Chapter 9: Turning Lawns into Farms

Update: Is Abeego closing? TBD. Read my update here.

Four months ago I heard an urgent and forceful knock at my front door. When I opened it I was met with an eager chef and an ambitious documentary filmmaker suited up and ready to work. They looked me straight in the eye  and said, “Aren’t you ready yet? It’s time to get started!” And then I woke up.  

I’ve grown food for as long as I can remember. My mom gave me my first garden plot when I was 6 years old. I grew peas, cucumbers and strawberries. Today my front yard is where I grow most of my produce. This garden acts as a community builder, an example of the potential for urban food production. The simple act of handing a neighbor a ripe tomato has taught me there’s a rich opportunity right outside the front door. 

Growing food has been a constant in my life and for more than a decade I’ve had a vivid vision for a project I call Front Farms. 

Front Farms is an initiative inspired by my yearning to put the power of food back in the eaters hands. It’s an initiative that recognizes the potential for food production on every front lawn in every city. It leverages community, farmers and technology to create another food system, one that operates parallel to mass production with the mission to ensure fresh food is accessible to all.

The food system is broken beyond repair and just like all the dinosaur systems that are falling around us it’s ripe for innovation. Front Farms is one small project I’d like to sink my teeth into as I continue my journey to Keep Food Alive.

In 2005 Colin, my boyfriend turned husband, gave me a copy of Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard Into a Garden and Your Neighborhood Into a Community by Heather Flores.

He inscribed it: 

Feel free to change the world,
Love Colin 

Would you like to change the world with me? It’ll be worth it, I promise.