Written by Rose Jennings; Edited by Ann-Kristin, Jörg Lüling and Patrick Baur

So much more than soup! Care to venture a guess on who procured this pot of gold? No, it wasn’t the researchers that cut the “schnibble” (vegetable bits) and that laughed around the fire as we put it all into a cast-iron pot. Nor was it the garden manager who energetically jumped in to grind the peppercorn over the boiling harvest. Who loves this farm like it is his home. Who helped bring this industrial waste site to its present day glory. Nor the neighbors who come by to pick up their weekly Marktschwärmer and get some free lunch and conversation while they are at it. No, not really any of these individuals are solely responsible for bringing this delicious soup to reality, but all played an important part. 

Those unmentioned who should receive a big share of attribution for making this soup are the women who, often after being unemployed for a long time, sought out part-time work through the labor department and found a unique position with Gärtnerei GrünFrau (Green Woman Nursery). These women from whom the farm derives its name, put their labor and love into growing the food in this soup. Many of these women “didn’t know anything about gardening when they first started working here,” says Jörg Lüling, the nursery manager. Most of them live in densely-built urban apartments—the kind where there are no balconies and you see laundry hanging out the window to dry—and don’t have a lot of access to nature around their homes.. In addition to the small income they receive from the farm that is matched by the labor department, the women receive German citizen benefits, and get to take home produce to their family. 

Gärtnerei GrünFrau serves as a place where social capital is built, a peaceful place where women can connect with others in similar situations – seeking part-time work with an irregular schedule and children at home. It’s also a place where people might meet from very different backgrounds, including refugees who have participated in the program. The women learn how to grow their own fruits, vegetables and herbs from seed to harvest there. They bring home fresh produce to their households, exchanging recipe ideas with the knowledge of how to use produce that they may never have seen before in their home countries. Most of them want to stay past the initial contract of 6 months, and many stay the maximum allowable time of 3 years. Jörg mentions that many of them feel like an important part of the community working on the farm, where they feel community around them, support and a sense of purpose. The farm relies on them and they rely on the farm. For the farm, operating on a shoestring budget while supplying the community with access to fresh food and bringing educational food systems programming to children and community members, the women are their lifeline to survival. “We couldn’t make it without this programming,” says Jörg.

I had the opportunity to visit this farm last October through the JUST GROW project, a Belmont Forum funded project where we are looking into equitable governance processes in urban agriculture. They had just had their first frost and the air was cool and crisp, but the afternoon sunshine still warmed our faces. Jörg and his farming partner Carina were closing out their workday, having just received a group of kids in the neighborhood for a weekly farming class, yet he jumped right into an energetic and thorough tour of the farm with a rundown of its history. Afterwards, I sat on a stump in part of a circle of wood stumps in the middle of the farm, where Jörg and farm members would sometimes have a fire at night and play music. Right next to the borage (or starflower) and buzzing flower bed, I took a deep inhale and forgot about my jetlag. The air smelled sweet and fresh—hard to imagine that this used to be an industrial site. I snacked on a mildly tart and delicious yellow cherry tomato called Sun Viva, grown from a participant of a seed saving project across Germany and the first open-source tomato variety in the country. I went around with two of our Dortmund hub’s researchers, Ann-Kristin and Annika, to harvest and cut the vegetables that went into the soup, in a beautiful kitchen and gathering space, constructed from a shipping container by philanthropic architects. Then, that first bite of soup after we sat around the fire watching it cook –  it was hands down the best soup I’d ever had. It met all of Michael Pollan’s criteria: Only a few ingredients (root vegetables, salt, pepper, water), which your grandmother would definitely recognize. Maybe it tasted so good because of all the wonderful things I heard about the history and people on this farm. 

In addition to providing extra money for lower-income women, this farm benefits the community by providing a beautiful “third space” for gathering, a volunteer space for youth and education about growing and preparing food, and a seed saving site, just to name a few in a long list of benefits.

Yet, Jörg is concerned about the farm’s long-term prospects, particularly in light of uncertain funding. He doesn’t know how long this government program will last, or whether they can hold onto this land or if urban sprawl will claim it. Some policies benefit GrünFrau, while others may harm its existence. Those responsible for these policies don’t necessarily talk with one another, let alone the many women and other practitioners who have cultivated GrünFrau. There is no way for decision-makers and funders to “see” the many layered, often non-monetary benefits the farm brings. GrünFrau’s situation underscores the need for just governance structures in urban agriculture, to identify what needs to be measured to show how these projects are impact real people and to ensure that they are sustainable.

Jörg is a member of the Food Policy Council in Dortmund and collaborates with other projects across the region to advocate for local and sustainable food systems. One similarity of the 6 diverse city region food systems we are researching in the JUST GROW project, is that despite a growing urban agriculture network, there is no system in place to turn to to ensure that the growth of the UA landscape will emerge equitably or sustainably.

A part of my visit was attending a community workshop to refine what indicators are most important to telling the true story of equity in food security. Jörg was in attendance along with 7 other food system practitioners in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area. A woman who had worked in the school cafeterias for many years was there, other urban farmers, individuals in the food policy council and city staff. People had a chance to talk in smaller groups and give feedback on the research that had already been done. All agreed that this work was important and should be continued. More workshops will be co-designed with practitioners in the coming year to identify ways of measuring these indicators in a collaborative and inclusive manner. 

Several months later, I had the chance to see Jörg again at a symposium for practitioners across our research hubs. There was a common appreciation of getting to connect with other people running urban farm projects and on food policy councils, of the struggles and opportunities in constructing more just city region food systems. Many people came into this work from a concern for the environment and the climate, and the desire to feed more people in sustainable and regenerative ways. I also felt a mutual understanding and an appreciation for new ideas and thoughts to carry forward in their home sites. One participant who ran a similar multi-functional educational project in Trondheim, Norway, expressed his heartfelt gratitude that there were so many researchers that truly cared about his work.

A plan to continue these conversations and develop a platform to share findings across research hubs in a way that is accessible to practitioners is in the works. This will also be an opportunity for practitioners to share their own wisdom in where the heart of justice lies in urban agriculture, and collectively find the solutions to lingering questions.

It is nice to be engaged in research that is creating meaningful spaces for hopeful, solution-oriented collaboration. My hope is that everyone across the world gets to taste this soup that we ate on the farm that crisp autumn day – a soup made of beautiful vegetables that are contributing to livelihoods, food security, cleaning city air and regenerating the soil, connecting and celebrating the diversity of cultures.