The Queens County Farm Museum, just inside the New York City limits, has hired its first farmer in decades.

This historic 47-acre farm dates back to 1697. Once owned by Dutch settlers, the Queens County Farm Museum was taken over by the NYC Department of Parks and saved from further development in the mid 1970’s. For 33 years, it has provided much-needed open space and has served as a community center, with visitors and schoolchildren of every age and from every borough in attendance.

Over time, though actual farming on the property was reduced to a 3-acre plot of corn for the anual harvest festival. That is changing.

Queens County Farm Museum has experienced a surge in the level of interest in what they have to offer. Attendance at the farm in 2008 has seen record numbers, and they are now strategizing how best to meet this growing demand. As a start, this year they hired their first farmer in decades.

Click Here to read the article.

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Here is a great CBS video about Greensgrow Urban Farm in Philedelphia:

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Dave, Chief Blogging Officer here at The Urban Farm and his Sweet Lady Wife planted leeks, swiss chard, spinach, and beets. Will they make it?

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The Urban Hennery has issued The Dark Days Challenge.

The challenge will run from November 15 to March 15. The Rules:

1. Cook one meal a week featuring at least 90% local ingredients.
2. You define local - the standard definitions range from 100, to 150 to 200 miles.
3. Ingredients can be things you grew and preserved yourself, sourced from local farms and markets, or purchased at the store
4. Write about the meals you cook, your challenges finding ingredients, why you’re eating local or whatever else strikes your fancy for each recap. Photos are optional.
5. Include friends and family in your sourcing and eating as possible.

So Much Ground, So Little Time.

That’s the lament of many homeowners who wish they could turn a few square feet of their backyard into a source of fresh fruits and vegetables. I’ve often herd people wonder out loud if they could simply hire someone to do it for them. In San Francisco, now you can.

Trevor Paque calls his business ‘MyFarm’. He and his helpers currently farm 55 backyards. For time-starved residents, MyFarm is a way to get organic produce grown steps from their kitchen without having to touch a trowel. For yardless neighbors, it lets them effectively buy a share of their neighbors’ gardens.

Click Here to read the story.

There is a great article in the Toronto National Post about the growing movement to repeal laws prohibiting the raising of livestock and poultry in urban areas.

Red, Ramona and Daisy, three 18-month-old hens, spend their nights in the enclosure and their days nibbling and digging in the yard. They eat a mixture of chicken feed, grass and kitchen scraps (the house’s green bin goes out nearly empty) and provide their owners Chris and Cara (who asked that their last names not be used) with three humongous brown eggs almost every day. His hens utter the occasional cluck, but their poop fertilizes the lawn and the neighbours, far from offended, show up at Chris and Cara’s front door with empty cartons.

There’s just one problem: the hens are illegal.

Eletta Purdy, manager for Toronto Animal Services admits: “We do need to look at our bylaw. We’d like to update it to address the current day’s needs.” She says the city may review rules for chickens and exotic pets next year.

Click Here to read the article.

From the Boston.com website:

It may not be the sprawling 50-acre countryside farm he once dreamed of running, but for Newton resident Greg Maslowe, the 2 acres of city-owned property in south Newton is just right.

“I’ve come to really enjoy this particular situation,” said Maslowe, 38, who is completing his third season as the manager of Newton Angino Community Farm. “I like that I can pay more attention to each crop than on a bigger farm.”

Click Here to read more.

HOMEGROWN follows the Dervaes family who run a small organic farm in the heart of urban Pasadena, California. While “living off the grid”, they harvest over 6,000 pounds of produce on less than a quarter of an acre, make their own bio diesel, power their computers with the help of solar panels, and maintain a website that gets 4,000 hits a day. The film is an intimate human portrait of what it’s like to live like “Little House on the Prairie” in the 21st Century.

Click Here to view the trailer.

Click Here to watch for the screening in your city.

The Internet is great, but sometimes there is nothing better than having a fellow urban farmer to commiserate with. Are there other urban farmers in your neighborhood? World Food Garden has published a tool that will help you find out.

Be one of the first to add your garden to the map.

http://www.worldfoodgarden.org/