Sprouting From Change

By Tracy Sellers | Wed Sep 30 2020


Sprouting From Change
Sprouting From Change

Even before she started farming, Los Angeles-based gardening guru Lauri Kranz had been on a bountiful journey for years.

As founder of Edible Gardens LA, Kranz has turned urban spaces into productive vegetable gardens and edible landscapes for chefs, celebrities and other clients interested in growing their own food.

When COVID-19 forced many restaurants to close—and farms that supplied those restaurants had nowhere to go with their crops—Kranz turned her green thumb to helping farmers who mentored her, by launching a new produce-delivery business.

"It was so reactionary to the times, to what was happening," she said. "I knew there was a lot of food coming from those farms. I reached out to them and said, 'Can I buy this food from you? I want to start bringing it to people.'"

Farm To Door

Across the nation, subscriptions to community-supported agriculture food boxes have soared during the pandemic, with many farms that market their crops through CSAs reporting increased membership and growing waiting lists. The Edible Gardens LA CSA business represents one of many farm-to-door services that sprouted this year to meet surging demand for locally grown produce, as people shelter in place and make fewer trips to the store.

Kranz described response to her CSA as "very overwhelming." Her produce deliveries grew, mostly through word of mouth, from just five members during the first week to thousands of sign-ups, with hundreds more requesting the service each week, she noted.

Some of the crops come from a "very small, modest urban farm" in East L.A. that she started farming a year ago, but most of what supplies her boxes comes from "favorite farmers" she's known for years from farmers markets and "who really nurtured my early interest in growing food."

This is a subtitle

Across the nation, subscriptions to community-supported agriculture food boxes have soared during the pandemic, with many farms that market their crops through CSAs reporting increased membership and growing waiting lists. The Edible Gardens LA CSA business represents one of many farm-to-door services that sprouted this year to meet surging demand for locally grown produce, as people shelter in place and make fewer trips to the store.

Kranz described response to her CSA as "very overwhelming." Her produce deliveries grew, mostly through word of mouth, from just five members during the first week to thousands of sign-ups, with hundreds more requesting the service each week, she noted.

Some of the crops come from a "very small, modest urban farm" in East L.A. that she started farming a year ago, but most of what supplies her boxes comes from "favorite farmers" she's known for years from farmers markets and "who really nurtured my early interest in growing food."