Bringing the Farm to You.
Growing your own food shouldn’t require a backyard, a green thumb, or a budget. The Farm Bucket Initiative takes what Madison’s food system would otherwise throw away — buckets, coffee bags, compost — and turns it into a ready-to-grow garden for your patio, balcony, porch, or windowsill.
A Farm Doesn’t Need Acres.
Access to fresh food—and the experience of growing it—shouldn’t depend on having a backyard.
The Farm Bucket Initiative brings food production into the spaces most people overlook — patios, balconies, porches, stoops. By pairing rescued materials from Madison’s food system with locally produced compost and established edible plants, Brainplate Grows builds small gardens that are productive from day one.
Built alongside FEED Kitchens, Healthy Food For All, local food businesses, and community volunteers, the initiative turns what Madison would otherwise throw away into something a neighbor can actually eat.
01
Rescued Bucket
Repurposed food-safe buckets from FEED Bakery.
02
Coffee Bag
Used coffee bags from JBC Coffee get another life.
04
Biochar
Created using material from Holy Wisdom Monastery’s restoration work.
05
Edible Plants
Established crops like collards and basil turn it all into a productive little farm.
From Madison’s Food System to Your Patio
03
Brainplate Compost
Made from food scraps collected from FEED Kitchens and 50+ Madison-area restaurants and food businesses.
Local GrowerGrown by Neighbors, for Neighbors.
This work is made possible in part by Northside farmer Kim Fruin of Farm Her Greens. Kim has developed high-yield natural farming techniques that offer a working model for an accessible agricultural system—one that grows in abundance while staying in harmony with the land. The Farm Bucket Initiative draws on lessons like hers: that even small spaces, thoughtfully tended, can produce real food for real neighbors.
Two Ways to Bring a Farm Bucket to Madison.
SUPPORT THE INITIATIVE
$20 Donation
Every $20 you give helps Brainplate Grows rescue materials from Madison’s food system, build them into compost-powered planter kits, and deliver them—stocked with culturally relevant crop plants—to families across Madison through partners like Healthy Food For All.
GROW YOUR OWN
$25 Farm Bucket
Bring a Farm Bucket home or to your business—and help fund the next one for someone else. Every purchase sustains the program and grows more gardens across Madison.
Nothing Wasted. Everything Growing.
A bucket from a bakery.
A coffee bag from a local roaster.
Food scraps from Madison restaurants.
Locally produced biochar.
A little time from volunteers.
Individually, they’re simple materials.
Together, they become a farm.
FOOD SCRAPS → COMPOST → FARM BUCKET → FRESH FOOD → COMMUNITY
Bring the Farm to the People.
However you show up—giving, growing, volunteering, or contributing materials—you’re putting the power to grow food into more hands across Madison. Brainplate Grows is built by this community, for this community, and every bit of support moves it forward.