LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Urban agriculture is becoming more popular in the United States.

NC State University released research in 2021 stating the number of Americans growing food in community gardens rose 200% from 2008 to 2016. A Louisville chef and urban agriculturalist is raising awareness and wants more urban gardens to grow in Louisville.

For as long as Eneitra Beattie can remember, she has always loved to get her hands dirty. Born and raised in South Bend, Indiana. She moved to Louisville in 2005 and loves it. As she puts it, she’s been playing in the dirt and loving the soil from the time she was four or five. It makes her happy.

“It’s just like, the connection with the earth. Like, you really connect with the earth, you really understand and treat the earth better when you have a connection with the earth, like the soil is where everything begins.” Beattie said.

It’s too cold to grow anything, so she’s preparing the garden bed. Beattie cleared all the weeds and scraped things out. She has dedicated her entire yard to urban gardening. She calls it her “yarden”.

Last year, Beattie grew a host of vegetables, including lettuce, corn, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes, kale, carrots and watermelon. She began growing in 2021 and encourages others to grow urban gardens.

“The homes here have plenty of space to grow your own food. With that being said, if you want to learn, I’ll try to find anybody that wants to learn and teach them, and it’s easier than they think.” She said.

Beattie owns an e-commerce business called “Greez N Tingz.” She makes organic products including salads, soups and hot sauces. Most of her ingredients come from her garden with no added sugars or salts.

“I decided to do hot sauce as my first product because the hot sauces out there in the world today are terrible for the body. Sodium intake is absolutely ridiculous. It’s more salt in the product than the actual product,” she explained.

Beattie said where she lives in west Louisville, is a big food desert. Beattie sees it as her duty to help people eat properly. She sees food as medicine. Beattie gives food away to people all the time—to kids, neighbors and others in the community.

“I’m always growing in abundance, because when I decided to walk into my purpose, the vision that God blessed me with was to make sure that I feed people. With me being a heart-healthy chef and now an urban agriculturalist, it all ties together,” Beattie explained.

One urban garden at a time.