- Just ahead on "Black Issues Forum, get ready to dig deep into the roots of gardening and agriculture within the Black community.

In a world where dirt holds secrets and trauma, we're learning that with every seed planted a story blossoms.

We'll meet entrepreneurs who have dusted off their gardening gloves and are cultivating a new narrative.

Coming up next, stay with us.

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[uptempo music] ♪ - Welcome to "Black Issues Forum," I'm Kenia Thompson.

Throughout history, Black people have had deep connections to gardening and agriculture, often stemming from forced labor, as we're well aware, and cultural traditions as well.

Today, we find that many Black communities are renewing that connection and creating fresh perspectives on gardening and a new relationship with the land.

We'll get to meet one young woman who stepped into the world of greenery by creating a unique plant shop experience right in the heart of downtown Durham, but first, we sit down with husband and wife duo Immanuel and Valarie Jarvis.

Immanuel is a former sales manager, webmaster, and social media developer, and Valarie is a third generation tobacco farmer, registered nurse, and corporate nurse consultant.

Together, they are the co-founders of Jireh Family Farm in Durham, North Carolina.

Welcome to the show.

- Thank you so much for havin' us, appreciate it.

- Of course.

I haven't had the chance to come out to the farm yet, but I've seen and heard wonderful things about it.

I'd love for you, Valarie, to start with, what was your why?

Why did you guys want to start this?

- Yeah, I can start with that question.

I, like you said, I'm a third generation tobacco farmer, so I grew up in a very rural area in Virginia.

And like most young folks who grew up in farming, their parents encouraged them to get a college degree and to head out and do something different, and so I went to nursing school and then headed to the big city of Durham, North Carolina, which some might say that's not so big, but for me, it's a really big city.

Headed into my nursing career, and then, about 10 years into that, my brother got diagnosed with colon cancer.

And so in our interactions, he started having discussions and started studyin' food, 'cause he wanted to find that rationale of why or what caused his cancer.

And as a result of that, he would send me research related to food, and the more he would teach me, the more I would research and begin to learn on my own.

And he went to a very clean, healthy diet.

The cancer went away, and he was well for a while.

Went back to work, life got busy, and then it's back to quick food, less quality of a food.

The cancer returned, and he did not survive at that time.

- I'm sorry to hear that.

- Thank you.

And so at that point, I really began to focus on food and what has happened to the quality of our food, how is it different?

I did recognize that the food that we grew as a child, I noticed that it did taste different and it was a different quality, but I didn't really research or probably even care at that point until this time.

And so at this point, we began to research and to go into that, and so when we decided, when my brother passed, I decided that I wanted to have a clean source of meat that didn't have the chemicals and the preservatives.

And as we looked around our local community, we saw where we could find vegetables, we saw fruits, we saw organic, kind of leafy greens, but we didn't find meat opportunities.

And so as a result, we decided that we wanted to be a meat producer and to grow our own livestock for the purpose of having a clean source of meat.

- So basically she said to me, she says, "Either we could grow our own or we can go vegan."

And I said, "There's no way in the world I'm goin' vegan, "so I guess, we're growin' our own."

So I mean, we were able to have a small acreage, about four acres that we purchased, and we did a whole home extreme home makeover on it.

Everything you could imagine, gut job, the whole thing, from roof all the way down to the basement, and underneath, cleared out land.

So, it was a huge project, and it took probably about five to six years to really be able to get to where we want it to be.

And there's still things that we wanna do.

But that was really the impetus to say, "All right, well we have land now.

"We have a little bit of land that we could work with.

"Let's start with chickens."

Because they always say that chicken eggs are the gateway drug into farming.

It just kinda gets you right in.

It's the easiest thing to do.

Everybody eats eggs for the most part, and so we just really wanted to have it for ourself.

And then from there, it went to pigs, and then went from pigs it went to meat chicken, and we literally had to learn how to raise meat chicken on YouTube.

- [Kenia] Oh wow.

- We just watched like, "Oh, that's how you do it, "okay, let's order 'em."

And we ordered them, we went through the process, and we processed 'em for the first time.

And here we are, and our demand, what happened is friends and family would say, "Hey, could I have some of that, are you selling it?"

And I said, "Well, maybe I can offset my cost "by selling enough to make our food free."

That was an entrepreneurial mindset, but you know what happens.

- Well, you make it sound so easy.

I think you made a great point.

Your parents said, "Go to school, right, "let's leave this behind."

But we've left so much of that agriculture and land connection behind.

What has that done to our community, and do you see people now coming back into this space more?

- Yeah, it's just not in the Black community, but I think America in general, we've outsourced our food.

We've outsourced our food to major conglomerates, where their first responsibility is not to produce healthy quality food, it's to satisfy their quarterly shareholders.

Now when I say that, I'm not trying to knock 'em, that's what businesses are supposed to do.

And the larger the business, you have more people that are depending on a return on their investment.

The problem is is that when we deal with, we can deal with that with cars, we can do at clothes, we can deal with a lot of products, but when we work with food, and because of that insatiable desire to make sure that the shareholders are seeing return quarterly, sadly we start making shortcuts on the quality, the selection, and the nutrition of our food, and sadly, Americans suffer.

- Yeah, it's impacting us unfortunately.

Your brother suffered from that impact.

So that brings me to the question of transitioning from sustenance farming to what we see today.

Is there still a need for sustenance farming?

I'm guessing the answer's definitely yes, but we're transitioning more into having farming almost look like a luxury.

I've seen that a lot.

- It shouldn't be, but it does give that perspective.

But we all know, every prior who's watching this program has a grandmother or a grandfather or multiple, they remember being on the farm.

They remember their parents out there collecting corn and shucking peas and hanging the meat in the smoke house and cutting some off for breakfast and had that salted ham.

We remember that stuff going back in the summers, what have you, that wasn't a luxury.

That was because that was called self-reliance.

And so when we have taken that and given that off to someone else that we don't have it, now we are dependent.

The average American is dependent on their Wegmans, their Harris Teeter, their Food Lion, and if Food Lion, Harris Teeter and Wegmans doesn't have it, they don't get it.

And there's certain things, that in order to make sure that our families are safe and secure, everyone, we believe, should have a small garden.

I don't care if your garden is as big as your kitchen table, everyone should grow food, and it's as simple supply and demand.

If everyone in Durham had a little garden and grew tomatoes, everyone, let's say it was mandated.

Everyone must grow tomatoes.

How much would tomatoes be in the grocery store?

- That's what I was just gonna talk about is the cost.

So share with us what that would do to the cost of food.

- I would say that with inflation and the cost of living increases, increasing almost all over the country right now, it would reduce that burden of our food cost, or that food bill.

And most folks would remember that when you grow food, you usually have an abundance of whatever crop you're growing, even in your backyard, so I remember you would grow your tomatoes and then you would share that with your neighbor.

And so one of the things that we sometimes talk about in classes is find partners and neighbors around you and choose cucumbers or tomatoes or whatever crop that you really like to have, it might be peppers, and then have maybe three families and you, one gross tomato and then you trade.

So when that crop comes, you reduce your cost of at least that particular item from not having to buy it from the grocery store.

And our parents knew how to can and save that for the winter, so there are ways to preserve our food so that we can have that reduced cost year round.

- We're seeing kind of a resurgence of people gardening now and I think a lot of that gateway into gardening is plant care and being a plant parent.

We have this opportunity to visit a local store.

You know, growing up, I always thought that plants and gardening were for the more mature crowd, but there is one millennial that has proven that being a plant lover can be cool and trendy.

- Hi, everyone, I'm Deborah Holt Noel for Black Issues Forum and today I am downtown Durham, getting ready to meet Megan George Cain, the owner of Zen Succulent.

We're gonna find out a little bit about plant life, how it affects communities, and maybe a few other things.

Come with me.

[upbeat jazzy music] - How are you?

- Hello, how are you?

Are you Megan?

- Yes, I am.

- Nice to meet you, I'm Deborah.

- [Megan] Nice to meet you, Deborah.

- I was heading over here.

I was thinking about how plants have impacted my own life and I was remembering back to 9th grade when I had my plant science class, and I was inspired to do it because my sister took plant science and I loved that class.

Just going into the greenhouse was kind of like this peace and I learned how to repot things and just a real appreciation and how simple it can be once you learn the essentials.

- I mean, it really is.

Like my journey with plants started from my mother.

My mother and father grew up in rural South Carolina/North Carolina, and they were used to so much greenery outdoors.

When they moved to the big city of Raleigh- - Yeah, big Raleigh.

- Yes, big Raleigh, they brought all their indoor plants, or plants indoor into their own environment, and so I grew up with over 70 house plants thinking that that was just a normal thing.

Little did I know my parents were really teaching me something with caring for those plants.

They were teaching me to care for something other than myself, and that journey continued on after college into The Zen Succulent.

- I love that.

So how would you describe Zen Succulent?

What's here?

- [Megan] Yeah, how would you describe Zen Succulent is the place where you come and learn about low-maintenance greenery, a community, a space that is made by a local girl and meant for the local community.

You will find here a variety of different local artists, as well as regional artists, that make a variety of different goods, but you'll also see what we make, terrariums, our DIY terrarium bar where you can make your own terrarium with our help.

You'll also find a variety of different low-maintenance greenery too.

So that's what I would define as Zen Succulents as, a local piece of something good in a green landscape.

- We don't often see ourselves pictured in the gardening book.

- We don't.

- Why is that?

- [Megan] Yeah, that's a tough thing.

It is something where a lot of us grew up in those real rural families, grew up in rural areas.

- [Deborah] Right, it's part of our roots.

- It's part of our roots, and having our hand in soil is not something that's uncommon.

So, so many of us have been linked to a past that involves trauma around greenery, involves trauma around being outdoors and enjoying yourself outdoors.

So as a black woman with black children, I really am so thrilled that they are seeing mom in a space of greenery, bringing joy in that type of way.

It is something that I have people of all races and ethnicities coming to the store and excited to learn about something that they might not have had a link to, or have wanted to have a link to.

- I remember my very first science project was growing a terrarium and I was so proud of that.

- Lovely.

- I never forgot.

- Yes.

- So tell me about your terrarium bar.

- Yes, so our DIY terrarium bar is something that we are the first ones in North Carolina to ever have one.

Yeah.

- I love that.

- [Megan] Yeah, so our DIY terrarium bar, you can come in and pick from our selection of glassware that we have and we will help you make a terrarium.

Now, what makes a terrarium a terrarium?

It's the variety of different layers that I can't wait to show you.

- [Deborah] So here we have the terrarium bar.

- Yes.

- How does this work?

- Yes, it works where you pick out a glassware.

I have this lovely globe glassware here for us to make with here today.

- That's pretty.

- Yeah, so what we'll be doing is adding in those essential layers that make a terrarium a terrarium.

So let's first start off by maybe adding a scoop of our sand that we have right here, and then follow by a scoop of our rocks and I'll help with the rocks.

So one more.

- Hope I didn't get too much.

- No, you are absolutely right.

The idea of making a terrarium is that we want the plant to start off at our halfway point where the bowl's largest.

- And this is the draining.

At least know that, right?

- Yeah.

- This provides for that drainage.

- So this helps with our drainage purposes.

So what I'm gonna do next is help by adding in a little bit of rock.

These rocks do the same purpose.

You might think like, why do I have both in there?

It's because it makes it look a little prettier from the side.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- You have to have the aesthetic.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, that's gonna be very pretty.

I love it.

- So the next layer that we're gonna be doing is adding in some of our cactus citrus mix.

You notice all of these white specks that are inside?

- Perlite.

- You're right!

Ding ding!

- Mr. Maslow would be proud.

- Yes!

So that helps it become faster draining for us here today.

Well, I picked out some succulent from our succulent wall here, and the best way to plant these are just simply to take them outta their container gently from the side.

And then you see how a lot of these roots are kind of a little bit more barefooted.

- Yeah.

- That is what we want to do.

This makes it easier to plant into our side.

Also something about this plant that you'll notice is that the soil is more chalky.

That means that soil is dry.

Plants love for our succulents, they love drier soil.

- Oh, I didn't know that.

And the finishing touch, now what is this again?

- Yeah, so that's reindeer moss.

It's non-living, easy to care for because there's no care required.

- And what is this?

- Yeah, that's a lava stone.

So it adds a little bit more structure and texture to our design, keeping it natural and organic and finishing off our living arrangement.

- That's pretty, I like that.

It's like a little village inside of a bowl.

- Yeah, you did a great job.

- Thank you.

Thanks for directing me on this.

And you can have one too.

- Yeah.

- Now you are located here in downtown Durham.

I would imagine that the real estate is prime business real estate, but here you are thriving.

How difficult was it for you to secure this property and to open up a business?

- Yeah, so I started my business in 2011, and it was a virtual business where we had everything throughout.

Once my community grew and I did different fairs and drying, I actually opened up my first location on Pear street in 2016.

Black Wall Street, not too far from us.

Now with that being said, since 2016 to now, Durham has changed quite a bit.

We have high rises where there used to be fields, we have all of these great people coming and contributing to our city, but sometimes that leaves the little guys such as myself behind.

The city of Durham has been extremely supportive in the growth of not only my small business, but a lot of other small businesses in the area.

It's so fortunate that we're able to have support with marketing team, with press releases that are helped by the city in providing us that opportunity.

Also, our landlord in this gorgeous space is self-help, and we really live up to their needs.

They have helped our business grow, and thrive, and move from a different location in downtown into this beautiful central space, and provided us enough leeway so that we can grow our business into what is now and what will be in the future.

Well, I'm excited to hear that this has been a friendly industry.

- Super.

- And that you're thriving, so congratulations.

- Thank you so much for joining us here today.

- It was such a great piece.

Debra enjoyed her time.

Clearly you could tell she had a wonderful time with Megan there, downtown Durham.

During that piece, you were talking about the connection with planting and herb, herbal plants.

Share with us some of that connection there.

- So, naturally, as I have entered, I'm a nurse by trade, and as my brother passed with colon cancer, I naturally began to look at herbs and so when I saw that segment there, and I'm thinking about the herbs and the plants, and the ability to touch the soil, there's so much health and wellness in touching the earth and having plants enter your body, and to have those plants do the purpose of why they were created by God.

And different plants have the ability to touch and heal different areas of our bodies.

- I love that.

It's so true.

You step outside and you feel the sun.

You know, they say to connect with the earth, just take your shoes off and plant your feet in the ground.

There's such a grounding that happens there.

- Literally, spiritually, and emotionally, all three.

- Yeah, talk about some of the misconceptions about farming and gardening.

- Oh, one of them is that you need a lot of room.

You need a lot of space.

A lot of people says, oh, I'd love to be able to get some property one day and have a farm.

Ah, wait, back up.

Do you have a backyard?

Do you have a front yard?

Guess what?

You can grow.

If you're waiting to be gifted 20 acres somewhere to be able to start farming, that's not how it's gonna work.

Even, believe it or not, before we even purchased the home that we're at right now, we're living in a beautiful neighborhood and all the mailboxes look the same, but on the side of the house, we had a little 10 by 10 little garden that we grew.

Grew tomatoes and different things like that.

Not knowing what we wanted to do.

It's not like we're saying, oh, we're gonna try this and hopefully we can grow something bigger.

We just wanted to be able to have some control of what was putting into our body.

Also, it's a very when you say grounding, it does ground you.

When you see that you start with a little plant that you may get from a grocery store or hardware store and you put that in the ground, and four months later the roots and the stalk is so thick and so vibrant, you're seeing the fruit and the vegetables come out of it.

It's amazing.

It's even more amazing when you start from seed.

When you have one little okra seed in your hand and you're looking at the okra seed, and I've told kids at our summer camp that we have, I said, "How many okra are in here?"

And they said, "I don't know. "

This is infinite.

And there's this phrase that we sometimes use, and sometimes people think it's offensive.

But if you really think about it, it's a truth.

It's called food is free.

Food is- - Find that offensive?

- Some people do because you're like, "Wait, how can you say that there's so many people around the world that are not eating?"

- Makes sense.

- "Even in this country, our soil is so fertile.

But why are people going to bed hungry?"

Well, we've made choices to outsource our food away from us.

And now when it doesn't come back to us because we don't have the money to buy it back, now our kids go to bed hungry.

But if we reverse that, back in the fifties and the sixties, everybody had a victory garden.

It was a way to say, "Hey, as Americans, we are bonding together to take control over our food system.

We'll share with those who do not have, we'll have enough.

We'll can, and we'll make sure that we're able to take care of our own families."

And that's something that's very powerful.

And it also, as my wife said, it spurs generosity that you've never seen before.

- Right.

- You have people come up to you, "Do you want some jalapenos?

I have a whole, I can't, please, please take them," right?

- Yes, yes.

- Just imagine if everyone was doing that.

- We wouldn't have many of the issues that we have today.

- Exactly.

- When we think about food security and wellness, I also go to mental health wellness.

Share with us how you've seen this space heal trauma and connect people in a way to evolve some of that mental health impact that life has on us.

- I'll give you an example first, if that's okay, and then you can go ahead.

So we have a summer camp, Jireh Family Farm Camp, and so we have kids from 5-years-old at 12-years-old come during the week, no screens, no TVs, outside the entire time.

And yes, it's June, it's July.

"Like wait a minute, it's gonna be hot."

"Yeah, it's gonna be hot, and you'll adjust."

And what we've noticed is that on the Monday, kids come and you can tell the ones that have been inside the entire time, they're struggling at 10:30, been there an hour-and-a-half, "I'm hot, I just wanna go.

I'm tired."

But by Wednesday you can actually see a change that happens in their mind, in their body.

And all of a sudden it's 95 degrees.

These kids are just running all over the place.

We're the ones trying to stay in the shade and they're just living life.

And we are seeing the transformation of a child just because they're getting more vitamin D that they've ever gotten all year long.

They're touching the ground, they're swimming, they have their hands in the dirt, they're gardening, they collecting eggs.

- They're living life.

They're in it.

- They're chasing after chickens.

They're petting the goats, they're feeding the rabbits, and they just come alive.

There's no such thing as ADD when you're out there.

No such thing, you know why?

Because they're able just to be free and be kids.

- Right.

Yeah, I wanna bring in that mental health aspect.

- Yeah.

So, I would just piggyback on something, two things you guys said.

You mentioned grounding.

And so our bodies are made of electrical charges.

And so our cells can open up and be free when we do touch the earth and ground, whether that's with our hands in the soil or with our bare feet.

And then when we have kids or even ourselves outside and we're breathing fresh air, breathing brings stress relief.

If you take those deep breaths, it cleans out toxins.

So there's numerous ways of just being outside that helps our own mental health.

When I think of kids, I think of the creativity, even touching and creating her masterpiece that she created there.

There was creativity in that.

So it brings out that creativity that God gave us.

We're all unique and we have the ability to create, imaginable things that sometimes are hidden because we are in a box and we don't have the ability to do that.

And so I think of mental health, not only the anxiety and the different disorders, but even just the stress relief of being outside, the quiet, the birds interacting with just nature in itself.

And then when we begin to eat what we've grown, then we're also healing our bodies.

- Yeah, about a minute left in the show.

- Okay.

- We know that farming, the future of farming can be successful.

You see the proof here with others locally that have been creating space.

If someone doesn't necessarily wanna buy a farm.

- Right.

- But they wanna start, how do they start?

What's the most cost effective way?

About a minute left.

- Yeah, start with your own backyard.

And if you don't have a backyard, start with your porch.

And if you don't have a porch, start with your balcony.

If you don't have a balcony, start with your window sill 'cause everybody has a window sill, right?

- Yeah, yeah.

- So start with that.

Even if it say, okay, I'm going to, as simple as you can get a bag of the manure, black cow manure, you pop a hole in the top, stick your tomato plant directly in it, that is your pot.

- Mm.

- just water it.

It keeps the moisture there.

And you gonna get the biggest tomatoes that you've ever seen in your life.

So simple things, but taking that initiative will spur you on to do other things.

- Wonderful.

Well, Emmanuel and Valerie Jarvis, thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- I can't wait to come out to the farm and see firsthand what you guys do every day.

- Thanks for having us.

- Thank you so much.

- Thanks.

And we thank you for watching.

If you want more content like this, we invite you to engage with us on Instagram using the #blackissuesforum.

You can also find our full episode on pbsnc.org/blackissuesforum.

And on the PBS video app.

I'm Kenya Thompson.

I'll see you next time.

[uptempo music] ♪ ♪ - [Commentator] Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting PBS NC.