Before Janett Lewis started Rustic Roots Sanctuary she had her own community garden in her front yard. Neighbors near and far would stop by to help with planting, picking weeds, and the overall upkeep of the small garden.
“It went from a community garden to a fully functioning farm,” said Janett Lewis, owner, and operator of the seven-acre Rustic Roosts Sanctuary.
Upon entering the farm you get a whiff of her herbs, mint, lemon balm, basil, and dill. The welcoming atmosphere sweeps you into this country-like setting, away from the hustle and bustle of St. Louis, and gently places you in an oasis that feels 100 miles away from the Arch.
“When I’m in that dirt, I’m connected to my father and grandfather and all the ones that came before them, it’s empowering for me,” said Janet Lewis. “I would like to see my people grow their own food, taking back their power.”
Lewis made her way to St. Louis by way of Atlanta and San Diego with a vision to start a women’s wellness retreat. She wanted to create a holistic healing space that incorporated gardening and farming for women battling traumatic experiences.
Lewis candidly expresses her experiences with trauma, she wants to help women tune in, and cancel out the noise through yoga and meditation, then they could tap into their source of power.
But how was Lewis going to fund this dream?
She got into real estate in San Diego, and for 14 years she did very well for herself, she started house hunting for homes closer to the southern regions to get her dream going. She looked at housing markets in Tennessee and Georgia and stumbled across St. Louis. She discovered how affordable the homes in Spanish Lake are compared to other houses on the market.
In 2015 Lewis bought a few homes in Spanish Lake and over a few years she had six rental properties in Spanish Lake.
After two years of being a landlord, Lewis had acquired enough funds to put into her long-awaited sanctuary and decided to sell all but one of her properties.
“The first two years everything I had, my time, energy, heart, and money, all of it went into creating this space I had envisioned so long ago,” said Lewis.
Rustic Roots Sanctuary became a 501c 3 at the beginning of 2020, and for almost three years Lewis spends up to 12 hours on her farm cultivating the land. She grows corn, beans, okra, carrots, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and watermelon and that’s not the whole list. This talented woman of the land loves being in nature, surrounding herself with things created from the earth.
However, if it weren’t for the volunteers, she says she doesn’t know how she would have gotten this far.
“To get to this point, when we didn’t have anyone helping us except for the volunteers, it was a lot of work. There were times I was like, what was I thinking, what did I get myself into,” said Lewis.
When Lewis went to the community to ask for their help with the community garden they were on board. She says that everyone worked together, they got the garden beds up and before she knew it they had started feeding themselves.
“It just became a neighborhood thing, we were like ‘we’re going to feed ourselves, so let’s do this,” said Lewis.
The community garden grew into this sanctuary, seven acres of food and animals. Orchards of peach trees, almond trees, pecan trees, and elderberry trees. Move a few feet to the left or right, and then you have sweet potatoes, asparagus, and blackberry bushes.
And just a catty-corner from all that goodness is the bee farm because Lewis is also a beekeeper who produces her honey in partnership with Solidarity Economy St. Louis & Rebirth.
Farmer extraordinaire!
And if your mouth isn’t watering yet, Lewis grows collard greens, beets, and lettuce.
All of these delicious foods are available at her farmer’s market every Wednesday starting June 29 until mid-October from 4:00 pm until sunset.
Visitors can stop by every Wednesday at Rustic Roots Sanctuary and buy affordable healthy food right from the farm. Booths are set up in a loop, items sell between $1 to $3 a pound, local bands will serenade you as you shop, and vendors from around the area can set up and sell their unique products.
Lewis says her farmer’s market is a necessity, especially in the Spanish Lake community because it only has one grocery store, after three nearby Shop N Save stores closed in 2019. She says having only one close grocery store to shop at created a sort of monopoly in her community, she noticed the prices were going up and the quality of food was going down.
“I don’t know how people can afford to shop at grocery stores anymore,” said Lewis.
She thought about the senior and disabled communities in Spanish Lake and her heart aches for them because she wondered how they would get food.
Lewis decided to start the Senior Program at the sanctuary, she delivers bags of free produce to the senior and disabled community members every Thursday.
Lewis says since she moved to St. Louis people have been lined up to help her, and local and non-local organizations have helped with funding her dream sanctuary.
“This is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing, it’s been easier since things started to fall into place,” said Lewis.
Lewis received a grant from the Art & Education Healing Counselor for her culinary arts program on the farm, where she leads a class in making herbal medicine.
“Those kinds of blessings made me realize how important this is to our whole community,” said Lewis.
And the blessings just keep pouring in for Lewis, she also received a grant for a 40ft diameter yurt, which is a sustainable building structure where she plans to hold yoga and meditation classes on the farm.
Farming is a part of Lewis’ heritage, her father and grandfather worked on the family farm in Georgia on a 150-acre plantation.
Lewis believes a lot of Black and brown communities don’t realize that growing your food is power, you can heal your body with what you grow in your backyard. She says we can save so much money by eating from the land we live on. And says that the people who know have the responsibility to teach those around them.
It is something spiritual for her to have her hands in that dirt, growing food from the soil.
“When I’m in that dirt, I’m connected to my father and grandfather and all the ones that came before them, it’s empowering for me,” said Lewis. “I would like to see my people grow their own food, taking back their power.”
For more information on Rustic Roots Sanctuary visit the website at https://rusticrootssanctuary.org/
Ashley Winters is The St. Louis American Report for America reporter.
