Barcelo Gardens Providing Farm Fresh Food on Urban Land
By Keely Ana Strickland and Neil Melançon
Louisiana Farm Bureau News
When fresh produce is unavailable or unaffordable, a healthy lifestyle is unattainable.
Ashley Webb and her husband, Andres Barcelo-Sanchez, moved to New Orleans four years ago and access to local groceries was extremely limited, so the couple decided to do something about it.
“We originally started the garden because when we moved here, we didn’t have a lot of access to fresh groceries,” Webb said. “I had never experienced that before. I didn’t realize we had to drive completely out of the neighborhood, 10-15 minutes to the closest grocery store.”
What started as a small garden near their home in the Upper 9th Ward has now blossomed into Barcelo Gardens, which services the surrounding areas from its storefront location. Their produce is supplemented through wholesale purchases from farms outside of New Orleans. This process has enabled them to support both urban and rural agriculture.
“Someone said, ‘You know, we don’t really want a garden, but we are happy to buy from you,’” Webb said. “A neighbor suggested that we start doing a farmer’s market and it grew from there. Now, we kind of do urban farming and a lot of free gardening classes. It’s really a teaching garden.”
Paul Betz is the only farm hand at Barcelo Gardens, and is often referred to as their Chief Farm Hand. He was raised on a dairy farm in Indiana, but never expected he would continue to farm.
“The Pandemic really changed my perspective on a lot of stuff,” Betz said.
That difficult time was pivotal for Betz, and gave him a new frame of mind. As Webb said, this garden is used for more than produce, and Betz thrives off of educating others about how to plant and tend to seeds.
“We’ve gotten so far away from where our food comes from,” Betz said. “People don’t realize that we can eat something that has a tiny hole in it. It’s still completely fine to eat.”
Barcelo Gardens now has the capabilities to fill orders online. Customers can place an order and choose for Uber to deliver right to their doorstep. Webb said that fulfilling orders is in turn fulfilling to her.
“Working on the land is kind of like my own therapy,” Webb said. “We’re always talking about keeping grounded. The best way to be grounded is actually, you know, being in the ground with the dirt.”
New Orleans is known around the world for its food, but much of that food is imported from out of town. Because of this, gardens like Barcelo are necessary to reconnect people with the rich traditions that originally put the city on the map.