Andy Gorman has spent more than a decade turning his Sharonville, Ohio, yard into a working farm. Last fall, the city cited him under its zoning rules, and he beat the citation on appeal. The farm has continued to expand since.
The citation, issued in October 2025, was tied to his at-home produce sales, according to WCPO 9 Cincinnati. The following month, 14 residents turned up at his hearing to speak in his favor. None spoke against him.
Gorman didn’t originally set out to be a farmer. He started a small garden behind his garage in 2012, when he wanted to shift to a plant-based diet. He kept the early effort hidden because he didn’t yet know what he was doing. But as he kept learning, his operation continued to grow.
That early garden eventually grew into Cincy Urban Farm, the self-service produce stand Gorman now runs from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day at the same address. The shop does not make him much money, he has told the station. The actual growing, at this point, mostly happens at Ell Farm in West Chester Township.
The Garden Behind the Garage
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The house Gorman has been gardening at was built by his great-grandfather. As a child, he had never imagined farming as a possible career. The first version of his garden, he has said, was not designed to look like one.
As the operation kept outgrowing itself, Gorman tore up the lawn, ran irrigation underground, and replaced rows of grass with raised beds. His wheelbarrow count crept from one to six. Weed barriers eventually went down along parts of the sidewalk, where they remain.
The business itself started by accident. Gorman put up a tent in the driveway and gave produce away of his own volition. As the giveaways became a regular thing and more neighbors started picking up bags, it began to look less like a hobby than a business. That was the version the city eventually noticed.
The Zoning Fight
Officials told Gorman the way he was selling from home did not match the zoning rules. He spent the weeks that followed preparing his appeal. The fight, by his account, was harder than anything he had taken on as a gardener.
At the November hearing, the residents who spoke described what the farm had meant to the neighborhood. The board voted unanimously to rescind the violation as a result. For Gorman, the win was confirmation that the work he had been doing was worth it after all.
The most rewarding part of the operation used to be eating his own food, Gorman said. Now the most rewarding part is sharing it with others. He’s also said he hopes others see what he’s built on his own and try something at their own scale. In addition, he’s even planning a YouTube channel to walk people through it.
During the WCPO interview, a woman walking by with a stroller stopped to tell Gorman he had already inspired her husband to build four raised beds at home. That, in Gorman’s view, is the whole point of everything he’s worked for so far. Owning dozens of acres, he has said, has nothing to do with whether a person can grow real food. And he plans to continue his work, no matter what challenges he ends up facing.