Starting The Black Radish was sort of a come to Jesus moment in our lives. Feeling like we wanted to do something that actually made a difference, we started in our own front yard as an experiment: how can we do something that uses our creative abilities while making a difference in the world?
It grew from there. We began transforming neighborhood lawns into garden spaces where we help our neighbors grow vegetables to help feed one another as well as sending excess to local food organizations. Today, we operate out of 15 yards in this little neighborhood and grow enough for a 50-person CSA. Any overage we give to the Sanneh Foundation for food distribution - and there tends to be a fair amount left over every week.
One of the biggest challenges we're running into is finding land to grow food and then realizing there's a lot of wasted space and that ornamental front lawns are kind of a thing of the past that people just aren't super interested in anymore. And we found our neighbors and community very willing to give up their front yard, or backyard, or both yards to us to convert to farmland.
It grew from there. We began transforming neighborhood lawns into garden spaces where we help our neighbors grow vegetables to help feed one another as well as sending excess to local food organizations. Today, we operate out of 15 yards in this little neighborhood and grow enough for a 50-person CSA. Any overage we give to the Sanneh Foundation for food distribution - and there tends to be a fair amount left over every week.
One of the biggest challenges we're running into is finding land to grow food and then realizing there's a lot of wasted space and that ornamental front lawns are kind of a thing of the past that people just aren't super interested in anymore. And we found our neighbors and community very willing to give up their front yard, or backyard, or both yards to us to convert to farmland.
