61. The Fundraiser
As you probably know, GVH is moving our headquarters across town to Lick Run as we farm our way through the 2022 season. We’re putting the wings on the plane as it flies, so to speak. And moving always sucks; moving a farm is knotty and complicated and it can be difficult to know what steps ought to be taken in what order.
We’re already farming at Lick Run on a small scale. Going forward we’re investing in infrastructure and land improvements to make the work more effective and efficient. But securing the long term future on this land is ongoing work: we need to raise the money to pay for it. At my last check, we need to raise $241,411 to be exact, and the logical next question is, “What will that money be spent on?” My short answer to that is it will secure the legacy of this ground to be forever promised for food production for this community. Yes, it secures GVH’s tenure on this land for as long as we should want to be there. But the more compelling and enduring aspects of the project involve the reframing of the land ownership dynamic that poses so many challenges to young and beginning farmers everywhere. This 3.5 acre plot of land is never to be bought or sold again; it is forever devoted for the purpose of food production for this community. Being the first farmer on this land in Commons ownership, GVH will be issued a non-extractive, affordable, equitable lease that runs for 99 years. That kind of lasting change costs more money than it ought to.
The tangible investments we’ll be making are numerous. The existing building at Lick Run is the original farmhouse, erected in 1898. It’s bright and cheerful on the outside and it has great bones, but the entire inside needs to be put back together. Our hope is for the farmhouse to have many uses: vegetable washing, farm office, demonstration kitchen, and an expansive front room geared toward flexibly serving the community in whatever way we can. We envision permaculture courses, yoga classes, neighborhood meetings and so much more being hosted here. I’ve been leading contractors through the house for months collecting bids for the myriad work, and I hope we’re wrapping up the rebuild around the end of this year.
Much of the western half of the property will spend this year under cover crops and tarps; holding and building soil for future vegetable gardens. As such, we can have the necessary deer fencing constructed over this growing season without risking much in the way of edible assets. As 2022 rolls on, we plan to program much of the hilly, shaded, or otherwise marginal bits of the plot into edible perennials. I want to install a big blackberry and raspberry patch and select a few tree fruit varieties that are suitable for seasonal u-pick! We have some existing hardware to construct covered growing areas to extend our vegetable season, but the long-term play is to construct a 100’ high tunnel: something I’ve been dreaming of since season one, but been unable to implement because of the distributed nature of the GVH farm network.
A large portion of the money the Agrarian Commons raises will be paid to the previous owner of the property who has stewarded this land and soil for over a decade with almost no compensation. Farmers are all-too-often forced to sell their land to the highest bidder to be able to retire from farming. The highest bidder, especially in an urban context, is usually a property developer with lucrative plans to create condominiums or an office park. In rural areas, that buyer could be a well-resourced industrial scale farm producing commodity corn and soy. Yes, cornmeal and housing are important. But the amount of farmland with lively, organically managed soils is dwindling by the day and it’s the Commons’ mission to preserve as many of these remaining oases as possible. So paying a retiring farmer at least a portion of what they could garner by selling the land on the open market is part of a strategy to allow land stewards to leave the farm with dignity while still preserving the farm’s legacy into the future.
Raising money on this scale is obviously a numbers game. Yes, we want to see the numbers tick up by the day. But it’s arguably more important that this campaign simply be seen by as many people as possible. Sharing this fundraiser with your network can quickly have an exponential effect and with as much silliness that goes viral on the web these days, this seems like a truly worthy cause to try to spread far and wide. So I’m asking that you please donate to our fundraiser so that we can secure the legacy of this urban farm in Roanoke. But after you donate, and even if you cannot afford to donate, the most powerful tool you have here is the share button. I hope you’ll push that share button over and over again until your friends and followers are mildly annoyed. Thanks so much for being on this local food journey with us; it’s truly a pleasure to be serving the community one head of lettuce at a time!