From Urban Roots Farm’s Facebook:
This is hard.
Melissa and Adam have made the very difficult decision to put Urban Roots Farm in fallow at the end of the summer. For 14 years, in various configurations, we have barely made this work. In 2009 Mel and Adam built the farm together (with gobs of help from our community), and worked it side by side for six years. They worked insane hours, and side jobs along the way to keep things afloat, and it was theirs, and they loved it. In 2016, Adam went to work off the farm, and Melissa and Alyssa carried on with the insane hours, and far less pay than they deserved. In 2018, when Melissa and Adam took a job in Arkansas building Red Barn Farm, Alyssa stepped up to run the show, and when she was ready to move on three years later, Kevin and Carsen jumped in.
A lot of variables drove our decision to hit the pause button now rather than later, and we want you all to know that we, Adam, Mel, Kevin, and Carsen are continuing forward into great opportunities in farming.
Mel and Adam are building Turnbuckle Farm, which Mel calls their graduate program, in Bentonville, Arkansas, and Kevin and Carsen have accepted a great opportunity to continue their farming careers.
Rather than thinking of this as an ending, we are looking at it as a rest. We will keep the property that houses the farm, give the soil some much needed cover-cropping love, and wait for clarity in what comes next for this place we love so much.
For now, Adam’s brother Curtis (Millsap Farm), is going to support the CSA and on-site farmstand.
The farm has been an enormous part of our identities for the last 14 years. We love our customers, the community which has grown around the farm, and being farmers. We continue to be incredibly grateful to our community for the support you have given over the years. Some of you have been part of the farm community for nearly as long as we’ve been farmers. Others of you have only just joined, but all of you are the reason it lasted this long.
Please stay tuned as we continue this journey, and please continue to support small farms