- Eat your veggies.

Man, we're always told to eat our veggies.

- [Marcus] There you go.

Ha ha.

- Today we're gonna indulge in the fruits of our labor.

I really love weeding.

What do you think is your favorite part of the gardening process?

Is it the harvest or something else?

- It's not weeding.

(upbeat music) (feel-good music) - What if I told you there's a wonder medicine that not only increases vitamin D, lowers anxiety, improves your sleep and diet?

You'd probably be trying to reach for your phone in Venmo three easy payments of $19.99 But wait, there's more!

This wonder medicine can also strengthen your community and improve the environment as a whole.

Today, I'm gonna be biking around north Minneapolis to check out a few of the city's 70 registered community gardens.

It's these gardens that are the medicine.

So you can save that Venmo payment and put your phone away.

Follow me.

Let's go!

(upbeat music) Here in north Minneapolis, there's several areas that'd be considered a food desert.

And that means that food, healthy whole food, is really hard to come by.

You can't get those nutritious ingredients that you need from the corner store or the gas station.

So community gardens offer that possibility.

Now, we're gonna meet up with my friend Marcus Kar, multi-talented, a filmmaker, an activist, a rock musician.

But beyond that, he's something that's very rare.

A black farmer in Minnesota.

According to the Minnesota farm census, there's a hundred thousand farmers, but only 39 identify as black.

Now, Marcus takes care of some land 30 miles outside the city, but he also does some pretty amazing work here in north Minneapolis with kids, dirt and seeds.

Honestly, these are some of my favorite topics.

Let's get to it.

(mellow music) Here we are with my man, Marcus.

Marcus, this beautiful garden.

Tell me a little bit about what we got going on here.

- Yeah, man, we're in Harrison neighborhood.

This is a food forest that this entire community has been eating off of.

And there is an encampment down the street of a bunch of people in transition that have been eating outta here.

We're here to, you know, maintain and serve our community.

- Look at this.

There's all these beautiful greens.

- [Marcus] I know.

- Kales, collards, cabbages, rainbow chard.

- Rainbow chard.

These Mexican wildflowers just hauling in the monarchs, and bees everywhere, you know, bell peppers.

Food is the one thing we're all connected to.

- [Chance] Yes, and we- - We all gotta eat.

- There's such a disconnect taking place where, I heard Lil Yachty, the rapper, say, "I don't eat fruit" and he said, "I'll eat fruit snacks."

And that really stuck with me 'cause I know a lot of kids that are just like that.

The actual whole food is so separate from us.

People know everything as packaged and processed.

And so coming back to the soil- - The soil.

- Is what brings us all together.

- It is.

- I heard that this garden is part of Youth Farm.

What is that?

- Youth Farm is an organization of urban agriculture, very old, 26 year old organization, that uses food as a medium to cause social change.

This is one out of like seven or eight gardens just in north Minneapolis.

And we span throughout the Twin Cities.

I'm about to show you a couple of these, you know, I saw you brought your bike.

- Yeah.

- So I'm gonna put you to work in a minute.

- All right.

Hey, let's get it, man, I'm ready.

(upbeat music) So we know that communities all around the US are struggling with stuff.

What would you say that community gardens can really bring to help heal the stuff that people are dealing with?

- Endless possibilities, bro.

It's literally medicine.

You're talking about like living spaces, greener spaces, cleaner air, cleaner water, access to healthier food options, habits for people nurturing plants, cooking for their families, planning their meals today for tomorrow, but really creating our own jobs, our own possibilities.

This is the purpose of urban agriculture.

(mellow cheerful music) - All right, so tell me a little bit about this location, number two.

- Man, so we're at the Peace Haven's herb garden.

This is a very old space.

This was started by a bunch of people from this neighborhood, you know, just trying to create a green space for us to escape all the things we're dealing with in the urban setting here in Minneapolis.

So, this is urban ag in full effect.

- How can I help?

- Just water that little triangle right there.

- Yeah.

- I'll appreciate that, man.

We need all the help we can get in spaces like this.

- [Chance] What does it take to have a successful community garden?

- First of all, it takes people.

This is something we do as a village concept.

So the more we put our hands in the dirt, the less the next person have to do.

I think we've done a good job watering, bro.

I got another spot to show you.

- All right.

(mellow music) Tell me about like a experience that you had in your involvement with the, you know, community gardens that gave you confirmation that your work, that your aims were coming true.

- The impact it has on my own personal life, I have more freedom in hearing my own thoughts, serving my community, because of this opportunity in urban agriculture.

Secondly, the impact of green spaces.

The more green spaces we have, the less shootings.

The more we're together, growing and eating healthy, the more intentional we are about how we treat each other.

(gentle music) - All right.

Look at this.

Marcus.

- Yes, sir.

- Tell me about this spectacular garden.

- Welcome to the deep roots garden, Jordan Webers.

This is the prototype for poetry versus rhetoric.

It's a series that Jordan has been working on for quite a while.

He's an artist that's rooted in social justice and environmental justice.

- I think you mentioned that it's shaped to look like a basketball court.

- Yeah.

So right now we are at center court.

Everything around this garden is edible.

It's got all these little brushes are all berries.

They're choke berries, gooseberries.

- [Chance] So what are we gonna pick today then?

What have we got?

- Man, I think I need some stuff for dinner tonight.

So we should grab some eggplants.

- Oh, okay.

- I see some like, you know, red tomatoes.

You know, if you grab the eggplant and you lift it, it will reach a point where it feels like it's about to snap.

Just snap it off.

There you go.

Ha ha.

There you go.

- Yeah.

- That's all right.

These are the best kinds.

So we got some choke berries.

- Oh like these ones right here?

- [Marcus] Those are so good.

Yeah, let's do that.

- [Chance] Okay.

Okay.

- And they're like a snack bro.

Cheers.

- Cheers bro.

(gentle music) Yeah.

It's tart, delicious.

When I'm in my garden, I get to spend a little time with my feet in the dirt, the sun on my skin, but I really love weeding.

There's something so rewarding about just ripping something out and leaving what you want.

- Yeah.

- So like what do you think is your favorite part of the gardening process?

Is it the harvest or something else?

- It's not weeding.

(chuckles) So it is harvest, but it's what happens after harvest.

It's like seed saving.

- I love that you said harvesting the seeds.

People forget about that.

If you let a plant grow to maturity, it becomes the potential for a thousand more plants.

- [Marcus] Exactly.

- Or 10,000 more plants.

Dang, Marcus.

This has been an awesome day.

Thank you so much for showing us around.

I feel not only nourished, but inspired to keep on doing my thing and keep on growing this, you know, wellness.

- It's always peace seeing you, bro.

- Man, it's good to see you.

- You know, thank you man.

- Yes.

Urban farming.

Obviously, creating these fruits of our labor, medicine.

But it's not just the medicine that we grow.

Maybe the work itself is the medicine.

Maybe it's the community coming together that heals, that gives us what we're missing.

We have pandemics, social unrest and chronic illness all addressed by a little bit of hard work together.

until next time, Chance signing off.

(cheerful music)