S6 Ep18: Revolutionizing the Urban Landscape with Meredith Shepherd
“Urban agriculture always seemed like a beautiful solution to so many environmental problems like food miles, seasonality, getting rid of the sod; not to mention all of the physical and mental benefits that gardens bring to people.” — Meredith Shepherd
Urban farming can help create a future where everyone has easy access to fresh, nutrient-rich produce. Additionally, these gardens provide green spaces in cities that can be used for leisure activities and contribute to improved physical and mental health. With the help of modern technology, urban farmers will be able to maximize their yields while minimizing their use of resources such as water, energy, and land. This could lead to a more sustainable future for our cities and a healthier lifestyle for all.
For one woman, this was the motivation to start Love & Carrots, a company that helps city dwellers to enjoy the benefits of urban farming while also reducing their carbon footprint. Not only will they be able to access fresh and healthy food right from their backyard but it will also bring them closer to nature and provide them with an opportunity to learn new skills. From seedlings to soil preparation, this initiative is providing all the necessary tools and advice that one needs for successful urban farming.
Listen in as Justine and Love & Carrots founder, Meredith Shepherd share the benefits of urban gardening, finding good people to join your team, operating with a system in place, being adaptable and patient, being able to delegate tasks strategically, and taking baby steps as you navigate your journey.
Connect with Meredith:
Meredith Sheperd has been working in organic agriculture and environmental sustainability for 15 years. Before founding Love & Carrots in 2011, she was the manager of Chaily Farm in VA, which produced organic herbs and vegetables for DC restaurants. Meredith received the 2013 DC Mayor's Sustainability Award, 2014 Green America Award, and Business Insider's Top 50 'Coolest' Businesses in America.
Episode Highlights:
02:44 The Growth of Love & Carrots
06:29 It’s All About Your Team
13:52 Overcoming the Pandemic and Other Challenges
18:09 How to Focus on What You Love
21:27 It Takes Time
Tweets:
Our cities are constantly growing, and with that comes a need for more sustainable and healthy food sources. This week @jreichman and @LoveNCarrotsDC Founder, Meredith Shepherd share what makes urban farming successful. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #Love&Carrots #urbangardening #freshfood #backyardfarming #businessbuilding #womenfounders
Inspirational Quotes:
03:03 “Urban agriculture always seemed like a beautiful solution to so many environmental problems like food miles, seasonality, getting rid of the sod; not to mention all of the physical and mental benefits that gardens bring to people." —Meredith Shepherd
06:29 “It's all about your team. It's all about finding good people and keeping those people happy whatever it takes because you can't do everything." ” —Meredith Shepherd
15:39 “I do think that the silver lining is that a lot of people are really appreciating their yards in a bigger way."
15:52 “A lot of people got dirty and, and wanting to get more involved with our garden." —Justine Reichman
21:30 “Patience and baby steps are important things to have. It's not going to be perfect overnight. You can't improve everything all at once.” —Meredith Shepherd
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman Welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host, Justine Reichman. Today with me is Meredith Shepherd, Founder of Love & Carrots. Welcome, Meredith.
Meredith Sheperd Thanks so much for having me. I'm really excited to chat with you today.
Justine Reichman Me too. And I'm excited to learn about Love & Carrots and what inspired you to found Love & Carrots. And before we get going, I'd love for you to just make a quick intro for our guests and our viewers so that they know before we dive into everything, what we're talking about.
Meredith Sheperd Okay. Sure. So Love & Carrots has been around since 2011. And we are a company that designs, installs, and maintains vegetable gardens and food escapes for people. We also have a big educational component, so we provide garden coaching. Our bread and butter installation is raised beds. We do a lot of raised bed gardening in residential backyards. But we also work with schools, and law firms and nonprofits, kind of the whole gamut. We are a growing company. We started with just me and my Subaru that I completely destroyed with Fisher margin and hay bales. And now we're a staff of probably going to be 22 or 23 this year. And we typically install about 100 to 150 projects a season and we have about 150 gardens, our maintenance roster. So we are helping people all over the city get started growing food and teaching them how to do it.
Justine Reichman Out of curiosity work remotely, too?
Meredith Sheperd Not really, no. You mean like helping people.
Justine Reichman That's a stupid question. That's amazing what you do. As you're talking about it, and as you're talking about these gardens, I'm thinking about my edible garden in the backyard, which I'm sure our listeners are as well. Thinking about we came out of COVID and people started these gardens, they're like, Okay, well, mine is dying now, or I don't know how to do this. I was just trying to help those listeners and viewers.
Meredith Sheperd Yeah. Gardening, like you were saying earlier that you're living in Northern California so you can grow all sorts of fun things that I can't do here.
“Urban agriculture always seemed like a beautiful solution to so many environmental problems like food miles, seasonality, getting rid of the sod; not to mention all of the physical and mental benefits that gardens bring to people." —Meredith Shepherd
Justine Reichman I can try. You know, I'm a little bit-- my learning curve coming from a big city, I got a very large learning curve that I'm dealing with. But let's talk about this, because what inspired you to start this in 2011?
Meredith Sheperd In 2011, I had been farming for years managing small organic farms in the area, or one in particular. And I really was intrigued by the concept of urban agriculture. It seems like I've always been a passionate environmentalist and encouraging people to grow their own food and urban agriculture always seemed like such a, like beautiful solution to so many environmental problems like food miles, and, you know, seasonality, and you know, getting rid of sun, not to mention all of the physical and mental benefits that gardens bring to people. So that really kind of intrigued me. And at the time, I was living in DC, and I didn't have any sunlight in my yard. But my neighbor, on the other hand, had this huge sunny yard and I thought, Oh, well, you know, I really want to garden for myself, maybe he'll let me like garden in a little corner of his yard. And then I thought, well, maybe he'd actually pay me for that. And that was kind of like the spark moment. And I literally took out a flyer I made a flyer and a coffee shop came up with the name and kind of started hanging it around town. And it just has really snowballed from there. I haven't stopped.
Justine Reichman I love that. That's great. So you started in this one-- a quarter of a yard?
Meredith Sheperd Well, I didn't do my garden. I never asked him. I never asked the neighbor. But I did completely destroy my yard with perennial plant storage. And then my first grow room to start transplants was in my basement. I cleared out a bunch of shelves. And every year I give a presentation to my staff or the new staff in a way about, you know, our humble beginnings. And so I show a picture of that first greenhouse and the first couple of projects that we did. And then I show, you know, we talked about our, right now we have 1000 square foot greenhouse or we're producing 1000s of transplants and it's really just over the years little by little by little, it's grown into a really amazing thing with amazing people working for it. And one of the things that I'm most proud of is creating careers for people who want to work in urban farming. Because back in 2011, I did apply to other jobs before doing Love & Carrots. I thought okay, well, I'll try to find a job at an urban garden somewhere. So there were only like two positions available. And, you know, now we're hosts to 22 and there's other companies that have popped up all over DC doing some more stuff. And so it's really a movement that's grown a lot. And I think it's really exciting.
Justine Reichman It sounds like it's growing and moving and expanding, and you're helping that movement. So when you started, you were working in farming and you took to become an entrepreneur, what was that like for you?
Meredith Sheperd Well, you know, I did not have a business background at all. So it was a learning curve for me. So you have a learning curve growing a garden. Well, I didn't even know that I needed a business license. And I only figured that out because I went to the bank and asked them to make it so that my account could have Love & Carrots on. I wanted people to write checks to Love & Carrots not to me and they said, Sure, well, what's your EIN? What's an EIN? And they said, Well, you gotta go to the USDA, or the whatever, the government for that. And then, you know, I went to that office, and I asked for an EIN and they said, Well, what's your business license number? And I said, Well, what's that? I just, like, worked my way backwards over the course of a week and finally got all my ducks in a row. So yeah, no business training. I think, you know, I don't recommend that as an entrepreneurial advice, just jumping in with no experience to no plan. But I think that I really struck a vein and I was kind of at the right place at the right time and I just happen to have the right expertise. So it worked out for me. But I don't think everyone can claim to be that lucky. So it was a learning curve, a learning curve.
“It's all about your team. It's all about finding good people and keeping those people happy whatever it takes because you can't do everything.” —Meredith Shepherd
Justine Reichman And I'm sure as a business owner, there's lots of skills that you don't have, and I don't have, right? And we surround them with people with those skill sets. So even have this business you have the vision, and you have the expertise to do what you're doing. But to run the business, you're probably bringing in other people to fill in.
Meredith Sheperd It's all about your team. It's all about, you know, like finding good people and keeping those people keeping them happy doing whatever it takes. Because yes, you can't do everything. And I remember the first garden installation that I, you know, where I set up. The crew of people, there was just three people at that time, and then I left. I wasn't there actually doing the work. I mean, it was a big moment for me, I remember that. But I had, you know, those guys were there. I had a really good, committed employee in the very beginning. And I relied heavily on those people along the way. And now, you know, my team, I mean, I just can't say enough positive about them, obviously, I couldn't do it without them.
Justine Reichman So what was it like to be able to sort of give off the reins to somebody and trust that they were going to do the work?
Meredith Sheperd Yeah. Well, with the right people, it's not a leap of faith, even, it's just you feel confident, and you can walk away and think about something else and not stress. So like, you know, that hasn't been every employee that's come through. I've had, you know, over 10 11 years. There's been a lot of people that come in and out the door. And, you know, most of them are great, some of them are not as great, but I don't want to talk about that. But yeah, it's, you know, people in a small business or everything. And it's important to put just as much effort into, you know, your team and your community and making sure that your company culture is positive and healthy and good. And that takes work to, you know, that doesn't just even if the people are awesome, it just doesn't always just happen naturally. So that's almost as important as, you know, knowing what you're doing with with tomato plants or seeding carrots.
Justine Reichman If you have to implement is there a process that you implemented that you found that work as you went through these stages to make sure that you could know that your employees were doing the job that you wanted at each place?
Meredith Sheperd There at Love & Carrots, we are very, very systems driven, we just have to be. And I think that's what makes us like a good, I can call us a contractor, a good contractor, you know, we show up when we're gonna show up, we know what we're doing when we get there. We take as long as we say we're gonna take and the bill on the end is, like 99.9% of the time, like the accurate bill. And that is because we have just built systems on systems and, you know, the people, it's not me who's implementing all those systems, it's my awesome staff. But yeah, so like, there's not one there's a system for, you know, creating a checklist for a loading for the installation crew for the truck for that job that day. There's loads of checklists for my farmers that the people who do the maintenance for them. You know, we're really Google calendar based. So we have spreadsheets that are tracking like the time in each of the gardens so that we're planning for enough time in the day, we have scheduled loading times. And I mean, there's just a lot of work that goes into it. In order to show up, you know, in a garden to build a garden if you drive, you know, some of our gardens are an hour and a half away. You drive all the way out there and forgot some little like, really important irrigation piece that key without it, you can't water the garden and then you just can't leave. So you've got to be organized to remember, you know, 1000 different little pieces, and to, you know, get them all ready and to the right location at the right time and know what you're doing is it takes a lot of systems building and that's what you do. I love systems, I'm always talking about efficiencies and things like that. So yeah, and that's kind of that's something that I don't think you can do that overnight. I think it just takes experience.
Justine Reichman And time, right? I mean, trial and error. I mean, some of the lessons that you learned along the way helped you create the systems that you have today.
Meredith Sheperd Absolutely. And, you know, back to those people and trusting your people. You know, I'm not the one out there digging the dirt as much anymore, or, if at all. And so if I have good people that are doing that, they're going to help me, you know, find holes in my systems or improve them so that their jobs are easier as well. And the next person's job is easier. And that's a really quality employee to have.
Justine Reichman Yeah. It's so important. So you've been around now for a little while. And you're doing really well. What do you have going on that's new and exciting in the next year and share?
Meredith Sheperd Yeah. Well, I guess like coming out of the pandemic, this is was a big building year for us. So we've hired, and I should have gotten account, honestly lost count of how many employees we've new people we've hired this year, I think it's eight or nine. So that's really exciting. Have I like a new fresh team. And, you know, we're just right now we're gearing up for the 2023 season. And in my experience, Love & Carrots, I don't know how this happened, I know how this happened, that good people building on the previous team's experience every year is just so much better than the previous year. And we'll create a new system where we look back and we think how did we even do this without that thing. But we're, you know, we're doing some hardscaping training. We, you know, don't just do vegetable garden beds, we also build, you know, landscapes, like typical landscaping. We focus on, you know, fostering a healthy ecosystem and planting tomatoes, and you know, storing rainwater on site, things like that. So that's a new skill. I'm always trying to build our installation teams skills. And we're also bringing in some new leadership. I'm looking for a new garden Operations Manager. So that'll be fun, too. Oh, I should say this past winter, we built our biggest garden ever. And we completed it. And it was completed on schedule with no major issues. So that was really excited and more than double. Oh, it was like 22 raised beds, but also like everything was river pebble pas, there's a stone patio in the center, a cedar trim fence with critter cage. I mean, it just was like this big garden with all the bells and whistles.
Justine Reichman Beautiful.
Meredith Sheperd It was really fun. I didn't design it my coworker, Carly, great gardener and really wonderful garden designer. And she designed it and we're really proud of it. So that was exciting.
Justine Reichman Well, I would love to see a picture of it, because it just sounds beautiful.
Meredith Sheperd So you in June, when there's plants in it because right now it's a lot of dirt.
Justine Reichman Well, that is more beautiful and colorful with all the plants in it.
Meredith Sheperd Yeah, yeah.
“I do think that the silver lining is that a lot of people are really appreciating their yards in a bigger way." —Meredith Shepherd
Justine Reichman So now, you know, it sounds like so much keeps going on. I'm curious as you did mention the pandemic and coming out of the pandemic and how things are evolving? How did the pandemic affect you guys? Because I know that I had read so much about people growing home gardens, as did I, I have a home garden. How did that affect your business?
Meredith Sheperd In 2020, it was pretty wild. I think, you know, there was that April period in the spring where we happen to be working on one big project that we could just kind of put our heads down and focus on it. And that was really, really lucky. And then the homeowner was really, really kind and, you know, just understanding of us taking a long time and all that. But as soon as the pandemic hit, and all the restaurants basically closed down, I lost 30% of my maintenance revenue, our maintenance revenue because all of our restaurant clients just dropped out all but one. And that was about 30% of that revenue, but it was very quickly replaced with homeowners who were at home looking out their back window, panicking about being able to get vegetables. You know, if you remember like the grocery store shelves were bare and people were like ordering, you know, spinach and frozen squash off of Amazon was really crazy. So we got a lot of like doomsday prepper people in but also just folks who were looking at their backyard and working from home and wanted to spend more time out side. So, while we did you know suffer a loss with the restaurants it was like filled in and more so with everything else, and it was a really busy year and a really-- it was a year that really tested our adaptability. You know, because we were always dealing with new information coming in about the pandemic and like how it transferred and we had to set up, you know, hand sanitizing stations and figure out how to get the crews to site without writing in the same truck. You know, all of these just work arounds. So that took a lot of management's time coming up with evolving company policies, everything. So I'm glad it's over but I do think that the silver lining is that a lot of people are really appreciating their yards in a bigger way. A lot of people that, you know, without the pandemic probably wouldn't have spent as much time outside. You know, I'm grateful for that.
Justine Reichman A lot of people got dirty and, and wanting to get more involved with our garden and get back as myself. I mean, well, I wouldn't say I got back to it I got into it.
Meredith Sheperd You did?
Justine Reichman Yeah.
Meredith Sheperd You're a pandemic gardener.
“A lot of people got dirty and, and wanting to get more involved with our garden." —Justine Reichman
Justine Reichman I'm a pandemic gardener. I mean, my garden in growing up was what? Central Park? That's right. So I was a pandemic gardener. I grew some lemons and herbs and Rosemary and lemons. And now I got a little bit more ambitious and some tomatoes and we have Thai basil. It's very explosive.
Meredith Sheperd Yeah. Basil is one of the-- it's like a gateway drug. If you're just starting out and you're nervous, grow some basil, put it in the sun and it just grows like a weed and people are like, I could do it.
Justine Reichman And I have mint too, that goes out there.
Meredith Sheperd Yeah. I heard you say lemons, though. I've got like my three really sad indoor lemon trees here that barely produce any lemons. I wish we could grow lemons in DC, but we can't. Not really.
Justine Reichman I have lemons and Grapefruit, olives and, what else do I have? I have over there. I have another fruit tree. Oh, figs. I think that I live in the Mediterranean apparently.
Meredith Sheperd That's a great thing about Northern California. It's like, do I want to be in Florida or do I want to be or you know, I just want to be like Caribbean and the Mediterranean.
Justine Reichman I decided my backyard was gonna be Mediterranean. So the olive trees and the figs and, you know, all that kind of stuff. So I decided so not all of it. You know, we had did have some deer issues. So they did come and eat. I'm working on them and my gardener helps me.
Meredith Sheperd Oh, good, good. Well, that sounds really rewarding. I would love to go and like eat my own grapefruits. You can't do that here.
Justine Reichman So I'm curious though, you know, as a first time entrepreneur, you have such great successes. I know the continued growth, the pivoting, all of that, when you look back, is there anything you might have wished you had known along the way?
Meredith Sheperd I mean, there's so many things.
Justine Reichman Or done differently?
Meredith Sheperd Yeah. I think I guess like one, I don't want to say like a sadness, but one thing that, you know, kind of is on my mind day to day is that in the beginning the easiest thing for me to kind of, you know, assigned to somebody else was the physical work, right? Because there was always-- in those early days, there was I did all my own invoicing and record keeping and, you know, now I have people who helped me with that, and they're much better at it than I am. But, you know, I was doing it back then. And that was something that like I couldn't really teach someone else to do, because it was all in my head. And so, you know, contracting out the gardening and the actual building of the gardens was what happened. And, you know, when I set out to build this company, I pictured myself being the gardener. You know, I started it all because I wanted to garden for a living. I came from a farming background, and I love being outside and I get to be outside a lot, because I still do a lot of the initial meetings where I like doing site analysis and designing the gardens and talking to the new people who are just getting started. That's one of my favorite parts of the job. But, you know, my hands are super soft. I don't have as much practice or just time, you know, my days are mostly not gardening nowadays. I do have time for my own garden now, which I did it for years when I was getting started. So that's a real reward. But yeah, looking back, that's one thing that, you know, it just kind of one day I woke up and I was like, wait a minute, like I'm not gardening as much, you know, they're gardening and do I want that and it was kind of too late.
Justine Reichman And so what do you hope to see, you know, a few years down the line with your business?
Meredith Sheperd I'm really excited to, I don't know if this is exciting for other people to hear, but I'm excited to build my management team. I've got some really, like I said before, like some really exciting new people in the door. And we are kind of like, overhauling a few systems that I think are gonna make us just even better at what we do. I always want to be like, you know, the best gardeners that we can be. I want our gardens to be beautiful, and, you know, like planting rows of seeds of lettuce that are like color patterns and things like that. And I just, you know, I'm not trying to take over the world, I'm not trying to take over the country or expand to other cities or anything, I just, I want to get better at what we do. And I think we're going to have a big leap year in that respect.
“Patience and baby steps are important things to have. It's not going to be perfect overnight. You can't improve everything all at once.” —Meredith Shepherd
Justine Reichman And so I mean, the goals, the expectations for yourself are really, you know, it's just about doing the best that you can do. And how did you establish that, if that is what is sounds like, that's what I'm hearing from you, right? And so, you know, how do you set that up for yourself as an entrepreneur, as a founder, because I think other founders would really get a lot out of hearing that. Because sometimes we look at other founders, and it seems like they make these big giant leaps, and it seems overwhelming, and it's not achievable. And so what I'm hearing from you seems very realistic, and something attainable, and how you put that, you know, put that into place, and then how you attain it, so that our founders and people that are listening, can maybe learn a little from your plan, or how you put your plan in place.
Meredith Sheperd Yeah. I think that, you know, patients, and baby steps are an important thing to important-- patients is important to have, and just understanding that it's not going to be perfect overnight, that you're going to, you know, pick one thing to improve every year and work really hard at that, and then, you know, move on to the next thing. You can't improve everything all at once. And that's kind of how we've always done things just because of capacity, right? We can't like stop. You can't stop everything and say, Okay, wait, let's just change the way we do everything and then start back up again. And it's just not possible. So, you know, each year, we pick one small thing that we need to do and we work on it, and then we get there, and then we move on. So you can't plan for everything. You're gonna make a ton of mistakes, but that's okay. That's part of the learning process. And you know, it'll make you stronger. So hang in there.
Justine Reichman I think that's really wise. And I think it's almost sort of lifts a weight off your shoulders, hearing something like that from a fellow entrepreneur. Because often we see these companies, whether it's Oatley or whoever that all of a sudden you think, wow, they overnight success. But really, that took a really long time if you read all.
Meredith Sheperd It's important to remember that every company likes super cool and calm and organized on Instagram. When we open the door, and when you get in there, it might be kind of messy, but everyone's putting their good brand foot forward. Nobody's perfect.
Justine Reichman Thank you, Meredith. Thanks so much for joining me today on Essential Ingredients. So great to hear from you, meet you, and learn a little bit about Love & Carrots.
Meredith Sheperd Thank you so much. It was really awesome to be here. I love your podcast.
Justine Reichman Thanks.
