Falani Spivey

Our Story

Founded in 2020, the farm began in Maryland as a small but intentional space rooted in ancestral growing practices and cultural memory. In time, that calling led Falani Spivey back to her family’s ancestral land in Louisburg, North Carolina, soil first stewarded by her great-grandparents more than a century ago. What began as a farm has grown into a living expression of heritage, healing, and hope.

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Falani blends ancestral wisdom with innovative agricultural practices, cultivating heritage crops such as natural seeded watermelons, heirloom okra, collard greens, and exotic peppers. Her work extends beyond the field into community education, cultural preservation, and food sovereignty, ensuring that agricultural knowledge is not lost but shared freely across generations.

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Coming Back to the Land: The Spivey Farm Legacy

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Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Falani spent childhood summers on her grandparents’ Southern farm, where the stories of her great-grandparents, Charlie and Ellen Spivey, took root in her spirit. Their hands worked this very land in the early 1900s, raising ten children and countless crops that nourished both body and soul.

As a child, Falani pressed her hands into this earth, unaware that those early moments were shaping her future. After years in the city, she finally answered the quiet call to return. Today, she walks the same paths where her great-grandfather once tended cattle and her great-grandmother harvested vegetables for canning jars, continuing a legacy of care, resilience, and self-determination.

By transforming the Spivey family farm into an educational and cultural destination, Falani is not only preserving her family’s story. She is adding her own chapter. Byrd’s Nest Box stands as a space where Black agricultural excellence is honored, stories are remembered, and new growth is nurtured for generations to come.

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Rooted in Purpose

At its heart, Byrd’s Nest Box is about more than food. It is about reclaiming land, preserving knowledge, and strengthening families. Through storytelling circles, folklore gatherings, hands-on workshops, and shared harvests, the farm creates space for connection where elders teach, children learn, and community flourishes.

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Every seed planted is an act of remembrance. Every harvest is a promise to the future.