An Urban Farm Supply!?!

Oh Oh Oh!! Can I even describe how warm and fuzzy this is in my heart? The other day I was driving home, and a new green awning caught my eye on Selby Avenue. Egg|Plant Urban Farm Supply, it said.

AN URBAN FARM SUPPLY!!

As a farm girl displaced in the city who is still trying to make sense of it all, I felt instant affinity. When I checked the other day, and it had yet to open, and the anticipation has led to over-active imagining of the treasures inside.

I think I now understand how dad feels in Fleet Farm. I expect to be inspired.

Check out the mini-manifesto I discovered by its proprietors, Audrey Matson and Bob Lies:

Egg|Plant Urban Farm Supply is a small family-owned company borne out of our love of gardening, growing food, and backyard homesteading in the city.

Audrey Matson

I grew up on a small dairy farm in rural Minnesota, where my dad kept chickens and bees and my mom grew vegetables and canned food in the summers, beans and pickles and strawberry jam. I moved to St. Paul for college and married a south Minneapolis boy, but always thought we might move back to the country some day. In the meantime, we settled in to our St. Paul neighborhood, had three children and fell in love with our ramshackle Victorian house. We planted a garden, raised some chickens, tapped our maple tree, and looked around to find there was a growing movement of urban homesteaders in cities across the country.

In addition to running the store, I am finishing a Masters of Agriculture in Horticulture degree at the University of Minnesota, with a focus on garden center management and organic and sustainable growing methods. I have worked most recently as the manager of a small garden center in St. Paul, and am a Minnesota Landscape and Nursery Association Certified Professional. I am the founder and leader of the Mighty Midway 4-H Club, whose first big project was to raise chicks for the Student Organic Farm at the University of Minnesota.

Bob Lies (pronounced Lease)

I was raised locally in south Minneapolis and moved to St. Paul when we decided to buy a home and raise our family. We have lived in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood for 16 years.

I am not half the gardener that Audrey is, but I am a builder and a tinkerer and enjoy the work of gardening almost as much as the fruits of the labor. In addition to helping Audrey run the store, I am a technical writer and information systems analyst.

Its Web site says it's open now, so I know I'll be checking it out this weekend. If you go, I'd love to hear your thoughts!