JUST ONE SEED Soaring Food Prices Spurs Business Shift
by John Conway
HURLEYVILLE — Everywhere you look these days, it seems, home gardening is making a comeback after decades of decline. Reacting to soaring grocery prices—food prices are predicted to increase another 2.9 percent this year—supply chain disruptions, and a loss of trust in industrial food systems, households and community groups are reclaiming balconies, rooftops, and small yards to grow their own food. As the website, TheAshNow.com puts it, “home gardening is no longer just a hobby. In 2026, it has become a global lifestyle shift driven by rising food prices, health awareness, climate anxiety, and a desire for self-reliance. From New York to Berlin, Tokyo to Toronto, millions of households are quietly reclaiming food production — one tomato plant at a time.”
And for those living in Sullivan County and the surrounding area who would like to be part of the trend but find the prospect of getting started too daunting, help is now available.
Just One Seed, a company that has been around since 2005, has responded to the challenge of rising food prices by pivoting slightly to emphasize “helping people reimagine their home properties, churches, schools or corporate campuses for growing food.”
“The idea is that the more we can grow our own food, the more resilient we can be as food costs escalate, as they have in the last year, and especially recently,” says the company’s founder, Eve Minson. “It has always been an aspect of my business to mentor people, and to teach them the skills to be successful with their gardening endeavors so that they move forward with confidence, and know they can develop a green thumb over time, and help them build their passion and interest in the plant world, which is full of so many wonders and flavors and benefits. In light of recent trends, I am now concentrating more on that.
“I don’t build the actual gardens themselves anymore, but help people learn how to do that themselves, and support their skills building the whole way to harvest.”
Ms. Minson started the business more than 20 years ago while teaching design in Bucks County, PA.
“My partner and I started a CSA on a horse farm where we were living and growing organic vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers,” she recalls. “However, I started Just One Seed as a landscape design firm because I was teaching design and also pursuing design work in the region north of Philadelphia. In 1999 I graduated from a graduate program in landscape architecture at Cornell University, and then two years later another Masters program in natural resources. After a brief stint as a community planner and designer in the Hudson Valley, I moved to PA to start teaching, and later, farming.”
Ms. Minson says that after a decade of design work, she began consulting on agriculture and farming related issues, and decided she preferred that to designing. She never looked back.
“I designed and built a couple of very large community gardens in New Jersey, teaching basic food gardening there, and also helped start a beginner farmer incubator with a large USDA grant,” she said. “I returned to the Catskills to take my current job at The Center for Discovery 12 years ago.”
At TCFD, she began farming and running the farm-based therapeutic education program.
“Soon after, I started to develop my home property into a totally edible landscape, and then began to do that for others, including Sanivan Spa in Hurleyville, which has become an organic homestead paradise, providing produce for their guests for at least nine months out of the year.
“I love growing food for people and helping others do it too, mostly because of the importance of access to healthy local food, which is healthier and more nutritious than that which is sent from halfway across the world,” she notes. “But also I believe that when we are a little bit more self-sufficient, it enhances our relationship with nature, maybe our families and neighbors, and it’s quite amazing to go into your yard and gather an incredibly fresh and healthy dinner. It’s a great way to get rid of your lawn and fill it with organic edibles that will fill your belly, refrigerator and freezer. It’s a total ‘backyard to table’ experience! And of course, that’s how we all used to live. Think of it as a new era of the World War II Victory Gardens.”
So, if you want to grow your own food and reap the health benefits of doing so, but are convinced that you can’t make it happen, Just One Seed could be the solution you are looking for.
“People can find me on the website and FACEBOOK,” Ms. Minson said. “Soon I will be writing a garden-centric SUBSTACK blog. And I’m writing a book about the relationship between older women and nature, called ‘The Crone’s Garden.’”
Learn more about what Just One Seed has to offer on their website, justoneseedllc.com