Fascinating, encouraging story from yesterday's Times, about young people who are reading Michael Pollan and others, and not just enthusing about growing organically and making artisanal foods, but who are actually picking up and moving out to the countryside to do it. Excerpt:
While this is hardly the first time that idealistic young people wanted to get back to the garden, the current crop have advantages over their forebears from the 1960s and 70s, many of whom, inspired by the Whole Earth Catalog or Wendell Berry’s books about agrarian values, headed to the country, only to find it impossible to make a living.But the growing market for organic and locally grown produce is making it possible for well-run small farms to thrive, said Ken Meter, 58, who studies the economics of food as an analyst at the Crossroads Resource Center, a nonprofit advocacy group for local food initiatives that is based in Minnesota.
“A lot of people in our 20s went to the land and wanted to farm and had a lot of enthusiasm, but not many resources,” he said. “It has only been the last five years where the payment from working your fingers to the bone and supplying urban markets with high-quality produce has been enough where you could imagine making a living.”
More, please, and faster! I love this quote, about how a new appreciation for good food and for artisanal food culture is becoming hip. "Billyburg" is the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, one of NYC's ground zeroes for cool:
The Billyburg scene has changed, said Annaliese Griffin, who contributes to a blog called Grocery Guy. “Having a cool cheese in your fridge has taken the place of knowing what the cool band is, or even of playing in that band,” she said. “Our rock stars are ricotta makers.”
Notice that this back to the land agrarian movement is only possible because people who live in the city are willing to buy what the small farmers produce. That's why it's important not to adopt a false duality, and this idea that if you don't drop your urban life and head for the hills, you're some sort of hypocrite. Not everybody is cut out for rural farming -- me, I'm the second coming of Jean de Florette -- but we who are living in the cities and the suburbs can and should help support these farmers by buying the fruit of their land and their labors. LocalHarvest.org helps you find the organic small farmers, farmers markets, CSAs et alia near you by just typing in your zip code.
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When you google the "Sugar Mountain" blog it's Sugar Mountain Farm. If you try just "Sugar Mountain" you get lots of ski area sites. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Anyway, my bad. Sorry.
Can I grow food in the city? I guess my real question is: how much yard do I need to provide for my own family?
Rod: We are trying raised bed gardening this spring/summer/fall as well. We bought the book 'Square Foot Gardening,' and it looks pretty simple and a lot less labor-intensive than the traditional method of gardening, which is what we did last year. What we're going to focus on this year is to stagger our plantings according to the season: planting hardier greens like kale and spinach in the fall and spring before it gets too cold vs. planting lettuce and more tender greens in the hotter summer months. Tomatoes and herbs can be grown in a whiskey barrel. And kale can be harvested well after the first frost.
Tom: You might want to try this site: http://www.pathtofreedom.com/pathproject/
It details an urban garden built on something like 1/5 of an acre, which support four adults year-round. They share their growing tips as well as sponsor a forum; there are also other useful links. Rod, I hope it was okay to link to another website from your blog.
"She often wakes up at 5 a.m. and collapses into an exhausted sleep by 9 p.m." - article
A perfect example of David Letterman's old NBC-era quip, "I was tired, but it was a good kind of tired."
Scott: I had dinner once with Miriam Latzer (sp?), the woman from that article who made that quote and she said that this farm work was one of the most satisfying things she's ever done. I found her to be an intriguing character partly because she told me that she could fit all her worldly possessions into one duffel bag. That was fascinating to me.
bd: "she said that this farm work was one of the most satisfying things she's ever done."
Would that more of us ventured thus.
"I found her to be an intriguing character partly because she told me that she could fit all her worldly possessions into one duffel bag."
I love that, too. I can, at 46, fit all *my* worldly possessions into my 1993 Toyota Camry, so I am, to quote Bon Jovi, "halfway there."
Here's another Times article for those wishing to extend their green thumbs to shoulder length, in recalling the Nick Drake lyric, "Fame is but a fruit tree...":
HOME & GARDEN | March 13, 2008
Backyards, Beware: An Orchard Wants Your Spot
In an era of local food, an increasing number of Americans are turning their yards into mini orchards, even in dense urban areas.
nytimes.com/2008/03/13/garden/13orchyarding.html
Tom: Can you grow food in the city? Oh, my, yes. Even if it's only a little bit, that helps. I think one of the keys to getting ourselves out of the fix we're into, foodwise, is lots and lots of little experiments, a generous application of imagination, and a willingness to get dirt under the fingernails. There're many resources and examples out there, but the best way to figure out what works for you in your local conditions is to go ahead and give it a shot.
Urban farmers of the world, unite! You have nothing to loose but your dependence on an unhealthy and unsustainable food system.
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