Deep Roots CPS Farm

"The big talent is persistence.”
— Octavia Butler

This Week’s Lesson: Watch the sky because you have to. Then look back down and do the work. Worry has never once made it rain.

As we come up on the Juneteenth holiday, I have been thinking about freedom and how closely it connects to the work we do every day.

For us, freedom is not only a word or a date on the calendar. It is about our ability to make choices in our daily lives that align with our values. It is about having the agency to act on those choices without unnecessary barriers standing in the way.

Oh, what a wonderful life this is.
To choose to grow food. To choose to care for land. To choose to raise our children close to the work. To choose community, stewardship, and the belief that people should be able to know where their food comes from. This is one of our greatest exercises of freedom.

That is why this week on the farm felt especially meaningful.

It was the start of summer break for our girls, and it also felt like the true start of summer on the farm. The high heat and humidity crept in. Our cucumbers and squash are coming in nicely, and we are quite proud of them. We thought the rain was coming too. We kept checking the forecast, watching the sky, and waiting for the clouds to give the crops the deep drink they needed.
But Mother Nature does what she does.

It reminded me of a lesson Wisdom and I learned in Cape Verde in 2015. We had traveled to the small islands off the coast of Africa for a destination wedding, and while we were there, we wanted desperately to fish on the open water. The forecast kept calling for rain. Every morning, we woke up checking it. It said rain was coming for sure.

We went out anyway.

When we shared our concern with the guide who was scheduled to take us out on his boat, he looked at us with this calm expression. After we brought up the rain one more time, he finally smiled and said, “Are you all worried about rain?” We said, “Yes.”
Then he said, “Well, don’t look up.”
And then he added, “No stress.”

We shrugged it off because the saying "No stress" was like an island sales gimmick. But in that moment, it was our reminder to stop worrying. Guess what? It never rained and we had a beautiful time on the water. In fact, there was so much joyed carried during that trip.

I have carried that lesson with me. Not because we can ignore the weather. Farmers cannot do that. We have to watch the sky, check the soil, move water, protect crops, and make decisions with care. But we also cannot live only in worry.

So we do the work and trust the rest. We water when the rain stays away, we harvest in the heat, and we keep our eyes on what is growing.

I have been writing more over on Substack (https://cheriejzar.substack.com/) lately, including a recent piece on food sovereignty and what it really takes for a community to hold onto its farmers. If that is on your heart, come read it.

Next Friday, June 19, our farm team will be taking the day off for the Juneteenth Holiday. We will spend the day with family on the farm, resting, gathering, and remembering that freedom has always been connected to land, labor, family, food, and the ability to care for one another.

However we will be at the Market on June 20.

~ This week's harvest ~
Arugula, amaranth leaves, beets (red and white), lettuce, kale, chard, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, watermelon radish, green beans, dragon tongue beans, green onions, bok choi, white onions, shallots (Nero, Monique, and Roderigue), garlic scapes, a small offering of strawberries and sugar plums.

Fresh herbs include chamomile, cilantro, chives, sage, rosemary, oregano, parsley, tarragon, mint, and thyme. We also have English lavender flower bunches in limited quantity this week.

Chicken eggs and duck eggs are also available.

Gourmet mushrooms: Chestnut, King Oyster, Oyster, Shiitake, and Lion's Mane. Our signature drinks: Ginger Mint Lemonade and Lavender Lemonade. Flower bouquet vases will also be available in limited quantities.
Come Shop With Us This Weekend
There is no substitute for meeting your food and the people who grew it. Come find this harvest with us.

Uptown Farmers Market (https://www.uptownfarmersmarket.com)
Saturday, June 6, 8:00 AM to 12:30 PM

You can shop seasonal produce, fresh herbs, English lavender bunches, eggs, mushrooms, chicken, flower bouquet vases, black garlic, Ginger Mint Lemonade, Lavender Lemonade, and other farm goods as available. Come early.

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Join our Summer CSA
We have opened up a few additional slots for our Summer CSA, and we would love to welcome you to join. Our CSA is a direct partnership between you and the farm. It gives you a steady connection to fresh food, harvested and packed for you every other week. The Summer CSA starts July 11 and runs biweekly through September 19. Cost: $375. Interested? Visit our website to learn more and sign up (https://www.deeprootscpsfarm.com/csa) .

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Sunday Farm Tours - Reserve you ticket
Our Sunday Farm Tours officially open last week and we had a blast hosting couples, individuals, and families to tour the farm. Our next scheduled tour day is Sunday June 22, 2026. Tours times are 12:00 PM, 1:30 PM, and 3:00 PM, and each tour is capped so the experience stays personal. Reservation is required.

A tour is a chance to walk the farm, meet the people behind your food, learn what regenerative agriculture looks like up close. It is Deep Roots beyond the market table.

Reserve Your Sunday Farm Tour Here:
deeprootscpsfarm.com/sunday-farm-tours

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Only 10 seats remain for our June 28 Farm to Table Dinner Experience. Fire & Farm on June 28 at 5PM
We'd love to see you at the dinner. We're nearly sold out. For more details and ticket information, visit our website here: deeprootscpsfarm.com (https://shop.deeprootscpsfarm.com/dinners-workshops-and-events)

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About this week's photo
Wisdom & Cherie visiting Cape Verde in 2014 on a day out at Pedra de Lume salt flats, in Sal, Cape Verde after a fun time floating in the salt lake.

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Thank you!
We appreciate each of you. Thank you for shopping with us, sharing our newsletter, joining our CSA, booking tours, coming to the farm stand, bringing friends to the market, and reminding us that this work does not happen alone.

May we all keep choosing what gives life. No stress!

Just care, gratitude, and the work in front of us.

With gratitude,
Cherie, Wisdom and The Deep Roots CPS Farm Family

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If this newsletter moved you, share it with someone who would love it.

To learn more about our CSA, workshops, Sunday tours, and the rhythm of this farm, visit us at
www.deeprootscpsfarm.com

No Stress. Update from Deep Roots CPS Farm Click here for an update from Deep Roots CPS Farm!

"When you've got 400 quarts of greens and gumbo soup canned for the winter, nobody can push you around or tell you what to say or do."
— Fannie Lou Hamer, founder of the Freedom Farm Cooperative

This Week’s Lesson: Sovereignty lives in the names of our food, the hands that grow it, and the land that makes it possible.

We can call our food by name.

The beets are not just beets. We have a white variety called Avalanche. The shallots are not just shallots. They are Rodrigue, Nero, and Monique. The lavender we cut and bundled this week is English lavender, and it carries a scent that stays on your hands long after the work is done. The first zucchini, cucumbers, and peppers of the summer are coming in now, green chili and jalapeño among them, along with green garlic pulled young and tender.

Knowing your food by name is not a small thing. In the industrial food system, everything is anonymous. One crate looks like the next, and no one remembers where it came from or who grew it. When you know the name of a variety, when you can tell one beet from another, you are in relationship with your food. That relationship is what sovereignty is made of.

We felt that same truth in a photo we posted in last week's newsletter, the photo we shared of our summer farm team. Looking at it again gave us chills, because it is a record in time of exactly what we set out to do. We wanted to build a place of employment. A place of learning. A place where the desire to farm becomes real work in real hands. There it was, all in one frame. That is sovereignty too. It lives in the food we can name, and it lives in the people who are learning to grow it.

Fannie Lou Hamer (https://snccdigital.org/events/fannie-lou-hamer-founds-freedom-farm-cooperative/) understood this truth. She founded the Freedom Farm Cooperative so that Black families could grow their own food and never be pushed around again. She knew that a full pantry and a piece of land were not just about dinner. They were about freedom.

Her cooperative did not survive. It leaned on outside donations that eventually ran dry, it was worn down by hard years and thin harvests, and it was working against a system that denied Black farmers the credit and support others received freely. After fewer than ten years, it closed. We do not share that to take anything away from her. We share it because the failure was not in the vision or the labor. It was in the weight of the conditions around her, and many of those conditions have not gone away.

We do not pretend that what we are building is the answer to all of that. What we believe is that the work is still worth doing. So we carry that same belief onto our work every single day. We are not only growing vegetables. We are growing the conditions for people to stand on their own ground. For people to be nourished by chemical free fresh food.

We do it knowing the ground is still uneven, and we do it because someone has to keep that possibility alive.

That is the work.

We hope it reaches further than we can see, leaving names, lessons, and abundance for the people who come after us.

We're honored to bring this care and intention to you each week. Many of you shared our newsletter and last Saturday we meet some new faces at our farm stand. We're grateful for this growing community and hopeful that you'll continue to share the good news!

Thank you for being here.

~ This week's harvest ~
Arugula, amaranth leaves, beets (red and white), lettuce, carrots, kale, spinach, chard, red cherry radishes, watermelon radish, green beans, dragon tongue beans, green onions, tatsoi, bok choi, white onions, shallots (Nero, Monique, and Roderigue), garlic scapes, a small offering of strawberries.

Fresh herbs include chamomile, cilantro, chives, sage, rosemary, oregano, parsley, tarragon, mint, and thyme. We also have English lavender flower bunches in limited quantity this week.

Chicken eggs and duck eggs are also available. Chicken: breasts, leg quarters, thighs, and wings. Gourmet mushrooms: Chestnut, King Oyster, Oyster, Shiitake, and Lion's Mane. Our signature drinks: Ginger Mint Lemonade and Lavender Lemonade. Flower bouquet vases will also be available in limited quantities.
Come Shop With Us This Weekend
There is no substitute for meeting your food and the people who grew it. Come find this harvest with us.

Uptown Farmers Market (https://www.uptownfarmersmarket.com)
Saturday, June 6, 8:00 AM to 12:30 PM

On-Farm Stand (https://www.deeprootscpsfarm.com/markets) located at 2401 Primm Road Charlotte, NC 28216
Sunday, June 7, 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM

You can shop seasonal produce, fresh herbs, English lavender bunches, eggs, mushrooms, chicken, flower bouquet vases, black garlic, Ginger Mint Lemonade, Lavender Lemonade, and other farm goods as available. Come early. The named varieties and the lavender are limited, and they go quickly.

———
Join our Summer CSA
We have opened up a few additional slots for our Summer CSA, and we would love to welcome you to join. Our CSA is a direct partnership between you and the farm. It gives you a steady connection to fresh food, harvested and packed for you every other week. The Summer CSA starts July 11 and runs biweekly through September 19. Cost: $375. Interested? Visit our website to learn more and sign up (https://www.deeprootscpsfarm.com/csa) .

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Sunday Farm Tours Open This Weekend
This is the one. After so many of you asked when you could simply come walk the land, our Sunday Farm Tours officially open this Sunday, June 7.

A tour is a chance to walk the farm, meet the people behind your food, learn what regenerative agriculture looks like up close. It is Deep Roots beyond the market table.

Tours times are 12:00 PM, 1:30 PM, and 3:00 PM, and each tour is capped so the experience stays personal. Reservation is required. Reserve Your Sunday Farm Tour Here:
deeprootscpsfarm.com/sunday-farm-tours

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Join us for a special Farm to Table Dinner Experience. Fire & Farm on June 28 at 5PM
We would love to see you on Sunday, June 28 at Fire & Farm, our farm to table dinner. We are excited about what is to come and would love to welcome you to the farm for an evening of food, fire, and community. For more details and ticket information, visit our website here: deeprootscpsfarm.com (https://shop.deeprootscpsfarm.com/dinners-workshops-and-events)

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What we believe.
We believe a farm can be more than a place that grows food. Deep Roots stands as a family farm where we serve as land stewards. We are first-generation farmers committed to regenerative agriculture, local food access, and community empowerment.

This place is a record in time. It is a place of employment, a place of learning, a place of nourishment, and a place where the love of farming becomes real work. That is what we set out to build. That is what sovereignty looks like in action.

This belief lives in everything we do here. You can read more of our story at deeprootscpsfarm.com/about-our-farm (http://www.deeprootscpsfarm.com/about-our-farm) .

In community,
Cherie, Wisdom and The Deep Roots CPS Farm Family

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If this newsletter moved you, share it with someone who would love it.

To learn more about our CSA, workshops, Sunday tours, and the rhythm of this farm, visit us at
www.deeprootscpsfarm.com

The Freedom of Knowing Your Food by Name Click here for an update from Deep Roots CPS Farm!