Urban Farm Network
Building a Local Urban Farm Network
In the Fall of 2016, The Hayden-Harman Foundation acquired several vacant lots with the vision of flipping these vacant lots into sustainable urban farms. Through the Adopt-a-Lot program, we have acquired and transformed several others. Our five (5) urban farms are located within the core city and provide local and organic produce to every resident. In addition to our farms, we manage a community orchard off the greenway by Southside Recreation Center. Growing High Point's farms are directly managed by our Director of Operations, Jose Abreu, and other GHP staff.
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Each Urban Farm Leader is able to receive support from Growing High Point and has access to Jose, to design an urban agriculture enterprise, explore avenues to market, and maximize their profitability. In addition to this, our Urban Farm Leaders have access to our Food Hub, where they are able to process and package their produce. We strive to be able to build a robust network of Urban Farm Leaders to meet our vision for the City.
If you are interested in becoming an Urban Farm Leader, contact us at info@growinglocalhp.com.
Urban Farm Leaders Farms
GHP Urban Farms
White Oak Urban Farm
Meet one of our Urban Farm Leaders, Jose Abreu! Jose is passionate about healing and localizing our food system and has been an advocate for urban farming in High Point for several years. He has been operating Twin Oaks Urban Farm since the Spring of 2018, and channels his passion into each row, evidenced by his thoughtful approach. The Twin Oaks Urban Farm will provide healthy, nutrient dense produce, while providing a green space for the community to interact with nature. The farm vision is to create lasting beauty, sustainable, social, and economic change in our community.
What is being grown:
This Spring Jose plans on growing lettuce, carrots, swiss chards, beets, and radish. His Summer crops will include okra, cucumbers, canning tomatoes, potatoes, and onions. In the Fall, he will finish the year out with hardy greens, kale, collards, spinach, and turnips.
504 White Oak St,
High Point, NC
Pershing Greenhouses
Iya Chavis was born and raised in High Point and has been gardening from day one. He started working in the The Greenhouse on Pershing in December 2017 and is currently in his second year of growing organic tomatoes. He also has several raised beds with cucumbers, squash, peppers, and kale, and plans to further cultivate the space with other growing techniques.
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Iya received his love for growing from his family and community; you could say his community was grown in a garden. He recognizes that we have lost touch with this reality, and in doing so, we have collectively lost a part of ourselves. Sometimes it takes experiencing a world without neighbors sharing their vegetables, fruits, and eggs to realize how lost we are as a society without our connection to the soil. As much as he wants to bring healthy, local food to our city, he feels called to deliver this harmony to the next generation and bring it back for those who still hold on to the loving memories of a time when it existed all around them.
What is being grown:
Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Kale, Squash, Root Veggies, Microgreens, and Vegetable Transplants.
1300 Pershing St,
High Point, NC
Beeson Urban Farm
Beeson Background
What is being grown:
Beeson Filler
207 Geddie Pl,
High Point, NC
High Point Hop Yard
Originally started by Co-founder, Patrick Harman, The High Point Hop Yard has become one of Growing High Point's Urban Farms. Patrick is a High Point native and Director of the Hayden-Harman Foundation. In 2017, Patrick started his own urban farming enterprise on Park Street, now known as the High Point Hop Yard. Since 2017, the High Point Hop Yard has provided fresh hops for Brown Truck Brewery, where it is skillfully crafted into their No. 14 IPA.
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Patrick started the High Point Hop Yard because urban farming is much more than a hobby for Patrick. He believes it can truly make a great impact for good in our city by addressing blight by redeploying vacant land to productive use, creating entrepreneurship opportunities in core city neighborhoods, and increasing access to healthy produce.
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The High Point Hopyard is now being managed by Growing High Point, as Patrick is making
way in his social entrepreneurship endeavors, although you can still find him
supporting the community by means of urban agriculture.
What is being grown:
Hops
312 Park St,
High Point, NC
Berry Ridge Urban Farm
Our Berry Ridge Farm came to us from the Business High Point - Chamber of Commerce's Leadership High Point Cohort of 2023. Back in the fall of 2022, they reached out to us to discuss the potential of Growing High Point sponsoring their service project. Individuals who were fascinated with our work of transforming neighborhoods by means of urban agriculture and creating a vibrant city pitched our non-profit as their partner. We were selected, and reached out to about transforming a vacant lot. We immediately jumped on the idea. Gathering together their cohort of experts in relative fields and the resources they could provide, we worked together to convert this lot on E. Green Drive into a medicinal berry and herbal tea component farm. Through their support, we opened up this farm on May 25th, 2023 to the general public, and will be able to grow various agricultural items we market as important to the holistic health of an individual through the concept of food as medicine.
We are forever grateful to the Leadership High Point Cohort of 2023 for helping us transform a vacant lot into a whole new farm within the core City of High Point.
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This farm would not have been possible without the support of: Business High Point - Chamber of Commerce, HPMKT Authority, Greater High Point Food Alliance, Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Lowder Steel, Signature Wealth Strategies - High Point, Truliant Federal Credit Union, United Rentals, Lowes, D.H. Griffin Companies, The Home Depot, City of High Point Government, and countless volunteer hours from community members.
What is being grown:
Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Herbal Tea Components.
1411 E. Green Dr,
High Point, NC
Southside Community Orchard
Orchard Background
What is being grown:
Orchard Filler
401 Taylor Ave,
High Point, NC
Drozik's Urban Farms
Garden In The Hood
Andre Davis planted Garden in the Hood on a vacant family-owned lot in 2014. The garden started with one simple thought, “you can’t eat grass”, so he turned a lawn into a food producing area. Over the last few years, Andre has grown a wide range of seasonal vegetables using organic practices. As an Urban Farm Leader, Andre also cares about engaging with the youth surrounding his garden and is excited to teach them where their food comes from. Andre recently expanded his garden by adding some raised beds and he also built compost bins made out of recycled pallets.
What is being grown:
​Collards, peppers, kale, onions, turnips, beets, cabbage, carrots, okra, tomatoes, and herbs.
1700 E. Green Dr,
High Point, NC
Thissell Grow Garden
You may have seen him around High Point with his little yorkie Dakota, Andre was born and raised in High Point and has been gardening for 9 years. He started working on the Thissell Grow Urban Farm in February 2018 under his enterprise Drozik’s Produce. With the help of our amazing volunteers, he built 18 raised beds and a small greenhouse on Thissell Street.
From his first “Wow! this will actually grow” experience planting vegetables in his backyard, he has been excited about growing fresh, local vegetables. It doesn’t take much time being around Andre to see that he is passionate about people and about sharing his excitement for urban farming with them. He has already seen the impact that lessons learned in a garden can have on children while urban farming at Thissell Grow Garden and Garden in The Hood. He hopes to make Thissell Grow Urban Farm just as much about those lessons of patience, respect, and responsibility as it is about growing fresh, local produce.
What is being grown:
Andre grows a wide variety of mixed greens, such as mustard, collards, lettuces and spinach. He also grows onions, radishes, lettuce, peas, and beets for his Spring crops. In the Summer, he will grow salsa ingredients, including a variety of tomatoes and peppers, as well as a variety of squash.
505 Thissell St,
High Point, NC
Youth Mentorship Garden
In the Summer of 2019, Growing High Point partnered with Urban Farm Leader Andre Davis to formalize an all boys youth mentorship gardening program. Andre spent several weeks taking the kids in the neighborhood to learn about gardening from seed to harvest, as well as teaching important life skills. Andre has been invested in educating youth in the neighborhood for several years and is a positive role model to each child he meets.
What is being grown:
Tomatoes, okra, peppers, cucumbers, squash, sunflowers, beans, corn.
1216 Furlough Ave,
High Point, NC
Deacon Davis Farms
Deacon Davis Farms is a community garden located in High Point, NC dedicated to eliminating food deserts and alleviating food insecurity. Deacon Davis Farms is additionally, dedicated to producing food to serve disadvantaged African-American neighborhoods, as well as disabled veterans and other low-income areas. The urban farm hosts around 20 volunteers during the growing seasons to assist in harvesting and prepping soil for growing. The volunteers are crucial to ensuring the community garden can serve a high capacity. If you are interested in volunteering please reach out to Jason or check out his GivePulse Page here.
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Jason Zimmerman is the founder and leader of Deacon Davis Farms named after his late grandfather who educated Jason on growing a garden. Jason has over 25 years of experience in small farming and has been an active member in his community through this means. Additionally, Jason operates as one of our Urban Farm Leaders, due to his amazing work within the community.
What is being grown:
Filler
1600 Bridges Dr,
High Point, NC
Eatz N Beetz
Deeper Than Dirt
In 2022 while driving through the city of High Point, Alex McQueen saw a sign that said, “Want to start your own business? “Want to grow your own food?, Want to grow food for your community? Become an urban farmer." For him, this sounded too good to be true as it was a direct answer to everything he had been praying for. This is how his journey with Growing High Point began. He wasted no time to call the telephone number on the sign to find out how he could be an urban farmer and grow food in his community. Alex fell in love with the organization’s mission and wanted to know how he could do his part to bring change to his city. At the time he reached out, we were piloting a new program we created called, “FARM F.I.T.”
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Upon completion of his apprenticeship, Alex received a plot of land from us to apply the skills he just acquired in order to grow his own crops and create a business to generate income through agriculture. As a vegan Chef this was a dream come true for Alex. Not only is he able to sell his produce at the farmers market, but he can also utilize the things he grows in the meals he prepares, creating a full farm to table dining experience. Alex felt this was all amazing, yet somehow still didn’t feel like enough.
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Alex noticed there was a need to address various neurodivergent needs and began to do research on the correlation between agriculture and mental health care. He found the topic of "Therapeutic Horticulture", which is a centuries old practice that embraces the healing power of nature to promote physical and emotional well-being. It involves using plants, and gardens to cultivate a sense of connection with nature to help people improve their health, and overall quality of life. It helps address a wide range of mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, chronic pain, ADHD, and many more. It can also assist in improving social skills, reducing stress, and an increase in self-esteem. This is a sustainable approach to healthcare that also has a positive impact on the environment and society.
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This is why in addition to running a successful urban farming business, Alex came to the idea of converting the lot he gained into an agriculture oasis in the heart of High Point’s food desert, coining it "Deeper Than Dirt", to incorporate therapeutic agriculture. The knowledge of the benefits of therapeutic agriculture showed him its much deeper than just growing food; it opened his perspective to see everything in life is deeper than it appears to be on the surface. The “Deeper Than Dirt” mental health initiative isn’t just about mental health awareness, it's about taking practical steps toward solving these issues through holistic methods, creating long term effects and lifestyle changes, ultimately rewiring their thinking process to produce a more optimistic life experience.
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Alex will include basic gardening techniques, yoga, grounding and meditation, camping, plant medicine education, herbal tea and aroma therapy, and learning to eat to live healthier lifestyles as part of his "Deeper Than Dirt" initiative. At first glance, it’ll look like an average farm but once you step foot on the farm, you’ll feel exactly why it’s called “Deeper Than Dirt” because it’s so much more than growing food, were cultivating a better quality of existence. At “Deeper Than Dirt” farm we want to know “What’s Growing on With You” so “Let’s Grow Together”.
What is being grown:
Tomatoes, Oyster Mushrooms, Peppers, Carrots, Spinach, and Beets
1406 E. Green Dr,
High Point, NC