Black History Month Highlight: Brandi

It was a beautiful January afternoon when Brandi welcomed me into her home to show me her urban farm called Produce to The People. Carrots and lettuces that survived the most recent freeze sprouted out along her crop rows as we walked and talked about farming in the city.

Starting as a dream in grad school, Produce to the People now offers access to organic and fresh veggies to the people of San Antonio. Brandi grows what she called a, “Salad forward farm” growing lettuces and all the fixings that go into a salad, like beets and carrots. This allows her farm stand to be something of a one stop shop for organic salads. Brandi also says growing and making sure, “people are fed and nourished” is her form of activism and protest. In a world with so many food deserts and access to organic vegetables being so limited, this is an important form of resistance.

Another alumni of “Youtube University”, Brandi has largely been self taught through trial and error and experimentation.Brandi told me an anecdote about, “playing russian roulette” the last few years as she planted crops and found out what worked and what didn’t work in our climate and growing zone. Brandi also talked about how she finds joy and community in farming-especially on TikTok where She posts how to and problem solving videos along with other farming content. Saying, “while farming is labor intensive work, I don’t find it to be hard work.” Thank you to Brandi for sharing her story with us as we highlight Black history in the making. You can find her selling produce at Balcones Heights farmers market and also on tiktok @_farmerb