Because I need more work [that’s called sarcasm], Mahaba Farms is expanding onto another ancestral lot in Booker Park.  I couldn’t resist assuming stewardship of a small lot that once belonged to my great grandfather, Isaac Alridge, then to my grandmother, Thelma Waters, & now to my uncle, Kelvin Waters.

As far back as anyone can remember, it’s simply been a lawn, but Grandma & I determined in 2020 that the lot would make a nice place to grow food.  

For the last several years when driving around Booker Park, I’ve cast aspersions on the many landowners squandering precious land to host derelict buildings & patchy lawns when what Booker Park needs is vibrancy in the drab milieu & access to quality food.  There should be (& COULD be) at least 3 small farms in Booker Park; collectively supplying the nutritional needs of their neighbors & being an overall massive asset to the community.  There is no shortage of useable land.  Rather there is a dearth of vision.

There is a Chinese proverb that says, “It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.”  So here goes— lighting my candle; praying the light is a beacon for like-minded people unprepared to give up on the community that my Grandma loved.