Tabitha Farm Urban Homestead and Community Garden grows community ties

Turning into Dixie Avenue, a small and sharply sloping street on the south side of Kalamazoo, a farm is the last thing one might expect to find. But there it is, a small yellow sign next to a blue house with a purple door: Tabitha Farm Urban Homestead & Community Garden. 

 

It's a mouthful in more ways than one. Tucked behind that house are nearly two acres of land, curling behind and around two more sloping properties, and up and down those slopes grow vegetables and berries and fruit trees in and around a variety of raised beds and other structures. Katie Pearson, the owner of this property, invites her neighbors--and pretty much anyone who cares to stop by--to go walk the garden, pick the fruits of her labors, pop them in his or her mouth, and taste the sweetness of a community taking root. 

 

"There," Katie Pearson nods to another house down the street, "lives a woman dealing drugs. She's struggling with cancer, so I brought her herbal teas. She's raised five kids, has had six strokes." Pearson smiles thoughtfully. "I don't judge."

 

She doesn't, and the neighbors seem to sense it. Prior to Pearson moving into her house, a foreclosure she was assisted in buying by completing a program for homeowners by Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc., she says there were several robberies of the house. Since she and her family moved in, no more robberies. 

 

"Someone got pistol-whipped and mugged in that driveway," she says, nodding to another house, "but I feel safe here." And she smiles again. She smiles at her neighbors as they pass by, and she calls a compliment to another neighbor about her row of flowering hanging plants across her patio. 

 

Her smile is mirrored by the nine-month old baby boy she carries on her back in a strapped-on carrier, her youngest of five children. He gurgles and sucks on his fist as his mama walks through the garden, pointing out the coming harvest. 

 

"I practice permaculture here," Pearson says. Permaculture is an ecologically sustainable way of growing a garden. Pearson explains a lump of soil in one corner, grown over with clover, as an example of permaculture. Beneath the soil and ground cover are rotting logs that will enrich the soil, while the clover will add nitrogen. She uses no pesticides. 

 

Pearson's family has lived here for four years, and run the farm and homestead for three. She was born in Kalamazoo, but grew up in the suburbs of Boston, then moved back to Kalamazoo about 10 years ago, a new mother with twins, and struggling financially.

 

"I lived in subsidized housing back then," she says. "It was oppressive, and I wanted nothing more than to have my own home. I also wanted to help people."

 

Academia challenged Pearson, she says, being dyslexic and preferring to be out of doors. She is overcoming such challenges now, as she is currently a student at Western Michigan University, majoring in Africana studies, while writing grants to help sustain her homestead. 

 

"I’m a carpenter by trade, and I worked as a carpenter for five years," Pearson says. "And I traveled a great deal. I was a WWOOfer in England, Ireland, and New Zealand. That's working as a volunteer for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Last fall, I studied at an urban farm in the ganglands of California. That's where I got the idea for this farm."

 

Pearson's idea for her farm is to develop what she calls a "food forest," a place where her neighbors and community can drop by and not only pick edibles, but also participate in the gardening and learn about gardening methods. Education placards are being placed around the garden to explain structures and methods. 

 

"For instance," Pearson says, "this one is called an African Keyhole Bed. At its center, the keyhole, is a compost pile, and the bed encircles it. It's a good method to use in areas of bad soil. And this one is made out of hay bales in a French style of gardening, and this salad garden is made out of an old pallet."

 

She points to a rectangle of hay bales that create walls around one vegetable bed, and the vegetables inside are heavily mulched with hay. The lettuces in the pallet grow in the open spaces, while the wooden slats keep out weeds between the rows. 

 

"Once a week, every Sunday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., I put a free farm stand out on the sidewalk," Pearson says. "Anyone can come by and take what they want. People on fixed incomes don't always have access to fresh, organic and local food, so this is my way of helping. I sell at the 100-Mile Market by People's Food Co-op, and at the end of the day, I collect donations from farmers to give away to people who need good food."

 

Pearson also sells baked goods, often made with Michigan fruits, teas and herbal medicines that she grows and makes herself, and she is currently creating a new line of infused vinegars. 

 

"The name Tabitha honors my little sister," Pearson says. "She had Down's syndrome, and she died while we lived near Boston. She remembered Kalamazoo as her happy place, while she associated her life in Massachusetts with suffering. She died of leukemia. She would have loved it here."

 

Pearson removes the straps of her baby carrier from her shoulders and slips her baby boy around and into her arms. He coos and reaches up for her, and Pearson laughs. "I want people to know that Tabitha is a place for everyone. It's an honest lifestyle. There's something very honest about growing your own food and sharing it with others."