Victoria Eaton’s infatuation with plants started at a young age. In fact, it started by learning about a plant that most people treat as a weed but its roots, leaves, and flowers are all edible and highly useful.
“As a little girl, I would sit outside in the middle of the dandelions, and my mom gave me a dandelion chart,” Eaton said. “I would use every part of it, took everything apart, and dissected it. I loved it. I was enraptured in that garden just sitting in it. Well, it was a yard. But to me, it was a garden. I was just always in tune with nature like that.”
Eaton owns Sweet Peaces, a vegan eatery and bakery inside the Flint Farmers’ Market that has been open for 12 years. Her experiences growing up and in her family sparked a lifelong interest in healthy, sustainable, fresh food sources.
“My family had a bunch of acres in Manchester, which is outside of Ann Arbor, and they rented it out (to farmers), but we always had access to the freshest food, and that’s what we would use to cook,” she said. “Both my parents had stomach issues and digestive issues, and what I would hear all the time is they would be told to exercise and eat more vegetables. So I was a personal trainer for a bunch of years. I started exercising when I was 10, and I’ve been eating differently since I was 25 or so, just trying to be healthy. It’s healthy for the environment and for people to eat like this.”
Now, in addition to the plant-based and gluten free menu items and baked goods Sweet Peaces is known for, Eaton is also organizing an effort to get more people growing and sharing their own fresh foods.
Sharing Food and Knowledge
For the second year, Eaton is leading a Community Crop Share. She has a stand setup in her stall at the Farmers’ Market where people can sign up to participate and get a packet of seeds. Participants will grow the seeds on their own, and then meet up when it is time to harvest and share them.
Last year, the food share had a couple of people and Eaton is hoping to expand it to around 15-20 participants this year.
“I just want people to think a little differently,” Eaton said. “There are countries like the Netherlands where this type of thing is just the norm, where farmers get together (and do food shares). I want us to take responsibility collectively for what we eat and to know what we eat.”
The food share model is a nod to historic victory gardens, which began as World War I-era vegetable plots planted by everyday people that were designed to supplement food rations and also build community. Eaton’s food share allows people to start small by just planting and learning how to grow one thing rather than an entire garden, so anyone interested even if they have limited or no experience growing vegetables can participate. After the crops are grown later in the season, they’ll get together in Willson Park near the Gandhi statue, which is across from the Flint Farmers’ Market.
“I’m asking them to commit to one vegetable, herb, or plant, and then we’ll share them,” she said. “I’m just trying to address the issues of potential food insecurity, and show that by cooperating people can meet those needs. I found that when I first started the idea, I was asking everybody to do a garden, and people don’t have time for that. That’s why I asked them to grow one thing (instead). It’s all person to person, I’m trying to create a means for people to connect without their phones a little bit.”
So far, she’s sourced seeds from places like Edible Flint and is distributing them by taking advantage of foot traffic on busy market days. She also provides insight and guidance to people just starting out with gardening and growing.
“I’ve had a full conversation with someone about how to create a bed for their garden out of what they found in their yard,” Eaton said. “They were like, ‘I don’t have any space. I don’t have anything to make a raised bed.’ Like, well, you might if you look in your yard. I like that kind of conversation.”
Connecting to Earth and to Health
Sweet Peaces has a wide range of plant-based and gluten free rotating menu items like samosas, a black bean and sweet potato burrito, soups, and more to go along with a popular selection of baked goods and desserts – Eaton says she’s been trying to focus even more on the bakery.
The restaurant is also going through some remodeling which, according to the Sweet Peaces Facebook page, should be unveiled later this week.
Beyond just providing vegan and plant-based foods through Sweet Peaces, Eaton also likes sharing information about food sources and her own journey to healthier eating.
“One of the things that set me on this path was when I was younger and I learned about Monsanto chemicalizing all of the land,” Eaton said. “And then I heard that gelatin was melted animals. Then I found out that sugar is processed with bone char. People don’t know these things, and that’s how I got interested in this as a career. So I really feel good when I can communicate with someone who doesn’t have that much information about food, and especially a lot of people will show up here when they’re not feeling well, and they’ve been told to be vegan. And I like it that they’re receptive and open, and they try some things and then I’ll see those people again and again.”
Sweet Peaces is open on market days, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Information about their food and the food share is available on their Facebook and Instagram pages, and Eaton said that people with questions can contact them through those pages as well. Mainly, she’s just happy to be able to share her knowledge and love of plant-based, healthy food with the community.
“I like when people like the food, and yes, the food’s good, and that’s nice, and I feel like I can pay my bills, but I’m more interested in getting people connected with the Earth and getting connected with how their health is affected by what they eat,” Eaton said.
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