Urban Harvest: Black Radish Farm Grows Community

Working from their own home and 14 other yards in south Minneapolis, Jade and Carrie cultivate fruit trees, maintain chickens, nurture potatoes, and battle jumping worms. The Black Radish offers a different vision of what a farm looks like. Farming happens within the community it primarily feeds when it manages to find space to grow.

The Black Radish follows organic and environmentally-sustainable agricultural practices. This means low or no till management in their “fields,” use of cover crops for soil protection, and integrated pest and disease management to avoid introducing chemicals into their produce and Minnesota’s watershed. Farming this way involves a lot of labor from its people. Most farm machinery’s design only makes it useful on large, open fields–not distinct urban yard plots.