Indy Officinalis: Forager + Urban Farmer

Indy Officinalis always thought that growing food in a forest was the last frontier of farming.

In North Carolina, where she grew up, she managed an eight-acre forest farm that focused on cultivating and foraging for plants like mushrooms, berries, herbs, and flowers under the tree canopy. She also managed a community farm that was part of a housing project in an urban, underserved black and brown neighborhood.

“I really thought that I knew everything about growing food,” Indy said. “That I had grown food everywhere, and I could do it in any sort of condition.”
Then, on a visit to Los Angeles in 2019, she stumbled on Skid Row: a swath of downtown where the city’s houseless people live in tents, cars, or shelters.
“It was one of those epiphany moments. It felt so foreign from what I was used to. But also like such a community. And nobody was growing food there that I could see. I thought, this is the last frontier of growing food.”

Indy moved to L.A. and began growing food on Skid Row in a rooftop garden—something of a magical thing in a notoriously urban concrete jungle with next to no green space. She felt it would be the most meaningful work she’d done yet.

Now, she teaches gardening in the L.A. public school systems. She’s writing a book about foraging. She started her own television show on National Geographic, where she goes on the road to visit different innovative farms across the country. She funnels the profits into a micro-farm she created in Leimert Park, on a small plot of land she bought in a historically black community. Her goal is to provide an educational model for growing food.
“I’ve always wanted to have my own farm on my own land. At first I wanted to rush and get it done, just start growing food and giving it away. Then I realized there’s such a beauty in slowing things down, and being really intentional.”

Indy wanted to rehabilitate the land in a way that felt authentic to the area, and her own interests and needs. She rented goats to clear the place instead of relying on tractors and the accompanying fossil fuels. She hired people who had immigrated from Mexico, with whom she built relationships, to cut down palm trees and harvest the date palms.

And she’s done it all without a formal education in agriculture. After a year of college, Indy opted instead to volunteer on different organic farms in the U.S. “I traded my time for a place to live and learned how to grow food in different areas.”

For years, Indy had trouble calling herself a farmer. But one of the people who empowered her to think differently was a man from Skid Row; while Indy has some big-name idols she looks up to, she’s most inspired by the everyday folks she meets.

Jonathan used to help me with the compost. He and I would have these deep discussions about soil microbiology. He inspired me through his hard work and ethic. He was the one who said, “No, you’re a farmer. Anyone who grows food is a farmer.” I’m a person who provides food to my community.”

The kids she works with are also an inspiration. She teaches at school gardens in Compton and Inglewood. “People don’t even like to drive their car in some of these places. And it’s really neat to be able to hang out with kids and grow food, to witness and be a part of the resiliency of traditionally underserved neighborhoods.”

Those kids have even changed her negative thinking around chemically processed foods. “I’ve learned from them how culturally relevant and how healing snack foods can be, and how food can be medicinal, even if it doesn’t necessarily have these nutrient-dense properties to them.