Patricia Ray: Urban Farmer and Soil Sistah
After we visited two of her farm locations, fed the chickens, prepped for kombucha, sold a goat, administered a few COVID-19 tests (she is also a nurse), she was ready to do my eyebrows (as a trained esthetician).
By Darciea Houston
Dallas Weekly
Mar 26, 2021
Excerpt:
Do me a favor, open your browser on a device that is connected to Wi-Fi. In the search engine, type in “urban agriculture in Dallas, Texas.” What pops up? How do you determine if you are truly supporting urban communities when you support the first few companies that appear? After all, there is a huge difference in supporting businesses that reside within urban communities versus supporting urban enterprises and or urban agriculture.
While you ponder that, let me introduce you to someone who is a true urban farmer and agriculturist. Patricia “Tricia” Ray was coined the “Purple Hull Pea Queen” here in the southern sector of Dallas in 2018 at the We/Me Farmers Market. Alongside those peas, Tricia also grinds up corn on site and sells cornmeal.
Tricia also raises livestock and grows local using organic practices with the intention of helping her customers improve their health and wellness. As an urban farming entrepreneur, Ms. Ray is well known throughout the DFW Metroplex. Her produce and farm egg subscriptions are not only a hit at farmers markets, restaurants and catering companies vie for her produce as well. Yet, you will not find her farm or any other black-owned and/or black-operated farm or agricultural information readily apparent to connect people of color to other people of color in agriculture when searching the web. Do you agree?
