Photo by Caleb Mullis.
Patrons walk around the West Homewood Farmers Market at Shades Valley Community Church in June 2022.
A new initiative called “Grow it Good” will bring help to food-insecure families in Alabama, courtesy of the West Homewood Farmer’s Market.
The group is working with Freight Farms and using their equipment to take up hydroponic farming, said market manager Kenyon Ross. The group will grow vegetables and more on the interior walls of shipping containers, in a process called vertical farming. The containers can produce 250 heads of lettuce per week and 500 different varieties of greens and herbs.
The farmer’s market wants to purchase five of the farms every three years and place them in food-insecure areas. That will eventually be accompanied by hiring someone to run the farm, training them and giving them co-ownership. The market will sell 100% of what they grow to a distributor who “cares about getting it to insecure people,” Ross said.
The training software and supplies cost about $200,000 for each farm, Ross said, though they will get a discount for buying so many.
“We can pretty much grow any kind of lettuce you can imagine,” he said.
The group has also applied for a USDA grant, Ross said.
“A lot of money is being funneled to farming and food solutions right now,” he said. “We think with the added mission and vision of what we want to do that we probably won’t have any problem getting a grant.”
The containers take five gallons of water per day, which is 99% less than the equivalent of farming the same amount of produce in a traditional method, and does not include the use of pesticides or dirt, Ross said. With it being inside, there are also no bugs, he said. The nutrients that would have come from the dirt can be added to the water, Ross said.
The grant will be awarded sometime in August and the plan is to farm year-round, he said.
Summer Market
The farmer’s market is also preparing for its 13th season, Ross said.
The market is held each Tuesday from 5-8 p.m. and they are still accepting vendors, he said. There is space for 75 to 80 vendors, with the first and last markets being the biggest.
The markets take place in June, July and the first Tuesday of August and are held in the parking lot of Shades Valley Community Church. Parking in the back is free, and there are usually food trucks on site. Offerings include vegetables, meats, fruits, arts and crafts, baked goods and more.
When the market began 13 years ago out of a small group at the church, Ross said the goal was to be good stewards of God’s creation. While they didn’t intend on becoming a big market, it has grown each year, he said.
“People love coming,” Ross said. “It’s easy to get a parking spot. You can come and go, but we still have tables to sit.”
At the first market, set for June 5, Grammy-nominated country recording artist Steven Cade will be performing from 6 to 8 p.m. Cade is known for giving away guitars to foster kids to instill a love for music in them, Ross said.
