With inflation, it’s getting very difficult for people to afford food. In addition to that, individuals are struggling to obtain healthy food. An answer for a growing number of Black people to this issue is to grow their own fare. Some are growing fruits and vegetables in their backyards, others on the balconies of their apartments. And then there are some who are full-fledged farmers. Like Keshia Knight Pulliam.
“We have a farm outside of Atlanta, Georgia, about 17 acres,” the actress and entrepreneur shared as the moderator for the “Freedom in Farming” conversation at ESSENCE Festival of Culture’s Food and Wine activation. “We have a couple of goats, some chickens, some vegetables, and it is our joy.”
“I think what a lot of people forget is that this is our heritage,” she shared while opening up about her passion for the practice. “We didn’t start as slaves, and when we came over, we brought with us seeds, we brought with us rice, we brought with us the knowledge of farming that allowed this country to be what it is.”
Our panelists were in agreement. They included Dreka Gates, who owns a 43-acre blueberry farm in Mississippi, Clarenda “Farmer Cee” Stanley of Green Heffa Farms in North Carolina, and Bill Releford, D.P.M, of Bloom Ranch in California.
“I literally had this crazy awakening, epiphany, whatever you want to call it. I just got the itch to go to the farm,” Gates shared on stage of her beginnings with farming. “And so at the end of 2019, something just came over me and told me, ‘Girl, you to go to the farm.’”
“I planted a couple of apple trees, which actually we got some apples this season, so I was so excited for that. But I’m growing over 60 different types of fruits and vegetables,” she says. “I have plums, apricots, pomegranate, kale, all different types of lettuces, tomatoes, eggplants.”
For Farmer Cee, she says it all started for her with a man.
“There was a man who stressed me out a little bit, so I needed some herbs to kind of calm that thing down,” she said. “He was going through an extended career transition and I asked him what he wanted to do. He said he wanted to farm. Turns out he really didn’t want to work. So, I got to the point where I wanted to keep what I appreciated the land did. The man, I did not. So I decided to grow medicinal plants and herbs.”
“So my approach to farming is very much from the entrepreneurial angle,” she added. “I grow to self-source for my own products, as well as I contract with other Black farmers to source for our products. In addition, we received a U-S-D-A grant of half a million dollars for the Black Women to Farming program. So it’s about putting money back into farmers’ pockets so they have the economic prosperity that’s needed to be the economic catalyst that we often are for our community.”
As for Releford, his work with patients as a doctor seeking to prevent limb amputations caused by diabetes, motivated him to take over the helm of Bloom Ranch.
“Me specializing in diabetes, I realized that our patients needed to see real healthcare from the ground up. So now I’m growing the fruits and vegetables my patients need,” he said. “So for me, this is my way of really walking the walk and talking the talk and growing what our people really need to see. Black farmers have a place in dealing with health disparities and cardiovascular disease in our community. And I want Bloom Ranch to be the positive beacon of what we can do when we grow our own food to feed our own people.”
How is Releford aiming to feed the community? There’s levels to it, he shared. “One of the things we’re doing, we’re launching the Bloom Ranch subscription program. We’re going to ship directly from the farm to people in Southern California and some of those food deserts, no in between, no wholesaling. We’re going straight from the farm to schools, and farm to medical centers,” he said. “We are talking about controlling our own nutritional destiny, taking control of our own health. Taking it in our own hands.”
When asked what advice the panelists would give to people out there who may have interest in growing their own fruit but don’t know where to start or feel like it’s too big of a task to take on, they all talked about the importance of starting small.
“Start low,” Gates specifically said. “Yes, start low and go slow. We have window sills and you have balconies. There are such things as microgreens that you can grow on your window sill.”
“They have ready-to-grow kits that you can purchase online. But really, just start small,” Gates added. “Think about some of the things, like herbs, that you already consume, and just start there. It’s super rewarding.”
For those who have bigger aspirations and would like to get into owning a farm of their own, you don’t need the biggest piece of land to get started.
“The USDA only requires that you have 100th of an acre in order to be a farm that’s recognized by the government,” Farmer Cee said. “So I would say do your market research. And as far as growing, I would say, piggybacking on what Dreka suggested, is to start low: tomatoes, peppermint, there are things that are very easy to produce.”
“Grow where you are,” says Releford said. “Bloom Ranch has a program called Grow Where You Are. In the Future, we’re going to give you some of the fertilizer that you use. So maybe a pot, things like that. It doesn’t have to be that much. Maybe you can supplement what you grow or what you buy from the store. So start and grow where you are.”
For all of the farmers, they found a bigger purpose in the work they do in the soil. As for Releford, he says not only does creating your own food benefit you and those around you, but it can physically and mentally uplift you as well.
“My assignment as a Black man is to decrease the amputation rate in the Black community. The Black community has the largest amputation rate in the world. So for Bloom Ranch, this is another part of my mission, to address that whole issue,” he said. “So the main thing with diabetes and cardiovascular disease is how can we encourage people to eat better? Exercise more? Farming is a form of exercise. If you start moving around, just pick up a hoe or a rake and see how many calories you can burn. You can burn 500 calories an hour when you’re raking and, hoeing, watering.”
“And the mindfulness part of it too is huge,” Releford added. “The fulfillment of accomplishment, watching something grow, tending to it every day. Come tomorrow, it will be a flower the next day. It’s a piece of fruit. All of that gives you that sense of accomplishment.”
