Birds of a Feather: Getting to Know Crabtree Farms
Each newsletter, we’ll spotlight a different group out there doing the hard work in different ways, and ALWAYS keeping this whole ecosystem of care alive. Because every piece matters, and together, we’re building something bigger than any one of us.
For the second Newsletter - we’re talking with Sarah Wiatrek from Crabtree Farms.
Crabtree Farms | Chattanooga's Community Farm
Crabtree Farms is a true gem. Sitting within the city of Chattanooga Tennessee, Crabtree is a hard working, community driven farm. Their “get-your-hands-dirty” approach towards education, providing equitable food access, and community building is an inspiration. I was lucky enough to sit down with Sarah Wiatrek, Greenhouse and Gardens Coordinator, on a bright and early winter morning under the Oak tree in front of the Crabtree offices. I first met Sarah when I volunteered with Crabtree in 2024, and it is a distinct honor to bring this interview to you.
The interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
TDK - So you can just introduce yourself and where we're at today.
CTF - My name's Sarah Wiatrek. I am the Greenhouse and Gardens Coordinator, and we are at Crabtree Farms.
TDK - You specifically work in the greenhouse, is that correct?
CTF - Yes, but to me, it's more of a nursery. We do a lot of different types of propagation, and because we propagate plants and keep plants for so long,I feel like it's more of a nursery operation.
TDK - So how does that idea of a nursery, a sort of incubator tie into Crabtree’s mission?
CTF - We have many different programs here, but we have two main programs for people to get hands-on experience. So you can work in the fields with the farm, alongside the farmer, really learning about big picture sustainable farming. Or you can work in the nursery setting, where we really focus more on plant care, and propagation. These plants we then offer to the community at our two big plant sales, which are in the fall and spring.
TDK - You guys have a Community Garden, as well?
CTF - Yea, the Community Garden beds and the Emerging Farmer program. Both programs are meeting our goal of getting people access to land. So, the people who live in this zip code, in this neighborhood, can have a free garden bed, and then others can rent a bed. And then we also have events, like educational opportunities for them to learn about different topics. So, if you don't know how to garden, there's opportunities to come and learn, so you're not just having a garden bed and not knowing what to do with it. And then the emerging farmer program is for people to have a larger plot of land, and this is a USDA grant. There's three farmers now, some of them are very advanced farmers, and then the other people are new farmers, so they're just learning for the first time. They're paired with a mentor who helps them figure out what they want to grow, how to grow it, and then how they can take those to market if they want to.
TDK - I want to come back to Crabtree’s mission of education. Crabtree works with so many volunteers. What, in your mind, is the real service of that education to the community at large?
CTF - Well, I feel like the best way to answer that is to say people come here to get what they want and leave with what they want. So, when you work with the farmer, you'll learn more about crops and crop management, and how to harvest and care for the crops. And then the longer you stick around, the more you get from it, because you become connected with the seasons. Which unless you spend time outside working with plants, you often kind of forget. And then you really start learning how the seasons impact what you do. In the greenhouse you're learning more about propagation; cutting plants, starting some from seed, and building different soil mixtures.
We just get to talk to people about plants and I'd like to think of it more as a communal education; everyone shows up with different backgrounds and we are creating this space where people are having conversations and sharing what they know. We have a lot of master gardeners, and sometimes we just have people who've been farming or gardening for a long time, who all share knowledge.
TDK - As a former volunteer myself, I feel like one thing that Crabtree does is offer people a setting to develop a sort of ecological literacy, or, like you said, just to work outside, and absorb everything that is going on.
CTF - Yeah, exactly. And, it is our hope that people will take the information and go home with it and use it. The more people can get back in touch with the seasonality of the Earth, to me, that's the most beneficial. And maybe it's not the education so much that benefits people, but it's the fact that people come, and they talk with each other, because so much of what people are craving right now is community. And a lot of people come here who have just moved into town and want to meet new people, or sometimes people show up, and they're going through a really hard time in their life. And they just need to connect with people. So a lot of people leave with friends. And I think also that benefits the community, maybe more than the education.
TDK - Crabtree has been here for a long time, right?
CTF - Yeah, so we've been a nonprofit for 27 years. But the farm, the land used to be a plantation. And then before that, it was farmed by the indigenous people that lived here. So it has been in agricultural use for hundreds of years. That’s a big piece that's missing in our story. And that we're trying to figure out how to honor everyone that has farmed here. Some people were forced to do it. Some people were forced off [the land]. So how do we tell that story?
TDK - Having been here a long time, the farm is sort of embedded in the community, but do you think there's something about Crabtree that people don't know?
CTF - Well, I feel like people are often surprised that this place even exists. A lot of people don't know about Crabtree. There are neighbors down the street who will walk in and tell us they didn't know this place was here. So that's another big thing that we're trying to work on is just trying to get people to know that we're here. And it is a public space, so people can just come and exist here. It's weird when you're here, you're like, ‘Wow, I'm in the middle of a city!’
TDK - So what is Crabtree up to in 2026?
CTF - Well, so last fall, there was a restructuring. And so, right now, we're definitely in a moment of transition. The nursery is going to more native plants. There's a huge desire for that here. So in Chattanooga, or in this area in general, the ecology here is so unique and special. And there's a lot of people who want to grow native plants. And what we are excited about is teaching about growing them to increase habitat and how that can also be beneficial for growing food that you eat. It is exciting to be that first touch point with growing natives. And that's really my passion. So, we're gonna be doing that more, and our hope is that we can make these things more available and affordable.
So habitat. Access. These are important things. And we are thinking about food systems, and how habitat benefits the food system, because we don't exist here just as humans, and it's about building healthy communities. But it takes a while to heal a space; we've changed our land, we've changed the way we interact with each other, and the way we interact with other creatures so much, it takes a long time to heal that.
TDK - Which is an interesting aspect of this place, correct me if I'm wrong,but Crabtree has a long-term contract with the city, right?
CTF - Yea, Crabtree's not going anywhere. So Crabtree is a nonprofit that basically leases the land from the city. The land was donated to the city with the agreement that it would remain in agricultural use, so that is how we are protected space. So it did take someone with a bold and big heart to donate this. Especially in a city that's so industrialized and developed. I think its pretty great that one person did that, and we've all been benefiting from it for a long time.