town Farm
The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network is a main player in the food resilience movement and food policy development in Detroit. The nonprofit operates multiple urban ag projects in the city, including a two-acre farm — D-Town Farm — inside Rouge Park which serves their community, CSA program, and farmers market.
Keep Growing Detroit
Keep Growing Detroit is another mover and shaker in the Detroit urban agriculture community, operating a 1.75-acre farm, the thriving Plum Street farmers market, and hosting a variety of urban garden education programs designed to get people growing food, training community leaders, and inspiring new entrepreneurs.
I loved my visit, and can’t thank my hosts enough for their warmth and generosity. Each is a shining testimony of the resilience of the people of a truly great American city.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
