Farming With a City View

A story of resilience, self-sustainability, and urban farming

Juan Camacho's herd of goats gather around for treat time. Annie Holmquist

From the front, Juan Camacho’s house and yard looks like most others along the city parkway on which he lives in Minnesota’s St. Paul-Minneapolis urban sprawl. But hidden behind the gray-sided Cape Cod house is “Esperanza Farm,” complete with chickens, goats, honeybees, and a garden.

Those who discover Camacho’s city secret often mistakenly assume that his interest in farming stems from a childhood spent in Mexico, but nothing could be further from the truth. A born city-slicker, Camacho’s foray into urban farming unfolded largely by happenstance.

Adapt and Overcome

A bout of terrible allergies was the first thing that set the course for Esperanza Farm. Camacho was knocked down with them for weeks as a transplant to the area roughly a dozen years ago, so his mother suggested he find a little local honey to fix the problem. “You take in a little bit of poison at a time” with the honey made from local pollen, Camacho said, and “your body gets used to it and it doesn’t bother you anymore.”