On Saturday morning, a farmers market came to Overtown.

Children played and chased one another, careful to avoid the rows and rows of leafy veggies nearby. Passersby gawked. Shoppers, both window and sincere, browsed the goods.

It could have been your typical farmers market on a fall day -- save for the time when an elderly woman walked up to manager David Murray, bags in hand, hoping to take home vegetables she couldn't pay for.

No problem. A smiling Murray guided her to his favorite row, pointing out ``the juiciest greens you've ever seen.''

The charitable gesture, which was repeated a few more times with other customers, may have put a dent in the day's profits, but profits are secondary in this case. The women and other buyers were getting the first harvest from Roots in the City, an organic garden in Overtown.

Marvin Dunn, a local historian and former Florida International University professor, launched the project in August after two years of planning, with hopes of putting vacant land to good use by creating jobs and a self-sustaining business.

The garden, at the intersection of Northwest Third Avenue and 10th Street, takes up an entire city block, with dozens of rows of collard greens, lettuce, pumpkin, tomato, papaya, orange and banana trees, and decorative flowers such as violets.

`IT'S ABOUT JOBS'

Seeing a garden sprout where blight once flourished is certainly pleasing to the eye, but Dunn says ``this garden is not about beauty. . . . It's about jobs.''

The garden is tilled and tended by six full-time and four part-time workers, plus about 80 volunteers from the neighborhood and beyond. Parcels on the two-acre site belong to the city of Miami, the Collins Center for Public Policy and a nearby Masonic lodge.

Funding includes an annual $100,000 grant from the city's Community Redevelopment Agency for the area, plus a one-time $50,000 grant from Allegheny Franciscan Ministries.

And Winn-Dixie, the Jacksonville-based grocery chain, is in talks with Dunn to buy produce from Roots in the City for its Liberty City store, and possibly others in Miami.

Visit the garden any day of the week and you'll find workers and volunteers led by Murray, a longtime neighborhood resident and former farmer in his native Jamaica, and head volunteer Maggie Pons, aka ``Miss Maggie,'' who doesn't live in Overtown -- far from it, actually, in Southwest Miami-Dade County. She rises before 6 a.m. most weekdays, ushers her children off to school and then drives more than 20 miles to Overtown to help Murray whip the troops into shape.

On a recent Thursday morning, workers and volunteers sang, smiled and joked with one another as Murray and Pons directed them: Spread soil over this! Be careful stepping there! Handle those sprouts gently! Take a break; get some water!

As they worked, six or eight Miami police cars raced by and stopped half a block away. Officers jumped out and drew their weapons, rounding up some young black men. ``This is Overtown,'' Murray explains.

HOW IT STARTED

When Dunn approached Murray two years ago about helping him launch Roots in the City, the former farmer says he was excited but also reluctant, because of Overtown's well documented violent crime problems.

``It's a tough town,'' says Murray, who is 59. ``I asked him, why here? Why not out in the country somewhere, where we can really farm the way it is meant to be done? And you know what he told me? `David, here is where it needs to be, so that the people here can make it theirs and appreciate it.' ''

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@