We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tony Tnt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tony below.
Tony, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
I developed my confidence and self-esteem by showing myself consistently that there can be positive outcomes no matter what the situation is. From a young age, things were happening fast and usually starting off on the negative end of the stick, but there was always a way to the other side, no matter how hard it was. Growing up in the Saint Louis Public Schools system, even education had a lot of struggles, so educational achievements played a huge part in building my confidence and self-esteem. Once I finally figured out sports in high school, I really became confident, maybe even a little full of myself for a while. This confidence transfers to everything I do, so starting new things is fairly easy for me. When I first thought about becoming a gardener/farmer, I just thought of it as something to try out and see if I was good at it. Now, I’ve turned it into a business and I also educate others on how to grow food and feed the community. Watching others start of nervous and then becoming confident after seeing positive outcomes. keeps my motivation going for the future. This also builds by self-esteem, knowing that I am assisting others in showing themselves that they can accomplish goals, and gardening does seem magical at times. I am still nervous when starting something new, or even something old, but I always have in the back of my mind that it will be accomplished. All of the good goals and missions in life seem impossible at first anyway. I never would have thought I would be operating land with 28 garden beds, bee hives, vacant lots on each side, a rain garden, and more, but here I am. These days when I take on a new task such as The Ville Family Garden that is so large in size, I try to gain assistance from the community now to aid in that confidence. I’ve had a great partnership with We Live Here-The Ville. and also volunteers that come and aid in the garden beds and more. I used to do everything by myself, and think of myself as a juggernaut, that’s what I think the full of myself part is from. But now, I know it makes it easier to have assistance, and everyone deserves and needs to be involved with what is going on in their community. Building confidence in others is more of the goal for me now, because if I can inspire someone to do what I’m doing, we can improve and feed the community together. This is hard work, but it is doable and needed work. Everyone is in the food fight together, as we all eat everyday, we all should know how to at least grow our favorite foods.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a gardener/farmer that has been building into a small business over the years. I started my hand in gardening when I was in college at Southeast Missouri State University and renting a house with a fairly big backyard. I would buy plants from home depot and use them to decorate around the house with flowers, in college I never tried food. Once I moved back home to Saint Louis, that is when I lucked up and found my way into vegetable farming. I purchased a house that already had 2 garden beds in the backyard, as well as leftover gardening supplies in the shed. My first year I tried my hand in growing tomatoes, and I did amazing. I had too many tomatoes and had to beg people to take tomatoes from me, even strangers. This forced me to have to think about distribution of whatever I grow. I quickly found local giveaways to donate to, but even then it was not enough to get the vegetables out before going bad, and I did not want to waste tons of food. After that, I made my gardening into an LLC and began participating in the One Africa One Nation Farmers Market in O Fallon Park. At this farmers market I made all the connections needed to grow myself personally and a business, this is also where I was approached regarding reviving and taking over The Ville Family Garden. I was linked with more giveaway events, I developed dedicated consumers who demand their favorite foods like tomatoes and peppers, as well as special events and networking that comes with being part of a farming community.
Now, Tony TNT Gardening LLC is doing a lot around the Saint Louis area and plans to grow more and more. This year I focused on farmers markets and giveaways, while putting tons of labor and hard work in to revive The Ville Family Garden. The Ville Family Garden is now doing amazing, and is actually pushing out tons of fresh produce daily to the community, while developing itself as a force in the community to come and hang around at. Currently, we are raising money to install an irrigation system, so I can do more work rather than watering each and everyday. My goal as a person, business, and garden leader is the same, feed and progress the community for the better in health both physically and mentally. I want to teach everyone new skills that actually have a return on investment that is greater than your own imagination, and gardening/farming provides that magic.
Next year, I am really wanting to figure out packaging, labeling, getting into grocery stores, the real next steps of business. The way I have been growing, I think this is needed to make all the food being grown useful in the community and more. My logo is a tomato with dreadlocks, he looks like me, so I hope to stand out a little from the usual.
For upcoming events, I will be at farmers markets as well as a fundraising event for an irrigation system. I will be participating in the One Africa One Nation Farmers Market on September 21, 2024 at O Fallon Park and the Healthy Flavor Community Farmers Market on September 28,2024 at 351 Chambers Rd. 63137
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Looking back the three qualities that were most impactful to my journey are resilience, observing everything and networking. Resilience is needed in any journey, because there is always going to be barriers, downfalls, bad days, and negative outcomes. There are more reasons to quit than there is to keep going most of the time, but thankfully, the few reasons to keep going often outweigh the many reasons to quit what you are pushing to accomplish. Observing everything is extremely important because you can learn a whole lot without even trying. There is no problem with playing the background, even when you think you know what you are doing. Everyone does things differently, and you probably have not perfected the task at hand completely. If you are on the lower level of a team, observe the higher teams and make sure you learn the basics of moving up, before it is even time to start moving up. Networking will take you more places than skills ever will. If you meet the right person, it can advance you in many ways in an instant. This is how I stumbled upon the opportunity to revive The Ville Family Garden, through networking. I actually did not know how to take on the task once I was approached, I had to heavily research to figure it all out.
Being willing to learn and play the background will make good things happen for you. Speaking up and expressing what you don’t know, and your goals will gain you a network that is willing to aid you in your efforts. Knowing that every downfall has a positive income, will remind you that there is light at the end of the tunnel each time.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I am looking for folks to collaborate with that love assisting the community, as well as growing food. I know the areas I love to work in aren’t the most attractive, but the gardens and farms provide their own worlds and vibes. This is not an easy task, and I am very successful alone, I can only imagine the impact I could have with a team of like minded individuals ready to put the effort in to make great things happen. Not only do I need assistance with growing the food, I also need assistance distributing the food. If you do well at the gardening part, it makes the harvesting and distributing part a lot more work, but it is rewarding.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonytntgardening?igsh=bXk0bHZoNDBwN3hj&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1JLeDt8ybx/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Other: https://www.feastmagazine.com/community/farmers/tony-rushing-tnt-gardening-north-city/article_6bff3fce-5659-11ee-ac54-3f880a4ef2b1.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_Feast_Magazine&mibextid=2JQ9oc
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