Exploring BD: Tina Biornstad-Szafranski – “Have yard, will farm”
Tina Biornstad-Szafranski, guest speaker at BDNA’s January 2024 general meeting, has been working her yard for years.
She launched her urban-farm career (side-by-side with a fulltime daycare business) by starting small, “growing lots of weeds”, and learning from friends. Soon she was growing fewer weeds and more carrots, and exchanging seeds, starts, and knowledge with other BD urban farmers.
Facebook has been invaluable. So has Buy Nothing – why pay for costly garden structures when you can easily build them with “give aways”?
These days, Tina’s yard produces enough vegetables, fruits, berries, eggs, honey, and chicken-duck-rabbit protein to feed a large household (she does supplement with some environmentally-okay offsite beef and pork).
Depending on the season (even winter), Tina raises cabbage, chard, kale, broccoli, carrots, herbs, potatoes, onions, snow peas, squashes, strawberries, and much more. Nothing is wasted. If not consumed immediately, food is dried, canned, frozen, and fermented. Apple cores are cooked to create apple jelly. Every unused root, leaf, and stem is composted. Bones and eggshells are ground and tossed into the compost bins.
“I want to feed people,” Tina says. “I want to see our community sustain itself. I want to support businesses that do not inhibit their workers.” These are Tina’s drivers.
If these are your drivers, you may wish to connect with Tina for advice and inspiration. The best way to connect is via Facebook, but email works as well. Both links are posted below.
https://www.facebook.com/entwinedvinesjewelry
mailto:hawthorncircle@comcast.net