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0:14I'm Mary and we're here at Little Wild Things Farm in northeast DC. We grow micro greens, salad greens, and edible

0:21flowers on a little bit less than a quarter of an acre right here in the heart of the city.

0:27We farm on a very small space. Uh we have about 5,000 square ft of actual

0:34productive space. We have about 50 racks of micro greens. And then of course at the outdoor farm we have about another

0:422500 ft² of productive space. We have currently a team of seven farmers, an all women team which I'm really really

0:51proud of and excited about. I our team is just so amazing right now.

0:57Our mission at Little Wild Things is to demonstrate that farming is a desirable career for the best and brightest of the next generation.

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1:13Before the farm, I had a career in uh the environmental field. I studied civil and environmental engineering and then

1:22natural resources management. I worked in the private sector as a as an engineer for a few years and I also um

1:30was a diplomat for about 10 years working in international development overseas doing environmental and agricultural work.

1:38But I did always enjoy gardening. My parents really instilled in me a sense of environmental stewardship from a young age and I was very interested in sustainability.

1:50I had this idea that I wanted to work on a farm, but I also wanted to make a good living. That was the challenge is how do I fit those two together? How can I make

1:57a good living but still do something that I love to do? I love working with my hands. I've always been creative. I like being outdoors. And so, those are the things that drew me to farming.

2:08I tried to find land in my network um at backyards and front yards. That was kind of a model that I was interested in and I wasn't really able to find anything.

2:18That's when I was on a run in my neighborhood one day and I just noticed that um this monastery had a really large front yard that might work.

2:28I thought I could really do something here. That's where I started growing vegetables down there and just taking them to my local restaurants.

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2:46After my first season, I just realized that the short days to maturity was going to be super key for me, not having any farming experience. I realized that

2:55I was making a lot of mistakes cuz I was learning everything as I went. So, you know, every time I would grow a crop, I oh, you know, I mess this crap up. I've got to do better.

3:05I had been growing microgreens a little bit on the side. And it just occurred to me one day while I was farming that,

3:10well, microgreens only take 8 to 20 days to grow. So, I would get a chance to learn every 8 to 20 days. And that was

3:17really when I decided I'm going to the shortest days to maturity, and that's all I care about because I'll learn faster.

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3:28The farm that you see here today started off as an old parking garage. We put a lot of sweat equity, my team has, um,

3:37into improving the space. It's really rewarding to see that all of our hard work has turned into something that we can be proud of here. Prior to CO, our

3:46business was about 85 90% wholesale. We sold to the area's premier restaurants,

3:52hotels, bars, bakeries, catering companies.

3:58When CO hit, we lost all of that business within a period of 2 weeks.

4:03Maybe it was really like a pretty dark time.

4:09Like I all of a sudden felt alone like how can I manage what was this huge operation? So in that moment I really

4:17thought you know I'm going to have to turn the lights off and shut this place down.

4:26Feels

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4:32like the world is crashing down.

4:38A new day is waiting. See it all around.

4:44I remember waking up at like 4:00 in the morning and just thinking, I have to try to save this farm. I have the ability in

4:52here to grow tens of thousands of pounds of very nutritious fresh food. It really hit me how important it is. And so I

5:01thought, go big or go home. We have got to try something to save this farm. So I woke up at 4 in the morning and by like 9 that morning, I had designed the whole

5:08e-commerce system. I had designed the whole salad share program. Honestly, I was just shocked like how fast the orders started coming in. I think we

5:17have a really high degree of confidence that this is really a new way forward for us and that people do really love

5:25having this creative, super fresh um product delivered to their house. The

5:31salad share program is, you know, a salad home delivery program. It's an 8week program and it changes with the seasons. Every week you get um a bag of

5:41fresh mixed greens, microgreens, and edible flowers delivered to your doorstep by our team of farmers.

5:49The Quick Greens harvester, I don't think we could operate at this scale without it right now. We definitely can't handh harvest at the scale that

5:57we're at. At the same time, a really large harvesting machine can run anywhere from 16 to $35,000.

6:06So the the quick greens harvester is a really affordable option that we've been using for years.

6:15I farm because it allows me to express like all of my different talents and abilities.

6:22I love that farming allows me to explore like the business and technical side of

6:29things, but also the creative endeavor of building a business and branding that business and deciding what crops you're

6:38going to grow and solving problems along the way. I love that about farming and business is it's really just all you are is like just a

6:45problem solver. And so it's new every day.

6:49You cannot give up. You have to just continue going on no matter what you face. I've learned that that's really

6:57what sets a successful entrepreneur apart from those who are not. And it really is not talent. It's not resources. It's none of those things.

7:06It's just that you have to continue going and put in the hard work and you'll be amazed at how that's rewarded.

7:15The good life to me is experiencing joy every day in what you're doing.

7:23Having a passion for what you're doing like deep down inside like it's not about for me really like saving the

7:32environment or it's it's really just like that I love doing it.

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7:44This is a good life. Hi guys, I'm Jonathan with Farmers Friend. If you enjoyed this video, hit the like button and subscribe to see more inspiring

7:52stories like this. To learn more about our innovative small farm tools and supplies like easy to assemble greenhouse kits, flame weeders, and a

7:59lot more, check out our website at farmersfriend.com.