Tabitha Farm Urban Homestead & Nursery

Tabitha Farm Urban Homestead & Nursery Community food forest, family farm, and greenhouse situated on the south side of downtown Kalamazoo.

Located on 2 acres of land on the South side of downtown Kalamazoo, Tabitha Farm & Community Garden supports a Community Garden open to anyone in the neighborhood, a fruit orchard, egg laying chickens, and ducks, a huge compost operation to feed and mend the city dirt it lives on, a play area and basketbell court for neighborhood kids, and lots of greens space.

Along with out plant sale this week, we will be having a Communtiy Show & Tell on Wednesday. Bring a dish to pass and j...
09/22/2025

Along with out plant sale this week, we will be having a Communtiy Show & Tell on Wednesday. Bring a dish to pass and join us for some sharing. There is a lot going on this week, woth the Sounds of the Zoo. Make this one of your stops. We would love to see you and show you around the farm.

09/11/2025

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09/06/2025

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09/05/2025
08/30/2025

Read this article from the MDNR to learn about microforests, also known as Miyawaki forests: Densely planted groups of urban trees that are sculpted to mimic the layers and biodiversity of much larger forests. These forests quickly provide benefits to city dwellers, and can grow more than three feet per year! https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MIDNR/bulletins/3eeb056 (Photo: Wollongong Botanic Garden)

08/22/2025
08/13/2025

Last week, we shared the news that the Israeli army had bulldozed the Union of Agricultural Work Committee's Seed Bank storage warehouses and infrastructure in Hebron, West Bank, where equipment, seed materials, and tools for indigenous seed reproduction were kept.

Another vital Palestinian seed-saving project is the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library . Founded by Vivien Sansour in 2014 in the West Bank village of Battir, the seed library has responded to conditions in Palestine by forming an international network of seed protector friends who are able to grow out seeds in safer parts of the world, to ensure that Palestinian crop varieties will be preserved and returned.

This Guardian article dives into the work of the Seed Library in the West Bank. https://bit.ly/47s1Z9D

"[Sansour] remembers Beit Jala when it was still more a small village than a town, replete with terrace gardens full of stone fruits, olives, artichokes and herbs. [...] But as time went on, that biological diversity began to narrow as the climate crisis upended longstanding growing cycles, Israeli settlements encroached on the land and agribusinesses pushed local growers away from the seed varieties that had been passed down for generations."

"She points to seed varieties that have been bred by Palestinians over thousands of years to grow abundantly in the summer without irrigation, often called “ba’al” crops, after the Canaanite deity of the same name. “I have people in California that call me asking for these varieties, because we have droughts in California now. So having a fava bean that can grow with no irrigation is very precious,” she said. “Our work is also the work of research. How do we develop varieties that can tolerate more heat or more flooding?”"

This work is vital—not only to Palestinian farmers, but to the world’s collective ability to adapt and thrive in a changing climate.

(Artist credit: Fedco staffer, Melissa May)

08/01/2025

Address

111 Dixie Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI
49001

Telephone

(269) 443-3215

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Our Story

Located on 2 acres of land on the South side of downtown Kalamazoo, Tabitha Farm & Community Food Forest supports a food forest full of edible preenials open to anyone in the neighborhood, a fruit orchard, egg laying chickens, goats, a compost operation to feed and mend the city dirt it lives on, a play area for neighborhood kids, and lots of greens space. We prectise permaculture, where we try to grow food and flowers symbionically with the ecology around us.

Why are we named Tabitha Farm? 51 years ago there was a girl born named Tabitha. She lived her life with great exuberance, had a great attitude even though she was constantly ridiculded because she had Down Syndrome, which was made worse when she lost all of her hair due to Chemotherapy because she had Lukemia. She was my sister. Growing up with her, I learned deep love, exceptance, and diversity, which are all values that I practice everyday with the Homestead. She was born in Battle Creek, but raised in Kalamazoo. She had many close friends in Kalamazoo. Unfortunatly, we moved to Massachusetts in 1983 so she could get futher treatment at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Even though she was in ongoing chemotherapy she ran in the Special Olympics and won two golds and a silver. She was so intellegent, so authentic, a spitfire, and a wonderful playmate. Shortly after moving to Massachusetts Tabitha passed away. She always explained to our mom that she missed Kalamazoo, and wanted to return. Tabitha Farm has been named in her honor. Our hope is that Tabitha Farm will be here for a long time, enriching the southside of Kalamazoo by nurturing the soil, and bringing love and light to our neighborhood.