During the pandemic, brothers Joel and Jamie Lichosik found themselves searching for a change of pace. The two began brainstorming and, with years of culinary experience behind both of them and a lifelong interest in gardening, they eventually landed on the idea of starting an urban garden in an overgrown area of the parking lot behind Dropout Athletics. Initially, they planned to open up their garden on the rooftop of one of the nearby warehouses, until they noticed an unused corner of the parking lot and chose to set up shop there instead, to avoid infrastructure complications that can come with retrofitting a garden to a rooftop. After clearing the lot and repurposing secondhand materials to make raised planting beds, they were ready to start growing.
From the beginning, one of their primary goals has been to keep their garden as organic as possible. Using non-GMO seeds and Blue Ribbon Organic soil and compost, and employing gentle pest control measures such as a mild soap spray and bug-repellant companion plants like marigolds, Joel explains their hope that the neighborhood will enjoy visiting, seeing how the food is grown, and getting a reasonable price for local and organically-grown produce. The brothers also take requests and enjoy the challenges that growing new plants presents. When members of the community requested okra, Joel started planting it and experimenting with ways to prepare it. Now, it is one of his favorite things grown at Crops on Top!
The brothers grew up in Mequon, and the large farming community inspired both Jamie and Joel’s interest in growing and cooking fresh foods. “We always loved going to the farmer’s markets,” Joel tells me, remembering interacting with farmers while buying weekly groceries. Even in their own yard, they remember their parents having a large garden plot for many years. After leaving the Milwaukee area in 1994, Joel continued to place importance on relationships with farmers and using locally-grown food. While working in restaurants first in Seattle and then across the country, he kept in touch with local farms and “tried to have little gardens wherever I was living and incorporate them into the restaurants where I was working,” he says. Joel learned a lot from his various moves, observing how farms and restaurants are intertwined in different parts of the country. “Keeping in touch with the farms as a chef was always something that was a big priority,” he explains. Milwaukee is seeing an upward trend in restaurants using locally-grown ingredients, catching up to places like Seattle, where Joel says he saw the trend starting in the 1990s.
Joel and Jamie were pleasantly surprised by the immediate support from the community when they were getting started. Most things at Crops on Top were donated and repurposed with a little help from Jamie’s unique problem-solving skills. From the scrap wood and vessels from nearby warehouses that were turned into raised garden beds, to the roughly nine inches of woodchips trucked in by the Cities of Shorewood and Whitefish Bay, to the shipping container that provides shade and was moved in by Habitat for Humanity, the community has rallied around the garden faster than anyone expected. Whenever they needed a tool, materials, or advice, at least one person from one of the surrounding warehouses was able and more than willing to lend what they had. Now, Jamie and Joel enjoy sharing the literal fruits of their labor with the community. During farm market days when the garden is open to customers, (Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10-5), Joel enjoys chatting about his favorite ways to prepare various ingredients grown in the garden.
The garden really came full circle when they started partnering with Amorphic Beer to host farm dinners – five-course meals hosted right in the garden underneath their pergola adorned with growing hops. Meals are prepared using fresh foods grown on-site and paired with five unique beers from Amorphic. Drawing on his years of experience as a chef, Jamie prepares the meals himself, sometimes even deciding on ingredients because they happened to ripen just hours before the dinner began, making the meals “as healthy and as fresh as you can get,” he says. Both brothers consider farm dinners one of the most exciting things about running Crops on Top. Booking for all Crops on Top events is available through the Amorphic website under the ‘Order Beer for Pickup & Special Events tab. The next dinner is July 20th, and tickets tend to sell out quickly. If you can’t make it to a farm dinner, or just need to grocery shop for the week, the farm is open every Wednesday and Thursday from 10 am to 5 pm. Stop by, pick out some produce, and maybe chat with Joel about how to prepare it once you get home. To see what’s growing, check their Instagram and Facebook for regular updates.
