Tami Purdue didn’t grow up on a farm or have a background in growing food. For twenty years, she worked as a legal manager for a prominent law firm in Raleigh, North Carolina, working 60-80 hours a week. “Work was my whole world,” she says. “I knew it wasn’t good for my health.” Already in her fifth decade, she was ready for a change and a new career path.
In 2014, a weekend gardening workshop taught by Will Allen of Growing Power changed everything. Her goal for the class was to learn how to improve her soil and figure out how to compost. “Why was my soil so bad that I couldn’t grow tomatoes correctly?” she wanted to know.
A year after starting her microgreens business, she purchased a crop box, a modified and automated shipping container, and set it up in her backyard. One person running the shipping container five days a week for three to four hours a day produces three tons of microgreens annually, she says.
She works seven days a week and laughs that she still works 80 hours a week despite leaving her demanding former job. “[Farming] is what runs my life. It’s when I get up to when I go to bed,” she says. In addition to growing microgreens and coordinating subscription boxes, she also hosts workshops at Sweet Peas Urban Gardens on subjects such as how to grow microgreens or mushrooms, and she hosts local school visits and other events. Despite the workload, she’s all in on her second career. “It keeps me wanting to get up in the morning and do my part. I love it.”
Read more at modernfarmer.com