Keep Growing Detroit Interview with The Morning Bounce
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00:00It's me and Gene and Shannon Renee on 105 On The Bounce, 3-1-3-Day.
00:04And Shannon Renee is the hip-hop hippie, as we all know.
00:07And you got an initiative in a really cool organization that you've been working with, right?
00:11Yeah, absolutely.
00:12So, you know, my husband and I started our vegetable garden last year.
00:15And it got me thinking, like, I just want to encourage everyone to grow one thing.
00:20Just start growing one thing.
00:22Times are changing, you know.
00:23And for me, I don't want to see people get left behind, right?
00:27So, not only is it an opportunity to see things grow and, like, have your own, you know, supply at your house, I guess you would say.
00:35It's a good teaching opportunity for your kids and stuff, too.
00:38So, I can't think of a better organization to talk to today for 3-1-3-Day, Keep Growing Detroit.
00:45And I have Rosebud here today.
00:47She's the co-director of Education Engagement, correct?
00:50And so, can you tell us a little bit about the background of Keep Growing Detroit and your guys' mission?
00:56Sure. Well, thanks for having me on.
00:57I'm all really excited.
01:00Keep Growing Detroit has been in my life for a very long time.
01:03And, you know, our mission is really to promote a food sovereign city where the majority of produce consumed by Detroiters are grown by Detroiters in Detroit.
01:12Oh, wow.
01:12I absolutely love that.
01:13So, we tackle that in many different ways.
01:15Okay.
01:15Yeah.
01:15You have a couple of different programs available.
01:18The Garden Resource Program.
01:19Can you tell us a little bit about that?
01:21Sure.
01:21So, the Garden Resource Program has been in existence for 20 years.
01:26So, if you live in Detroit, Highland Park, or Hamtramck, and you want to grow a garden, you can be a member for $15 a year for a family garden.
01:35Oh, wow.
01:36If you want to do a community garden or a school garden or even a market garden, that would be $30.
01:41Yes.
01:42It's a really great way to spend $15.
01:45You get seeds and transplants three times through the season, compost, lots of access, all access to all of our education classes and all of our events that we do.
01:55That's awesome.
01:56And the one thing that I also appreciate about that is that, you know, we do recognize that Detroit is an industrial city.
02:01And so, you guys come out and actually test the soil to make sure that people are growing things in the right conditions, right?
02:08Oh, yeah.
02:08Oh, yeah.
02:09So, with your membership, you do get one soil test.
02:12So, our garden development team will come out and test your soil, do a site visit, talk to you about your growing vision, and help you kind of build that.
02:22It's $15.
02:23That's insane for the whole year.
02:25Like, if we were to, like, itemize everything that you get, it's well over $400 or $500.
02:31Now, let me ask you a question.
02:32So, if, you know, someone doesn't plant things, right, and they call you one day and they're like, hey, this thing is not doing what it's supposed to do, will your team then come out and kind of take a look and help them or just kind of give them tips over the phone or kind of guide them through how to…
02:46Yeah, it just depends.
02:47Usually, we try to troubleshoot over the phone.
02:49Okay.
02:49The other great thing is that we're part of this really great network and really a big family of folks.
02:55So, all of this, you know, all of our events, it opens up for folks to just, you know, trade secrets and talk, you know, talk gardening.
03:03We had a seed packing event last night and, you know, all the conversations going on are, well, I'm going to do this and I'm going to grow this and, oh, I did this this year.
03:11It's beautiful.
03:12That's awesome.
03:12So, that's, you did say that you have, you know, the market garden program and then also the community garden program.
03:20Those are $30.
03:21You get, I think, like twice the amount of seeds and seedlings and things like that.
03:26And then for the farmers who grow underneath the garden program, I mean, you guys take their produce to Eastern Market where people can buy it part of a CSA, which is a community share program, and you sell it for them and it goes right back to the farmers.
03:40Exactly.
03:41So, our Grown in Detroit program, Market Gardeners.
03:44So, folks really wanted to build their business, be farmers, sell their produce.
03:49We help, you know, it's a training program.
03:51We help them get everything there.
03:53We do have a CSA share.
03:55Those are out now on our website.
03:56So, just check that out.
03:58You get about 20 pounds of produce every two weeks.
04:01It's super fresh.
04:03It's aggregated from us and from other Detroit farmers.
04:06And then on Saturdays, you can come visit us at the market.
04:09Yeah, and that's definitely, if you don't live within the city or, you know, with Highland Park or Hamtramck, that's still a way that you can support the organization by going to Easter Market.
04:17Everyone travels down there.
04:18We love going down there, right?
04:20So, you can support in that way.
04:21I don't know if you heard from Danielle, who is also with your organization, but the Morning Bounce is going to sponsor 10 families for the family garden.
04:31Oh my God, that's amazing.
04:32Yeah, so if you live in the city of Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park, and you genuinely feel like this would be a good resource for your family, it's something that you're interested in, reach out to us right now.
04:42And we'll put you in touch with Keep Growing Detroit, and they'll take it from there.
04:46And then you can send me pictures of your little babies growing and, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:51I want to see the progress of everyone's garden, especially, you know, if you have little kids, it's really, really, really, really important to instill this in them, right?
04:58I feel like it's our duty to teach people how to grow things, right?
05:02And to have some level of self-sufficiency.
05:05And I will tell you that it was sparked because I was at Ann Arbor U of M, and this guy was outside.
05:12It was, you know, an older gentleman, and he was, I was talking to him about my garden, and I didn't have anything really unusual growing.
05:18And he was like, I've never seen, like, 90 or heard of 90% of these things.
05:22What?
05:23I only had, like, one thing that wasn't, like, carrots, celery, and stuff.
05:26And I was like, you know, a lot of people have food desert cities and don't, are not exposed to these things.
05:33So I think it's just a great opportunity for families within the city to learn how to, you know, become a little self-sufficient.
05:39And, you know, once you start growing, you can grow from what you've grown, and you just keep the cycle.
05:44I mean, caring for the land, too, I think that's really important.
05:46Because you have to take care of the land that we're on.
05:48Absolutely.
05:49It takes care of us.
05:49Absolutely.
05:50So not only do you guys have the programs, do you have an actual, like, what, 3.5-acre farm or something like that in the eastern market?
05:56Well, it's an acre and a half.
05:57Oh, an acre and a half.
05:58Yep.
05:58Much smaller than three acres.
06:01You can do a lot on an acre.
06:01Yeah, she's like, I take care of all that, girl.
06:04I loved it.
06:05We're actually going to go tour there and everything.
06:07But they have, like, a, they have a kid's garden where, like, you know, school programs will come and teach kids about growing.
06:14And then you have, you're indigenous, and so you do practice some indigenous practices there for growing.
06:20Do you want to explain a little bit about that?
06:21Yeah, so I've, you know, been doing a lot of indigenous food sovereignty work for the last 15 years.
06:26And that's a lot of, you know, reconnecting and reclaiming our cultural food waste.
06:33Because of, you know, colonization and lots of reasons why, you know, our culture has been, you know, just kind of disrupted a little bit.
06:40I saw an interesting fact the other day that 70% of the foods consumed across the entire world come from indigenous people.
06:48Oh, wow.
06:48So you think potatoes, you think, oh, Irish or something like that.
06:51You know what I mean?
06:52That's not the case.
06:52It started with indigenous peoples.
06:54Exactly.
06:54So really, and focusing on food that grew indigenous here.
06:59Because of, you know, we talk a lot about diets and, you know, food access, we, our bodies really need to consume the food that was grown indigenously here.
07:08Instead of, you know, things that were brought in here.
07:11I love that.
07:12To, you know, combat some of those, you know, obesity and heart disease and diabetes, stuff like that.
07:16So, you know, reconnecting with our indigenous foods and growing out, like, corn, beans, and squash and showing people, you know, how they can be grown in your backyard and also, like, how to prepare them and how to care for them and how to save seeds and, you know, repeat that process.
07:32You know, I feel like sometimes I'm kind of, like, courty or whatever, but, like, I always, it's so fascinating to me, like, how little a seed is and it, like, has all the instructions to become whatever you see with your buying.
07:42You know what I mean?
07:43So it's always so fascinating to me.
07:44And I hope that other people find it fascinating.
07:48Me too.
07:49It's literally my life.
07:50It's so cool.
07:51The other thing that I love is that you guys not only do this, you have other workshops, I mean, that obviously go along with gardening, like bee, your bee program and stuff like that.
07:59Do you want to talk about some of those other programs that you have?
08:02Sure.
08:02So we have a whole education series.
08:05You can tap into that on our website.
08:06We cover literally everything that has to do with gardening.
08:10We do have our Sweet on Detroit beekeeping class.
08:14We'll have a youth, a summer youth apprenticeship this year.
08:17Awesome.
08:18So we're connected with GDYT.
08:20So find us on that website.
08:22We work really closely with Michigan State and their Organic Farmers Training Program, training a whole new set of farmers.
08:29So that's happening right now.
08:30That's awesome.
08:31But you get to be a Detroit cohort, which is amazing.
08:35What is the greatest impact that people can do to support your organization?
08:39Be a garden resource member, for sure, number one.
08:43Support us by shopping at the market, following us on social media, donating when you can, volunteering.
08:50We have over 2,300 membership in our garden resource program.
08:54That's amazing.
08:55So we're growing like half a million transplants on our farm.
09:00So we can't do that with just five.
09:02Right.
09:03We really heavily depend on volunteers.
09:05So we have two days a week where we have open volunteer hours.
09:10That's awesome.
09:11Yeah.
09:12Oh, I'm definitely going to come by and give some of my time to the organization.
09:15They can find you on social media, Keep Growing Detroit.
09:18And then we'll have posted up on our website a link to your program and everything.
09:23So people can check that out there and find a way to get in touch with you.
09:28Again, like I said, we're going to be sponsoring 10 of the families, family garden programs.
09:33If so, if you're from Detroit, Hamtramck, or Highland Park, and this is something that you're interested in doing,
09:38please reach out to us right now, 248-544-1051, and we'll get you hooked up with them.
09:43And they'll take care of you, and you don't have to pay for it.
09:46We're going to cover the cost for that.
09:48Yeah, that's amazing.
09:50Is there anything else you wanted to cover today?
09:52No, just thank you so much for having us on.
09:54We're excited.
09:55I'm so excited that I found your organization a couple of months ago, and I'm like, I cannot wait to partner with them.
10:00Yeah, it's awesome.
10:00I'm very excited about it as well.
10:02Yes.
10:02Cool.
10:03Thank you so much.
10:04Yeah, thank you.
10:05All right.
10:05All right.