Naimah Muhammad has dedicated her life to Urban Farming
Naimah Muhammad, 18, is an urban garden manager for Project Sweetie Pie. Photo by Christine Nguyen
By Keira McNiff, North News intern
Naimah Muhammad remembers the layer of cinnamon coating her grandmother’s kitchen table. As a 5-year-old, Muhammad helped her grandmother prepare arroz con leche.
This was a typical sleepover at her grandmother’s house. One week, they would make tamales, and the next, she would learn how to prepare pozole. Muhammad was dutiful when tasting everything they cooked.
“I was interested in cooking with her. She taught me the recipes, so I still know them by heart. We have our own bond,” Muhammad said.
Today, she brings what she learned – patience, adaptation, and love – from her grandmother to her work in the small urban farms of North Minneapolis.
The 18-year-old Northsider is a farm manager at Project Sweetie Pie, a community urban garden group that ensures food security for local residents. She is out in the gardens every morning, weeding and clearing the land, fertilizing the soil, harvesting the plants, and preparing them for distribution to the community.
Before her role at Project Sweetie Pie, Muhammed spent two years at the Northside Residents Redevelopment Council, which also has a large community garden.
North Minneapolis is no stranger to environmental distress. It is also considered a food desert. These gardens have popped up in recent years as a response to the 2011 tornado that leveled the tree canopy and caused significant damage to the ground and infrastructure.
The garden managers of PSP, NRRC, and others, such as Zintkala Luta, seek to share urban gardening skills with North Minneapolis residents. They also provide healthy, organic food for everyone at affordable prices.
“There are no healthy restaurants in North Minneapolis, especially for our Black and Brown people; we need vegetables,” Muhammed said. Black and Brown Northsiders suffer in particular from food insecurity and a disconnection from the land, so these gardens focus on fixing this by centering the community, she said.
Project Sweetie Pie aims to harvest 3,000 pounds this season, and Muhammed is essential to achieving that goal.
“I'm learning a lot from her, and I'm amazed by her confidence,” said Micheal Chaney, founder of Project Sweetie Pie. “She's really taken all of her passion and has found purpose in using the system as her toolbox. To get the credentials, to get the knowledge, to build the confidence… We're very fortunate that she's born and raised here in North Minneapolis, that she has come to work with Project Sweetie Pie.”
She is now focusing on a degree in agriculture. At just 18, she is starting her junior year at Iowa State University as the only student of color in the agricultural studies program. She knows her goals very well: to own a farm and restaurant, serving true farm-to-table meals.
Muhammed is wise beyond her years. She is assertive and self-assured, and her mother, Fatima, said she has been this way all along.
“Naimah truly enjoys caring for the land and watching the seeds transform, whether it's our home garden or one in the community,” her mother said. “I’ll never forget the smile on her face when she grew her first seeded watermelon that was ever so nice and sweet, right from our yard on the Northside.
“By living her passion, she is changing the narrative of what can come from North Minneapolis and the future of agriculture… I'm blessed to have a strong relationship with my daughter.”
At 11, she and her mother decided to become pescatarians to understand where their meals originated. This attentiveness carried over to her cooking, as she now focuses on preparing vegan and organic meals.
Inspired by shows like Master Chef and Chopped, Muhammed entered the Super Snack Challenge in 2018. Using her knowledge of vegan cooking, she won the grand prize of $10,000. She donated it to the Harold Mezile North Community YMCA, which used it to open a kitchen to teach local residents how to cook meals.
Now, she owns her own business, Nai’s Delights (@naisdelights on social media), where she does pop-ups to sell vegan and organic pastries. She will be at Open Streets West Broadway on Sept. 21