22 MAY 2019
OBSESSIONS
JT: You were exposed to
a community garden at a
young age. How did that
affect you?
GJ: It was like a light
switch; I can’t even
explain it. It was across
the street from my
day care. Before that, I
hadn’t made the con-
nection about how food
gets to the store.
JT: If there was someone
interested in starting
an urban farm in their
community, what’s one
actionable first step they
can do?
GJ: Start doing some-
thing. We started in our
yard, then did some
work at a school garden,
then a community gar-
den, then Fresh Future
Farm. You can’t go
from one to a hundred
without having some
experience. Practice in
the spaces that you have
access to. Learn from
that practice what you
can and cannot do in
your growing zone, and
then expand.
JT: Would you say farm-
ing is constant change?
GJ: I would say yes.
Especially given the
climate issues that are
out of your control.
JT: And what about
storms? How do they
impact your farm, and
how do you prepare for
them?
GJ: Now that we have
the crop tunnel, it’s like
a giant umbrella. The
chicken coop is probably
the most secure thing
on the property—it’s
secured directly in the
ground, and muscadine
grapes hold it all down.
JT: You came to Charles-
ton to go to culinary
school. Does that educa-
tion come in handy?
GJ: Yes! I farm like it’s a
cookbook. I mix tech-
niques like recipes.
A little bit of that with
a little bit of that.
JT: Sustainability is such
a buzzword when it
comes to farming—I’ve
heard you talk about
how recycling and com-
posting are the easy part
and that sustaining staff
and relationships and
finances are the harder
parts. What does sus-
tainability mean to you?
GJ: To me, sustainability
means we have the rev-
enue streams from dif-
ferent areas to be able to
operate the farm. Thirty
percent of what we bring
in right now is revenue.
We’re trying to get that
to 75 percent.
JT: Are there ways some-
one reading this can
support you?
GJ: If it’s financial sup-
port, go to our website
[freshfuturefarm.org/
donate]. But the other
thing is spreading
awareness.
This interview has been
edited and condensed
for clarity.
A RECIPIENT OF THE 2018 John Egerton Prize from the
Southern Foodways Alliance, Germaine Jenkins is the
force behind Fresh Future Farm, a farm and grocery
store in North Charleston, South Carolina. When Jen-
kins first moved there, she found that if her family
wanted food of a certain quality, she had to leave the
neighborhood. In an effort to lift up her community
and provide a necessary resource, she started grow-
ing produce and selling it in her grocery store. Her
approach is one grounded in pragmatism and sus-
tainability. —INTERVIEW BY JULIA TURSHEN, FOUNDER OF
EQUITY AT THE TABLE (EATT) AND AUTHOR OF NOW & AGAIN
Growth Potential How an
urban farmer grew a little
idea into a big one
Germaine
Jenkins
at Fresh
Future
Farm in
North
Charles-
ton, South
Carolina
THE INTERVIEW
PHOTOGRAPHY: BRIDGET BESAW
