Your Own Personal Farmer

It seems I should really get out more often, or at least pay more attention when I do. Erehwon Farm is only a twnenty minute drive for me.  I pass by it at least two to three times a week but have never checked it out.  I often buy very toothsome produce from a few of the farm stands surrounding it.  I'll report back if I get there this weekend.

The notion of consuming local produce in particular is very popular right now.  The term "locavore" is being applied to a good number of well loved chefs.  And, up to a point, I get the idea.  But it's interesting to note that, yesterday, we were all talking about how the best olive oil had to be imported because you couldn't get good stuff locally.

DPR,

I often wonder if a lot of the "locally grown versus imported" is more of a state of mind than actual taste.  Perhaps a few blind taste tests are in order?

As I understand it, in the case of wines, flavor is determined by the grape itself, the growing region/climate, the barrel, as well as the age of the vine. Yet the number of local wineries out here in the Midwest is growing almost exponentially. Just down the road from the aforementioned farm, a field that a mere three years ago was used to grow corn and soybeans is now draped by grape vines and a new winery being constructed right across the street.

Up until a few years ago I don't recall hearing too much about the wines and/or olive oil that is grown and produced in Australia, but now it occupies a fair amount of shelf space in many of the better markets and has eatablished a good reputation.

Olive trees may take a little longer to grow and be productive, but who knows, maybe some day? It would be nice to have another economically sound argument to save some of the farm land out here that is steadily being purchased and transformed by housing developers.

we have "farmers markets" in the San Fernando Valley (L.A.).  Most of the produce is from neighboring Ventura County.  Always fresh. Some comunities in "inner city" suburban areas have started community gardens.  It helps the less fortunate obtain fresh food. 

However, L.A. county and other counties nearby have been losing farm land to developers at a rapid rate. It would be nice to see a balance but develpoment, even when it's so-called "Smart Growth", is  more oftenat the expense of rural areas. 

ExPat,
When I was just a snot-nosed kid living in Chicago, it might have taken 15 minutes by car to begin our Sunday drive out in the country and we would just drive, and drive and drive until we hit a small town.. That trip today would probably take at least 90 minutes before Chicago and all of it's "Mini-Me's" faded in our rearview mirror and then it would be a series of short drives through farmland and woods between all the newer and every expanding urban areas.

I'm sure the benefits are many but afraid that they are short lived (probably just an emotional/nostalgic rationalization on my part).

At least they had the good sense to label it "Smart Growth" as opposed to "Purposeless and Meaningless Growth for Naught but Greed"". I'm really not as bitter as that may sound. For many of the farmers, selling off their land was the only way they could finish in the black. More power to them.

I think I'll go see how the corn's growing while I still can.

Peter Lake:

Many years ago, we went to a county high school 10 miles out in a little town on the eastern edge of the county where Louisville is located.  We moved back 5 1/2 years ago.  We bought a town house in that little town.  It now is a part of the continuous sprawl that became "Louisville Metro"  when the county and city merged several years back.  That little town is simply a berb in the big picture.  We are still learning the reconfiguration and new landmarks of the "country roads" we knew as teens.  And I am sure those growing up here today will rue the "loss" of what they know as "the city as we know it".  

Another pathway here in terms of community gardens.  There seems to be quite a movement afoot, not only to garden communally, but to live in a community with more of a sense of neighborhood.  Remember my disertation on co-housing?  People are trying new ways to configure their neighborhoods that include community gardens.  My husband has just returned from his trip to LA and went by Denver where there are 6-8 co-housing neighborhoods in the Denver-Boulder area.  All his pix show community gardens, well tended and obviously, a center of focus for the residents.

We have also wondered if there could be any way to control the traffic problem and use all that ground in the middle of cloverleaf interchanges for gardens... just a thought.  Seems a waste of good land. 

Greetings:  I think people want, or think they want local products (produce and fish) because they perceive that these items are fresher.  Sometimes yes, sometimes no.  Just the other night I had a table that was insistant on knowing that all our fish was caught locally (it is); then when seated asked if we served King Crab legs (we don't).  I tried to tell the that crab legs are from Alaska but they just didn't seem to get it.  I thought it was pretty funny.  Tourist, you got to love um.

Spinner,

We too are witnessing the growth of community gardens, particularly in the suburbs, but also within the city where vacant lots are sometimes being utilized for food and flower gardens whereas just a few years ago, these lots were occupied by the ruins and skeletons of derelict buildings.

I like your "cloverleaf" thinking.  If we just really, purposefully, looked at our surroundings, I bet there are many opportunities for coop/community gardens.  Heck, it might even lower some barriers and get neighbors talking to each other again.

Be well and enjoy your Sunday.

When I grow up, I'm relatively certain the only times that I wont just microwave some pre-packaged mush will be when I eat out.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do, or be like, when I grow up.  I'm keeping my options open.

I'm delighted to hear that the community gardens are not unique to New York City.  I had always thought they were simply a way for urban folk to do something a bit countrified and the custom of community gardens has long been a part of this city's landscape.

I imagine, in the types of area that Spinner describes, the word "community" is even more important than the word "garden".  In smaller towns and suburbs, where everyone has their own back yard (and need not resort to a big central park), everyone can have their own little garden, isolated from everyone else.  And, in car country, people experience each other filtered through a windshield.  So, I imagine, those community gardens are even more about the opportunity for collaboration than the actual plants.  Three cheers!

Okay, who is Lovey? I love Lovey. Just returned from Batman. Had hands over eyes for half of movie, Paladium manager claimed that it did not warrant fifty percent refund. Whatever.

Have been chewing on this all day. Got very excited when I read the article, way too early this morning. Farming is so dear to me. I mentioned earlier a 'lock and key' under which I was raised. That translates in this fashion: two academics, some land, and everything holistic they'd picked up from grad school in 1970's Ann Arbor. We didn't eat anything that wasn't co-opted. We didn't have television or radio. We had books. We had gardens. And dare I say, we had shotguns. Lots of them. I'm an odd amalgom of red neck and high brow.

We gardened as most intellectuals do—for sport and aesthetic back-patting. And I loved it. I sketched lilac blossoms for seven years running and turned pumpkins regularly for optimal orange-ness. Thought I was Alcott or Dickenson reincarnate.

And then I took a job on a real farm, in my teens. One day, the elderly couple for whom I worked, who existed soley on the earnings from this farm, asked me to come back when the sun had cooled to finish picking seven buckets of cosmos. And I did. And bees like cosmos—a lot. And one of them liked my a@#, A LOT.

I knocked on the door of the couple's home with only two buckets picked and explained that I had been stung, in an unfortunate place, and, obviously, would have to head home. The Missus pulled me into the kitchen, grabbed some of the meat tenderizer still laying out from dinner prep, pulled up the back of my shorts (in front of her weak-hearted husband) and slapped a spoonful on my buttocks. She pushed me out the door and told me to hurry with the last five buckets, as it was bound to get 'uncomfortable' soon.

And that's when I really fell in love with farming. Because I realized, sore ass in hand, that I liked not having an option to quit. I finished the harvest and went directly home to my master list of Life To Dos, from which I have still not strayed, and added:

Will own ONE REAL FARM.
Will set self up to succeed or fail based on productivity of hands.
Will get longer, bee-repelling shorts.

Loved the pic of of the business man in the field. Feels revolutionary. Could use some CAN NOT QUIT in the boardrooms across the country.

I'm from Quebec, and just returned from a short vacation there - to see friends, get ready for college there, and to eat wonderful Quebec strawberries. I suppose we're better known for maple syrup up in Canada, but I can testify with as little bias as possible that the strawberries bought from the farm vendors on the side of the road up in the country are at least 300% better than strawberries anywhere else.

I guess all that time in trucks, jostling and being sprayed with preservatives kinda makes certain foods... lose appeal. But, you know, that's just my... ahem... opinion.