A t 7:30 a.m. on any given day, Jed Riding has already been at work on his Phoenix urban farm, Millennial Food Gardens, for hours. As I pull up to the low gate in front of the garden, I am warmly greeted by Linh La. She and her mother, Ngan Tran, own the local restaurant chain Loving Hut. La, a petite woman who wears two different-colored sneakers and a sport coat and exudes genuine warmth, is a frequent visitor at the garden. She met Riding two years ago while he dined at one of her restaurants. Since then, the two have formed a symbiotic relationship based on their love of building commu- nity, helping others and promoting sustainable practices. La and her mother are both longtime vegans and opened their first Loving Hut in Glendale on Union Hills Drive and 35th Avenue 17 years ago. Subsequently, they opened other locations, most recently in Peoria. “Our mission is good for you, good for the planet, good for the animals,” La explains. Since opening, La has stuck to this ethos by eliminating food waste and giving meals to those in need. “On a given day, we’ll give out five to 30 meals between the three restaurants,” La says. In Arizona, one in seven people are food insecure, according to the nationwide network of food banks, Feeding America. So this kind of help is essential. With shared interests of helping others and being good stewards of the environment, La and Riding’s introduc- tion was serendipitous. As we walk into the farm, Riding rushes to turn down the soft rock music playing loud enough to reach every corner of the three-quarter-acre property. “It’s for the plants,” the septuage- narian says with a smile. Riding grew up in Phoenix. His father kept a home garden, and after Riding got married, he continued the tradition by planting his own. In 2020, Riding retired from his career in education and found himself with more time on his hands. Looking to do something meaningful, he soon put his gardening experience to use. Riding’s brother-in-law, Ben Schaub, owned an unused lot just west of Interstate 17. For several years, it sat vacant, save for the occasional unshel- tered person and lots of rocks. Then, Schaub came across a way of gardening developed in the 1960s called the Mittleider Method. Schaub attended a conference on the method, developed by Dr. Jacob R. Mittleider, which focuses on using elements of organic gardening and a precise mix of nutrients to feed plants, generating high yields in small spaces. Schaub created his own backyard garden using this method, and to Riding’s astonishment, it was full of thriving plants in the middle of July. Wanting to expand on the success of the home garden, the duo got to work. As with many of the other thousands of vacant lots in Phoenix, the space had become a venue for drug use. It took clearing eight tons of rock and many used needles to make the land suitable for gardening. Riding encountered other chal- lenges as well. “Some of the frustrating things getting started are, you don’t know what you don’t know,” Riding says. For instance, APS would not provide electricity to the property unless it housed a structure. So, Riding enlisted the help of friends and family to install solar panels on the roof of the preexisting shipping container, which provide just enough electricity to run the timers for the watering system, and a mini fridge to keep drinking water cool. Riding also had to have the water line capacity to the property increased to effi- ciently water the plants. In August 2024, they finished clearing out the lot and created Millennial Food Gardens. Soon, the small urban farm began to flourish. “Right now, we’re donating 150-plus pounds a week to non-profit organiza- tions,” Riding says. These include the local fire department, Valley View Community Food Bank and religious institutions in the area. La esti- mates, to date, the nonprofit urban farm has donated an impressive 14,000 pounds of food. TENDING THE GARDEN Schaub’s dream is for every community in Arizona to have a similar garden. However, not every neighborhood has a Jed Riding. “It’s a lot of work,” Riding says. “I came in and this thing was just a mess. It was lopsided. The container was over in the corner, buried in two feet of dirt. There was no back wall.” He leveled the ground, moved the container, built walls around the property, hauled away 16,000 pounds of rocks and installed garden beds. To water the hundreds of plants, Riding engineered an eco-friendly, high-pressure irrigation system that quickly brings water directly to plant roots, reducing waste. “There are seven different zones. And each zone gets watered for one minute every day,” Riding explains. He also gives the plants a weekly dose of minerals, including magnesium and copper. “What’s really genius about this place is that it’s so modular. It’s very easy to go from one bed to another, turn off the water on one bed,” La adds. “I want to learn more about gardens. Jed’s been teaching me so much. We (all) need to think about sustainability.” Riding shares this sentiment, and runs the garden as a model for what people can do at their own homes. “It doesn’t matter how big or how small your backyard is. We literally can help you create what we’ve done on a smaller scale. You can have a row that has lots of different vegetables in it,” Riding says. He offers free advice to anyone who visits the farm, and has donated sawdust to people trying to start their own gardens. We approach a bed overflowing with green leaves. Riding bends down, plucks a stem out of the earth and several small white potatoes freely emerge. Digging down slightly with his sturdy hands, he pulls out four more small potatoes. “We don’t use any kind of pesticides. Everything’s really clean,” Riding explains. He knows exactly what goes into the soil, including a blend of filtered sawdust, sand and minerals. To control pests, Riding turns to all- natural methods and takes care to remove affected plant leaves before pests spread. How a restaurant owner and a retiree doubled down on a vacant lot in Phoenix. BY MELISSA PICKERING
