SOIL SISTERS

from Natural Awakenings Greater Pittsburgh July 2020

BALANCING ACT

Soil Sisters It Doesn’t Get Any More Grassroots Than This

by Martin Miron

Raynise and Taray Kelly are the proprietors of Soil Sisters, a purveyor of organic and heirloom vegetables, herbs and fl owers. “Gardening was a part of our childhood; we got away from it aft er elders in our family passed. In 2015, I took on a horticulture course at Bidwell Training Center and haven’t looked back since,” says Raynise. Shortly aft erward Taray moved to the grounds department at the University of Pittsburgh, and, “Our collective knowledge gave us a new outlook on the food around us. We took on food as our main focus because of how diffi cult it was to access locally fresh grown food.” “Our mission is to give access to the most nutritional value food we can grow and to be a resource to anyone, but people of color specifi cally, to all things that relate to agriculture. We want to dismantle all food barriers that our neighborhood faces due to the location in which we live.” Th e Beltzhoover neighborhood is dear to the hearts because it is where the sisters grew up and their family still lives. Raynise recalls, “We started with traditional, popular crops like kale, collards, tomatoes, peppers, basil, rosemary, thyme, marigolds, nasturtiums and sunfl owers. We were sure to add a few of the not-so-popular varieties to the community we know aren’t grown oft en, like Russian kale, stevia, and fl owers like king coral.” Doing everything at home and using natural growing practices, they can only do so many seedlings. “We’ve had anywhere between 750 to 1,200 seedlings each sale. We have a website that allows purchases online for orders to be delivered or picked up at the site or at a possible traveling plant pop-up sale, says Raynise. “We wouldn’t feel right if we didn’t engage our community,” she insists. “Th e people know us, as well as our family—getting their feedback and opinions let us know that we will be supported and that they believe the nursery was something we needed.” Th e inaugural Soil Sisters educational program will be a youth summer camp. “We have always had talks about hosting workshops to help gardeners advance together as a community and share skills with one another while learning techniques that have worked best for us,” says Raynise. Th eir next goal is to get city approval for zoning and begin building a nursery before the end of the summer. “Our future plan is to have it all in place just in time for the gardeners who like fall crops, Raynise notes. “If we don’t fi nd any, we’ll be sure to make that the subject of our workshop; ‘Crops You Can Grow in the Fall.’”

Soil Sisters is located at 835 Gearing Ave., in Pittsburgh. For more information, call 412-872-1744, email SoilSisters835@gmail.com or visit SoilSisterPGH.com.