A growth industry, in your back yard (cool!)

[sniffa]

LOS ANGELES - Some people will go very far these days to get locally grown food.

In California, more than 40 residents volunteered their back yards to an aspiring young farmer who could not afford to buy land of his own.

In exchange for a weekly supply of produce, they would let him till their all-American lawns into rows of lettuce, broccoli, squash, and peas.

These weren't Bay Area yuppies, either. In working-class Chico, about 85 miles north of Sacramento, the residents who offered property to Lee Callender, 28, last October included a real estate agent, a retiree, a school administrator, and a newspaper carrier, who offered a plot behind his trailer.

Callender had so many options, he was able to select seven properties close enough together that he could bicycle between the plots and begin to cobble together a business.

"We were inundated with calls," Callender said. "People said, `Please use my land. Make it productive.' "

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/09/01/a_growth_industry_in_your_back_yard/

As a strong advocate of buying locally if you can, this thread warmed my cockles until running into the Walmart part. :D

[Betsy Ross]

1. Nice they have the water.

Northern California is on rationing. Limits on landscape watering. Can't really grow much food and stay within the consumption guidedlines. Go over and the rate gets very high. Yellow is mellow!

[HughBeaumont]

2. Well, that's nice . . . if you live in consistently warm L.A.

Unless I build me a greenhouse off the side of my house . . . don't think that's happening in the 6-7 frigid months-a-year Cleveland area.

[sniffa]

4. We have farms in the northeast

which has brutal winters. We even planted a garden last year on our concrete porch, in the concrete jungle, despite only getting sun for a few hours a day, and it worked out great for a while. It required constant care, so after the first two harvests, it died due to our busy schedules, and laziness.

I think this is a great idea regardless of what part of the country you're in. If you have the space you should grow your own produce (region dependent of course for which crops) and if you have the land, it would be great to allow others grow on it if you're not able/willing to.

[leeroysphitz]

3. Sounds sort of inefficient to me. Is he Bicycling from yard to yard

as he farms them?

[sniffa]

5. Apparently so

God bless him and the land owners anyhow.

[Kali]

6. that is so fucking cool!

and the walmart shit just means it is mainstream enough for them to perk up their greedy ears, it is still a good thing for this to go "normal"