Published On: 05.18.24 | 

By: Audrey Atkins

Florence, Alabama’s Kodachrome Gardens is a testament to innovation and community

Kodachrome Gardens aims to help solve food insecurity issues in the Shoals. (contributed)

In the heart of Florence, Alabama, just a couple of blocks from the University of North Alabama, a dream has taken root and begun to flourish.

The idea for Kodachrome Gardens came to Adam Morrow, a working musician in bands like Speckled Bird, Belle Adair and John Paul White’s touring band, during 2020 when he was unable to play live shows. Now, what started as a small pandemic project behind Single Lock Records is a working farm that’s more than just a few rows of vegetables — it’s a testament to hard work, innovation and community.

A Tuscaloosa native who graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in literature, Morrow admits that it was music that first brought him and his wife, Natalie, to Florence. He laughingly admits, however, that the life of a touring musician is the polar opposite to running a garden. “But I was drawn to [farming] because it was something that’s concrete,” he says. “You experience seasons and watch things change and manual labor makes – makes me, at least – feel good. It’s tethering.”

But the seeds for Kodachrome Gardens were planted even before the pandemic. “It really started with me and my wife, Natalie, and our friend Matt Golley, who’s in real estate here in town. We all shared a love of gardening that existed before the pandemic, but, obviously, we all had a lot more time during that to dig deeper,” Morrow recalls. As it happened, Golley had a little piece of land on the west side of Florence, and one day he took Morrow to see it and speculate about how they could put it to the best use. “We batted ideas around for months until we thought, what if we do a market garden that is community-facing?”

Kodachrome Gardens grows fresh produce for community residents and local businesses. (contributed)

Unlike other community garden models that offer a plot for community members to work themselves, Kodachrome Gardens has an onsite farmstand that suggests prices but operates on a pay-what-you-can basis and donates vegetables to agencies like the Shoals Dream Center, which provides food, clothing and counseling resources to underserved communities in the area. “It grew out of a desire to have super fresh food as local as possible because we’re less than a mile from basically everybody that eats our food,” Morrow says of their west Florence neighborhood, which could be characterized as a food desert.

But the journey from field to fork doesn’t end there. At Kodachrome Gardens, community is as important as crops, and Morrow takes pride in sharing the fruits of his labor not only with his neighbors and those in need, but with local businesses like Odette and Rivertown Coffee Co.

“Food insecurity is a big issue that Kodachrome is looking to help here in the Shoals,” says Odette Chef Josh Quick. “Partnering with them helps to give a steady revenue stream that keeps their goal attainable. From a culinary standpoint, it’s amazing to get this beautiful produce grown at an urban farm in downtown Florence.”

And to keep the cycle going, Quick and his team send their vegetable waste back to Morrow to use as compost for the next crop.

Morrow remembers Quick coming to him about a year ago to say that he was interested in buying produce. “I thought, all right, we gotta come correct on this. You know, there’s a high bar there, but it also feels good to cut something for Odette and cut something for the Dream Center. And it’s identical. [The produce] goes out and it’s going to the plates of people at Odette who can afford a nice Friday and Saturday night out and it’s going to the Dream Center. They’re eating the same food. And to me, that’s really special. Everybody deserves the dignity of nutritious food.”

Kodachrome Gardens uses a no-till approach in which compost and other organic material is built up on top of the ground. (contributed)

Morrow and Lauren Cox, the only other full-time employee, work tirelessly to cultivate an array of crops such as tomatoes, greens, peppers, okra, beans and herbs. “I really want to focus on how much goodness we can get from this plot of land. We still have a ton to learn about how effective we can be, so to me, let’s get every corner that we can functioning in the way that it should be.”

What sets Kodachrome Gardens apart is Morrow’s spirit of innovation. Always eager to try new things, he’s constantly experimenting with cutting-edge growing techniques and sustainable practices. “We had a very clear vision of how we wanted to do it with a no-dig or a no-till approach,” he says. Through this method, in which compost and other organic material is built up on top of the ground, Morrow can make sure he does not deplete the nutrients in the .65-acre farm while he grows what he believes are more nutrient-dense vegetables. Basically, he says, healthier soil yields healthier plants. He also doesn’t use any chemicals on the plants. “We’re really just trying to see what’s possible at scale on a very local level.”

As Kodachrome Gardens continues to grow and evolve, Morrow remains committed to his vision of a farm that nourishes both body and soul. With plans to expand the farm’s offerings and educational programs, he hopes to inspire a new generation of farmers and food lovers to embrace the beauty and bounty of the land.

“For most of human history, there have been little farms ringing a city that brought the goods in every day. And that’s how people were fed. Instead of moving food from Florida and California all that distance, in a place like Florence, there could be a dozen Kodachromes all thriving. I know that sounds very idealistic, a very ‘hippie’ outlook on it, but I don’t find it to be that at all. It’s just a part of our history, especially as Southerners, that we’ve forgotten.”

This story was previously published by This is Alabama. Want to read more good news about Alabama? Sign up for the This is Alabama newsletter here.