What’s Up, Wake

Join us as we "dig" into the transformation of a vacant 1.2-acre lot into the lush, productive Raleigh City Farm. Executive Director Lisa Grele Barrie shares the vision, history, and impact of this urban oasis. Discover how the farm connects the community to nature, agriculture, and sustainability through gardening, volunteering, and educational programs. Learn about their sustainable practices, the importance of soil health, and the farm’s contributions to addressing food insecurity in North Carolina. Plus, get insights into upcoming events and volunteer opportunities that make Raleigh City Farm a vital part of the community.

00:00 Introduction to Downtown Raleigh's Hidden Gem
00:52 The Birth of Raleigh City Farm
01:11 Meet the Executive Director: Lisa Grele Barrie
01:42 The Vision and Founding of Raleigh City Farm
02:14 Transforming a Vacant Lot into a Farm
06:12 A Day in the Life at Raleigh City Farm
08:56 Engaging the Community: Volunteer Opportunities
14:59 Maximizing Small Spaces for Urban Farming
17:16 Strategic Science of Regenerative Farming
17:46 Soil Health and Free Resources
19:53 Community Engagement and Food Donations
22:06 Educational Initiatives and Workshops
24:09 Sustainability Practices and Urban Farming
26:38 Gardening Tips for Small Spaces
28:53 Upcoming Events and Fundraisers
29:57 Conclusion and Contact Information

Creators and Guests

Host
Melissa
Host of What's Up, Wake + social media manager + writer + travel editor

What is What’s Up, Wake?

What’s Up, Wake covers the people, places, restaurants, and events of Wake County, North Carolina. Through conversations with local personalities from business owners to town staff and influencers to volunteers, we’ll take a closer look at what makes Wake County an outstanding place to live. Presented by Cherokee Media Group, the publishers of local lifestyle magazines Cary Magazine, Wake Living, and Main & Broad, What’s Up, Wake covers news and happenings in Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and Wake Forest.

30 - What's Up, Wake - Raleigh City Farm
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Melissa: [00:00:00] Many images come to mind when we think about the landscape of downtown Raleigh. Historic buildings, trendy restaurants, the site of cranes as more and more skyscrapers arise. But one thing that doesn't readily come to mind is farm space. Enter Raleigh City Farm. This once, fake it. 1.2 acre lot on the corner of Blunt and Franklin Streets [00:01:00] right down the street from William Peace University was turned into workable farmland in 2011, creating a healthier community and reconnecting city dwellers with food production.

I'm joined today by executive director of Raleigh City Farm, Lisa Grayley Berry. Welcome Lisa. Thanks, Melissa.

Lisa Grele Barrie: Great to be here.

Melissa: I'm excited to talk to you. Our listeners know at this point, I love gardening. I'm not very good at gardening, but I do love talking about gardening. Mm-hmm. But this is unique.

Raleigh City Farm. I also wanna add was featured in our July August issue of Wake Living. Raleigh City Farm combines a few of my favorite things. Raleigh Gardening and giving back to the community. Can you tell us how this little urban oasis came to be? Yes,

Lisa Grele Barrie: I can. So any vision is a spark in the imagination of, uh, of inspired people, right? And so our founders had this idea to create a farm in the middle of the [00:02:00] city.

The good news is we have a very robust website, so you can read about the origin story of these five folks who just wanted. To start a farm in the middle of the city. You know, every farm, every city deserves an urban farm was their calling, their rallying cry. And so they began to search for land and found this, uh, then one acre site that was vacant, that was full of dirt, not soil.

And began exploring how to rezone it to become a farm. And the rest is history. 14 years later, we've expanded to 1.2 acres. We are growing about 13,000 pounds of food a year and have a beautiful oasis, a surprising oasis in the middle of the city where folks can hang out with plants and uh, and learn more about the natural world.

Melissa: So these were just five. Random friends or did they live in this area together? They were neighbors maybe? Yeah. So,

Lisa Grele Barrie: Laurel Barnardo is still on our advisory council and she and her friend Laura [00:03:00] Fielman. Were were friends. They created a, a, a network of three other folks who were interested in this, uh, this idea of creating a farm.

So they met for two years did a lot of early fundraising, a lot of planning, a lot of, uh, of community building to get the farm started. And then in 2011, uh, the 5 0 1 C3 was formed. Um, a team from NC State, the volleyball team came and started laying down. The first rows in this, , still very desolate looking lot.

If you go to the website too, you can see what it looks like. It's, um, it's quite remarkable.

Melissa: Yeah. It was, it was a huge transformation. And, and for those of you who have not seen it, it really is an oasis in, in the middle of all the hustle and bustle Yeah. Of that area, because over near William Peace University, I went to Peace College.

I, I struggled to call it William Peace now. Yes. Mm-hmm. But over in that, on that side of town, it's just. You come upon this, this true [00:04:00] little farm, and it's beautiful and breathtaking to see in the middle of such an urban area. So I do suggest everybody at least drive by there. Mm-hmm. But you also encourage people to stop in.

How, how does this work? If you're driving by, can you just stop in and, and visit the farm? You certainly can. You know,

Lisa Grele Barrie: think of us as a park. But we're a firm so we're not closed. There are no gates. Mm-hmm. But there are rules and what do we think about when we think about urban spaces? You know, where do I park?

So parking mm-hmm. You know, can be a challenge 'cause you need to park in the right place. You can't park in the person. Street Plaza parking lot that's reserved for our retail neighbors. But you can't enter the farm. And, uh, we have an, a great signage, um, system. So you can go and look at various, um, areas of the farm.

There's a QR code leading you to our website, uh, to learn about each of the different areas, the rain garden, the production area, the composting area, the food forest, the apiary. So anytime of day or night you can walk through and obey the rules [00:05:00] and, and be surrounded by plants.

Melissa: I wanna step back for a second and, and see how you became personally involved with the farm.

Have you always been a, a gardener? Right.

Lisa Grele Barrie: So I think all of us have always been gardeners. Mm-hmm. Right? Because we are, you know, of nature connected to nature better than others, and we don't give ourselves enough credit. Mm-hmm. But, um, yeah, all of us, if we go back into our descendants, have had farming roots, right?

Mm-hmm. So I, I didn't, I was, I didn't garden as a kid. I watched my father mow the lawn and, uh, hit and read a book. But as I got older and actually moved to England, I became more interested in plants, and then I moved. Around the corner from Raleigh City Farm. So in 2002 we bought a house, um, in Oakwood Mor Morkey, Oakdale.

Melissa: Mm-hmm.

Lisa Grele Barrie: And there was this vacant lot. And so for me it's proximity and passion were the two ingredients that got me involved from Raleigh City Farm. 'cause I remember getting an email and thinking, wow, [00:06:00] this is really a cool project. How, how can I get involved? And I mm-hmm. Did serve on the board before becoming a staffer.

And so, um, I've, I've been involved really since the beginning. What

Melissa: does an average day for you look like?

Lisa Grele Barrie: Right, so. I am ultimately responsible as the leader of the nonprofit to provide adequate resources for the nonprofit, which is bringing in money. Right, okay. Um, and working with the board on strategy and ensuring that we can sustain our mission, which is to connect and nourish our community through regenerative agriculture.

So I am constantly connecting with folks who are. Donors, sponsors. We have a large fundraising event coming up called Harvest Dinner. It's in October. And I love to garden, so I'm also on the site and I'm connecting with our volunteers. I'm connecting with, um, these same donors. So I would say, hmm. [00:07:00] 60% of about 50, 50% of my time is in my home office on the computer.

Okay. And then the other 50, and I, you know, again, I do a lot of work on the farm, which is not just actually playing with flowers or planting flowers and digging, it's, it's connecting with the community, which is so fun to me to watch people literally kind of transform when they, uh, when they just are outside.

Hanging out with their team members or making new friends and learning about plants. It's very inspiring

Melissa: and I can imagine too, maybe I'm wrong, that there, there are some people, children especially that might have never been on a farm before. Considering your location where you are. Yeah. It is not like, you know, my grandparents grew up on a farm out, out in the country, and, and maybe I, I, that would not be so, such a, a novel idea for me.

Mm-hmm. But a lot of people that grow up in the heart of downtown might have never stepped [00:08:00] on a farm before.

Lisa Grele Barrie: Right. I think, you know, we have all become a bit, uh, disconnected from our food source. Mm-hmm. You know, we think that we just show up at a restaurant and food appears on the plate. You know, you don't know, uh, you forget that a farmer grew the food.

Or you go to the grocery store and you pick produce from a shelf and you think you forget. It came from the soil. So having, you know, children especially. Recognize that food is grown in the ground to see what a broccoli looks like, you know, in the ground to, to pull a carrot and see that it comes from the soil mm-hmm.

And not from a plastic bag, you know, is just really important so that everyone cares more about plants, which is really caring for the planet. Right.

Melissa: Very true. Yeah. It, it, it, it's all a big circle that you, you, like you said, you don't really think about until you see it with your own eyes and mm-hmm.

And touch it with your own hands. I read something on your website that I was hoping that you could. Tell us about, called Weekly on [00:09:00] Wednesdays. What is that?

Lisa Grele Barrie: So actually it's wine and weed weeds on Will Wednesday.

Melissa: Okay. Yeah. Oh, so it's a, then I, then, I'm glad, I'm definitely glad I'm asking about it because I didn't even read it.

Right, right.

Lisa Grele Barrie: So it's one of our volunteer opportunities. So every Wednesday from six to seven folks are invited to come to the farm. We partner with wine authorities, so we have a little sip of wine. Or non-alcoholic beverages depending on, and I was

Melissa: ignoring the funnest part of the whole

Lisa Grele Barrie: Right. Actually, I started the event way back when.

'cause I, I like to have a little wine and weed. Yeah. So yeah, it's, it's a volunteer opportunity. We set the limit at 24 people. Again, it's, you know, we're a small site and, uh, but last night was one of weeds. So we had. 24, 20, maybe 28 people come and hang out and weed and mulch and compost and, um, enjoy a beautiful evening on the farm.

Yeah. And, uh, it happens every Wednesday from April to October during the same timeframe of our pop-up or excuse me, our pay what you can farm stand, which is mm-hmm. On the same [00:10:00] day we're bundling everything into Wednesdays. We harvest in the morning, we. Sell in the evening, afternoon, evening at our farm stand, and then our Wine and weeds event happens.

I think that's a good pathway to understanding, you know, where our food goes. So, as I said, we we are growing about 13,000 pounds a year and all year long we share it with nonprofit partners who have food pantries. So it's a place at the table is one of them. I think Maggie Kane was just on your show.

Melissa: Yep. One of our past guests. Yep. I am gonna get to Maggie Kane. I, I want to. Ask a little bit more of this Wednesday. So Wednesday is a big day for you guys. Back to back to wine and wheat. Yeah. It, it all circles back to wine. Okay. There you go. So Wednesday is a big volunteer day. Mm-hmm. How, how do we go about.

You know, just regular person like myself coming to volunteer. Do we sign up on the website? Yeah,

Lisa Grele Barrie: it, the good news is we do have a very, as I said, robust website. Mm-hmm. So you go to volunteer, there's volunteering for [00:11:00] groups, for individuals, and you click and, you know, I, I used to run a theater company, so I know it's painful.

It's wonderful when you sell out a show for a large theater, but we have limited spots for wine and weeds. So we, um, often sell out, as I would say, or fill up. But because I'm here on the podcast, you, Melissa, can come anytime you want. Just show up. Nice. Yeah. That's your free pass.

Melissa: Thank you. I love having a free pass.

Yeah,

Lisa Grele Barrie: you got it.

Melissa: And then other, other times, not just Wednesdays, right? Is really the whole organization, mostly volunteer based?

Lisa Grele Barrie: No.

Melissa: Okay. Yeah.

Lisa Grele Barrie: So if you think about, uh, concentric rings mm-hmm. Of of talent, uh, I run the nonprofit. There's a very, uh, skilled farm team. So we have two farm managers who are trained in how to grow food, which is really tricky, as you know.

Yeah. We talked about tomatoes and it's really hard to grow food because of so many different. [00:12:00] Factors. We have then, uh, an apprentice through something called the, uh, center for Environmental Farming Systems. The ecosystem of food. , The food system is, is very vast, so that is another paid part-time staff member.

We have a program coordinator and then we have a rotating crop, as we call it, of interns. And these are young people who are either in school or outta school and really interested in furthering their careers in a agriculture so. We're proud to say that since 2020 we've graduated over 50 interns men, you know, young, most of them women candidly.

Mm-hmm. Who are now on a path to learning what it takes to be a farmer. So that's the core team. And then beyond that, we, um, we layer in volunteers. We have wine and weeds every Wednesday, Fridays in our slot, our lineup, if you go to the website, we offer workdays for corporate groups. We have school groups, you know, church groups, you know, groups from everywhere.

You know, four a week, and then on the first Saturday of every month, we also have a workday. So there's, you know, nine [00:13:00] opportunities that are on the website every month.

Melissa: Okay.

Lisa Grele Barrie: To, and I love the idea

Melissa: of the, the internships too. My, my son is a senior at Athens. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And he is interested in agriculture.

So he is, he's hoping to have some sort of ag future. So he spent his summer working as an intern with different. Little ideas like this. So anytime, anytime somebody says an internship with ag, I think it's, I think it's so important for kids to, mm-hmm. To have these, these opportunities to learn without it being a permanent thing, you know?

Mm-hmm. Try their hand at different things. Sure. Yeah. Sure. So I love that you're doing that. And of course, I love the volunteer opportunities as well. Yeah.

Lisa Grele Barrie: I'll just say too, that, you know, these are. Published opportunities. And then there are folks who are, you know, say your son would email us and say, Hey, I can be a consistent volunteer mm-hmm.

On these days. So we layer in more of those volunteers. It takes, you know, more than a village to keep this little one acre, 1.2 acre site [00:14:00] tidy and, uh, stewarded 'cause we are mowing the grass where, I mean, there's just mm-hmm. There's so many plans to take care of. So, again, if there's, if, if something is filled up on the website mm-hmm.

Uh, we always, um, you know, respond to requests that someone says, I'd love to do this, or My talent is X. Yeah. You don't wanna turn down health for sure. Yeah, exactly right. We have a composting lead, a, you know mm-hmm. Beekeeping, lead a, you know, a mowing weed, uh, lead. Mm-hmm. So there's always room for more people on the, on the stage or on the on the ground.

Melissa: [00:15:00] Well, I know that one acre doesn't sound like a big area, but I have been to the farm and you guys really do make the most of the space. Hmm. It's really every square inch of space is filled with rows and rows of vegetable gardens. You brought us, uh, some beautiful flowers today, so you even have some, you know, flowers growing on the farm as well.

Have you found that there's particular vegetables that give you more bang for the buck, for [00:16:00] lack of better term, meaning? When you're trying to use such a small space, do you try to grow up versus thinking that some vegetables might take up too much width mm-hmm. In a garden? Mm-hmm.

Lisa Grele Barrie: Yeah, that's a great question.

And again, along with our rows, we do have a high tunnel, which is you know, a structure that has, you know, plastic sides and a greenhouse. Mm-hmm. So these three, these two other structures help us grow food year round. Okay. And when we think about how we're trying to. Again, connect folks with plants.

Um, not everyone can grow plants, but certainly we talk about how to grow if you don't have a lot of space. Mm-hmm. They say you have a balcony and you have a bag from Publix. No, no. Sponsor mention there just mm-hmm. Or a plastic bag and you could put soil in it and a seed. So there's container gardening.

Mm-hmm. Which is, we have some of those bags. We have trellis. So we talk about how you can grow up, um, certainly with squash, you know, as a sprawling vegetable. Yeah. And, um, we have a great trellis and we [00:17:00] did some beautiful squash last year. They just grew up and over. Mm-hmm. We grow cucumbers on trellis.

Your, um, your question about bang for the buck. Is also tried and true vegetables that are not as tricky to grow. Yeah, and I would say that you know, our kales, our greens our, you know, Swiss charred kale you know, arugula, some of the spring and fall crops. Are less prone to pest pressure as we call it.

Oh. Um, so those are, you know, or radishes are very easy to grow. Okay. Um, you know, carrots kind of, you know, beets are a little more tricky. You know, onions so actually, and now we have a whole block of sweet potatoes, which is the national, uh, or the, the statewide, the state. Yep. Vegetable. Mm-hmm. Um, so.

Those require space. I was about to say, I always think about s sweet potatoes. You think they sprawl,

Melissa: think of big giant sprawling farms. Right? And so I wouldn't think that you guys would, would get into anything like that. Well,

Lisa Grele Barrie: this is, um, this is one block. Mm-hmm. [00:18:00] And of course when you're, you know, there's a real.

Strategic science to farming Yeah. Regeneratively, which includes crop rotation. Yes. And every year you move your crops around. Mm-hmm. So that the soil microbiology is healthier. You're intercropping adding different ingredients with plants to create again, healthy soil. And I think every, we say everything that we're doing at Raleigh City Farm is starting with soil.

And if you're a gardener, the most important thing you can think about is your soil. Health because if you don't have healthy soil, you're not going to grow healthy plants. And there's right plant in the right place. You say, oh, I want that, that plant. But if it wants shade and is in the sun. And then of course if you don't water it, there's that.

Melissa: Well, and anybody that lives in Raleigh knows that our, our natural soil. Is hard clay, right? It's nearly impossible to grow anything. So you really do have to cultivate the ground itself. Mm-hmm. To be able to grow anything.

Lisa Grele Barrie: And that's why Melissa, there's so many free inputs you can take advantage of.

Mm-hmm. [00:19:00] Now say for instance, the city of Raleigh offers free leaf, mulch free, you can go and pick it up or I didn't know that. In your own yard, maybe it's $20 for everybody. You go and pick up mm-hmm. Mulch. Mm-hmm. And or in our own backyards, provided we have trees, which hopefully we do. Mm-hmm. And great trees.

We can let the leaves drop. Not bag them and put them out on the curb and have them go to the city of Raleigh's. Mm-hmm. Uh, leaf collection so they can, you know, you can leave them in your ground because they're full of, or, uh, micro and nutrients. Mm-hmm. And all the materials that the tree needs to live is in the leaves.

Mm-hmm. And so. Leave your leaves is a, is a great tip to support healthy soil in your own backyard. 'cause really, I mean, starting in our own backyards is where we can all begin to think about site stewardship, right? Yeah. And, and, you know, and how we're supporting pollinators, how we're supporting healthy.

Air quality, which is, um, carbon [00:20:00] sequestration, and I'm getting into nerdy topics like that, but it's, um, soil is, it's fa it's fascinating. There's lot to mean, my, my

Melissa: eyes start to glaze over because it's a little too smart for my, for, for my brain, but mm-hmm. It's all, it's all important things that we need to know, though, but start with soil.

Yeah. This is, is the question.

Lisa Grele Barrie: Start with soil. Mm-hmm. You can get a soil test, you can get a soil test, a free soil test through the extension department, and they will tell you what's in your soil and what, and what might need to be added to make it healthier.

Melissa: You mentioned this earlier about how you guys give produce through your farm share program.

Mm-hmm. You've donated, is it true, nearly 50,000 pounds of food to nonprofits in our area over the years? Yeah,

Lisa Grele Barrie: that's, you know, our, we changed the way we farm in our strategy in 2020. So again, each year we harvest about 13,000 pounds of food. Mm-hmm. Now, you know, when we, in 2020 we began to grow our yield, um, and each year we.

Yeah, we donate about half of that. And as I said, again, the, the remainder goes to our, um, [00:21:00] customers at our farm stand. But yeah, so each year it's, you know, five, 5,000 pounds of food, five, 6,000 pounds of food.

Melissa: And when you think about pounds of food, that's, you know, that's a lot of food. It is. So why did you guys pivot to want to assist these organizations around the community versus just sell.

Yeah. At the farm stand.

Lisa Grele Barrie: Well, it's, you know, it's part of our goal, you know, our strategic goal to, um, solve a really intractable problem. Mm-hmm. Right? Which is food insecurity and access. Right. Um. North Carolina is the 10th hungriest state in the na in the nation, you know? Really? Yeah. Um, and there's many stats on that you can Google.

Mm-hmm. But, you know, there's just, there's a lot of hunger and since the pandemic that's only been exacerbated. Yeah. And it tends to fall on women and people of color. Mm-hmm. So this is, um, not a problem we can solve on our own, but we knew that we wanted to be a part of the solution. So growing food and [00:22:00] making it affordable and accessible.

Is, you know, is, is our North star, our mission, along with, of course, environmental stewardship because as we're farming and, you know, treating the land with respect we're engaging people and making sure that they respect the land and in turn helping everyone be healthier right. Is, is, is ultimately the goal.

So, trying to solve the food insecurity and, and access program is, you know, is, is, is definitely one of our, our core goals. Along with, we do many things, you know, training farmers. Mm-hmm. So it's, it's, that is important. You know, taking care of the land, um, educating and engaging our community and, um, really just strengthening the people plant connection.

Melissa: That's actually my next question. It's about the education portion of what you guys do. You have something called. First Saturday series. Am I saying that one right? Yeah, that's right. And that is what, that's educating the community about farming. Yeah. Am I overgeneralizing?

Lisa Grele Barrie: Well, it's another engagement opportunity.

Mm-hmm. [00:23:00] We launched this, this year. It's basically bundling all of the workshops and other activities that we had been doing. Or piecemeal. So the first Saturday of every month, think about this first Friday, right? So if you start in the art galleries on Friday, you can come to the farm on Saturday. Mm-hmm.

You sign up, but you can do your workday from nine to 11. Uh, we pop up a farm stand when we have produce. Uh, we have a forger who leads a workshop called Whimsical Weeds, and she'll take you around the farm and tell you about plants and you'll learn. You know what their purpose is and what their name is.

Um, we have a workshop, different workshop every month. This month it's seed starting fall, seed starting. We offer food. We do a little meal and you can taste something from our farm. And then there's a tour at the end and, oh, yes, I forgot. So we have an artist in residence. We do a lot of things at the farm, and she's painting a mural.

We did expand our site. We mentioned one or 1.2 acres. Mm-hmm. But last year we expanded to two adjacent parcels. Oh. I haven't been there since then. Okay. It's amazing. So there's a fence, a wooden fence. Mm-hmm. And she, [00:24:00] Julia Einstein, has created this gorgeous mural that's paint by number. So we're actually doing that this Saturday from, that's from 11 to one 30.

Mm-hmm. So you can come out, you know. Your, your painting clothes and paint these beautiful botanicals, you know, life-size, um, flowers. I love that it's paint by number because, you know, I,

Melissa: I feel like I would be a great painter, but in actuality, yeah, I would probably mess it up. But I can do a paint by number, right?

Yeah. I can follow those instructions. So yeah, every first Saturday,

Lisa Grele Barrie: you know, now it's, you know, it was May through October. Okay. Um, we're inviting people to come hang out at the farm mm-hmm. From nine to, you know, one if they want. And, um, do all these different activities to connect and. And get nourished.

Melissa: Okay. And sustainability is something that I read. I read that word on your website. Mm-hmm. Quite often. Yeah. So it's obviously something very important to you guys. You use sustainable farming practices, like you mentioned crop rotation, composting, rain water diversion, pest [00:25:00] management. Why? Why is sustainability so important?

I would think particularly for an urban farm. Well,

Lisa Grele Barrie: you know, beyond an urban farm, just think about, um, the planet at large. Mm-hmm. Right? If we all did no harm, but regenerated, and this is our mission, if we made things better, just think about that as a, um, we're always trying to make our bodies better.

We're trying to eat healthier foods or exercise, think about the land. In that same way, we're just applying the same principles we would. We would use on our own body, right? Mm-hmm. Or plants to the land. And we're not doing harm, we're not putting pesticides in, we're trying to conserve water. We're trying to uh, provide food for pollinators.

All the, what we call ecosystem services that, that are part of our farm system is really just trying to make things. Better and healthier for, you know, the, the, the planet and then [00:26:00] there's the people on the planet. Mm-hmm. And so how we can coexist and work with nature, not against it, is, is the harmonious choreography, I guess I would say of of regenerative farming.

Just thinking about how we're all united and not divided people in plants.

Melissa: Does that make sense? It absolutely does. Yeah. And it's something that everyone really should. Think deeply about more often?

Lisa Grele Barrie: Yeah. Or I don't know, should farmers or,

Melissa: or not. Yeah.

Lisa Grele Barrie: Or it's, it's, it's, it's an invitation to the opportunity.

And I think often we're so wired to our, or connected to our phones, to our devices. Um, I do, I'm, I'm the same way. Mm-hmm. And it, it's just reminding yourself to stop and pay attention, because everywhere in nature, you know, look at these flowers and just, you know, if you stared at a flower for, you know, a minute every day and just stared at it, you, you would.

Be amazed and blown away and inspired. Yeah. And, um, and your heart rate would slow down. And, and I think this is the [00:27:00] invitation of the natural world Right. To, to slow down, to pay attention and you know, just to, to, to be in the moment

Melissa: Yeah. And find more appreciation and, and mother earth For sure. Indeed.

You, you mentioned a little bit of this earlier about advice that you might give to someone who lives in a downtown area or an apartment or a condo. They don't have very much space for a garden. What is some simple ideas that somebody could do to have a beginner garden area? Yeah.

Lisa Grele Barrie: I mean, you know, the gateway can be just indoor plants.

Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. And even indoors. You can grow herbs on a window sill. And I think it's just, it's the act of, I mean, plenty of people have pets, right? I mean, it seems like pets are everywhere. Dogs are everywhere. Cats are everywhere. Mm-hmm. Um, but you know, think about plant adopting a plant if you are not a quote plant person.

'cause I think everyone is. Mm-hmm. And there's plenty of places to buy plants. So you can start with. [00:28:00] Just caring for an indoor plant. And then, you know, if you lived on a balcony, my word, there's so many beautiful things you can do with container gardens, right? Yeah. Not only the vessel, right? You can buy beautiful vessels and beautiful colors if you love pottery.

So you start there. Yeah. And you're inspired by, you know, and then you can arrange the vessels. Mm-hmm. Um, and then you can, you know, go to the garden store and there's, you know, so many reputable garden companies that can help you choose the right plan for the right place. And, you know, typically. Well, you know, I'm thinking whether it is a sunny balcony.

It's a shady balcony. Yeah. And just, you know, and then you might think, oh, can I, um, is there a way for me to either cut herbs or cut flowers or do I wanna grow food? And, you know, there's little mini, you know. Tomato thing. I mean, you can grow anything

Melissa: again

Lisa Grele Barrie: in a container. Well, nowadays

Melissa: they have, you know, such special, indoor, unique gardening, vegetable gardening and herb gardening mm-hmm.

Centers, they do get quite expensive. So, yeah. You know, even if you go out and, and get a five gallon bucket, [00:29:00] fill it with Yeah. Don't have to be fancy. Yeah. Right. Start

Lisa Grele Barrie: with good soil. Mm-hmm. And just, or just throw some seeds in, especially with children, you know, watching. I just get a kick out of you. You put a plant, you know, a little seed in the ground, and then you have cabbage.

It's the size of a dinner plate. It, it's, I can't believe it. It actually happens that way. Yeah.

Melissa: It, it

Lisa Grele Barrie: really is a magical experience. It's, yeah. It, it, you know, kids for me too, for sure. Yeah. Just watching plants grow mm-hmm. Is, is really inspiring.

Melissa: It is. Yeah. Can you tell us some of the things that you have coming up, um, this fall, maybe October-ish timeframe?

Sure. So you mentioned what the Harvest

Lisa Grele Barrie: dinner? Yeah, so Harvest Dinner is one of our, um, main fundraising events. Mm-hmm. It's October 12th and depending on when this podcast drops mm-hmm. We may not have tickets to sell, but it is a farm to table dinner. Okay. On the site with, um, chef. Jeff Sizer. Ponysaurus.

And so that's happening on October 12th. We will still have wine and weeds every Wednesday from six to seven. Our farm stand is open every Wednesday from four to [00:30:00] seven. Our first Saturday will happen on October, whatever the first Saturday of October is, and we will then, scroll into a little bit of a slower time where we're, you know, the plants are starting to slow down.

We're starting to plan for, you know, our, our spring and begin to get growing inside more than outside. But we still have volunteers who come on Fridays on that first Saturday, and, um, and folks just strolling through the farm and, you know, checking out the plants.

Melissa: Tell everybody where we can learn more about Raleigh City Farm.

Is it Raleigh city farm.org? Org? Yep. Mm-hmm. Okay, perfect. That's it. And you're right, you do have a fantastic website. Yeah. So check that out.

Lisa Grele Barrie: We're also on social, so our Instagram account is, is pretty robust, so you can check us out there. Facebook, all the, the usual socials.

Melissa: Well, thank you so much for being here today to tell us more about Raleigh City Farm.

It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to coming back and, and visiting. Yes. Great. Thank you. Thanks. Alright.

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