ONE OF OUR 2015 INSPIRING MEMBER STORIES
by Stephanie Campbell, CFSA’s Outreach Coordinator
Ardis and Henry Crews, of Henderson, NC, don’t let any moss grow under their feet. Instead they are transforming their community by growing micro-enterprise urban farms called Micro Market Farms. In the past 18 months they have helped establish seven of these urban farms and the city of Henderson has agreed to give them fifteen more abandoned lots to work with.
“We grow more than vegetables,” says Ardis, Founder of SOFFA (Southern Organic Female Farmers Association). “We grow community,” explains Henry, Founder of NC Green Rural Re-Development Organization.
“We grow viable small businesses for local folks, places for youth to learn, and relationships with neighbors who re-learn how to be neighborly. The garden opens doors and neighbors begin to share ideas and act together for community re-development.”
Henderson is Henry’s hometown and Ardis grew up in Rocky Mount, but they never thought they would return to North Carolina. They lived in Chicago for thirty years where Ardis was a college administrator and Henry owned and ran an electronic business. After they retired, they would come back to Henderson to escape the Chicago winters and to visit family and friends. On one of these visits, they admired the garden of neighbor Marian Brodie Williams. Ardis impulsively said, “If I had more land, I’d do more gardening.” The very next week they plowed up a small field and began a community garden.
With their background in higher education and business entrepreneurship, they immediately saw the garden as a tool for entrepreneurial job opportunities, rural re-development, and community transformation. They decided to start first on the string of small houses they owned in a blighted and high-crime part of town.
Ardis and Henry’s words tumble over each other as they eagerly share their story and all 
they have accomplished in this brief time. In addition to establishing the Brody, Crews, and Marrow Farms, they have become certified bee keepers, put in a worm farm and an aquaponics tank licensed to grow tilapia, certified their land as a wildlife habitat, were approved for Safe Farm Certification, received EQUIP cost-share funds for three hoop houses (and passed a city ordinance allowing hoop houses in the city), and won an award from Vance-Granville Community College for their business plan.
The first seven cooperative farms have begun selling at a local Farmers Market, an on-farm market, to Farmers Food Share, and to restaurants. Realizing that big conventional tractors would not work on city lots, Henry even became the NC Distributor for Grillo and Hoss to make these tools available to the micro market farmers. Training in how to maintain and repair tools will become another micro-entrepreneurship business opportunity for the community.
The first Micro Market Farms were personally funded. Now they are applying for and receiving grants and funding from government and municipal agencies, churches, non-profits, and businesses.
CFSA has partnered with Ardis and Henry to train members of the SOFFA co-op to become GAP certified, to complete a CAP plan, host a two-day workshop on High Tunnel Construction, and to consult and provide resources. This coming year they will be selecting and training new members of the co-op to establish gardens on designated abandoned city lots and build their own small agricultural businesses.
As they continue to develop the Micro Market Farms in Henderson, we have no doubt that they will grow a strong future for their community. As Morris White, Vance County Extension Director said, “If you turn your back on them for five minutes, something new will have been done already.”
Read more about CFSA Farm Services at www.carolinafarmstewards.org/farm-services/
And a recent article at The Conservation Fund: http://www.conservationfund.org/blog/1163-micro-farms-making-an-impact-in-henderson-north-carolina
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