The organization is making great strides in its mission to create a food sovereign Detroit, while harvesting community spirit and new income sources for Detroiters. As we prepare for Thanksgiving, it’s a great time to check back with Keep Growing Detroit, an urban gardening organization I first reported on back in May. Keep Growing Detroit was established this year as […]

#SaveMI, #SaveHamtownFarms Photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog Late last month, I wrote about the amazing Hamtown Farms urban farm in Hamtramck, Michigan. The farm sits on city land that had been vacant for decades. Now that the city is legally able to begin selling off their empty lots, Cathy Square, the Emergency Manager in Hamtramck has swept […]

Sometimes what’s best for a city doesn’t have a price tag on it

Back 2011, Michael Davis, Julie Swartz, Evan Major, and Jeffrey Doe formed a vision for an urban farm and community garden on group of five city-owned lots in Hamtramck, Michigan that had sat abandoned for thirty years. The lots were unable to be sold due to pending litigation so they approached Mayor Karen Majewski. Later that year, they were issued a permit under the city’s Adopt-A-Lot program to use the lots for a period of five years. Over the next two years, they transformed the lots into a farm with garden plots and fruit trees, including an almost unheard of fruit called the Paw-Paw which was originally native to Michigan.

Then, in June of this year, came the Emergency Manager. It’s Hamtramck’s second EM and, when Cathy Square, entered the picture, the future of the project became uncertain.

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It’s growing stronger communities, one garden at a time. Spring is finally springing in Michigan, more or less. But at Keep Growing Detroit, gardening season is well underway. You could call Keep Growing Detroit an urban gardening and farming project, but it’s much more than that. Established in 2013 as an offshoot of The Greening of Detroit, Keep Growing Detroit’s […]