Miranda Duschack and Mimo Davis

[00:02] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Hello. My name is Miranda Duschack I'm 43. Today is October 9, 2023. We're in St. Louis, Missouri. My interview partner is Mimo Davis, and we are farming partners. We're flower farmers together.

[00:22] MIMO DAVIS: Hi, my name is Mimo Davis, and today's date is October 9, 2023. And we are now in St. Louis, Missouri. And I will be having a conversation with and sharing with Miranda Duschack And we are the co owners of urban Buds city ground flowers. So how are you doing today, Miranda?

[00:53] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Beautiful day today.

[00:54] MIMO DAVIS: It is. Beautiful day out.

[00:55] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I'm doing well. I'm feeling happy, well satisfied. I'm interested to see where this conversation is going to go. Mimo how are you doing?

[01:02] MIMO DAVIS: I'm doing great. Sunny, you know, falls coming and temperatures have cooled down, so we're really starting to head into cooler weather. So that always feels good.

[01:14] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Yeah. A little more spring in your step.

[01:16] MIMO DAVIS: Yes. Not so blazing hot.

[01:19] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: So we brought a bouquet of flowers from the farm that's seated between us. I thought our conversation would maybe be sort of centered about our work together. Farming. Is that kind of where you want to go with this conversation? Sure. Or at least where we can start.

[01:35] MIMO DAVIS: We can start there. For sure.

[01:35] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: We can start there. So we have a list of questions. Mimo you're a flower farmer.

[01:44] MIMO DAVIS: I am a flower farmer. Why don't you tell me how you got into this line of work?

[01:53] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: How I got into flower farming?

[01:56] MIMO DAVIS: Yeah.

[01:56] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Okay. Well, I started flower farming in 2012 with my friend Mimo Davis, who is you. You got me into flower farming.

[02:08] MIMO DAVIS: Yeah, that's true.

[02:09] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Right? You showed me that cut flowers are, well, not only a profitable way to be a commercial family farmer, but that they're important to have an option that's locally grown and grown without harmful chemicals and that they're with us. So you, you know, when I met you, right, I came out of farming food, so I came to flowers because you're a flower farmer. And we were going to farm together. And we were going to farm flowers together. Why did you start flower farming?

[02:48] MIMO DAVIS: Wow. Well, first of all, that's a long time ago for me to remember, but why did I start flower farming?

[02:55] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: How long have you been flower farming?

[02:58] MIMO DAVIS: Over 30 years. Yeah, long time.

[03:00] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: It is a long time.

[03:01] MIMO DAVIS: All my life, right. Professional work life, that is, you know. So I went to farmers market. I wanted to be a farmer. I think I worked at a native plant nursery, and I really wanted to be a farmer. And I had this little piece of land and I wanted to do something with it. And I went to farmers market and I looked around and, and did some research and I realized that there weren't any cut flowers. I mean, it's like 30 years ago, right? There were no cut flowers anywhere. I mean, nowhere. And so, you know, I saw that my friends, my farming friends had, you know, when their tomatoes came in, they had tomatoes and so did everybody else. So I looked for something different and cut flowers were really something different. And so, yeah, started flower farming.

[04:00] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I think the crop matches your personality. Well, the crop? Yeah, the flowers. Flowers?

[04:07] MIMO DAVIS: Yeah, flowers.

[04:08] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: It makes sense that you're a flowers farmer. You're the life of the party.

[04:14] MIMO DAVIS: Really. Okay. What did you think? You know, I know that you met me and then we started flower farming, blah, blah, blah. But what did you think of, well, you know, you were gonna be when you grew up? Like, you know, what was your fast track? What did you think? You know, I know I interrupted some plan. What was the plan before you met me?

[04:35] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Well, immediately before I met you, I was going to farm. I was going to buy a farm and farm. And I.

[04:44] MIMO DAVIS: So that was always your trajectory?

[04:46] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Yeah, that was always my trajectory. I mean, when you say, what did you want to be as a kid? I wanted to be feral, living on the land or being a pioneer like caddy woodlawn or I wanted to be a boxcar child. Remember the boxcar children surviving off of their wits and family and. No, I was always that kid who was staring outside of their window in school, wishing I could be outside. So. But yeah, in high school I followed my sort of skill set and I, I did well in things like AP government and AP US history. And I did my first year of college doing politics right in DC. But I didn't like it. I didn't want to be in DC and I didn't want to be a politician. I didn't want to go to law school. Puke.

[05:34] MIMO DAVIS: Right, so you wanted to be a dirt digger.

[05:38] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I wanted to dig in the dirt.

[05:40] MIMO DAVIS: Wanted to dig in the dirt, right.

[05:41] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Well, actually farming was like, you know, I was always so motivated about what's the best way to make the most positive impact in the world. And it just seemed like being a small scale, sustainable family farmer was the way I could do it. It could address everything I was worried about, which was the environment, unfair labor, dirty food, pesticides, being sedentary at a desk, the need to move my body, that human compulsion to stare out the window and want to be digging in the dirt. So I decided at 19, I'm leaving DC, I'm going to the Pacific Northwest. And I'm going to become a flower farmer or, no, a farmer. I'm going to become a farmer. Vegetables. Yeah. So in my twenties. In my twenties I did, you know, turkeys, chickens, goats, goat cheese, fruits, berries, trees, things like that. But when it came to having to actually make money, the flowers, my friend, the flowers were what could support us, don't you think?

[06:56] MIMO DAVIS: Yes, yes. I totally agree that there's, you know, definitely a curve, a bell curve kind of goes straight up when you do a comparison between flowers and food, right. I mean, and, I mean, everybody has to eat. I don't know why food is, you know, so cheap.

[07:22] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Well, it's so cheap because of everybody's.

[07:25] MIMO DAVIS: Got it at farmer's market. I mean, why is it so cheap?

[07:28] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Food is cheap because of the us government putting in policies that keeps the cost of food low.

[07:36] MIMO DAVIS: Right. But like, when we go to farmers market, right? I mean, what people are willing to spend, I guess, is my question.

[07:44] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: You know, they're way, wait, no, no. Look at it like value added. When you go to your fancy restaurant with your fancy friends, you little foodie McFooterson.

[07:52] MIMO DAVIS: I am a foodie.

[07:53] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: And you spend 85 or $125 on a meal that is value added. Now, if you go to farmers market, you buy the same greens for $3. It's like us with the flowers. Here's this dahlia, $3, $5 a stem. But you turn it into a bridal bouquet. It just gets right. You know, it's so funny. Everyone keeps asking me, why don't you guys do weddings more? Why won't you just give in and do weddings more so you can make money? And then I go to, we don't want to.

[08:28] MIMO DAVIS: It's not always about making the money. It's about having that little piece of life that, you know, you're not just constantly chasing the dollar, but you're growing flowers that you love and you're doing. You're choosing what? The reason you have your own business is that you get, or the reason why I'm choosing to have my own business, that I'm choosing to decide what I want to do in that. So, you know, if I don't want to do weddings, then I don't have to, right. And I have to then create some other way of making that same. Oh, weddings is, you know, flowers. If you don't do flowers in the wedding business, that's where the money is. Da da da da. You didn't create. It frees you to be creative about other ways to create that same income.

[09:24] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Well, yeah, I think we're both reluctant capitalists. We didn't become flower farmers because we enjoy doing. Wanted to make money, doing accounting. And certainly if it was about making money, we would just be nurses, or nurses, I don't know, some other more lucrative if you weren't a flower farm high. Talk about having to be in school. I need to be out in the dirt. But what I'm saying is. Yeah, I mean.

[09:54] MIMO DAVIS: I mean, you probably have, like three surgeries a year and, you know, you're then traveling the world. Right?

[10:00] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: You know, now at my, this point in my life, I have never met living in St. Louis because of these medical schools. I've never met so many medical doctors.

[10:08] MIMO DAVIS: Right.

[10:09] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: It's like they're everywhere now. And I'm like, can't you just, can't you just slip me some antibiotics so I don't have to actually go to the doctor? And they're all like, no. Anyway, we digress.

[10:18] MIMO DAVIS: Yeah. Come back.

[10:19] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Come back to the flowers.

[10:22] MIMO DAVIS: So, I'm sorry, what were we even talking about? We were talking about why we're choosing to not choose what we want to do in our own business.

[10:32] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Oh, the wedding lives, right? The weddings. The weddings. Well, I think the thing about the weddings is it just can be such an example of capitalism. Run amoke. So our favorite weddings are, at least mine are elopers. People who are very chill.

[10:51] MIMO DAVIS: Yeah.

[10:52] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: People who care about the environment and they care more that their flower isn't grown with neonicotinoids then if it matches their fabric swatch.

[11:01] MIMO DAVIS: Right?

[11:02] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: So.

[11:02] MIMO DAVIS: Right. Yeah, I like. But I like the brides who, like, know our work and they'll say, you do you. You guys do you. I see it every week. It's beautiful. I trust that you're gonna take care of me, but, you know, if you want me to, kind of.

[11:18] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Yeah. So what excites you most about farming right now, Mimo you've been farming for 30 years. You're one of the first and only flower farmers of, well, black flower farmers.

[11:32] MIMO DAVIS: Oh, no, no, no. There are many of us now.

[11:34] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Many of you. Now, I said first, though, when you started in this probably was in this incarnation. So you're a leader in the association of specially cut flower growers, a leader in the movement. You've grown your own competition here in St. Louis, but you've also helped grown the cut flower movement across the country. I mean, dang, you've done a lot. So what is exciting to you about flower farming as you hit, you know, 30, retirement? I mean, you didn't want to say your age, but you've been.

[12:10] MIMO DAVIS: No, I don't care. 65 is my age.

[12:12] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: She's 65, everyone. It's all right.

[12:16] MIMO DAVIS: What's exciting? It's always exciting because there's so many flowers out in the world that I get to learn about. You know, we can never grow all the flowers, right? So there's always some new variety that I'm like, wow, that sounds really exciting to learn and grow about. You know what? I'm really. There's been so many, you know, right now I'm doing winter tulips. Very excited about winter tulips. I learned that from the tulip workshop. I'm always, you know, interested in taking workshops and learning from different other growers.

[12:54] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: One of the fun things about the farm, and I think that we see eye to eye, is that it's sort of our own private experimentation station.

[13:01] MIMO DAVIS: It is.

[13:02] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: So we can try. I was thinking the other day how, remember when we were into the thai tulips and then we were doing callies?

[13:08] MIMO DAVIS: That's right.

[13:09] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: And now we're doing the heirloom roses, and you're moving on to these winter tulips. But it's always. What's so exciting about farming is that we're kind of like citizen scientists. Right?

[13:21] MIMO DAVIS: It's never, you know, there's never. It never gets old, right. Because it's just like, there's always something new to discover that you didn't know before. And even after 30 years, there's still flowers I haven't tried to grow yet. Right. And that's pretty cool that you get to do that. You just get to, like, meet other people. So many people I've met across the country and that are flower farmers and that they're doing something different for me and have even less years. I learned from people who are like, a year in the business. It's just always something to learn.

[13:59] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Well, the attitude is you can learn something from anyone. From every single person you meet. There's something to learn and something they know that you don't know. And it's actually an important piece of information that you need to know. And so that's the way to make friends. I think what's interesting about you is that you use the flowers as a way to build community. You know, I think about if you would have, you were a social worker in New York City before you moved to Missouri. You spent your twenties doing that, and you still had this aura of possibility around you or the sort of force. And then you found farming and the flowers. But truly one of your gifts is also just building that community. And the flowers have been the way for you to do that.

[14:50] MIMO DAVIS: Absolutely. I never believe that I've ever left social work. I still am doing social work. Just the delivery method through the flowers is different. Flowers make everyone happy. I don't know anybody who's gotten flowers, and we're upset about it. Right. I mean, you know, so, I mean, they make people happy. They bring joy. They comfort people. They encourage people. They uplift. So flowers have always been there, you know, I mean, so what is your favorite thing about flower farming? Let's talk about you.

[15:24] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Oh, okay.

[15:25] MIMO DAVIS: Let's talk about, you know.

[15:26] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Well, I'm excited that there has been this rise in awareness about the importance of locally grown agricultural products and that it is, dare I say, mainstream. But it is. People have more and more of an understanding about the importance of farm to table, and that includes from seed to centerpiece. So when we look at ways we can make positive impact with our money. Right. Buying locally grown flowers from us or another area grower or a grower anywhere. Right. Helps everything. Right. Helps everything. Right. So I think that's exciting to me about it always. Soil is exciting to me when we talk about, like, the technical aspects of growing. You know, if we burn out our soil, if we hurt our soil, then we're done. We don't have a legacy for August, our son, and we don't, you know, I look at the property of having its own sort of spirit, and we're just stewarding it right now. It was there before us, it'll be there after us. And so we have this little, tiny, minuscule bit of time, and I want to do good by it. So I want to keep an eye on organic matter. I want to make sure we aren't getting overrun with japanese beetles, that things are imbalanced and productive and healthy, that we're controlling our water runoff. So that kind of stuff is exciting. And then more and more as urban buds, we're in our second decade now. We'll celebrate our 12th anniversary if we make it to February.

[17:06] MIMO DAVIS: Wow.

[17:07] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I know is that people are still so excited about what we got going on, and they want to come down to the farm. They want to volunteer. They have us come out and speak. They visit us over and over again at the farmer's market, and they're starting their own projects. So there really has been kind of a sea change where urban farming is a thing that people do in many different types of communities. Right. And that's exciting. To me.

[17:42] MIMO DAVIS: Good. That is exciting. So you're seeing expansion of urban farming in St. Louis.

[17:50] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I'm saying that urban farming can give us a way to make positive change at a time when people are feeling overwhelmed by the sadness of climate change and the negative effects of capitalism. They're worried about their health. You know, it just can answer so many problems like it answered in our lives. It can help other people just by connecting with the soil. And we chose flowers. But food is wonderfully connective and powerful. I mean, we teach garden classes for kids.

[18:27] MIMO DAVIS: Yeah, yeah.

[18:28] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: So it is. I mean, they love that. They love being able to eat. Oh, this is a strawberry. Last week, these kids were like, we're planting a strawberry plant, Miss Miranda. And I was like, yes, you are. I'll give you a tip. The roots go down, the leaves go up. I mean, they loved it. They were like four. So, yeah, I'm excited about that. I'm excited that people seem to actually care about small scale farmers.

[18:55] MIMO DAVIS: Yeah, that's great. I think they do.

[18:57] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I know.

[18:58] MIMO DAVIS: I really agree with you. What else do you want to talk about during this time? So. I really do. I think you talked about kids. I think kids are really stardom here in the farming. I mean, our own August. Look at him. He made ginger pesto last week.

[19:21] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Oh, he told me about that. August is seven, and he's growing up on the farm in the city, and.

[19:28] MIMO DAVIS: It was his idea to make ginger pesto.

[19:30] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Okay. Yeah. He said it was kind of tangy.

[19:34] MIMO DAVIS: Tangy? I thought it tasted like grass. But we didn't tell him that. We ate it and we put it over noodles.

[19:42] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Okay.

[19:42] MIMO DAVIS: And I think it would be delicious with cilantro.

[19:45] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: All right, well, Ginger is our one edible crop that we grow right now.

[19:50] MIMO DAVIS: Oh, right.

[19:51] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: So that's kind of fun that he was trying to use it in a new way. He's our little gourmand.

[19:57] MIMO DAVIS: He is a gourmand, isn't he?

[19:59] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I like that about him.

[20:03] MIMO DAVIS: What else?

[20:04] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: So there's a whole list of questions in front of us.

[20:08] MIMO DAVIS: Right.

[20:08] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Do you want to go into more veered off territory where we talk about things other than the farm?

[20:14] MIMO DAVIS: Sure.

[20:15] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I mean, we have multiple layers of relationships here that we could delve into if you want to.

[20:22] MIMO DAVIS: Oh, my gosh. Okay.

[20:26] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I mean, we were married. Do you want to talk about farming together as ex wives?

[20:30] MIMO DAVIS: Oh, yes. We could do that.

[20:32] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Yes, please.

[20:34] MIMO DAVIS: Oh, yeah. We could do that. We could talk about farming.

[20:35] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: So a little background here.

[20:39] MIMO DAVIS: We were married in 2012.

[20:42] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: We were married. We had our spiritual ceremony in 2012. We met in 2010 at work.

[20:48] MIMO DAVIS: Right.

[20:48] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: At our day job and then at the university. And then we decided we wanted to farm together. And then we fell in love, and then we got married at a spiritual ceremony, where we jumped the broom because we couldn't legally be married. Remember that?

[21:04] MIMO DAVIS: Right.

[21:06] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: My friend Ben made us a broom.

[21:08] MIMO DAVIS: Handle, so then we had a kid.

[21:13] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Is that how it goes?

[21:14] MIMO DAVIS: No, no, no.

[21:14] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: That's how it goes.

[21:15] MIMO DAVIS: It's not how it goes. We bought the farm.

[21:17] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Then we bought the farm. Remember?

[21:19] MIMO DAVIS: We didn't tell either one of our families for six months.

[21:22] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: They came to the wedding. They came to Missouri to come to the wedding. And we said, hey, we want to take you to this place. We bought it, and they said, what, are you crazy?

[21:29] MIMO DAVIS: Right? So we didn't tell them for six months. We owned it six months before we told our families. And then we had the kid. August. Our wonderful.

[21:40] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: No.

[21:40] MIMO DAVIS: Best birthday.

[21:41] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: That is not the way it goes. Meaning?

[21:43] MIMO DAVIS: Well, tell me.

[21:45] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Okay, okay, okay. So we.

[21:47] MIMO DAVIS: God, I don't remember.

[21:48] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: We got spiritually married, and then we were thinking about having a baby. Remember? So I.

[21:54] MIMO DAVIS: The second wedding.

[21:55] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I am 20 years younger than you. And the decision was made I would carry our baby.

[22:01] MIMO DAVIS: Yes.

[22:02] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: The second wedding.

[22:03] MIMO DAVIS: Second wedding was before the baby.

[22:05] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: The second wedding was in 2014.

[22:07] MIMO DAVIS: Right?

[22:08] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: And the second wedding was when we ended up suing the state of Missouri to be legally married. And we did that to be one.

[22:19] MIMO DAVIS: Of the first four couples. Like, in the country, right?

[22:23] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: No, no. In Missouri. So, Missouri. Remember how it went down? So, it was 2014, and the decisions had already sort of come down the pike, but not here in red, red, red Missouri. And so, Mayor Francis slay in the recorder of deeds, Sharon Quigley.

[22:42] MIMO DAVIS: Wow. What a great memory.

[22:43] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Thank you. She. And they committed an act of civil disobedience by issuing us and the three other couples marriage licenses. So they were the ones. She was the one who got arrested or whatnot.

[22:55] MIMO DAVIS: And.

[22:55] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Hey, hey. We showed up at city hall. We participated in this event. We wore our gowns. The other couples were men, right, right.

[23:05] MIMO DAVIS: Three men.

[23:06] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Three male couples. And then us. And then you were the black person, and I was.

[23:12] MIMO DAVIS: Gee, thanks.

[23:15] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I mean, it's all photos.

[23:17] MIMO DAVIS: It's all photos.

[23:18] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: And then I was me, and I was in my gown, and we had the flowers done by wildflowers.

[23:23] MIMO DAVIS: That's right.

[23:24] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: We grew our own wedding flowers, and we decided we had, like, 24 hours. We were approached by our alderman, who was the first openly elected official in St. Louis, and he said, they're gonna do this thing. They're looking.

[23:39] MIMO DAVIS: We had more than 24 hours. Oh, we had more than 24 hours.

[23:42] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I feel like it was very, very quick.

[23:43] MIMO DAVIS: Cause we could have backed out anytime. We had about a week because, you know, Shane approached us, and then we had. I would never forget that because we were sitting around our dinner table when he was. When he approached us. And then we had meetings with the mayor's office, and then we had another meeting with safety officer. That really scared me. Cause they were like, you might have to take down your Facebook and Instagram for a period of time, and there might be people camping on your front lawn. None of that happened.

[24:14] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: None of that happened. Yeah, we had.

[24:15] MIMO DAVIS: Do you remember all that?

[24:16] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: FBI.

[24:17] MIMO DAVIS: Yeah. Meeting with the FBI.

[24:18] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: And I was like, and who are those people?

[24:20] MIMO DAVIS: So it was about a week.

[24:22] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: An american civil liberties union.

[24:24] MIMO DAVIS: Yeah.

[24:25] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: So anyway, we're deciding we could have.

[24:27] MIMO DAVIS: Backed out anytime during that week.

[24:29] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I went to those meetings, so dirty from the farm. Anyway, it was fine. And we decided to get married. We did it. And we could call our boss, like, an hour before. Remember we had to call the university.

[24:41] MIMO DAVIS: Right.

[24:42] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: And tell our boss an hour before that.

[24:45] MIMO DAVIS: We weren't allowed to tell anybody until within an hour of it happening because.

[24:50] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: They were afraid that something would happen.

[24:54] MIMO DAVIS: Something would happen that would shut it all down. And they didn't want that to happen. So then, um. Yeah, we got married.

[25:03] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Yeah. Then we were legally married.

[25:04] MIMO DAVIS: It was gay pride month.

[25:06] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Yeah, it was gay pride. It was beautiful. We were legally married for a year before they granted that privilege, or. Right, depending how you look at it, to other people in the state. And I think how it really affected, you know, my motivation for getting married was so you could be on August birth certificate.

[25:27] MIMO DAVIS: Right. Because we were already planning.

[25:29] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: We were already planning on having a kid. And I just heard. Heard such horror stories of, especially in these very socially conservative states where you wouldn't have access to our son, there would be property issues, all this kind of stuff. So, for me, what was the motivator was that. And so, two years later, then in 2016, when we had August, do you remember this? Do you remember how I pushed August out at St. Mary's hospital?

[25:59] MIMO DAVIS: Oh, my gosh. What do you mean, do I remember that?

[26:01] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Yeah. And then they didn't. I got to recover, but they didn't know how to fill out the birth certificate.

[26:09] MIMO DAVIS: I do remember that.

[26:10] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: And I had just given birth. I was calling the state of Missouri.

[26:15] MIMO DAVIS: It said father.

[26:17] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Yeah. To say, how do we register mother and mother, two moms on this birth certificate. And August birth certificate still says father, your name, mother, my name. But the nurses or whoever had to fill out the paperwork at the hospital said, oh, could you just write this down for us? So I just given birth, and I was making a fact sheet to leave at the nurse's station about how to.

[26:42] MIMO DAVIS: I do remember that.

[26:43] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: How to register.

[26:46] MIMO DAVIS: It's okay. It's okay. You could have you some tears. It's okay. You had just given birth, and you leaving this fact sheet. I mean, you were about 30 minutes out of giving birth.

[27:01] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: It wasn't 30 minutes, 40 minutes. No, no, it was the next day. But me, the whole point is I just felt like we were total freaks, man.

[27:10] MIMO DAVIS: We weren't freaks. We were just firsts.

[27:13] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: We were just first.

[27:15] MIMO DAVIS: We were just firsts. And when you're first, it comes with a lot of responsibilities, you know? And that was a big responsibility. So then we had August, right? Our pride and joy to this day. He's amazing, August. He is just amazing. And then, yeah, we farmed together and having a baby and farming together, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It was a lot. And we decided to go our different ways for a little bit. And.

[27:49] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: No, I mean, I don't think you need to just sort of gloss it over.

[27:53] MIMO DAVIS: Okay.

[27:54] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I mean, I just think that one of the lessons we learned is that you. We can't be everything to each other. We can't be business partners figuring out, you know, the farm was moms, the farm was such a bootstrap operation. We didn't have family money. We didn't have family land, secret inheritances. We didn't have high paying jobs. We were both educators at an HBCU, a public HBCU in Missouri. You know, I'm just saying that we had a lot of struggles, and it was really embarrassing for me that we fought so hard to get married, and then we got divorced.

[28:32] MIMO DAVIS: But, you know, that was part of the rights that we fought for.

[28:34] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I know. I would say that to people, you.

[28:39] MIMO DAVIS: Know, and that's all part of the package, right? You get to be married, and then you get to be divorced. I mean, right?

[28:44] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I was like, just like straight people. I can divorce. I can get divorced. But, you know, the thing is, Mimo even this year, this year, remember farmer's market? There was this deluge of rain, and this customer was in there waiting for the rain to pass. She said, miranda, I just want to know, how did you get pregnant and have August? Did you take an egg from Mimo and a sperm from her brother and, you know, still people or someone else. They just found out we're divorced. We separated in 20. We separated in 2018.

[29:19] MIMO DAVIS: Right?

[29:19] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: And someone just found out this year we were divorced. How could you two have done that? Didn't you work on it? Couldn't you have gone to therapy in the middle of our farmer's market booth where I'm trying to sell flowers and hold it together? And it's like, I never wanted to be St. Louis famous. And sometimes I forget that we are and that people don't always have the best boundaries with us. And so I feel like I have to be an open book. When someone says to me, how did you get pregnant with August? I feel like it's a teachable moment, and I can say, you know what? We really wanted to have a baby, and we really wanted to have a willing to be known donor.

[30:07] MIMO DAVIS: You know, it's. You don't have to be the open book, though. I mean, I disagree with that some. I think that you can have your own personal boundaries. You get to share because your life. You get to share what you want to share, you know? I mean, totally. You get to share what. You don't have to take that from that lady. And our booth. I mean, the reason I think that we work so well is because we are authentic with our customers. We don't hide parts of us, and we don't have a bicycle in the field. I mean, like, yeah, we're dirty. Look. I mean, we're dirty all the time. I mean, we're able to present who we actually are.

[30:56] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I think this is really what I think. We talk about the farm being an experimentation station for our flowers and our growing techniques, but also, like, we took a chance on each other. You know, you're black, you're middle class. I'm white. I'm working class. We have a 20 year age difference. Like, I'm bisexual, you're lesbian. I mean, all these different identities, right? But we saw something within each other, and we took a risk, and it didn't necessarily pan out the way we.

[31:28] MIMO DAVIS: Thought it would be, but we're still in it.

[31:30] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: We're raising a beautiful sun. These are gorgeous flowers sitting in front of us.

[31:34] MIMO DAVIS: We're still farming partners.

[31:36] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: We're still farming partners. And Mimo Davis, I'm gonna say right now, you're still my friend. Like, I still really love you and care about you. Of course.

[31:42] MIMO DAVIS: Of course I love you and care about you, too. I mean, that doesn't. That never.

[31:47] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: You know, it's ridiculous, but that was.

[31:49] MIMO DAVIS: Never in question for me. I mean, it was just, you know, we had a lot on us, and we needed to get some stuff off.

[31:55] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Yeah. We cannot be, you know, romantic partners. On top of it all.

[31:59] MIMO DAVIS: On top of it all. It was just a lot.

[32:01] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: It was just too much.

[32:02] MIMO DAVIS: We were, like, in this little cone, in this little cocoon that was getting narrower and narrower and narrower. I mean. Cause, like, every time we started to see each other, we were, like, thinking about farm stuff. I mean, the farm was, like having two babies. We had two babies. Yeah.

[32:16] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: The farm is its own living being.

[32:18] MIMO DAVIS: Right. So we had two babies and a lot of responsibility and no money. Well, I mean, that doesn't work well for a lot of people, you know.

[32:29] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Yeah.

[32:29] MIMO DAVIS: And we did fight for the right to be divorced.

[32:31] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Yeah, we did.

[32:32] MIMO DAVIS: I mean, that's part of it. And I see that as still a win.

[32:36] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: And we fought.

[32:37] MIMO DAVIS: I mean, right. And we still, you know, this is what people do. This is how you live in the world. You, you know, you just get to live like everybody. You get to normalize your life. It doesn't mean, hey, it didn't just like other people. It didn't work out. So we got divorced, and it's really like that. And we still love each other, and we still raise our kids just like everybody else. Yeah, just like everybody else. You know? And we got to do all of our stuff that goes with divorce. That's not so pretty. You know what I mean? Hey, wasn't that great? We had those privileges because we fought for that. Right, right.

[33:18] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: All right, well, phew.

[33:21] MIMO DAVIS: I would love to ask one quick question before we wrap up. You talked about flowers bringing community, and it striking me that they're clearly still bringing you guys into this space today.

[33:32] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Of course, you have a wonderful son.

[33:35] MIMO DAVIS: And co parenting will definitely bind you guys together for the rest of your lives. But I'm wondering, since we began with.

[33:42] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Flowers, if you guys have any thoughts.

[33:44] MIMO DAVIS: On how the community bringing you guys. I mean, just the two of you, the community piece.

[33:51] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Oh, just the two of us.

[33:54] MIMO DAVIS: Just struck by the fact that you're sitting here.

[33:56] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I had no idea that there was divorce in your history when you sat down. And clearly, you're still coming together through the vase on the table.

[34:06] MIMO DAVIS: The vase and the king.

[34:08] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: What's compelling to you about it? What's the thing you want us to address?

[34:11] MIMO DAVIS: Just, I mean, you can say whatever you'd like, but I'm struck by the.

[34:18] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Fact that flowers are how you're connecting.

[34:21] MIMO DAVIS: To the community, but it's also clearly, maybe in some way helped you guys re navigating your relationship over the years.

[34:29] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, so we've got about five minutes. Yeah.

[34:34] MIMO DAVIS: Okay. Thanks for that time check.

[34:36] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: She's awesome. You're really good at this.

[34:40] MIMO DAVIS: So how do you think the flowers have tied to. I think that the flowers have tied all this together between our community and our relationship and our relationship in this St. Louis Urban ag. Community. And how do we build community through these flowers and what we do. What do you think?

[35:07] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I think the flowers bring us together because they're a thing of beauty and hope and inspiration. And the flowers are the vehicle for us to live our dreams and live out this way. We want to be in life. The flowers. Where did I want to get to with the flowers?

[35:27] MIMO DAVIS: I mean, I feel like. Oh, go ahead. Sorry.

[35:32] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I feel like the project keeps us together. I feel like urban buds and these beautiful flowers we grow only happen because of the two of us. And the flowers keep us grounded and focused that it's beyond us, it's outside of us. We may be telling the story right now, or we're stewarding this bit of land in the city right now, but really, what's the most important piece is the flowers and how they're grown and how they make people feel. And people love getting flowers, so they're happy to see us. Most of the time they're chill in our booth. Yeah, all the time they're chill in the booth. It's easy to talk to people. It's easy to bring beauty into our neighborhood. I think it's really important that we're growing in Dutchtown, in our working class neighborhood that has some crime issues and that we can bring agriculture in a way that our neighbors can see on the daily.

[36:37] MIMO DAVIS: Right. I totally agree. I think the flowers. I think. I think the flowers, all of this, the flowers are the bottom line. And they're so much bigger than us. You know, that we're just, like you said, in this little cog and working this land and working these flowers, that all the other stuff, all the big stuff, divorce and babies and all that other stuff is really big stuff. But this is really the act of nature when we started that is so much bigger. You know, that we are both really in our hearts and souls and deep down, totally committed to each other. And that's why we work through all the other. I'm not going to call it minutiae, because it's not. But all the other really real stuff that comes with that, you know, that comes in our daily lives. I think it's just in our core.

[37:35] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: I think that farming is so risky of a business that you have to have the right kind of personality to take that risk. And I think we found that in each other.

[37:45] MIMO DAVIS: Yeah.

[37:45] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Risk takers who were willing to work as many hours as it took and be as poor as we needed to be to make the dream happen. But really, it was a sort of strong determination that, come what may, we're gonna try this flower farming. The worst thing that can happen is we'll fail. We'll go bankrupt, we'll lose the land. That didn't seem so terrible when you were by my side helping me do.

[38:15] MIMO DAVIS: It, and that, well, it wasn't gonna happen either.

[38:18] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Right. And that these flowers are such a beautiful thing.

[38:21] MIMO DAVIS: Right. Right. Thank you for spending this time with me. Miranda Duschack co owner of Urban Buds, on this day of October 9, 2023. I have so enjoyed this time with you. For real.

[38:36] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Oh, Mimo I know. I feel like it was cathartic and helpful, and I'm very grateful to the storycorps and Delilah here for letting us be real. So thank you for being here with me. Mimo Davis. October 9, 2023.

[38:54] MIMO DAVIS: Thank you.

[38:54] MIRANDA DUSCHACK: Thanks.