When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, it wreaked havoc on family routines, work schedules and personal connections, as people complied with stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of the virus.
For Alexys Romo and Analisa Joh, the disruption led them to start reenvisioning a different future. Together, they decided to pursue a dream they shared of “someday” starting an organization to get young people, “particularly teenagers from our own communities [in the San Fernando Valley], back outside and working with the land,” recounted Joh.
“In 2020, we both happened to be working jobs that were lost to the pandemic, and we don’t know what came over us, but we decided that was the perfect time to start a brand-new nonprofit organization,” said Joh, with a laugh. She told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol that their nonprofit idea became Black Thumb Farm, an urban farm and gathering space “dedicated to empowering BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) youth and community members.”
And the name they chose is about empowerment, too, said Joh.
“Typically, in the gardening world, a green thumb means life … and a black thumb means death,” she said. “However, Black and brown folks have been working the land for millennia, and so we wanted to kind of reclaim that. Also … once your hands are in the soil, your hands start turning brown, your hands start turning black, and that’s a beautiful thing. And we really believe in that – folks getting their hands in the soil and working with the land directly.”
Black Thumb leased about 1/20th of an acre at Cottonwood Urban Farm, a shared agricultural space in Panorama City, where they offered hands-on farming and gardening lessons for high school students; community workshops on gardening, nutrition, cooking and yoga; and open farm days to allow volunteers to assist with cultivating and harvesting crops.
Since launching in 2020, Black Thumb has worked with over 500 youth and donated more than 1,200 pounds of produce. Now Romo, who is executive director of Black Thumb, and Joh, who is director of operations with the rest of their small core team are embarking on a major, pivotal change: they’ve pulled up roots at Cottonwood and are starting the process of relocating their operations to a 2.3-acre site in Mission Hills, which will be their new permanent home.
“We’re super excited to be moving in here … to transform this space,” said Romo regarding the empty plot of land they leased at 10702 Sharp Avenue, near the 118 and I-5 freeway interchange.
“Starting around late fall, early winter, we’ll start to see some trees getting planted,” she added. “You’ll start to see … flower fields, full of all kinds of cut flowers – sunflowers, zinnias, dahlias – as well as a market garden, where we [will] grow fruits and vegetables that [will be] affordable and accessible to the neighborhood. … This space will transform rapidly before January.”
In addition to having more space available to grow and harvest flowers and produce for their marketplace, they will also be able to grow more fruits and vegetables for community donations.
“Because our core purpose as an organization is youth education, [at Cottonwood] much of the year we would actually close our garden to just the teenagers in our [programs],” said Joh, explaining that they did so to keep teens separate from adult volunteers, but the limited area they leased didn’t provide enough space to operate both youth and adult programs at the same time.
“This expansion is going to be amazing for the programming we’re going to be able to offer … for the community at large,” said Joh. The new site and increased acreage was made possible thanks to a no-cost, 20-year lease agreement with the City of Los Angeles, the culmination of a five-year effort in partnership with the office of LA City Councilperson Monica Rodriguez, which is assisting with clean-up and will install wrought iron fencing around the perimeter.
At Nuestra Huerta – the city’s name for the lot, which has stood empty for decades – Black Thumb will be the sole lessee for the entire space, allowing them to “maintain a safe learning environment for our teenagers, while maintaining two other fields … to grow food and flowers.”
Once the Mission Hills location is complete, it will have a marketplace farm stand, which will sell items grown in their on-site market garden and cut flower garden; a community gathering space; a greenhouse; a rain catchment; a composting area in partnership with LA Compost; a larger Youth Learning Garden; and the “People’s Garden” for collaborative community farming.
Black Thumb’s collaborative approach differs from typical community gardens, explained Joh. Rather than designating specific plots for individuals, regular volunteers help cultivate across the entire garden, and when the produce is harvested, it’s distributed among the volunteers, and part of it is donated to causes or community groups suggested by volunteers and Black Thumb staff.
As Black Thumb gets off the ground at their new location, they plan to grow all edible foods in raised garden beds until the soil on site can be thoroughly tested. Although they don’t have any specific concerns regarding its safety, Joh said they just want to take extra precautions.
“We’re going to work with some university partners to see how the soil is doing,” she said. “Our hope is to eventually transition to a mix of raised bed and in-ground planting for edible foods.”
Black Thumb will continue to offer free programs for young people from 18 different high schools, including Farm Hands, which introduces youth to gardening and the history of traditional farming practices; and Youth in Bloom, a six-week summer program that provides work experience and mentorship for youth ages 14 to 19. Like the volunteers, participating youth get to take the produce they help grow and harvest home to their families, said Joh.
Black Thumb also works with the California Climate Action Corps, a state program that provides fellows who work with the nonprofit for 11 months to support their locally-focused programs.
“We care very deeply about the valley, about making and offering a space like this for our community,” said Joh. “Folks here have sort of been dismissed under this false impression that the valley’s suburban, so everyone’s fine here. But those of us who live here know it’s very developed and people here need green space, too. That’s why what we do is so important to us.”
“I’m really excited,” said Mary Ann Martinez of San Fernando about Black Thumb’s relocation and growth plans. She used to visit their former site in Panorama City for events and workshops, and is looking forward to seeing their new, larger location. “This is such a nice expansion, to keep the momentum of what they’re already doing, and then be able to offer so much more.”
A community information session about Black Thumb Farm’s new location will be held on Saturday, Sept. 5 at Fox and Laurel Park, 14353 Fox St. in San Fernando at 5:30 p.m. Dates for additional information sessions will be announced in the near future.
For more information, email info@blackthumbfarm.org, visit www.blackthumbfarm.org or visit their Instagram page @black.thumb.farm.