Down On The Urban Farm

Urban Farming has all the signs of becoming a movement. Here is an article in the Baltimore Sun reporting that seed sales have doubled over last year.

I found this article on Sidewalk Sprouts about a plan to turn a portion of the White House lawn into a kitchen garden.

Now I don't expect to see George (or the next president either) out there digging in the dirt, but what a great example this would set.

There is a new book out.

The Edible Estates project proposes the replacement of the domestic front lawn with a highly productive edible landscape. It was initiated by architect and artist Fritz Haeg on Independence Day, 2005, with the planting of the first regional prototype garden in the geographic center of the United States, Salina, Kansas. Since then three more prototype gardens have been created, in Lakewood, California; Maplewood, New Jersey and London, England. Edible Estates regional prototype gardens will ultimately be established in nine cities across the United States.

Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn documents the first four gardens with personal accounts written by the owners, garden plans and photographs illustrating the creation of the gardens--from ripping up the grass to harvesting a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs. Essays by Haeg, landscape architect Diana Balmori, garden and food writer Rosalind Creasy, author Michael Pollan and artist and writer Lesley Stern set the Edible Estates project in the context of larger issues concerning the environment, global food production and the imperative to generate a sense of community in our urban and suburban neighborhoods. This smart, affordable and well-designed book also includes reports and photographs from the owners of other edible front yards around the country, as well as helpful resources to guide you in making your own Edible Estate.

We al know about that eyesore. You know, the little patch of public land you drive by every day on your way to work. The one with thigh-high weeds, paper cups, broken bottles, and empty cans.

Well, the urban farm movement has a guerrilla wing. Now it has taken root in Los Angeles.

Susan over on Garden Rant wrote about a co-housing community in Silver Spring Maryland. Everyoen's favorite space is up on the roof. Susan says:

" There I found not just the beautiful, ubiquitous sedums, but also children's play equipment, a hottub, a large gazebo for live music events, seating and picnic tables, and plenty of spots for residents to just spread out on a beach blanket."

Pretty cool

I found an interesting article in the Eugene Oregon Register Guard, commenting on the the movement to urban farming. It mentioned a subject that I've seen little discussion of: Urban Farming's learning curve:

While some vegetables, like salad greens, are nearly effortless, others, like celery, present a challenge. New gardeners often don’t what it takes for a plant to survive, said Ryan Schmitt, greenhouse manager at The Flower Bin in Longmont, Colo. “Most people get the water thing, but sun and food, they often forget.”

One of the things I'm urging Farmer Greg to do is to write more articles here in this blog that describe exactly how to grow certain fruits and vegetables.

There areclasses you can attend. Gardener's Eden on Baseline Road here in Phoenix has some great classes. The Phoenix Permaculture Guild offers classes at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market.

"One of the reasons I love Boston is the distinct lack of farming that happens here" So says Amy Derjue on a blog called Boston Daily

Let me guess: She idolizes Paris Hilton, recently bought a Chihuahua, and named it Tinkerbell. Get this line:

http://archinect.com/news/article.php?id=75962_0_24_0_C

This story should motivate us all.

Cuba. A nation that is 80 percent urban. At one time, almost completely dependent upon its subsidized food shipments from the Soviet Union. The collapse of the USSR put a swift end to those food shipments. Imagine what that would be like.

Miladis Bouza suddenly found herself making the equivalent of $3/month at her job as a research biologist. She quit and with her husband began farming a half-acre lot near her home. She sells her excess bounty, and her neighbors once again have affordable vegetables. And she makes several times the average government salary doing it.

Wayne County, Mich. — home to Detroit — has been hit especially hard by the mortgage crisis.

The county has inherited thousands of unwanted properties, leaving plot after plot of vacant land. So a nonprofit group pitched an idea: Take that unused land, and grow food for the needy.

This year, the group — called Urban Farming — will take 20 derelict properties in Wayne County, then pull weeds, lay fresh topsoil, and plant fruits and vegetables.

The gardens aren't fenced off, so anyone can wander through and take their pick — for free. Any leftover produce is donated to food banks.

Click Here to read the entire NPR article.

"In Los Angeles, the South Central Farm built a community of 350 families, a refuge for children at risk from gangs, and a haven of hundreds of species of plants. It was destroyed when the Los Angeles City Council ceded its rights to a developer." -Raj Patel

With the Gateway Arch behind her and a stream of cars below, Mary Fitz studies a small patch of dirt and calls it her salvation. Fitz showed up at St. Patrick Center about two years ago, alcoholic and homeless, asking for help. "I was tired. I was depressed. I wanted a life, "she remerbers. " I was scared of dying like that"

Ream More

The Vancouver Sun is publishing a blog by Nicholas Read as he learns about urban farming:

http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/urbanfarmer/default.aspx

Lot's of people grow things for lots of different reasons. One ones I revere the most are the urban farmers who dot it to feed the less fortunate.

Artichokes and Pink Martini published a great article today about 'Paul' in Tacoma who urban farms with the mission of feeding Tacoma's hungry.

There was a great article a couple of days ago on The Ecopreneurist

Living in the city, it’s natural that your thoughts may turn at one point or another to daydreaming about having your own produce generating garden. But then they just as quickly get tossed in the mental recycling bin as an impossibility. Or maybe not, but with your erratic schedule, it sits there, limping along. Maybe you’ve been wanting to participate in an urban farm or a community garden , but there again, your life gets in the way. My Farm in San Francisco has come up with a solution: They partner with you to cultivate a specified plot of land in your own yard, from as small as 4′ by 4′ to as big as your whole yard.

It occurs to me that this can work two ways. It fills a need for not only those with more soil than time, it can also satisfy those with more time than soil. Suppose there were a clearing house designed to match up these two groups? Maybe add a third group: Those who want to teach.

I'll have to think about that for a while.

A recent in the Sacramento News and Review got me to thinking: What if we could partner with developers and owners of undeveloped land?

With today's housing slump, there are vast tracts of ground sitting idle waiting for the real estate market to recover. Until then, why not farm them? The resulting bounty could be sold at farmer's markets or provided to those unable to afford fresh fruits and vegetables.

Yes, CHicken Diapers. I didn't know such a thing existed either until I read Robin's great post on Blue Skies Urban Farm.

When I was very young and lived in a rural area, my sister and I had a chicken as a pet. It used to sit quietly in the basket attached to the handlebars of my sister's bike as she road around. I often wondered what was going on in that chicken's mind.

For some of us, it's hard not to see some of these animals as more than just farm animals - seeing them as pets. Interacting with something as simple as a chicken or turtle and watching it respond. I believe there is more going on inside those brains than we give them credit for.

Frank Gieringer’s farm sits on 80 acres acres in rural Edgerton.

Gieringer and his wife, Melanie, began growing peach trees in 2001, and they started selling the fruit — at a profit — at farmers markets and the store they’ve built near their home.

“It’s kind of a hobby that got out of control,” he joked.

Gieringer said the market for his products — which now also include sweet corn, tomatoes and blackberries — has increased this year.

Wouldn't you love to be able to do that?

I've discovered a new blog, A Garden In The Desert.

I don't know who the author is but he/she sure does take great photos. Just look at those tomatoes!

Public Farm 1 is a unique farm located in New York City's PS1 (Public School 1) courtyard.

Bringing sustainable construction together with sustainable agriculture, PF 1 is built entirely of recyclable materials, is 100% solar-powered utilizes rain collection for irrigation. PF 1 is a giant container garden, formed as a folded plane made from cardboard tubes designed to hold planters for vegetables, herbs and fruit. While most of the tubes create an elevated canopy for shade, some tubes extend to the ground to become columns. Each column holds a different program, from seating to sound environments to a mobile phone charging column and even a juice bar at the farmers market.

PF 1’s intent is to educate thousands of visitors on sustainable urban farming through the unique medium of contemporary architecture.

Watch a time lapse video of its construction:

http://publicfarm1.org/index.php?/ongoing/construction-time-lapse/

I found this great article on CasaSugar about a team of people creating and caring for a 10,000 square foot edible garden in front of San Francisco City Hall:

You can read more about it on Slow Food Nation's website.

Mark Fonseca Rendeiro, also known as ‘Bicyclemark’, has created four podcasts about urban farming:

Vertical Farming and the New Agricultural Revolution

Urban Farming in Philadelphia

CityHarvest, Urban Farming in Bits and Pieces

Vancouver’s City Farmer in Your Backyard

Click Here to read the entire article at City Farmer News

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Greensgrow Urban Farm in Philadelphia.

Today Philadelphia's NBC Channel 10 blog posted a great article about Greensgrow and other urban farms in the Philadelphia area, including the website addresses of four urban farms and farmers markets.

If you live in Philly it's worth checking out.

I found this great article on the Green Brooklyn blog about Sky Vegetables, a company that constructs and operates commercial, hydroponic greenhouses on the rooftops of supermarkets in the United States and eventually on all types of flat rooftops worldwide.

Think about it: every neighborhood supermarket could become a farmers market. The vegetables you buy today were growing a few feet away just yesterday.

Even cooler, they set up video cameras on the roof which send a live feed to a screen located in the produce section. Imagine buy a tomato that you've been watching grow for weeks!

I found a great article i the New York Times about urban farmers for hire.

The author says:

Two months ago, I learned about My Farm, run by mortgage-broker-turned-farmer Trevor Paque.

For a small fee, Paque helps you create an urban farm in your own back yard and visits once a week to tend it.

After just three months in business, Paque has a waiting list of over 200 people and is scrambling to keep up with demand.

Doers anyone else sense a business opportunity?

You can barely hear the sound of bulldozers breaking ground on the new housing development across the street over the buzzing of the bees and scattered conversations.

On the corner of Rockingstone Road and Ardwell is the Spryfield Urban Farm garden. The preserved patch of green, as it sits now, was created four years ago by the Urban Farm Museum Society of Spryfield (UFMSS). The seed of an idea to create this, one of two urban gardens run by the UFMSS, was planted back in 1996.

Read More...

I read an >a href="http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/eat-green-lose-weight.html">interesting article over on Planet Green this morning about the environmental benefits of eating healthier.

Think of the energy that goes into making that pint of Ben & Jerry's. One candy bar each day from the vending machine equals several cases of them over a year. In those terms, the impact due to manufacturing and transportation of all those Milky Ways is an eye-opener.

Grow your own apples and carrots and peas and cantaloupe. Snacking on them is not only a lot healthier but a lot better for the environment. There is also that certain smug satisfaction of having grown them yourself.

I found this great article in the online edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

One thing of note in the article was how farmers markets are becoming an integral part oc cities' soul:

“Markets build community, help revitalize urban neighborhoods and incubate new businesses,” says Crenshaw, whose personal fortune and sense of civic altruism intertwine in a perfect helix of positive energy.

Read Entire Article

National Geographic has produce a short video about the resurgence of urban farming in London.

Click Here to watch it.

If you are from Vancouver, BC, your reaction might be, "There's no farm in the Kitsilano neighborhood!"

Yes There Is!

Kitsilano Farms is an amalgamation of backyard gardens around the Kitsilano neighbourhood. The people who own these gardens have provided the space to grow produce that is taken to market or share with the community through their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.

Craig Heigway calls himself the Chief Pitchfork Operator (CPO) of Kitsilano Farms. Craig says:

As a boy, my summer weekends were spent behind the wheel of an old Massey Ferguson tractor, hauling the equipment that turns hay into bales. Luckily, I was under the age of 12, so not big enough to heft the bales onto the wagon --that was left to my older brother, Drew. There is a big gap in time between the farm of my childhood and Kitsilano Farms. Time that I rarely experienced farm life, but often longed for an opportunity to get back to the land. Now I have the opportunity to put my hands in the soil, plant the seeds, weed the gardens, tend to the crop; that is, be a farmer again.

And the best thing of all, I get to meet the people and see the smiles on their faces when I present them with the beautiful vegetables that I grew. That's why I started Kitsilano Farms.

Click Here to learn more about Kitsilano Farms.

I found this really great article on the Detroit Make It Here blog about people banding together to turn vacant lots into thriving farms that feed the surrounding neighborhood.

Traditional supermarkets have moved out of the inner cities and created a food desert. These farm communities increase access to healthier food and fresh produce to inner-city people … land around Detroit has an opportunity to be productive.

Click Here to read the article.

You know a movement is going mainstream when the topic starts showing up in unsual places - In this case Wired Magazine:

Once you realize how easy it is to make the concrete jungle bloom, it changes the way you see the world. Urban environments suddenly appear weirdly dead and wasteful. When I walk around New York City now, I see the usual empty lots and balconies and I think, Wait a minute. Why aren't we growing food here? And here? And here?

Click Here to read the article.

I found this great story In Neighbors To Go about a new urban farm starting in Balch Springs,Texas.

"The farm has been stamped as Certified Naturally Grown by a non-profit alternative certification program tailored for small-scale, direct-market farmers using natural methods."

Click Here to read the entire article.

I read this article in the online edition of the Toronto Star today and it contained a couple of interesting quotes. The first was:

Farming in the city is a growth industry for jobs and serious quantities of just-picked produce

It is an indication that urban farming is moving into the mainstream.

I'm not sure I agree (In fact, I'm pretty sure I disagree) with the other interesting quote:

Urban agriculture should not be confused with gardening, says Field. The main difference is the scale – the plots are larger – and the food is sold, not shared among a community or taken home at the end of the day by one gardener.

This is the first time I've hear that particular distinction. Most urban farmers consume and/or share their crop rather than sell it, so I don't think the definition is valid.

If you have time to read just one story today, this is it:

A Growing Movement: Urban Farming In Chicago

It started with the vision of Will Allen, a former NBA player: a comprehensive, non-profit agricultural complex complete with greenhouses, composts, outdoor pens for livestock, and a small retail store. He also implemented an urban farming training program that teaches schools, government agencies, and community members how to operate and sustain farms themselves.

Click Here to read the article

12 Degrees of Freedom has a great post this week on raising urban chickens.

One facet of the discussion that was not covered is that in most cities, omeowners are prohibited from raising aoultry not only by their city zoning regulations, but also by their HOA bylaws.

Micrograineries is a term I invented just now. We've all heard of restaurants with microbreweries that brew their own beer. How about bakeries and grocers with their own micrograineries and micro-flour mills?

In New Mexico, a cooperative of Native American and Latino farmers produce a boutique local flour. In Western Massachusetts, a baking couple has persuaded their customers to plant front-lawn wheat patches. In Vermont, a farmer whose homegrown wheat flour was a curiosity when he began growing it in the 1970s now can’t keep up with demand. And in Pennsylvania, a venerable pastry flour brand from the 1800s has been resurrected, made with local organic wheat.

Read more at 12 Degrees of Freedom

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/

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.