David and Jill Thiel replaced their South Minneapolis lawn with several garden beds filled with a variety of vegetables. Their plan was to supplement their diet with healthy, nutritious food they could grow in the yard, organizing around principles of organic and sustainable growing practices. Through years of trial and error, they cultivated an understanding of what crops are best suited for thei
r urban farm, and how best to grow them. Not content with being limited to summer growing, they developed a concept for winter growing that included a deep winter greenhouse. The first of it's kind in the city, this passive solar design provides natural light for the plants, absorbs heat from the sun, and stays warm in the winter without generating an enormous electric bill or a stream of pollution. David and Jill hope their experience and passion will benefit their community with a resilient model of urban agriculture that encourages increased food security, a more local economy, and healthy produce that's free of chemicals and genetically modified organisms.
