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ORAL HISTORY
Michael and Lindy Dean
Terra Preta Farm
Michael Dean, born in 1970, and his wife, Lindy Dean, born in 1978, grow produce for Birmingham restaurants. Michael waited tables at Bottega from 1996 to 2001, at a time when Stitt began building a network of local farmers. Stitt asked his employees if anyone wanted to grow vegetables. Dean took him up on his offer. Dean continued to wait tables and grow vegetables for two years before he began to farm full time in 2001. Lindy began to volunteer at Dean’s farm that same year. In 2003, Michael and Lindy became business partners.
Today, Michael and Lindy grow vegetables and herbs for Highlands and more than a dozen other Birmingham restaurants. Now called Terra Preta, their farm in Vincent, Alabama, catalyzed a network of small farmers that now feeds a city increasingly dedicated to locally grown food.