The Farm Alliance of Baltimore (FAB) was founded in 2011 to support urban food production by helping city residents grow food where they are to feed themselves and their communities. The organization provides its member growers with peer-to-peer networking, sustainable agriculture training, and on-farm technical assistance, including soil testing and seedling distribution. FAB also offers sales and marketing support by operating and staffing a farmers market stall at one of the city’s busiest year-round farmers markets where product is aggregated from urban farms and all sales are passed directly back to the growers.
Nearly 50 members strong, FAB runs the 6.5 acre Black Butterfly Teaching Farm in the Curtis Bay neighborhood of south Baltimore. An important part of their work to build a healthier, more equitable city food system, the farm is a thriving green space for urban farmer training and organic food production. Led by long-time urban farmer, FAB member and now FAB Executive Director, Denzel Mitchell, this is the first-ever farmer training program aimed at teaching people living in Baltimore's segregated communities how to grow food to feed their own communities. In 2024, the farm harvested an impressive 30,000 lbs of produce to feed families across the city.
We recently caught up with Denzel to learn more about his background and inspiration for this important work.
Michele’s Granola (MG): How long have you been working in food justice?
Denzel Mitchell of Farm Alliance of Baltimore (DM): 30 years
MG: How did you get started in this line of work?
DM: Gardening as a kid with my mom, grandparents and other family members. I spent a lot of time on a large homestead as a kid.
DM: We are a membership organization that provides services, resources, training and opportunities to urban farmers in Baltimore city. We teach, demonstrate and grow food on the Black Butterfly Farm in south Baltimore.
MG: What do you love most about what you do?
DM: Working in the soil.
MG: What single tool or piece of information is indispensable for your job?
DM: My phone
MG: If you could have coffee with any influential person in agriculture, who would you choose?
DM: I could have coffee with any one influential person in agriculture, it would be Dr. George Washington Carver.
MG: What is the most inspirational non-profit food or farm project in the U.S., other than your own?
DM: Soul Fire Farm
MG: What is something special about their neighborhood or city others may not know?
DM: Even though Baltimore is a fairly large city, it feels like a small town. Hence, folks often refer to it as “Smalltimore”
MG: What is your favorite vegetable and how do you like to eat it?
DM: Beets. Any and all types of ways. Roasted and then in some sort of salad. Pickled. Ice cream. Cake. In a risotto.
MG: What is your dream for the future of food?
DM: My dream is that every person on the planet have access and means to any fresh ingredient or food (protein, vegetable, fruit, grain or dairy) of their choice at any time they need AND that food be produced in a way that is not harmful to the overall health of any part of the planet.
We invite you to follow FAB on Instagram for the latest updates on their impact, and join us in supporting their work by donating!
All photos courtesy Farm Alliance of Baltimore.