In November, Lauri Kranz and her husband, Dean Kuipers, opened LA HOMEFARM, a greengrocer on Eagle Rock Boulevard that offers locally sourced produce from small farms, including their farm in Glassell Park. Before undertaking this venture, Kranz founded Edible Gardens LA which specializes in designing, building and maintaining gardens.
Kuipers, who is a former journalist and the author of many books, including the recent “Deer Camp“, said that when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, many farmers were left with produce and no outlet to sell. Simultaneously, Kranz began receiving requests for produce deliveries.
“People started calling Lauri and saying, ‘Do you have produce? Could you deliver?’” Kuipers said. “We did not have enough on our own small farm to deliver, so we started working with a bunch of other farmers and delivering.”
After over two years of making produce deliveries, Kuipers and Kranz created their grocery store LA HOMEFARM. Outside of produce, they also sell home goods and food products from local stores such as bread from Bub and Grandma’s wholesale bakery.
Bub and Grandma’s owner Andy Kadin said he has worked with Kranz and Kuipers and admires their dedication to creating a business that is beneficial for both the environment and their customers.
“The best way to [manage a business] requires significantly more dedication and time,” Kadin said. “Basically ruining your own life to create something that is sustainable, important to people and real.”
Kranz said that she and Kuipers feel grateful to have the ability to give back to the community that they have built relationships with.
“We love being a neighborhood corner store and meeting all kinds of people and interacting with our customers,” Kranz said. “We continue to love and value the work that we do with the farmers that grow food for us. It’s a very meaningful relationship.”
Kranz and Kuipers work in tandem with local farms in Southern California, namely Weiser Family Farms and Schaner Family Farms.
“[With our own farm] we grow a lot of leafy greens, a lot of flowers, a lot of things that the gophers don’t eat,” Kranz said.
Kranz and Kuipers’ line of work does not come without challenges. They try their best to mitigate food waste and preserve their produce, but they said that working with perishable goods is tricky.
“Keeping the produce in your care all the time is really like having many children,” Kranz said. “You have to consider their needs; they need to find their way out into the world and into other people’s homes.”
“Whether you live in an apartment and can grow some basil, or parsley or kitchen herbs in the sunny window — or if you have space where you can grow herbs in a pot outside your door, you are connecting with the place your food comes from,” Kranz said.
LA HOMEFARM’s mission, according to their website, is to increase people’s access to responsibly and locally grown food that is delicious.
“It’s definitely an admirable approach to operating any business,” Kadin said. “It’s great and something we strive to do here as well.”
Kranz and Kuipers said they believe their business is growing into the vision they had imagined by successfully providing a sustainable service to the neighborhood. According to Kranz, LA HOMEFARM has experienced success in its first few months — they are optimistic that LA HOMEFARM will remain a source of fresh and locally grown produce for the community.
“We want to be able to continue to be a market that brings people food that is grown locally, sustainably and organically,” Kranz said. “We hope to grow with our customers and their needs and become more involved in the community.”
Contact Nate Buckley at nbuckley@oxy.edu
