Kim Shaw: Small City Farm (Charlotte, NC)

Sometimes, waiting for the conditions to be exactly right keeps us from seeing the opportunity in starting right now, even, literally, in our own backyards. But that certainly wasn't the case for one Charlotte, NC farm. Located inside the city limits off Brookshire Freeway is Small City Farm, owned and operated by Kim Shaw and Rohan Gibbs. Although it currently stands at three acres in a rolling ranch-house filled neighborhood, it was originally a ½ acre plot in the couple's South Charlotte backyard. Kim spent her childhood summers picking and packing produce for restaurants in Hilton Head, but she didn't actually set out to farm as an adult. Instead, she entered the food and beverage industry, and in the early 2000s found herself tending a garden for Chef Paul Verica while serving as the catering director for the Club at Longview. When her job was eliminated, she started growing produce and flowers full-time, and she's now grown into one of the region's most prized specialty producers, from delicate redbud flowers in the spring to Arkansas Traveler tomatoes in the summer and wide, deep green, winter collards that some of Charlotte's best chefs swear by. Small City Farm is a re-imagining of what we consider farming, and each season it proves how much creativity and ingenuity can yield.