“The future of food isn’t on a grocery store shelf—it’s in the soil of your garden, whether that starts on an acre of land, or in a cup on your apartment balcony.”
–Beats, Beds & Browns
In Northwest Indiana, a powerful grassroots effort aims to fight food insecurity by connecting 100,000 people with gardening and homegrown food over 10 years. Joseph Skibbie, founder of the Beats, Beds & Browns brand, is behind #100kin10yrs and believes that, although simple, sending a packet of seeds to thousands of people across the nation can be transformative.
“Put some seeds in the ground and get started,” Skibbie says. “Hopefully, you’ll get hooked, and you’ll see the physical, emotional, and mental well-being benefits from that task […] I feel so overwhelmingly happy when I’m in the garden. How could I not share that with other people?”
Skibbie came up with the concept of Beats, Beds & Browns during the COVID-19 pandemic. An extrovert by nature, he was desperate to find ways to connect with others while in lockdown. He decided to combine three of his passions: Hip-hop (beats), gardening (beds), and brown spirits (browns) to create educational, entertaining, and empowering conversations with people from diverse backgrounds. In addition to a podcast featuring interviews with artists, gardeners, and distillers, Beats, Beds & Browns now has a community of followers on social media and its website (beatsbedsbrowns.com).
“I didn’t initially see how those were all connected; they were just three random things I was interested in,” Skibbie explains. “But we’re starting to see more urban agricultural installations. You’ve heard of Detroit’s Agrihood [….], and you can’t have whiskey without corn. So, as we interview these distillers, [we’re talking] about how they’re sourcing different ingredients from across the country because of the conditions they’ve been grown in, which provide different flavor profiles for their craft whiskey. I’m always shocked at the straight line and the small business stories of our artists and the distillers as they try to grow brands from scratch.”
Skibbie fell in love with the idea of growing what we eat from seed as a child. It started in kindergarten, with a seed in a styrofoam cup. As he grew older, he spent his summers on a friend’s farm, and he remembers being in awe at the meals prepared with fresh ingredients from the garden.
“The first time I started a garden, it was a 4×6 plot in my first home that I purchased in Dallas, Texas, and it was incredible,” Skibbie recalls. “It’s like the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’: you throw seeds into the ground, and out sprouts something edible and magical.”
He’s passionate about growing food organically, and beyond yielding better-tasting food, Skibbie is amazed by the impact sustainable practices have on his surroundings. Now living on three-quarters of an acre in an HOA community in Northwest Indiana, he has planted many fruit and nut trees, grapevines, and several raised beds. Pollinators and beneficial predatory bugs are drawn to his native plants, helping keep his garden productive and pest-free, eliminating the need for chemical products, which also benefits human health.
“I had a brother who had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. They say that that’s contributed to Roundup and glyphosate,” Skibbie explains. “[Through] native landscaping, I can save seeds. With heirloom garden plants, you can save seeds. So, here I am stockpiling all these seeds, and it came to me that I could be distributing those.”
The #100kin10yrs Movement
The #100kin10yrs movement was created to connect people to the three topics Skibbie loves to explore, and because he’s a firm believer that grassroots initiatives are vital to building local food movements and establishing food security. A member of the NWI Food Council, Skibbie has watched his COVID- and future-retirement pet project snowball into something much bigger. He’s participated in speaking opportunities with various health organizations, their cardiac recovery units, and ‘healthy food matters’ programming. He wants to spread the word that people can grow carrots in a loose bag of potting soil or some fresh herbs in a coffee cup on their kitchen windowsill, entirely avoiding a supermarket for the items they love to eat.
“If you’re not growing, where are you going to get fresh produce when, in three days, the grocery store is empty?” Skibbie says. “I’m not a doom and gloom guy, but that’s kind of what we as a nation saw during COVID. So, having your supply chain local, having access to trade and barter, and having canned goods. I’m not homesteading, but we definitely have our sauce, our pears from our tree, our peppers and pickled peppers and other things that we’ve grown and have now stored.”
The seed kits contain half a teaspoon of carrot, lettuce, dill, or chaos seeds and a letter welcoming participants with information on what Beats, Beds & Browns is up to in its current season. Skibbie has created a ton of content on his platforms that helps people get started, from planting the seed in a cup to transplanting into bigger pots and eventually getting the seedling outside. His goal is to make #100kin10yrs as simple as possible and remove any barriers to growing food.
In addition to some excellent growing content, Skibbie features his musical interests on his podcast and social media platforms. Beats, Beds & Browns has met many artists across the United States who are revitalizing their neighborhoods with growing food at the core.
“I hear people, and they’ve got a black thumb, or everything they grow dies, and it’s like, no, that’s not true. Let’s show you the right way to do it,” he says. “When somebody gets a seed kit, they share their progress and journey and tag us in it. We’ve had that happen a couple of times this year, and we’re really happy to see it. That spreads the joy back.”
Over the last three years, 3,000 people have participated in #100kin10yrs. Skibbie will ship anywhere in the 48 contiguous states; all you have to do is sign up for the kit at beatsbedsbrowns.com, and you can expect to receive it within 30 days, sooner as we approach the growing season. The sign-up is completely free with no strings attached. Skibbie’s passion project is entirely self-funded and meant to bridge cultures and communities, sparking conversation, connection with others, and action as the grow-your-own movement becomes increasingly important in fighting food insecurity and boosting mental and physical health.
“Maybe at some point I’ll make some revenue on something that we’re doing. But the long-term goal is retirement,” Skibbie explains. “If I can be listening to amazing artists around my garden and have a cocktail when I’m through, that’s a pretty good retirement by my book.”
Join this positive, hands-on solution and enjoy tons of unique content at beatsbedsbrowns.com
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