Growing Lots Urban Farm
Minneapolis, MN
CSA Type: Vegetables, Mutual Aid option
Drop Locations: Seward neighborhood, Locus Architecture, and more
Growing Lots Urban Farm is a one acre market farm located in the heart of the Seward neighborhood of South Minneapolis. It occupies three previously vacant lots, transformed into a highly productive vegetable farm. They work with local wholesalers, chefs, CSA members and local farmers markets to sell and distribute produce. Growing Lots’ emphasis is on soil stewardship and environmentally sound practices; they care for the soils by intensively composting local, organic waste streams, so not only are they small-scale farmers, but small-scale organics recyclers.
Growing Lots’ compost consists of organic food scraps from Co-op Partners Warehouse, wood chips from local tree services, shredded leaves from the neighborhood, plant debris from Mother Earth Gardens, coffee chaff from local roasters and beer mash from Insight Brewery. The alchemy of building compost is the magic that turns vacant parking lots into abundant urban farms!
“At Growing Lots our CSA pick-ups are “market style” meaning that members come to the farm each Wednesday to pack their shares from our booth displaying all the bounty the farm offered that week. We like this style because it brings in a lot of face to face conversations between ourselves and the members who make the farm possible. We get to answer questions, talk shop, gush about our favorite carrot varieties, share recipes and develop relationships that a ‘drop site style’ just doesn’t provide.”