Magnolia Avenue Farms is an urban farm located on the East Side of Lansing, MI. We grow fruits, vegetables, flowers, medicinal and culinary herbs on six city lots. We distribute the bulk of what we grow within a 5 mile radius of our farm and operate a weekly farm stand at the Allen Farmers Market. The farm was founded in 2013 by Egypt Krohn, as a single lot located on South Magnolia Avenue. What started as a large garden has since served as an informal incubator farm space, providing a name, resources, infrastructure, and market to beginner farmers.
In its current incarnation the farm has roughly 2 acres under cultivation and is co-managed by Aliza Ghaffari, Nathaniel Kermiet, Ash Collier, John Dickerson with many other helping hands supporting the effort! We believe that when you feed the soil, the soil feeds you and this value is reflected in our growing practices. We use a tractor to do the initial clearing and bed shaping on our new fields. Once our permanent beds are established we rely on the collective power of people and simple hand tools such as broad forks, rakes, and hoes to prepare and maintain our fields. Last year we prepared 10,000 feet of soil and laid roughly 15,000 transplants in the ground all by hand (and foot!) This is hard work and its a labor of love.
We are working to build a farm that is environmentally sustainable AS WELL AS socially and economically sustainable. If we care for our soils while neglecting the hands and bodies that tend to them, we are missing the mark. If we want small farms to live, we need to show that farming can be a livelihood. Building a farm that shows this is possible here in Lansing is one of our goals. Last year, thanks to your support we were able to bring in enough revenue from our market sales to cover the costs of all of our material expenses (roughly $16,000) and to distribute over $20,000 in wages across our team. When most of your individual sales are between $2-$6 per item, this feels like a really huge accomplishment!! But we're still far from being able to pay ourselves a living wage. Last year, our wages ranged from between $4.25/hour to $10/hour. Because farm work is still widely (wrongly) considered "unskilled" labor pretty comparable to what many farm workers can expect to make in the US. We are so excited to continue to grow this project and to use our passion, knowledge and skill to bring you fresh, nutritious foods grown right down the street. Your contributions are one piece of the puzzle that makes that possible!!!
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Here are some of the things we are excited about for the coming year:
-Farm to apothecary: We will be continuing our farm to apothecary work, growing medicinal plants and herbs and working together with herbalists to process these plants into medicines.
-Flower Farming and Bouquets: We will be growing our cut flower operation and starting a cut flower CSA, Aftershock Flowers!
-Fruit Field: We will be establishing a perennial fruit field this year with brambles and berries. We have hopes that once established this could be a spot for U-Pick fruit.
-Affordable Payment Options: In 2020 we experimented with alternative payment models including sliding scale pricing for herbal products, donation-based delivery fees, and mutual aid/pay-what-you-can CSA shares. Good food is a right not a privilege, we want to continue to develop payment models that support the economic sustainability of our farm while also making sure our produce stays affordable to everyone.
-Online Store: In 2020 we took orders directly from customers through phone and social media messaging and offered porch delivery during the early weeks of the pandemic. We will be opening an online store this year so that people can place weekly orders throughout the growing season for pick-up and delivery.
-Farm Building: It takes an earthworm 20 years to turn over the 6 inches of topsoil. Farm building is life work, slow work. We are continuing to support our soil life, building organic matter, adding compost, amendments and cover cropping. We are clearing field perimeters of underbrush and putting up fencing (in our ongoing battle against the groundhogs). We are filling the margins with flowering perennials that can be used in the apothecary and also attract pollinators and beneficial insects!
-Farmer Activism: Food, Farming, Land, Climate...these are all deeply political issues. We want to continue using our resources and platforms to draw attention to these connections, work in solidarity with the food justice and other social justice movements and amplify the voices of the activists working tirelessly to build a more just food system and a more just world. Last year we distributed literature and zines at market, raised money for various causes, organizations and grassroots projects and provided mutual aid veggie shares at no cost. We want to continue to build on and find more ways to engage.
-Collaboration and Cooperative Farming: To be a farmer, is to nurture spaces where webs of interconnection can grow, blossom and thrive. The earthworms, pollinators, mantids and mycelia are just some of our many collaborators and working cooperatively is one of our grounding values. We seek out ways to work with others because we believe that the only way to build the strong, resilient, just food system that we deserve is through collective action. Some of our collaborative projects last year included the farm to apothecary, hosting a seed & plant swap and getting tools to set up a shared farm tool library. This year we will also be working to build a working model for cooperative farm management and shared leadership.
Thank you from the bottom of our pea pickin' hearts for being one of our collaborators. We truly couldn't do it without you!
Check out more photos of our farm ----------->
https://www.facebook.com/magnoliaavefarms
https://www.instagram.com/growmagnolia/?hl=en
In its current incarnation the farm has roughly 2 acres under cultivation and is co-managed by Aliza Ghaffari, Nathaniel Kermiet, Ash Collier, John Dickerson with many other helping hands supporting the effort! We believe that when you feed the soil, the soil feeds you and this value is reflected in our growing practices. We use a tractor to do the initial clearing and bed shaping on our new fields. Once our permanent beds are established we rely on the collective power of people and simple hand tools such as broad forks, rakes, and hoes to prepare and maintain our fields. Last year we prepared 10,000 feet of soil and laid roughly 15,000 transplants in the ground all by hand (and foot!) This is hard work and its a labor of love.
We are working to build a farm that is environmentally sustainable AS WELL AS socially and economically sustainable. If we care for our soils while neglecting the hands and bodies that tend to them, we are missing the mark. If we want small farms to live, we need to show that farming can be a livelihood. Building a farm that shows this is possible here in Lansing is one of our goals. Last year, thanks to your support we were able to bring in enough revenue from our market sales to cover the costs of all of our material expenses (roughly $16,000) and to distribute over $20,000 in wages across our team. When most of your individual sales are between $2-$6 per item, this feels like a really huge accomplishment!! But we're still far from being able to pay ourselves a living wage. Last year, our wages ranged from between $4.25/hour to $10/hour. Because farm work is still widely (wrongly) considered "unskilled" labor pretty comparable to what many farm workers can expect to make in the US. We are so excited to continue to grow this project and to use our passion, knowledge and skill to bring you fresh, nutritious foods grown right down the street. Your contributions are one piece of the puzzle that makes that possible!!!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some of the things we are excited about for the coming year:
-Farm to apothecary: We will be continuing our farm to apothecary work, growing medicinal plants and herbs and working together with herbalists to process these plants into medicines.
-Flower Farming and Bouquets: We will be growing our cut flower operation and starting a cut flower CSA, Aftershock Flowers!
-Fruit Field: We will be establishing a perennial fruit field this year with brambles and berries. We have hopes that once established this could be a spot for U-Pick fruit.
-Affordable Payment Options: In 2020 we experimented with alternative payment models including sliding scale pricing for herbal products, donation-based delivery fees, and mutual aid/pay-what-you-can CSA shares. Good food is a right not a privilege, we want to continue to develop payment models that support the economic sustainability of our farm while also making sure our produce stays affordable to everyone.
-Online Store: In 2020 we took orders directly from customers through phone and social media messaging and offered porch delivery during the early weeks of the pandemic. We will be opening an online store this year so that people can place weekly orders throughout the growing season for pick-up and delivery.
-Farm Building: It takes an earthworm 20 years to turn over the 6 inches of topsoil. Farm building is life work, slow work. We are continuing to support our soil life, building organic matter, adding compost, amendments and cover cropping. We are clearing field perimeters of underbrush and putting up fencing (in our ongoing battle against the groundhogs). We are filling the margins with flowering perennials that can be used in the apothecary and also attract pollinators and beneficial insects!
-Farmer Activism: Food, Farming, Land, Climate...these are all deeply political issues. We want to continue using our resources and platforms to draw attention to these connections, work in solidarity with the food justice and other social justice movements and amplify the voices of the activists working tirelessly to build a more just food system and a more just world. Last year we distributed literature and zines at market, raised money for various causes, organizations and grassroots projects and provided mutual aid veggie shares at no cost. We want to continue to build on and find more ways to engage.
-Collaboration and Cooperative Farming: To be a farmer, is to nurture spaces where webs of interconnection can grow, blossom and thrive. The earthworms, pollinators, mantids and mycelia are just some of our many collaborators and working cooperatively is one of our grounding values. We seek out ways to work with others because we believe that the only way to build the strong, resilient, just food system that we deserve is through collective action. Some of our collaborative projects last year included the farm to apothecary, hosting a seed & plant swap and getting tools to set up a shared farm tool library. This year we will also be working to build a working model for cooperative farm management and shared leadership.
Thank you from the bottom of our pea pickin' hearts for being one of our collaborators. We truly couldn't do it without you!
Check out more photos of our farm ----------->
https://www.facebook.com/magnoliaavefarms
https://www.instagram.com/growmagnolia/?hl=en
Organizer
Magnolia Avenue Farms
Organizer
Lansing, MI