From PE Teacher To Soul Farmer

He didn’t just switch jobs, he switched directions. One day Tyrean Lewis is teaching PE and mentoring kids in St. Louis. A few turns later he’s managing teams, trying to “do the responsible thing,” and still feeling that internal pull that says, this isn’t it.

Then food becomes the wake-up call. After a year of eating vegan and chasing healthier options, Tyrean starts noticing what’s missing in his own neighbourhood: real produce, consistent quality, and simple access. He connects the dots to food deserts and food justice and makes a decision that sounds small at first, grow something in buckets, but quickly becomes a full-on urban farming mission. We talk about the risk of leaving steady work, the rough first seasons, and the lesson he learns the hard way.

Tyrean also brings a perspective you don’t hear every day in conversations about sustainable agriculture and local food systems. He shares how ancestry, spirituality, and intention shape his identity as a “soul farmer,” including his African naming ceremony and practices that keep him grounded in purpose. From land leases and community trust to accelerators, pitch competitions, grants, and building a real team, Heru Urban Farming grows into a model that mixes farming, education, and outreach, including school field trips and partnerships across the St. Louis metro.

If you’re in a midlife pivot, craving a second half adventure, or stuck in something that no longer fits, this one is a reminder to listen to the knot in your stomach and move anyway. Subscribe to The Mango Times, share this with a friend who needs permission to pivot, and leave a review if the story hits home.
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Guest Information
Tyrean "Heru" Lewis is an urban farmer, educator, and community builder based in the St. Louis area. After years working as a physical education teacher, Tyrean made a bold midlife pivot into regenerative urban farming, founding Heru Urban Farming to help reconnect people with food, health, and the land around them. Through hands-on growing, teaching, and storytelling, he has become a passionate advocate for sustainable agriculture, local food systems, and personal transformation. Tyrean brings a grounded, practical approach to farming while encouraging others to rethink what’s possible in the second half of life.

Resources and Links
Facebook: Heru Urban Farming
Instagram: Heru Urban Farming
Website: Heru Urban Farming

Music used in this episode:
All music in this episode is licensed for use through Epidemic Sound.

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Transcript

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Midlife Adventure And A Big Pivot

Fletch 0:06

Hey, welcome back to the Mango Times podcast where we talk about midlife adventure. This is your host, Fletch, and I love to talk about midlife curiosity, second half adventures, and what it looks like when you take a midlife shift. Today's story is about a man who didn't just change jobs, he literally changed directions. From being a PE teacher to working in management to becoming an urban farmer in St. Louis. Literally, from the gym floor to the soil. I really need to give a shout out to Jason for this recommendation. You were right. Because this interview with Tyrant Lewis is just what you need to hear today. I don't care where you are in life, if you need encouragement, listen to this episode. He will encourage you to take the next step, he will encourage you to take the next risk, and he will encourage you to trust just what your gut is telling you to do. We connected on Zoom, and I was encouraged from the second I saw his face to the moment I hung up. So do me a favor, stay tuned, and enjoy this interview. All right,

A One Minute Bio And Early Turns

Fletch 1:28

welcome, Tyrant, to the Mango Times podcast. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Thank you for having me.

Fletch 1:34

Hey, you know what I want to do for the listeners is I'd love if you would just give us a one-minute bio background of your life.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

The quick version. Okay. All right. So I was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1982. When I graduated from Normie High School here in St. Louis, when I graduated from high school, I became a PE teacher. Well, actually, I didn't know what I wanted to be when I first went to college. And I thought about like, mm-hmm I like kids, I like sports. PE teacher. You know, that's what I came up with. Uh, you know, then over my life, uh, I ended up getting my master's in management, then up being a GM at a local uh um Car Wash Chain called Blue Iguana. Then I went to being an assistant GM at Five Guys, and then I discovered farming. I am a fifth generational farmer. I used to go down to Texas and watch my family grow food, and my great-grandma, she literally be 102 years old and watched her grow food. And I was in, I realized I was living in the food desert and I wanted to do something about it. And that's how I became a farmer.

Fletch 2:30

So take me back, who was Tyran before the farm?

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yeah, so I was a uh young inner city kid, you know, uh loved sports, loved people, a great tight-necked family. You know, went to high school and did all the, you know, all the sport things and, you know, played basketball, played a little football, uh, ran track, and then uh graduated from high school and I went to college. Amazing story about me. You know, I grew up in inner city, so I had a lot of trial, tribulations, and I got kicked out of high school my senior year. We got kicked out of high school, we got peer pressure to have a fight that I didn't want to have. Um, I did it and got kicked out, paid for it. I always was on outro my whole life, but I made that one mistake, and that was like a depression time of my life. I was like, man, I missed up my college. I don't know what I'm gonna do. So I had a best friend and a counselor that did all my college applications for me because I was down and depressed. And I mean, yeah, that's how I went in. The first school accepted me, that's where I went. Went to MacMurray College in 2001. When I got there, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I thought I wanted to do business management. And then I thought about it. I didn't like accounting class and all that stuff. So I'm like, hmm, where do I want to be? I like kids, I like sports, team teaching. And um, and that worked well for me. So I did that, but you know, between 10 and 12 years of teaching and subbing all together. And I still subbed a little bit after I got done teaching because I just, you know, can't resist it. When I did that, and then when I got out of teaching, I ended up again my master's in management. You know, uh, you know, I still do mentoring, I still teach. Um, I teach now what I'm in now. I got my master's, and then I ended up being uh, it's a new car wash chain, came to St. Louis at that time, instead of like 2012. It was Blue Iguana Car Wash. I learned a lot about management when I was in that job because I had a guy named Greg. Uh, he ran them all. He learned a lot. I learned a lot about people, how to treat people, how to treat your workers and stuff like that. That's what I got from the most. Um, after that, uh I was assistant GM at Five Guys. When I did that, that was a smooth job. A couple

Vegan Curiosity Meets A Food Desert

SPEAKER_00 4:21

years before the pandemic, 2018, 2017, I went vegan. I went vegan for a year because I couldn't resist chicken that long. But I did it. Uh and then when I did it, I started, you know, want to get healthy food. So I went to my, and I noticed I don't have any food around me. My notice, there'd be a lot of gas stations, family dollars, dollar generals. You might get some, you know, you might be lucky and find a banana or apple by the cash restaurant, but it's mostly processed frozen foods. So I said, okay, so if people didn't know, in the sales metro area area, over 350,000 people don't have accessible food access in their neighborhood within a half mile of the neighborhood. Um if you do, it's it's it's different from your suburban counterparts. So I did have one within the half mile of my community. I went there and I looked at the fresh food section and I was like, wow, you know, what is going on here? You know, I can't believe it looked like this. So I said, okay, let me go to the one in Central West End. That's like by Slew St. Louis University. That was better. I said, okay. And this is the same grocery store train, too. So I told myself, okay, let me go. When I was a kid, my mom used to drive to Clayton. That's like the suburbs here, like one of the fluent areas in St. Louis. She'd have drive there when we had transportation to get food. So I went there and I've been there since I was a kid. I said, that's why she went here. You know, fresh food everywhere. I mean, it has samples. You can't even get samples in the hood at all. So I said, okay, this is crazy. So let me go one more step. I remember I called West County, that's like the super suburbs, is what I call it. I went up there, and first of all, you know, if you go, if you just see a business that looked that used to look like a Taco Bell or McDonald's, you kind of know what that is. But this particular store looked different from the rest of them. Yeah, pillars and just look like this is nooks. So I went in there and I said, man, I see people cooking sushi. I seen wine telling you where it's from, and the winery inside of there. I'm like, guys, look like this. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna grow my own food in my backyard. So that's what I was doing. I started off with just drawing food in buckets. Yeah, and I started just like that.

Fletch 6:18

Wow. So, so, but initially, you're teaching PE with kids. What did you love about that stage in life?

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Yeah, I loved it. I really did. I love the mentoring aspect of it more than anything. So I thought my first year teaching after elementary school, it was a it was it was unique. It was an alternative elementary school. So that was a school where we had kids, got kicked out of Lementary School people came there. That was that was that I learned a lot there, coached there, then I went to middle school. So I always believed that the worst time in my life was in middle school. And I think and a lot of people avoid teaching middle school, but I loved it. Like your kid can go up or a kid can go down, and it's up, it's up to the mentors and the people in their life to help them move on to the next stage. So I love that, man. All the troubled kids, quote unquote, man, love me, man. They came to my class. I uh the oldest kids I had when I was teaching, they're now like 31, 32. So they still call me coach, they still like Mr. Lewis, all those things. Um I I love the mentorship part of it the most.

Fletch 7:17

Was that the plan at that point? Like, I'm just gonna be a teacher for my life.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

It wasn't. Um, I didn't know what I want to do, but I knew that's what I'm gonna do for now. I know I'm gonna be in some aspect of teaching and mentoring, but not in the school system. So I knew my spirit didn't sit right with it.

Fletch 7:33

And that's where you made the transition into management and said, you know what, this is gonna be the next step.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

It's crazy because it was the next step because I was married at the time. She was in med school, and you know, she's from a family that had some money. So I was thinking, like, man, I need to make some money. So that's what really motivated me. She was always boating me to get my master's and stuff like that. So I went on master's and went into management. Like I said, I know how to manage people, but that I didn't get my um sense of, I guess, pride or or sense of this where I belong from that either. So I was still searching. Yeah.

Fletch 8:08

So was it, I mean, when I looked at your bio, was it just that vegan year that you were like, I I gotta figure out this food thing? Or was that slowly coming on?

SPEAKER_00 8:20

I say a little bit in between. That's when it really hit. But I was getting, I'll get in health counsel. My dad had got prostate cancer. He passed in 2015. He got prostate cancer in 03. They said he had two years to live, but he lived 12 years. And he had high blood pressure, he was a diabetic, all these things, and he changed the way he ate. You know, he changed the way he ate, he changed up and he started, you know, getting better. I believe he lived 10 years past what they said. And I just watched him, watched him, you know, his lifestyle change. So I said, hmm, that's interesting. So I kind of was on that with my dad, watching him change.

Fletch 8:56

So was it curiosity? Was it something pulling you, or were you being pushed to this idea of fresh food, or was it just a revelation?

Ancestors, Spirit Work, And A Name

SPEAKER_00 9:07

To be honest, it was both. It was a revelation, but also I was getting pushed. And be honest, I was getting pushed by my ancestors. I'm a fifth generation reformer, and I believe and I got an ancestor author, so I believe in the spirituality of this, uh, of everything. And um, you know, and I had, man, my ancestors, man. So they was from Paris, Texas. But we got uh uh Ernest Washington, and uh, you got Myra Washington. Uh, those are the two that I researched the most because I looked, I went to a family union one time and I saw, you know, back in back in those days in Texas, I'm talking from 1951 to 54, they had your Negro State Fair, you had your white state fair. And I read all the archives and it said they won first and second and third place in almost everything they grew. You know, like white maize. I saw maize on there, I seen uh sorghum, you know, I seen watermelon, I seen purple hub peas, I seen all these things on this list. And at the time I didn't know what purple hub peas was, or maze, it's gone, but I didn't know that then. Uh so uh I was looking at all this stuff, I'm like, wow, man, they did a lot of stuff, all these news articles and stuff. And like I said, I was blessed. I was born in 1982, and my great-grandma was 82 years old. Well, she said she was born in 1900. Some people think she was born in 1899 because she didn't have a birth certificate then. But she was born food. You know, she grew food all the way in the till the 90s. You know, she lived in 102. So, and I saw her, she was still she was just healthy, man. You know, uh, she didn't have any canes, she didn't have any illnesses, she just died of old age. So I was intrigued from that as well.

Fletch 10:34

So, you know, I'm very interested in the spiritual aspect. I mean, five generations is one thing, but you really talk about a spiritual aspect of it. Matter of fact, you you have a you want to call it a nickname, but you call it a spiritual name. Why don't you tell me a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 10:48

So uh when the Mike Brown uh rise happened, I was out there for that. And I met some natives, some natives that was there. And they asked me to come to North Dakota for the for the Dakota Access Pipeline to uh, you know, have protests with that. So I went up there with them twice. The first time I went, I did something called a sweat. And uh and I also got Choctaw in me, too. I'm also you know, I'm black in Choptaw. So I went there and I did a sweat. It was it was very interesting. It was a thing where women had to go in there, but men and women go in there like basketball shorts, something something that's like loose. You women go in first clockwise, then men go in after that. And we got in here and he got these coals and these stones real hot. I mean, hotter than a sign, like 10 times a sign. And the first thing is just meditate, and you, you know, it's like I call it a spiritual baptism. And I did that, sweat, and I came out of there different. Like I really did, I felt different when I came out of there. And then I did it again a second time, and I seen a vision of like some people danced around the fire, and he said I was singing in a different type of tongue inside of there. But that did something to me. And then so that's then, that's 2015. So we come up to 2019, and then in between those gaps, I had a lot of spiritual journeys. I ended up being a Reiki master, so I'm a Reiki master, and I started on doing getting into altars, ancestor although, all these things. So in 2019, I went to an African naming ceremony, and they gave me that name. So my full African name is Heru De Jedi Adaleke. That means the crown triumphs through the strength of a king. And Heru by itself means king liberator. So I wanted to liberate the people through food. That's why I came up with Heyru Urban Formy. So I'm gonna liberate people through food.

Fletch 12:24

Oh, that's fair. So okay. So do the full name again for me, because I'm gonna Heru, uh the jetty Adalake.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

And that means the crown triumphs through the strength of a king.

Fletch 12:37

And you, man, that's great. I love it. I love that part of the story. So you start traveling through the different counties of St. Louis, and you find out that the farther you get away from your neighborhood, the more food there's available. And your vision is I'm gonna bring this back and start raising food in buckets.

Covid Leap From Jobs To Farming

Fletch 12:57

You're doing another career at this time. So what did you risk by leaving when you were gonna leave that career? What was the risk?

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Man, so when I was in buckets, I never still didn't know what I was gonna do. And then I started manifesting. I was sitting on my porch, I seen a vacant lot, and I was visualizing, I mean, to the minute detail, like I was gonna look over there when I grow food, how the wind's gonna feel, gonna hurt my arm, how people's faces are gonna look. And I visualize this and stuff started rolling in. Um, I got a call from somebody from my alderman. He was like, you know, we got a um uh a garden lease program where you pay five dollars for five years to lease the land as long as you grow food. I said, okay, I can do that. Did that, you know, and then um that's how I kind of first got my foot in the door. This is to ask you a question. I'm gonna get far away from your question. So the risk was, man, so this was this the pandemic, it was 2020. I don't think it was a reason, but really went because the time people were getting laid off. The time I actually went back to teaching for a split second. I was subbing at a three-month, uh, well, it was a two-month subbing assignment. And then when it was over with, it was for alternative room, where all the kids come before they go to alternative school. And it was like, man, we never had an ex-teacher to subbing before. You want to stay for the whole year? And I was like, uh yeah, I'll do it. So then when the year came around, COVID happened. So the kids was out of school. My job had five guys and people getting laid off. So, you know, and then at the time I was in an accelerator called We Power, Elevate Labar program. That's my first time Black and Latinx entrepreneurs. And, you know, and I was and I was working on my hero and performing part of it. Then the pandemic happened, I was working on food, and I just started, people started more and more. I had more customers that had product. And I uh I prayed about it, meditated about it, talked to answers about it, and they told me to do it. So I went out and did on the wheel. Don't get me wrong, I started off hard. I mean, financially, man, my first two years, I didn't make any money. You know, and I was just doing temp service jobs and stuff like that, you know, doing Ubers, stuff like that, but I still kept my eye on the prize and I and I put in, I put in that sweat equity. I believe in you get what you give. So, you know.

Fletch 15:00

So, what did the people around you think when you did this? Your colleagues, your family, did they were they all in or did they think you were crazy?

SPEAKER_00 15:08

They thought I was crazy. I mean, uh, a couple of people was all in. My lady at the time, I was dating, she was my biggest motivator. She was there, but man, they thought I was crazy, man. Like they thought I was crazy when I left teaching. And then, you know, and I got then I got missed, then I stopped doing at the form, and it was like, what are you doing? You know, yeah, so yeah, I thought I was crazy.

Fletch 15:26

So did you tell people what you were planning, or was this just your like you you said, you manifested it and talked to ancestors? Was this were you sharing your vision and your dreams with other people along the way?

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Only people I was really sharing it with was the people that was in my accelerator groups when I was in these cohorts. I was sharing it in there, and people that was real close to me. I didn't really share it with the world because I believe sometimes when you put stuff out with your mouth and it hit other people's brain, sometimes it creates hate. It could be subconsciously too, but I don't want no negative energy to what I'm thinking. So I just kept it to myself.

Fletch 16:02

Okay. So this leap into farming, is it just the five generations? I mean, if you had five generations of you know bankers, would you have gone into banking? Or was why farming? Was it just the generational thing?

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Um no, um, really. I didn't know about the generational thing until I actually got into it. Because I went to a family union after the first year I started doing this, and I heard all this stuff. And I was like, man, like okay. I knew my grandma would tell me stories and stuff like that, but I didn't know how deep it was until then. And I just thought, it just felt good. My dad, before my dad died, he said, do something, your dream dollars me, something that don't feel like work. And this is hard for me, it's hard work and all that, but it don't feel like work. I really love doing it. So I thought, since I love doing it, and I'm the type of guy, I put my mind to it, I'm gonna do it. All my life, if someone says I can't do something, I'm gonna do it. So um, so I so I love it. That would motivates me. When someone say I can't do it, or they look at me crazy, or you know, people look at me like you don't like a former to me, look at me up and down, all that stuff. I love that. Yeah, that that makes me go.

Fletch 17:02

That'll motivate you, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Yeah, people.

Fletch 17:05

Yeah, okay. So yeah, again, it's this just sounds to me like a calling. Like you couldn't resist this.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Yeah.

Fletch 17:13

So 2017, you have three lots, you know, 10,000 something square feet. What makes you go all in rather than just having a garden and going back to the management life?

SPEAKER_00 17:28

What made me go all in was I just seen every step of the way. Even when I think the window closed, it opened up for me. And a new better experience came. I said, If I can keep this pattern up, it's gonna open up for me. You know, like I said, supply and demand was there, my work ethic was there. I I was getting the first year I didn't get too much support. I got some, but after that, when people saw how I was working, support was coming. I really had a good support system. I just felt good about it. I really did.

Fletch 17:57

So you you call yourself a soul farmer.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Yeah.

Fletch 18:02

What does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Okay, so in my in my culture, we got soul food, right? And when soul food, you could uh is it's set up where family come together, you cook from the soul, you put your energy into it, and it's love in your food. I was always told if someone has a bad attitude, don't eat their food. Not saying they're a bad person, but the energy is in that food. So when I say a soul farmer, I'm putting a good energy into my seeds, into my crops. When I got seeds, I pay homage to the indigenous people that were stripping for this land. And I talked to my seeds. Uh, I'm doing Reiki on my on the on the on the plots. I'm doing sage around the whole farm, and I'm really putting my energy, my soul into it. And uh, and even and when you no, I never seen a farmer with a bad attitude when they're out there working and it has in the soil. I never seen anybody with a bad attitude. The soil just loosens you up, you know, and I and it really feels good. So that's why I said I'm a soil farmer and connecting to soul food.

Fletch 18:55

Yeah, I don't I don't know that I've heard a lot of people doing positive energy when they're planting seeds. When I picture a farmer nowadays, I picture people with these big spreads, a lot of fertilizer, a lot of chemicals, yeah, not maybe doing the stage as much. I mean, it sounds amazing, man. Oh, yeah. Kind of bummed out I live in California at this part of it. I wish you were my neighbor.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Oh, yeah. Gratitude.

Fletch 19:23

Uh so what was harder than you expected in that first year?

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Everything.

First Year Mistakes And Community Support

SPEAKER_00 19:32

The biggest thing I did that was crazy was so I went dung ho. Like I went out there, I had all these seeds, you know, pretty much the second year. The first year I had just my community growing, but the second year I had a, I was on about one acre property. So I had like 10, 100 foot rolls of tomatoes, I had like 10 rolls of okra, I had all this stuff planted. But I didn't take consideration, that time I didn't have the help that I have now. I didn't think about weeds, I didn't think about harvesting, and I didn't think about a lot of things, like who I'm gonna give it to is I had a buttons of stuff that was getting overgrown. Uh wildlife was eating it, and I was like, oh, I grew too much food. So that taught me to start small, start with what you can handle, then expand. I just went straight. So that was hard trying to scrape up and do that.

Fletch 20:19

So that's that's the harder part. Now, what surprised you in a good way?

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Man, support from the community. Yeah. So, yeah, it surprised me because St. Louis can be a little community for the community community and for the St. Louis community whole. And I give them the neighborhood community because St. Louis can be territorial. What I mean by that is if you're not from, especially these days, so I've been in this neighborhood when I started a community garden for five years prior. No one said nothing to me at all. Nothing. You know, they just people live their life. I mean, they weren't mean to me, but they just weren't speaking, you know. And like when I was growing up as a kid, everybody knew everybody. So when I started the garden, I started passing out flyers and stuff, getting them all in there. I met a guy named Mr. Ferguson. Rest his soul, he reminded me of my pops. So me and him got alone. I gave him a flyer first. He looked at my down like, you're like no former to me. I'm like, that ain't an old man. Like, okay, he was like, uh, I see how you're gonna be when it's 90 degree weather. I'm like, okay. Because it was the day of the volunteering, he was the first one pulled up, had a shovel in the back. Yeah, you know, I was like, I thought he was gonna give me a hard time. And uh, but he was like a pillar, he was over there for 30 years. And he got the people kind of. They saw him over there, and the other people started coming. I used to sit on his porch. He's one of he's one of them older guys when people walking down the street, all that, he just tell me about everybody and just give me the rundown how them neighborhood works and all that stuff. And I really needed him for that. He was a good, I guess, um, diplomat for that neighborhood. And that neighborhood was a rough neighborhood, too. It was at the time, that that the three block radius probably averaged two to three murders a year. That's a lot for three streets. It was one of those neighborhoods. Yeah.

Fletch 21:52

Wow. That's a great, that's a great surprise first year in to get support like that. Hey, you know, let's take a break here. And when we come back, I want to talk about building Heyrub urban farming. Hey,

Reviews, Listener Messages, And Voicemail

Fletch 22:09

just a quick break here in the middle of this interview. You know, every episode I ask you to send a message or leave a review, and a few of you actually did, and I want to be intentional about including those every time. So first, my friend Erica Conway, who is uh the world traveling hiker, after listening to episode 57 with Kevin Delaney, she sent a message that just said, Fletch kicked it out of the park again. Which, you know what, I'll take that message every day, all day. I also got a couple of Apple podcast reviews. This one's titled Thought Provoking and Fun Podcast from 2890. Uh they wrote, The Mango Times podcast is one of my favorites. Andy's a thoughtful and very funny interviewer who creates meaningful, engaging conversations. And then this one called When to Listen from Stahl's Lost a Beat. It said, From my years of listening to the Mango Times podcast, one thing I've learned is that there's more than certainly a time to listen. I commonly find myself on the road while Mr. Mango goes on. From the trips north to Montana to an everyday errand, always a great reminder to be intentional about the journey. Man, that's exactly what I hope this show is. So, like any of these listeners, feel free to just scroll down the show notes and click send Fletch a voicemail or text. And that's the fun part. Aside from just sending a text which I could read on the air, you can now send me a voicemail. And I think it'd be so fun to use your voices on upcoming episodes. Alright, let's get back to our interview. All right, we are back, and I'm talking to Tyrand Lewis. Heyru is the spirit. I'm not gonna do the full name again. But we're talking about urban farming. So

Heyru Urban Farming Today Explained

Fletch 23:58

what is Heyru Urban Farming today? Can you paint the picture for someone who's never seen it? What does it look like today?

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Yes, today I'm on a um I'm on a farm called Confluence Farms. Um is a 250-acre property. We're actively right now growing on 13 acres. We got a little stuff going here and there, but consistently 13 acres. We have a facility, we got good infrastructure, we got a wash pack station, we got barns, tractors, all those things. I have chickens. The park that I'm on now is crazy. I'm in a place called unincorporated, but it's really floorcent. It's a suburb, and you got your houses, but it has still has a little farmland there. And you, it's like this private black road you ride down, and it just opens up. It's like you're not even in St. Louis no more. I mean, on that property, we got bobcats, we got coyotes, we got deer, we got turkey, we got all the different birds, foxes and skunks, and I hunt up there. And we got the Missouri River, it's about two miles behind us. We got good soil. Well, we got an agriculture curriculum. So we go to schools and we teach about agriculture. We do field trips every Wednesday with kids. Uh I grow food for the single zoo. So animals eat my food too. I sell the operation food search. It's a local like pantry type organization here. They do food justice. I also sell the chefs across St. Louis. And um, I also is at a former's market as well. And we do a lot of outreach. We go, we do a lot of give back giveaways, and yeah, that's my life. Yeah, we just grow food and teach.

Fletch 25:29

So, Tyron, you started on three lots, and now when I read on the website, you're impacting over 700,000 people across the St. Louis Mest Metro. Dude, how does that even happen?

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Yeah, it's been happening. It's

Grants, Accelerators, And Media Momentum

SPEAKER_00 25:46

crazy. So, like I said, no, we really what really what really happened to be honest about it. I was in a luggage situation. I was in three back-to-back accelerators that got me popularity. What I mean by that, the first accelerator I was in was called, it was with the Boston Foundation, the first time entrepreneurs. That was my first grant, $1,500, $1,200. That was enough for um for a fence. And then I had a guy that I knew, he gave me $1,200. Right. And then with that cohort, um, I had I got a couple connections, and it was other people. Now, all these cohorts I'm about to mention, I was the only former. It was all brick and mortar type of businesses, and things from, you know, you know, media, restaurant, um, butters, all things like that. I was the only former in all these. So in the first one, I also learned how to make a pitch deck. I was like, okay. And I was in pitch competitions out of that. We used to we used to go to pitch competitions. I won a couple of pitch competitions, like pitching what I want to do. And then I went to then that was that was in 2019. Then in 2020, I was in We Power, Elevate Lovar program. I was one of the first people, I was the first cohort for that. With that one, we got we got some money out of that one. Um, that was more of a teaching and get us media trained. And and uh, you know, like I said, I was only forming that space. I told myself, do I belong in this space? Because we was on news and talking and doing all this stuff, and you know, and I was like, wow. Uh they also taught me like how to find my most valuable customer and all these things, like the like the marketing aspect of it, right? Then I was in the University of Missouri St. Louis DEI program. I was in our, I believe, either 21 or 22, in the top of my head right now. But that program was the first, I was one of the first To Horror fans too. Uh again, only former. And that really got me. It got me the connections. That was my my biggest check at that time, it was $50,000. And now that helped me get a green house and a walk-in tool and stuff like that. But also media outlets, you know, channel five, channel four, different papers, the different podcasts. And that really steamrolled me for everybody to know who I was and what I was doing, and people want to support me. So I was just blessed to be in that situation.

Fletch 27:46

That's fantastic. So you're farming in communities where I I think you said a third to almost a half of the residents live below the poverty line. So was that intentional from day one? Or has has that mission kind of sharpened over time?

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Oh, yeah. No matter how big I get, I'm keeping that community gord right there. Yeah, definitely am. Actually, I got somebody running that for me now. Uh, Sabatha Minor, she's the over of community outreach now. I got staff now. Yeah, I got people that can help me out, stuff like that. Wow. That's amazing. Yeah, that is amazing.

Fletch 28:21

You mean the guy with buckets has a full staff now?

SPEAKER_00 28:25

Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, it's cool. I got a forum manager, I got a someone over outreach, community outreach, I have a secretary, I have a CPA, I have an accountant, I got four workers that I pay, but also collaborate with Slate and uh SEO youth jobs. And that's a program where they get youngsters from ages 15 to 22 to come and work for you and they pay them. Yeah, to work for you. It's like drive training.

A Real Day On The Farm

Fletch 28:49

So let's just pull the veil back. What does a day look like in Tyrant's life right now? What's it look like start to finish?

SPEAKER_00 28:57

Wow. Well, right now, during at this time, I get up in the morning, I go to the gym, might get there about 6 a.m., stay in there until about 7. And I go pick up my little cousin first, pick him up, then you know we go to the forum. But right now we're gonna get in there at like 8 o'clock. So we get there at 8. We might be, right now we're fixing the beds and get everything prepared. We got we got everything's going on. We got we got crops in the starters in the greenhouse getting ready for summer to put out in May around Mother's Day, Memorial Day, whichever one, whichever will allow us to do it. But we're preparing beds. We got leaf moats, putting leaf moats out everywhere, throwing compost, things like that. We got our spring crops in the ground as well. So we're cultivating them. So, you know, if it's a Wednesday, when my workers will start working, I got my field trip coming in, my bus coming in. They usually come in around 9 to 10. I'm doing a walkthrough, you know, doing, I'm doing, I'm doing tours, I'm doing, you know, I'm teaching, educating. I might on a Wednesday, I might go to a school instead of be there, and then my staff be there. Or I might be doing a podcast. I did one on Wednesday as well. So yeah, that's my day. On Wednesday is really communicating day. I pick Wednesdays because Wednesday is ruled by Mercury and Mercury is over communication. So I like to I like to use Wednesday for if I can intentionally, I use that for field trips and speaking engagements because I want to be aligned with the energy.

Fletch 30:16

So at what point did you stop thinking of yourself? I don't know if you've stopped thinking yourself as a teacher ever. This might be a silly question. I was gonna say, when did you stop thinking yourself as a teacher and start thinking of yourself as a farmer? Maybe in terms. When did you start introducing yourself as a teacher, as a farmer instead of a teacher?

SPEAKER_00 30:37

Good question. First, yes, I'm always a teacher. I'm always I'm always also a learner as well. I'm a student and a teacher, but you never get get tired of learning. I could say with COVID, 2020. Yeah, when I when I say, okay, I'm done with this, I'm going full speed right here. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like I'm former.

Why Local Cropland Should Feed People

Fletch 30:56

So there's a statistic on your website that less than 1% of St. Louis' regional cropland grows food for people. Why does that matter to you personally?

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Because that's sad. I mean, we got all this land in Missouri and everything, most of the stuff goes of animal feed, food processing, all this corn and soybean everywhere, destroying the soil. Now more commodity farmers are now doing a lot of cover crop and they're doing better at no-till and protecting the land. But why we gotta get our food for over 1,200 miles away? Why we gotta get all our food from California, Mexico, Florida, all these places, and we can grow it right here. It's local, it's fresh, it's more healthy. But why not get it from here? Now I know the West Coast grow the majority of our food, you know, that's not that's not commodity, especially crops. But we can grow that stuff right here, you know, it's easier. Yeah.

Fletch 31:49

I am uh I'm right in the middle of the Central Valley where the food comes from. I mean, it's we're surrounded by orchards where I live in, mostly nuts and fruits. But a lot of ground cover as well. A lot a lot of food that comes out of the ground. So yeah, that that that's why I asked that question.

Work, Risk, Patience, And Perseverance

Fletch 32:09

What so this shift into farming, what has it taught you about work?

SPEAKER_00 32:17

You you get what you give. Yeah. You know, whatever you put in is what you're gonna get. You wanna be lazy and lack lust to lack lust of crop, lack lust of experience. You go hard, work hard, put your energy into it, your love into it, you're gonna it's it's forming. You go, you read what you saw, you know? You heard that one before. Yeah, yeah. Even with teaching, even with mentoring. I like looking at mentoring like a plant. When they come to me, come to me, I might be planting seeds. I might water them. I might hear to give them sunshine. I might hear to give them um w rough winds. I might need to shake them up a little bit, give them some reality, right? I'm here to uh give them sunshine, pop them back up. You know, I might have to cultivate their weeds, you know, whatever it may look like. I think life is like that. So you gotta come to somebody, somebody is gonna be doing something ornate to you. I'm not gonna be, and I'm organic, so I'm not gonna be putting pesticides on you, you know. I'm not gonna, you know, put all those bad things on you, you know, to try to detain you. So that's my job.

Fletch 33:22

Yeah. Well what's it taught you about risk, Tarianne?

SPEAKER_00 33:25

You gotta take them if you wanna succeed. I mean, you can't sit on the porch all day. You gotta jump out the porch. I mean, you know, you stay on the porch, you're never gonna know how the game is. You gotta play.

Fletch 33:36

Let me ask you a little more personal one. What's this taught you about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 33:41

It reaffirmed that I can do anything, I put my mind to it, and I work hard. Even if it's something new. It taught also taught me patience. Still working on that. They teach you patience because stuff don't grow overnight. Some stuff, you might have a time where, you know, you might get some hell or something, or some type of wind that damage your crops. Man, it taught you perseverance. Okay, I gotta replant this. I might gotta start with scratching this. I might gotta say, ah, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna miss this crop no more. I might say, Oh, I made a mistake doing that. But you learn from your mistakes, uh, you come back better.

Fletch 34:17

Wow. So you, you know, when I when I listen to you talk, I mean you're you're super inspiring. I'm sure people tell you that. You clearly feel that this was something that you were supposed to do.

Advice For Anyone Feeling Stuck

Fletch 34:29

Yes. Do you think more people have that pull but just don't follow it?

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Of course. I'm around those people all the time on both sides. Sometimes it can be sad because I wish I could be in them and go, mm, you know what I mean? Like, you got this, man. I don't think, and it's sad that I don't think everybody's not gonna experience that. I don't know if it's just from being scared or environment or I don't know what it is, but I wish everyone could really be in their in their true self and take those risks, you know? But everybody's not gonna experience that.

Fletch 35:04

Well, let's let's talk to the listener for just a little bit here, because I think you've got some things to say that are important. If someone's listening right now and they're stuck in something that no longer fits, you know, maybe it's teaching, management, whatever, what do you want to say to that person right now?

unknown 35:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

We in life, our spirit wants to expand, right? When you expand, so when you want to sometimes you get that nervousness or that scariness when you want to do something new. When you when you when you're comfortable, or you don't want to be comfortable, when you're comfortable, you're gonna be stuck. Take that when that's the thing in your stomach go and you don't want to do it, do it, do it. Jump off that, jump off of it. Your spirit wants to expand. Once it's expanded, you're gonna be like, oh, that wasn't nothing. Right? Then you're gonna die, expand, you get closer to that end of that circle. There you come that feeling again. Get through that circle again, expand again. It's all about expansion. Like, like you feel that knot, you feel that nervous, go through it. It's not gonna be that bad once you cross the line, trust me. It's gonna open up.

Fletch 36:08

I I I thought for sure you were gonna tell them to go to a sweat lodge, but you you didn't. So okay, so let's flip that question. What would you tell them not to do?

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Not to put too much on your plate. It's okay to say no. You don't have to say yes to everything. You don't want to overdo your your your your siblings, right? Yeah. And go with your gut. Don't don't don't deny that feeling. That's the spirit talking to you. Don't ignore that. Yeah.

Fletch 36:43

I

Who Helped And How To Say Thanks

Fletch 36:44

normally like to finish the show with a fast five questions, but before we get there, I want to give you an opportunity to give a shout out to one or two, or just who is it? You can just speak their name. Like, who was it that was there for you? As you you just want to say thank you for getting me to where I am today.

SPEAKER_00 37:06

One, I would say Wilford Scott. He was the first individual to bleed in me from the beginning. He gave me $1,200 out of his own pocket. Man, that meant something to me. Uh he was the only first one. Also, it'll be uh Monique Kersey. She motivated me in a lot of ways. She helped me get through that nervousness, that um that blockage I was saying you want to expand. I mean, one time I did my first grant when I got in the Boston Foundation. That's a furniture seller I was in. I was like, man, I need to find a grant writer, you know. Um, I gotta get this grant. I'm gonna do that. You looked at me and said, You're smart. You got your master's degree, write your own grant. You can do it. Wrote that grant guy. So yeah.

Fast Five And Dinner With Family

Fletch 37:54

All right. All right, are you ready for the fast five?

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Let's do it.

Fletch 37:59

All right, these are the fast five with Tyrand Heyruis. Morning are you? Okay. Morning. What's in your cup?

SPEAKER_00 38:08

Water. Water.

Fletch 38:10

All right, city life or dirt under your nails life.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

Oh, I gotta pick, I gotta pick one. I'm in between. I'm in between. I don't know. Are you gonna take both? Is that what you're gonna do? Yeah, I gotta take both. I gotta take both.

Fletch 38:24

I mean, I think that's the whole nature of urban farming, man. You're in the city and you got dirt on your nails. Okay. Uh, what's your favorite thing you've ever pulled out of the ground?

SPEAKER_00 38:34

Or a watermelon.

Fletch 38:36

Your favorite tool that you can't live without.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

It's a hand tool or like a machine tool? I'll let you choose. I choose both.

Fletch 38:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

Hand tool will be a brak. I like that. That broad fork is got these 12 to 14-inch teeth on it, and it goes underground, aerates the soil, and it's like feel to be wood. You the handle can't you put it in the ground, you rock it back and forth, loosen it up. I love that tool because you it's no till, you aerate the soil, and it's a workout. And I make the workers when we do a 100-foot row, we drop down, do 20 push-ups, and then we do the next row. And the machine, I say a BCS. I love a BCS, it's I call a baby tractor. Uh, you can use that to ship your best for you. It has an auger, you put an auger attachment on it. You can you can put a flare moral on it. If you got if you're a small market former, the BCS is your best friend.

Fletch 39:23

All right, folks. I'm doing a Zoom conversation here with Tyran, and I just want to let you know, this is not a small guy that I'm looking at. So um I think he went into farming for the workout. And I everything sounded good until that last statement where he's like, when you work, what is it? How many push-ups do you do?

SPEAKER_00 39:39

Uh as we do a hundred foot roll with the broad forward we drop down, do 20 push-ups, and then you do it again. It's just 20. Yeah, yeah, 20.

Fletch 39:46

I thought it was 100.

SPEAKER_00 39:48

No, we got oh, we gotta we gotta work out for everything. We do we do wheel ho. We gotta get in and do 20 jumper jacks, you know. So, yeah, I got my workers doing it too. It's health, you know. Hey, I used to be a gym teacher now.

Fletch 39:59

All right, so last question. Who are you inviting to dinner, past or present, to have dinner with? One person? One person you can invite to have a dinner. You're gonna you're gonna take some of your food out of the ground, give them a meal. What's the one person, past or present, you want to have dinner with?

SPEAKER_00 40:17

Oh, you're gonna make me cry. Oh my God. Man, I'm talking between my great-grandma and my dad, but I say my great-grandma. Yeah. But if I can have two, it'd be both of them.

Fletch 40:30

What are you gonna make for them? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 40:34

Oh, wow. I will make a hot water, hot water cornbread that my great grandma used to make. I make some collards because she's to make me pick collard greens all the time. And I got an older brother, and she never called him, she'll call me because I picked them the best. It'd be collard greens, hot water cornbread, some baked chicken, and she's like neck bones. So yeah.

Fletch 40:54

That's fantastic. That hey, you made it. You made it through the five, and even had a few tears. That's okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:59

Yeah, you got me.

Fletch 41:01

Tyrant, if people want to reach you, if they if they like this story, I'm gonna put everything in the show notes for your website. But if they want to reach out to you, hear more about your story, is there an Instagram? Is there how do they reach you?

SPEAKER_00 41:14

Yeah, so my Instagram, my Facebook is all Hey Ru Urban Foreman. Um, that's H E R U Urban, U R B A N Forman, F-A-R-M-I-N-G. Um, my my um my um email is Gmail. So it's Hey Urban Foreman at Gmail. Yeah, all social media outlets and everything is Hey Ru Urban Foreman.

Fletch 41:35

Hey, you know what, Tyron, you didn't just change careers. You went back to your roots, literally back to your roots. Five generations of farmers, and here you are. Shout out to Jason for recommending you. But man, I just want to thank you for being a guest on the Mango Times today.

SPEAKER_00 41:55

Thank you. Gratitude.

Fletch 42:00

I

Permission To Pivot And Closing Challenge

Fletch 42:01

loved that interview. I loved hearing about Heyru Urban Farming and just hearing about Tyrant's story and the transition that he made just through life, from school to college to teaching to management, to just digging into the soil and living out a five-generation family legacy. And mostly just this permission to pivot. You know, we keep talking about that here on the Mango Times, that you have the permission to pivot if you want to. And and that concept of being a soul farmer, I mean, come on, tell me that didn't just stick with you. Putting your soul into whatever you do. That is just a closing image that I want to leave you with on this interview. Hey, as always, if this episode connected with you, uh do me a favor, just go into the show notes. You can now send me a text message or a voicemail, and who knows, I might even include that on the show. Um, but ask yourself this question: where are you stuck? And what are you thinking about changing? I would love to hear from you. As always, if you have a suggestion for a guest on the podcast, you just saw this play out. I mean, Jason recommended Tyrant, I put him on the show, and it was a fantastic show. There's more of them out there, please share them with me through the show notes, or you can head over to the Mangotimes.com and hit the Let's Connect button. And as always, if you can leave a review at Apple Podcasts, it motivates me more than you know. Just to hear what we're doing here that it hits with you, I would appreciate that. And in the meantime, if you're in the middle of your midlife adventure, if you are looking forward at a midlife adventure, it just might be time to get out there and do it. So do me a favor. Until then, Hop on board with me and let's get out there and quietly make some noise. You have been listening to the Mango Times podcast. Too much pipe tobacco and not enough water. It's a balance. It's a balance. Okay.