Let’s take a stroll back to the good ole days when grandma told you to go outside and fetch a few eggs from the henhouse, harvest a few apples from the orchard, and go down the street to the dairy farmer’s to get some fresh milk and butter. Ahhh, you can almost smell the fresh country air and apple pie! Now, fast forward to the busy city life, appointments all day, traffic, and endless screen time. Humanity sure has taken a shift these past few decades, and not necessarily all for the better. So, what can we control in this computer age, you may ask? If you ask local entrepreneur Stephen Lucke, he’ll say our food is a good start. “Whether it be breakfast, lunch, or dinner, here in SA, we can grow something to eat 365 days a year. Even in the extreme summer heat, you can grow tasty okra, peppers, and southern peas!” he gleams with pride. Lucke sees an urban agriculture renaissance happening in the Alamo City, and he’s on a mission to see every man, woman, and child growing food to live healthy and sustainably! “Only the past four generations missed out on this knowledge; we’ve been duped from the Boomers to Gen Z. Food science, fast food, and GMOs pretty much created the Standard American Diet that many of us consume today…which has led to a public health epidemic for obesity and diabetes. Cardiovascular disease is still the #1 killer in America, and much of it can be prevented through a healthy diet; these are preventable diseases which burden our healthcare system.”
On the bright side, we can all start small at home to contribute to our own health and the health of our community. Creating (or sprucing up) a home garden is a great way to stay healthy, sustainable, and have fun connecting with your food! You can start by establishing fruit trees, berries, or grapes in your yard. When the weather begins to cool, add some raised garden beds to serve as a home for your rotation of crops and produce year-round. Another idea is adding a compost pile to your home. Not sure where to start? The experts at Gardopia are here to help!
Lucke’s solution stems from Hippocrates’ quote, “Let food be thy medicine.” in 2015, with the help of a couple of college friends, he founded the local non-profit Gardopia Gardens. While studying biochemistry and nutrition in college, Lucke became aware of how the food system was destroying America’s health. He believed it was largely a lack of food literacy that was impacting our food choices, coupled with inner-city food deserts. Gardopia focuses on educational and community gardens, teaching people how they can grow healthier choices. From schools to churches, community centers to daycares, anywhere people gather, you’re liable to see a Gardopia Garden! In 9 years, Gardopia has worked with over 8 school districts, including SAISD, AHISD, South San, Southside, Edgewood, NEISD, HISD, SWISD, and more! Gardopia currently supports over 50 partner garden sites, providing educational programming, infrastructure optimization, farmers’ markets, and volunteer opportunities. Gardopia also operates a ½ acre micro-farm near Eastside by the Frost Center. This site was formerly one of the most violent intersections in the city and is now a green oasis in the urban core. For 9 years, Lucke has been fervently growing this mission throughout some of the cities most impoverished regions.
About five years into his work with Gardopia the pandemic hit, and the world stopped, except Lucke’s phone began blowing up from local residents wanting to get their hands dirty, at which time the COVID Gardener was born! “There was a huge uptick in traffic. We must’ve built 100 home gardens in people’s homes that spring! I couldn’t believe it; it was sort of a silver lining during the pandemic. People were home and wanted to connect with nature, coupled with a few food scares. People started to realize the global food supply chain was more fragile than we’d like to believe.” Once Lucke saw this huge demand for residential gardens and commercial edible landscaping, he started a worker-owned cooperative. The Landscape Cooperative (TLC), founded in 2021, TLC is an opportunity to empower employees, creating wealth for the company and the vested partners at the same time. As a young teen working for corporate America, he always thought a majority of employees would work harder if they saw a share of the profits. Hence, the cooperative model made that possible in a democratic approach. The Landscape Cooperative niche market is building edible and pollinator gardens for residences and restaurants. “We believe every family and every chef should have access to fresh produce. We just don’t cook like we used to, and part of this is having fresh ingredients that are straight off the vine. Have you ever harvested a fig or tomato mid-summer? Man, that thang tastes like heaven!”
If you wonder how Lucke manages to achieve all this homegrown goodness, he’ll attribute it to his team and a little bit of luck! “First and foremost, my supporting cast is AMAZING! We have a combined 50+ years of urban agriculture knowledge, coupled with close to 30 years of experience in the educational field.” Couple that with their diverse background and youthfulness, the team has created a real buzz around growing food in every grass patch available. There’s no reason figs, pomegranates, grapes, and blackberries aren’t growing wild everywhere… for Pete’s sake, why aren’t pecans planted in every new subdivision house? It just makes sense for people and the planet. We can produce food, create ecosystem services, and improve our overall quality of life. Seems like a win-win! When Lucke travels to so-called international cities, he senses a culture of health, mainly because of environmental factors like water, mountains, and parks. Here in San Antonio, we don’t have that calling card for health, but maybe gardening can be our thing. San Antonio used to be the winter garden hub of the US. We used to produce a sizeable amount of cold crops from November – February when the northern states were under snow! Lucke believes we can grow again, and we can grow together.
So, if you need some tips, or an entire landscape overhaul, hit up Lucke and his greenthumbs. Together, we can all grow a healthier community, committed to local ecosystems and economies!
GARDOPIA GARDENS
www.gardopiagardens.org
info@gardopiagardens.org
@gardopiagardens
(210) 478-7292
LANDSCAPE COOPERATIVE
www.landscapecooperative.com
info@landscapecooperative.com
@landscapecooperative
(210) 988-8290
