The Side Yard: Micro Crops Growing in Popularity

The scarecrow at The Side Yard.

The scarecrow is really only a square piece of painted plywood that stands no more than two feet tall, and when the wind blows, its dozen mylar arms wave away the crows.

You can find the scarecrow on a quarter-acre of land atop a small hill off a small stretch of a gravel road in the quiet of the Cully neighborhood in Northeast Portland. It's near an aging and rather undistinguished house, around which curves a small patch of what was once a yard, but is now a very small urban farm providing some of the city's top chefs a healthy range of leafy plants, vegetables, herbs and decorative, edible flowers.

Stacey Givens: From Kitchen Call Girl to Renaissance Woman

When the weather's forgiving and cooperative, you can find Anastacia Givens, who goes by the diminutive and less exotic, Stacey, in the yard planting starts and harvesting crops. The youngest of six brothers and sisters, Givens was born to a first generation Greek mother and a California native Vietnam veteran. in her early 20s, she left the comforts of family, and Southern California, to learn about the restaurant industry, first in Sacramento (where she earned a degree in restaurant management) then in San Francisco (where she interned at Millennium, the nation's premiere vegan restaurant). Five years ago, she moved to Portland.

Having worked in kitchens for nearly half of her 28 years, Givens could well be on her way to becoming what one calls a Renaissance woman, although that's a title she'd probably just shrug off. (Until recently, she considered herself a "kitchen call girl," since she's often available to fill shifts in a pinch for various Portland kitchens; she's since been offered a sous chef position at Vino Paradiso, where she'll start work late this summer or in early fall).

For a year-and-a-half, until it closed its doors, Givens worked at Rocket (where Noble Rot now stands), cooking and working the rooftop garden under her mentor, master gardener extraordinaire Marc Boucher-Colbert, where she says she fell in love with growing food. When Rocket closed, she embarked on a head-clearing breather to France, Italy and Greece, and decided that, upon returning home, she was going to find a way to continue farming.

Lilliputian Revolution: Chef's Candy Store

"What truly inspired me to start The Side Yard was my drive to be just as creative with growing food as I am with cooking food," she says. "I don't want to be just another urban farm, I want to be a chefs' candy store.'" So Givens decided upon two twists: she'd sell her yields to local kitchens, and she'd think small.

In 2009, using some of the money she'd saved, Givens went to work, finding land to lease and then planting it with shoots she started in her Irvington apartment. For the next several weeks (while cooking for Lincoln Restaurant, gardening at Noble Rot and helping open The Original restaurant as a prep cook), she and handfuls of "volunteers" (very good friends upon whom she heavily leans and pays with goods during harvests) helped her clear land. They built raised beds and compost bins. They installed an irrigation system that would water plants from the rainwater caught by the rain barrels they built. Everything would be reused. And then, over several weeks of long 10-hour days, they planted the first crops.

Shortly after mid-May of that year, Side Yard pulled, cleaned and delivered that first crop: micro radishes.

"When people saw the radishes, they just kind-of flipped out," recalls Givens.

Soon, Givens was making the rounds with flats and clamshells of farm-fresh produce and quickly learning the ropes of sales. And Portland's chefs took notice, enriching with her produce, nightly dishes at Beast, El Gaucho, Lincoln Restaurant, Lucy's Table, Ned Ludd, Southpark, The Original, Veritable Quandary and Vino Paradiso.

"We adore her," says Veritable Quandary's Chef Annie Cuggino. "Stacey calls us a couple of times a week and lets us know what's available," and points out that Side Yard's delivered produce is always "immaculate, pretty and super-fresh."

"She really takes care in picking only the best," Cuggino says, "And when it comes to trimmings and washings, she's a perfectionist."

Not too shabby then—for a hobby—which is what Givens ultimately considers The Side Yard.

Or perhaps it's just the first step in cooking, because food is where she puts her passion. Plant it, grow it, tend it, cook it, share it, eat it. It doesn't matter because her world revolves around it. She speaks and writes of it almost like a young, inspired Romantic with a knack for being industriously practical. In other words, for Givens, food is not a crush. It's that kind of lifelong love, that even when it's quiet, can still find some way to surprise you.

This relationship, she says, is inspired by her "cute lil' Greek mother and her need to feed people," and who made nearly everything from scratch every single day.

"People melted when they ate her food," she says. "When I was old enough to cook for myself, I cooked for other people instead—I wanted to give people that same feeling." And home, she says, no matter where it is, is in the kitchen. "Farmer or chef, doesn't matter, your are part of a family. I wouldn't trade that for anything."

Side Yard Brunch: It's Who You Know That Counts

Which is why, in addition to keeping sharp her cooking skills and giving her the chance to use her own harvests, she has inaugurated the Sunday Brunch at the farm. "[It] was born from my missing cooking for people."

Each week, she and a group of friends invite the farm's Cully neighbors to a 9 a.m. seating for a morning meal featuring cheeses Givens has made and meats she's cured from the pig she butchered.

"Everything is farm-fresh, everything's made from scratch and pretty much everything served at the table somehow comes from the farm," she says.

Local chefs and their crews, as well as Side Yard volunteers, make up the the second 11:30 a.m. seating.

Brunches have so far been a hit (she's considering swapping out brunches for Sunday dinners this September), but there is one somewhat discouraging catch: one must be invited, making her and her team good people to know.

But even if you can't get to know her, don't worry. She's hungry and, remember, she's not even 30. That, and she can already picture her own restaurant in her head: it's farm-to-table in a Victorian house, and diners will eat family-style at long, shared tables.

"It's been a dream, and it's going to happen…" she says, letting the end of her sentence trail matter-of-factly off, probably scheming more than dreaming to make that dream work.

The Side Yard is currently growing plenty of mircro crops (carrots, radishes, edible flowers, borage, amethyst basil, cucumbers), as well as heirloom tomatoes (green zebras and brandywines), cherry tomatoes, squash, shiso, frisée, lettuce, chard and berries. To volunteer or to inquire about available produce, cracking the brunch list, starting your own urban farm or learning about which plants from the Periodic Table of Vegetables make the best tattoos, call 503.957.4588, or visit www.thesideyardpdx.com.