Angelique Taylor and Kip Ritchey founded Smarter By Nature when they realized their neighborhood in Tallahassee, Florida, is considered a food desert.
“There’s no available fresh food within a mile and a half of where we live,” recalls Ritchey. “We wanted to do something about that and grow food for our community. So we decided to turn our passion for growing food and plants into a business in our community.”
Since starting Smarter By Nature back in 2017, the sustainable venture has bloomed into a local hub that serves up a range of produce, as well as offering volunteer opportunities that help people from the nearby community learn how the food and growing process works.
We spoke to Ritchey about the importance of always keeping the community in mind and the benefits of growing marigolds on the farm. We also got into the meditative joys of using European scythes to tend to the land.
The Subtropical Learning Curve
Ritchey says that when he and Taylor began Smarter By Nature, they were faced with two early obstacles to overcome. First, there was the task of securing sufficient space to be able to grow.
“After we got access to space, we had to go through the learning curve of dealing with climate and weather,” says Ritchey. “We live in a subtropical climate, and there’s not a lot of available knowledge for subtropical growing. It’s mostly catered toward temperate climates in the United States, so we had to research a lot to get up to speed.”
Strengthening the Community
Smarter By Nature offers local volunteers firsthand experience on the farm.
“For us, community is highly important because of the nature of our growing style,” explains Ritchey. “We lean less towards large machines and more towards hand tools—and with hand tools, having volunteers helps us out. We also look at it as a cyclical learning experience: People get to learn about the growing process and see the garden and the food process demystified.”
Read more: Community gardening grows healthy bonds as it creates access to produce.
Mastering the Scythe
European scythes are one of the key hand tools that keep Smarter By Nature running sustainably.
“I love them!” says Ritchey of the giant tools. “Using a scythe is a meditation. It’s something where you build your skill as you become more experienced with it. It’s a lot to do with breathing—it’s a great meditation.”
Spotlighting Sword Beans
Vivid pink sword beans made an appearance on Smarter By Nature’s land this year.
“They’re a perennial bean and they grow pretty large,” says Ritchey. “They’re edible when they’re young pods but when they’re older you can save them for seeds. We like them because they fix nitrogen and they’re an aggressive vine that would make a great trellis.”
Read more: Beans are good to grow, and they’re great for your health!
The Power of Marigolds
If you scroll through Smarter By Nature’s social media feeds, you’ll notice that marigolds make a recurring appearance on the farm. Ritchey says that planting marigolds brings numerous benefits to the land.
“Marigolds attract pollinators like butterflies and various types of bees,” he says. “But they also suppress nematodes in your space. Nematodes are responsible for often causing root rot, so being able to suppress them is good.
“Also, deer and rodents don’t really like marigolds. We went big and planted a lot of marigolds, and we noticed they helped suppress the weeds in our growing space, too.”
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