This year marks the fifth year that Sovereign Starts Seedling Co. will be operating and serving the Northside through community gardens and urban farming. Founded and operated by local residents Andy Bryan and Greta Klawiter-Lein, Sovereign Starts was born in 2021, largely as a response to the noticeable effect the global pandemic had on food systems. Although these recent events have increased a desire for local, stable alternatives to global supply chains, North Minneapolis has been suffering from limited and unhealthy food options for much longer. Communal growing spaces offer a low-cost solution to these crises, or at least the beginning to tackle them.
Because of our long Minnesotan winters, many non-native plants, like tomatoes and peppers, need to be started inside. In 2020, Andy and Greta were volunteering to run the community garden owned by Redeemer Center for Life, and had started a whole bunch of plants indoors. As the planting season came underway, Greta and Andy noticed they had plenty of extra little plants that wouldn’t fit in the community garden, so they reached out online to find homes for them. It was the wave of interest they received in response to giving away these seedlings that inspired an idea: if they grew extra seedlings and sold them, this could cover some of the cost of operating the community garden space!
And so Sovereign Starts was born, but quickly continued to evolve, as garden tools wouldn’t be the only thing to which Andy and Greta applied the proceeds of their plant sales. It didn’t take long to realize that free events were just as important a part of community gardens as free food was. Sponsoring free events has grown to be a fundamental part of Sovereign Starts’ mission. Whether it’s a skill-share workshop, where knowledge about food growing, preparation or preservation is shared, or whether it’s a movie night or community party, the idea is always the same: it’s open and free to everyone.
What started in one garden has grown to many, and Greta and Andy now proudly work with a number of neighborhood partners, including the McKinley community and Folwell neighborhood, to organize free food distributions and events in their green spaces, as well as coordinate volunteer work to boost their growing efforts. This will also mark the fifth year that they have worked with Appetite For Change’s free seed and seedling giveaway!
If this all sounds interesting to you, Andy and Greta encourage all to visit their website: sovereignstartsMN.com, or find them on Facebook and Instagram @sovereignstarts for more info about how you can get involved in the world of community gardens, and where to find free events!