Queer-led Mobile Moon Co-op offers Salt Lakers a space to build community and learn from the land.
Small Lake City
By Arica Roberts
Just over the Salt Lake City border in West Valley, the Mobile Moon Co-op operates a half-acre urban farm known as the Moonstead. The space at 2551 Hempstead Street was dreamed up by Rikki Longino, who learned from other cooperatives while touring across the country on a bike.
In 2017, Longino returned to Salt Lake City and founded Mobile Moon as "a femme and queer-led botanical collective that aids communities and ecosystems through education, empowerment and botanical stewardship," she said. "We really wanted to emphasize the importance of plants, growing plants, making them into botanical remedies, products, food and just bringing the earth into our lifestyle."
Mobile Moon started out as a collective that gathered ideas, poems, essays and art into small, independently published zines. In time they purchased a 1980s school bus, which currently resides on the farm, and after a couple years spent bouncing around and driving the bus from place to place—and converting it into their little safe haven—Mobile Moon was eventually able to purchase a piece of property that inadvertently allowed the co-op to become more mobile, since, as Longino says, "Having a firm ground to land allows us to spring out further."
Jennifer Beaudoin, a member of the co-op, said the group hosts open farm days on Fridays, where projects are selected and tasks are divided up, all with an eye toward working the land and taking in the lessons it can teach. Many residents—especially femme and queer folks—do not have the space to do their own farming or gardening, which is why organizers see the co-op and Moonstead as invaluable places where Utahns can explore regenerative farming and herbal medicine, while hosting events and cultivating a safe space for the queer community.
"Open farm days are very important to the community since a lot of folks living in the city and in apartments might not have access to land," Beaudoin said. "We want to be able to share a space in our community to connect to the land."
Since food is a pillar of the co-op, volunteers are offered a free lunch made from vegetables grown on the farm. The co-op secured an Arts, Culture and Events (ACE) grant for their upcoming Summer Solstice event at the Wasatch Community Gardens' Campus (800 S 500 East) on June 22nd, so food will also be available for this free event (which is open to the public).
The Summer Solstice includes a panel of SLC activists who will discuss Emergent Strategy, a philosophy developed from Adrienne Maree Brown, "on how to cultivate an atmosphere of trust and political alignment in our city through art, culture, and education" Yasi Shaker, the events coordinator, explained.
Check out their Instagram @mobilemooncoop for more information on upcoming events.
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