The Detroit Foodie

Before Urban Farming/Gardening became the phenomenon it is today, my family had been maintaining a garden in Detroit for as long as i can remember!

Part of this reason stems from my Grandparents coming from farming towns in the Old Country and bringing with them the growing & harvesting tradition. Mid-Spring was the start of the growing season. Meaning: prepping the garden by tilling the ground, mixing in top soil, adding the compost pile, planting seeds, and so on.

Fast forward to today, and you’ll see that my neighborhood takes Urban Farming to the next level - almost as seriously as an Olympic Sport!

What do i mean, you may ask?

Exhibit A: Like the Olympics, my neighbors love doping up their plants (with Miracle-Gro) in order to get ridiculously large produce and extremely ginormous flowers. There’s a 20ft Sunflower, a sight i had yet to see, growing in my neighbors yard. Unlike my fellow neighbors, there are NO chemicals added to any of the items growing in my garden.

Exhibit B: Some neighbors go as far as ripping out ALL the grass in their backyards to create a mini-farm on their 20ft x 30ft plots of land - no joke!

Exhibit C: They love their potted flowers! Drive up & down the block and you’ll see there’s a mini competition going on with a.) Who has the most pots of flowers b.) Who has the most abundance of flowers c.) Who has the prettiest flowers, etc…it’s crazy!

Mind you, this is NOT a hipster block…rather, my North Detroit neighborhood is made up of recent immigrants migrating from every part of the world. Like my Grandparents, they too have held onto farming traditions & take great pride in their urban gardens/mini-farms.

Some of my best memories as a kid were plucking ripe tomatoes off the vine savoring the tart/sweetness flavor & picking an endless amount of delicious red raspberries from my Grandfather’s ‘urban garden’. Ahhh, those were the days! : )

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