Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “Sowing Change” series about urban farming.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — During a field trip for attendees of the ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit, held May 19-21, the asphalt and concrete of the Charlotte metropolitan area gave way to an unexpected sanctuary of green. An immersive tour of Deep Roots CPS Farm offered a hands-on look at an award-winning operation built on a philosophy of community healing, waste reduction and ancestral legacy.
For co-founders Wisdom and Cherie Jzar, the journey into agriculture did not follow a traditional, linear blueprint. Years ago as young parents living on less than an eighth of an acre in a standard suburban neighborhood, they looked out at their front lawn and asked a simple question: Why are we wasting time and energy cutting grass just to compete with our neighbors? Driven by a desire to feed their five children the healthiest food possible, they dug up the grass and started homesteading.
Cherie, a certified urban planner with two decades of local government experience, began looking closer at the regional food system. She and Wisdom noticed a troubling pattern: The communities facing the deepest food insecurity were entirely severed from the people who grew their food. And the farmers bringing food into the city didn’t look like the people living in those neighborhoods.
“We knew how to grow,” Cherie says, reflecting on their decision to step into the gap. They chose to transition from backyard hobbyists to intentional, commercial entrepreneurs. Today, their operation spans the initial 7-acre farmstead and a newly acquired 44-acre wholesale expansion in Union County.
They intentionally structured their business to include a for-profit model alongside their nonprofit foundation. It was a deliberate choice to prove that farming is a noble, financially viable profession — an economic engine capable of sustaining a family and creating local jobs without requiring a second income.
Stewarding the Sacred Soil
At the core of the Jzars‘ success is a fundamental shift in how they view the land.
“We’re only borrowing this land from our children,” Wisdom says, echoing an ancient philosophy of stewardship that guides their grueling 70-hour workweeks.
Because they view themselves as temporary caretakers preparing the soil for the next generation, chemical fertilizers, synthetic pesticides and toxic herbicides are strictly banned from the property. Instead, Deep Roots operates as a closed-loop, regenerative ecosystem where every element supports another.
An example of this interconnectedness is its silvopasture system. Unlike traditional livestock operations that clear-cut the land, the Jzars maintain a wooded pasture where a herd of Nubian and Kiko-mix goats forages among the trees. Outfitted with modern satellite communicator necklaces that act as an invisible fence, the goats naturally clear out dense undergrowth, preventing small invasive trees from overtaking the canopy. In return, the goats provide highly valuable waste that the family harvests to fuel their intensive compost system.
This resourcefulness extends to their infrastructure. Inside their USDA Good Agricultural Practices-certified wash and pack station — built with the support of a grant from Rural Advancement Foundation International — nearly everything is ingeniously repurposed. Old household washing machines have been stripped and transformed into high-efficiency greens spinners. Reclaimed restaurant sinks line the walls, and a homemade humidifier paired with a customized air conditioner keeps their specialized mushroom fruiting room at the perfect, condensed temperature required to harvest delicate chestnut and shiitake mushrooms.
Inside the high tunnels, space is maximized with relentless efficiency. Rather than planting a single crop and letting it sit for months, the Jzars utilize successional intercropping. Rows of crisp lettuces sit directly beneath climbing cucumbers. By the time the lettuce is harvested and pulled, the cucumbers have already grown up to claim the sunlight, allowing the farm to harvest three to four times a month from the exact same footprint.
Reclaiming History and Changing the Value System
To step onto Deep Roots CPS Farm is also to step into a living classroom designed to shatter historical stereotypes about agricultural labor. Near the front of the property sits a striking, interactive ecodome, designed and built in collaboration with architecture students from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Surrounding the space are custom ceramic planters etched with West African Adinkra symbols, each conveying a foundational principle of the farm’s mission.
There is the Aya — the fern symbol representing the profound resilience required when Mother Nature is your unpredictable business partner. There is the Sankofa, a bird reaching backward to fetch a stone. “Unless you take the good and the lesson from your past and bring it forward into your present, you cannot move forward into your future,” Wisdom explains.
For the Jzars, reaching back means honoring the agrarian genius of their ancestors who survived the Atlantic slave trade. They reject the notion that historic Black agriculture was merely about forced, unskilled labor. Instead, they frame it as an advanced science of cultivation that built the foundational economy of the nation.
They pass this legacy directly down to the next generation through youth summer camps and school career days. When Black and brown children visit the farm, Cherie makes it a point to talk transparently about the economics of the business. She breaks down the math directly: “We sell our carrots for $6 a bunch and our eggs for $9 a dozen.”
“Something just comes alive in them,” Cherie says. “They don’t understand that there is a profession where they can be out in nature, grow food and actually make a living. If you don’t have farmers, where is your food coming from? A community without farmers is just as scary as a community without doctors.”
Closing the Loop
In a modern culture where food production and food waste are hidden away out of sight, Deep Roots is actively working to build a truly circular food economy.
The Jzars anchor their commercial sales at the local Uptown Farmers Market. In a linear system, any highly perishable leafy greens left over at the end of a market day would either be thrown into a landfill or brought back to the farm as animal feed. To prevent this, Deep Roots partners with corporate-sponsored market programs and a dedicated volunteer group known as the Harvest Haulers.
At the close of the market, the organization tallies up the Jzars’ remaining inventory, pays them full market price for their surplus and immediately transports the fresh produce to local food pantries and crisis assistance centers, such as Nourish Up. The farmers are made financially whole, local food waste is eliminated and fresh and nutrient-dense produce goes exactly where it is needed most: onto the plates of families experiencing food insecurity.
Deep Roots CPS Farm proves that urban agriculture is far more than an environmental trend. Through grit, business acumen and an unshakeable connection to their community, the Jzars have created a blueprint for urban self-reliance. They are reminding a disconnected city that humans are not the final, passive consumers at the end of a linear food chain but instead are active stewards responsible for keeping the cycle alive.
