MARBIDCO 2021 Annual Report Feature
MD Urban Farmer Grant Fund Recipient: Greener Garden Urban Farm
Lavette and Warren Blue (left) have owned and operated the Greener Garden Urban Farm, located in Baltimore City, for the last 35 years. Together they run the farm, sell produce, and teach good farming practices. When the Covid-19 pandemic initially hit, at first their product sales were just consistent.
However, after a few months they began to experience a large drop in sales. Regular customers and healthcare workers that had continued to call the farm to place orders and pick-up, eventually stopped. This was coupled with bad weather that resulted in a decrease in crop production. And in the spring of 2021, Lavette contracted the coronavirus.
Even after being discharged from the hospital, she continued to have health challenges for months, and could only work on the farm a few hours a day before needing a break. This also prevented the farm from participating in the Druid Hill Farmers Market as they had before.
It was during the spring of 2021 that the Blues learned about MARBIDCO’s Urban Farmer Relief Grant Program, which provides grants of $500 to urban farmers to assist with a portion of the costs associated with the urban commercial production of locally grown food products.
“MARBIDCO has been helpful, telling us things, sending us information, trying to keep us up-to-date on what is happening. If we have questions, we can always ask and get an answer,” said Lavette. “The grant helped us through this pandemic because there was no money coming in.”
The Blues applied for the grant and were able to use the funds to pay for a weed torch burner, which removes weeds efficiently by burning them. The remaining funds were used to purchase a custom piece of equipment designed to cut and harvest lettuce out of raised beds.
Lavette and Warren were appreciative that a program that targeted urban farmers was made available. Being an urban farmer has its own unique issues compared to rural farming, and urban farmers do not always qualify for the programs that other farmers might be eligible for.
The farm produces a wide variety of crops, from tomatoes to herbs, with their most popular products being collards, scallions, lettuce, spin-ach and carrots. Volunteers from several groups work on the farm, including from the Farm Alliance of Baltimore. Lavette also takes on interns and teaches them hands-on in the field.
On the farm they have nine hoop houses on their one-acre property. Depending on the year, they sell their products at both the Waverly Farmers Market and the Druid Hill Farmers Market. Lavette is known as the “herb lady,” at the farmers markets for her fresh herbs.
“I hope for an end to Covid, to get back to normal,” said Lavette. “The city needs farmers, small farmers… We would like to make more money, but it’s more a way of life. We would like to make a profit and have it been easier to work with the city.”
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