The Market Garden Journey

The evolution of our market garden has been anything but straightforward or easy. Many of you who have spoken to us in person know that we took a self-funded DIY approach to this endeavor. By this we mean that we purchased essential infrastructure (portable walk in cooler, market vehicle, several of our Farmers Friends hoop houses) with part time work outside of the market garden in the hopes of staying out of debt as much as possible. It has been both exhausting & rewarding simultaneously, though we wouldn’t recommend this path to anyone trying to accomplish a similar goal.

Between 2017 & 2022, we farmed on leased land and technically we still do. Moving our entire farm business & home during our three moves was a huge endeavor - to put it mildly. In 2021, Mark's Mom bought the farmland we are currently on & which we now lease from her. This shift has a huge impact on our security within this tenancy after so many wildly unexpected changes in previous land leases, often without much notice. To hear more about the importance of land access & the land we currently grow on, please see those tabs below.

We are now beginning our third season at the latest iteration of the market garden, where there are five acres of land though we only grow on approximately one acre.

Why We Use Organic Methods

We choose to grow fresh vegetables with organic methods because we believe that taking care of the land in the best, most ecological & sustainable way we can is the path forward for agriculture.

Large subsidized farms are a relic of an industrialized system that degrades our worlds finite resources, consolidates power and land ownership, and cannot sustain us all long term (1)(2). Localized small scale agriculture has the potential to feed communities while bolstering local economies, empowering the people, enriching the ecosystem and laying the foundations for a sustainable agricultural production model for the future. 

While many organic farms use fish emulsion, blood, bone & feather meal as inputs, we do not use those animal byproducts within the market garden.

Why Your Support Matters

To say that the support of our local community, friends and family matters is a serious understatement. Without the encouragement and financial support from the community, our market garden would not exist - full stop. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members have financially supported us by buying produce shares from us in the late fall which truly helps us during the winter months while we work off farm jobs to supplement our income. Friends, family and community members have donated to us to help fund projects we would not have been able to complete for many years without their help. Each time someone selects our fresh produce at the farmers market, they are directly impacting our weekly pay, and the ripple effects of all of these efforts have major, lasting impacts on the market garden and our lives.

The Importance of Land Access

Over the many land leases we’ve experienced throughout our market garden journey, we’ve learned that access to land is one of the greatest barriers to entry for future farmers. This obstacle almost lead to us quitting farming several times - most seriously at the end of 2021 after five years of leasing land - until we were given the opportunity to farm land purchased by Mark’s family. Without this, we believe that our farm careers would have been put on hold until we were able to purchase land funded by full time non-agricultural jobs. 

Our lease experiences were wonderful in that they provided us access to a beautiful space to grow our market garden and live on site. However, they each came with their share of unforeseen drawbacks, all things we would like to help future farmers avoid experiencing. From intrusive landlord behavior blurring the lines between communal space and tenant privacy - to property related chore lists which did not adequately account for hours. Then there were affiliated expenses or blame if a land lord owned & maintained machine broke, regular requests for help with odd jobs which were awkward to turn down due to proximity and power dynamics, rodent infestations of rented & high cost living spaces, etc.

As you can see, the list of challenges affiliated with leasing land went far beyond work in the market garden. The resiliency required to start over at each new location, which we’ve now done four times, is hard to muster & would have turned us to another career path without our one last major bit of privilege and luck - our current land lease on Mark’s family owned land.

The Land

We farm on land stolen from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Much of the following was sourced directly from their website, which you can access here for more information.

"Cherokee is a sovereign nation, meaning it has its own laws, elections, government, institutions, and the like. Though it certainly has relationships with the United States federal government and the North Carolina state government that are vitally important, students and the general population may be interested to know that the Cherokees are self-governed and autonomous.

Located in Cherokee, North Carolina, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians were once part of a much larger Cherokee Nation population. However, when the Trail of Tears was mandated, and forced removal and relocation were directed by the US government and then President Andrew Jackson, the Cherokee Tribe became divided into what is known today as the Cherokee Nation and United Kituwah Band, located in Oklahoma, and the Eastern Band, made up of those who remained and rebuilt within North Carolina’s Qualla Boundary (sometimes called the Cherokee Indian Reservation)".

We have a great deal to learn about the Cherokee people and culture, and hope to one day have a relationship with the people whose land we occupy. Please check back here for updates, or reach out with feedback/suggested changes for us to implement.

Our Thoughts on Farm Apprenticeships - an Issue of Equity

Our farm paths started as apprenticeships - separately for both of us before we met & then together at a farm in North Carolina before we began Mighty Gnome Market Garden. One day, we may write about the apprenticeship experience in more detail & share that here. But for now, we can summarize these experiences as exploitative, severely underpaid, and accessible primarily to privileged people who have few bills to pay, who have vehicles & are comfortable in rural settings & unregulated communal housing. This matters because of the prevalence and general acceptance of the apprenticeship model among small organic farms across the country. In our opinions, the entire apprenticeship model should be overhauled and have a form of oversight or basic standards. Those aformentioned experiences inspired us to commit to a method of farming that would not perpetuate the exploitative apprenticeship model. For this reason, our market garden has not and will never offer apprenticeships or rely on volunteer labor. All of the farm work is completed by us until we can pay an employee a living wage & offer an equitable stake in the business as compensation for their skilled labor.

Please check out [Sundance Harvest's resource link here][1] where you can find all sorts of incredible resources about farming & social justice. Also please check out the resources at [Not Our Farm][2], an organization dedicated to uplifting the voices the people who don't own the farm, but work the land. [2]: https://notourfarm.org [1]: https://www.sundanceharvestmarket.com/learning-resources

Racism & Agriculture

‘The History of US agriculture is inseparable from the history of US racism. Indigenous land dispossession, slavery, the ongoing exclusion of racial minorities from federal agricultural programs and support systems, present day exploitation enabled by lack of labor protections for agricultural workers and disempowering immigration policies are all examples of the ways in which racism has been woven into agriculture on every level since this land was colonized…. Dismantling racism in our society must involve deep change in our agricultural systems.’([6][3]) linked quote sourced from the National Young Farmers Coalition 'Racial Equity Toolkit'. Some invaluable sources of information about the depth of racism inherent within agricultural, please see the following sources.

* [The National Young Farmers Coalition *Racial Equity Toolkit*][3] * [Food Solutions New England *21 Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge*][4] * [Soul Fire Farm][6] [6]: https://www.soulfirefarm.org [3]: https://www.youngfarmers.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Racial_Equity_Toolkit.pdf [4]: https://foodsolutionsne.org/21-day-racial-equity-habit-building-challenge/

As White farmers in rural Western North Carolina, we have - through privilege - not experienced the full breadth and depth of racism in agriculture first hand. However, we have observed how White these agriculture spaces are, and how essential it is to change this dynamic. When Danielle first began as an apprentice in 2011, the local organizations for apprentices included no BIPOC people - either as apprentices or the correlated farm/organizational staff. This should be shocking, but is regionally quite common - particularly within the small scale organic farming communities. In recent years, this appears to finally be shifting, but there is much more work to be done. We are striving to learn and improve upon including, uplifting and supporting BIPOC voices. Please know that your feedback on this topic is welcome if you'd like to share any thoughts with us about improving our practices. Primarily, we share our educational journey within our newsletter.

Food Access

Access to high quality & nutritious food is a major challenge for many people in the United States. To see the 'Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food-Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences: Report to Congress' from 2009 - [please click here][7]. As such, we do not want to limit who can access what we grow by only providing it to a CSA and farmers market. This is because we recognize that these can be limiting & challenging for people who either cannot make it to a farmers market, who cannot afford to pay retail market pricing, or are unable to participate in a CSA program for any reason. In 2022, the [Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project] [9] (ASAP) called for applicants to their [Appalachian Farms Feeding Families][8] (AFFF) grant, which we were fortunate enough to be awarded. With this funding, we have been able to provide fresh produce for several organizations in Haywood county. These include the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center, MANNA FoodBank and Haywood Christian Ministries. Over the course of the 2022 season, thanks to the combination of our grant award and that of Haywood Christian Ministry 2021 award of the same grant (which they partially used to purchase our produce for those in need in 2022) we will be able to provide $10,000 of fresh produce to our Haywood county community. For the 2023 season and beyond, we have been fortunate to receive support from the community for our Mutual Aid effort. To learn more please see that page on our website.

[8]: https://asapconnections.org/resources/food-access/appalachian-farms-feeding-families/ [9]: https://asapconnections.org [7]: https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=42729