SHARONVILLE, Ohio — Andy Gorman never wanted to be a farmer. When he first began gardening more than a decade ago, he started behind his garage.
He didn’t want anyone to see it.
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” Gorman said.
That was back in 2012, when Gorman wanted to shift to a plant-based diet. Now, his backyard is full of what he calls high tunnels — to keep those plants safe during bad weather. In the front yard, there are rows and rows of potatoes.
He even put weed barriers down on parts of the sidewalk.
Gorman is explaining all this to me while he stands by a fruit tree in front of his home. He tells me his girlfriend loves to joke about wheelbarrows. Because he used to have one.
Now, he has six.
“This used to all be a regular lawn,” Gorman said. “I tore up the grass. I ran irrigation underground. I built these raised beds to make it aesthetically pleasing.”
As we’re talking outside the house he says his great-grandfather once built, a woman with a stroller walks by. She tells Gorman he inspired her husband to build four raised beds in their own yard.
“That’s what I was just telling him — I want to inspire people,” Gorman said. “YouTube channel coming soon.”
He laughs, because as a child he didn't even know farming could be a career. But now, he owns multiple shirts that say "FARMER ANDY" on the back. His story, he says, is that you don’t need to own dozens of acres of land to grow something.
“Everyone should have access to this kind of food,” Gorman said.
At first, he never planned on selling anything. Gorman put a tent up in his driveway and gave away his extras. Eventually, he created Cincy Urban Farm, which made headlines this fall because city officials said he violated zoning laws by selling that produce at home.
“It’s been a battle," Gorman said. “What I’m doing is not normal."
WATCH: This farmer fought the city's zoning board. And won
His operation got so big that Gorman now does most of his farming at the Ell Farm in West Chester Township. He takes a snap pea off a branch there and hands it to me.
“Nothing better,” Gorman said.
But he tells me a lot of people can’t make it to farmer’s markets on the weekends, which is why he operates a self-service shop at his home in Sharonville from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day.
I ask him if he makes any money.
“Not much,” Gorman said.
But he tells me that doesn’t matter.
“This is what I’m meant to be doing," Gorman said. “Nothing has felt more meaningful to me than farming."
That’s why Gorman appealed the October zoning violation. And at a November meeting, 14 people spoke in support of Gorman. No residents spoke against him.
“It just means the world to me,” Gorman said. “That just really proved to me that what I’ve been doing for the last 10 years has really been making a difference.”
Officials voted unanimously to rescind the zoning violation.
Seven months later at his home, Gorman takes a break from a busy start to his next growing season. On a deck in his backyard, he tells me he used to think eating the food he grew was the best part.
Now, he says it’s sharing it.
