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The four-acre urban Alemany Farm in San Francisco (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
No, urban farming is not the name of some cool sounding store that will become the next fad like froyo and cupcakes. It's just what it is--farming and gardening for yourself at home at in local gardens for the community. Up in San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom wants community gardens on vacant and underutilized city-owned lots. At the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama has planted a garden on the south lawn. Although the garden on White House Place in Los Angeles is threatened and the South Central farm is now over a hundred miles away in the Central Valley, the urban farming efforts found in Silver Lake, South Pasadena, Altadena and elsewhere seem to be growing in popularity.
Last week, a post for apartment dwellers on maintaining basil was one of the most popular on LAist. And earlier this month U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack proclaimed that we have a National Community Gardening Week, which will take place in two weeks.
This has us thinking. Is growing your own food going to become the next big thing? We cannot complain if it becomes a reality--it's certainly healthier and more sustainable than the frozen yogurt and cupcake trends. And per usual with anything that swoons in popularity and plateaus, the habits formed stick around. What do you think? Are we ready for a homegrown revolution?
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Yes please. If one of those popped up here in the east Valley I'd definitely sign up.
Count me in!
BTW: I got this tip on Food Network and Cookthink.com...
"When you finish slicing off the green parts and the top of the white parts for soups, bread or whatever else you use them for, hang on to to an inch or so of the bulbs at the end. Placed in a small cup of water on a sunny windowsill, the onions will shoot up again and keep you well stocked through several re-growings. I just clip bits as I need them, and once spring comes, I’ll get a little dirt and plant the bulbs."
It works, I've got 6 of'em growing right now.
Plenty of things grow off of leftover greens... onions, potatoes, water cress.... Don't forget to keep a little compost pile off to the side if you can too.
Be creative as to where you can start a garden. We started off with a lot of potted plants, and plants in various containers. Our landlord saw us doing all this and offered to clear out a bunch of old plants so we could plant tomatoes, eggplants, jalapenos, lettuce, lemon, pomegranate, basil, strawberries and a few other things...
check out treehugger.com for some of their composting/gardening tips, as well as organicgardening.com for guides...
yes. it is the next big thing.
after almost a year of discussion my bf and i finally started a garden in our back yard. in so cal it's a shame not to if you have the space. it has been ridiculously easy to grow everything (except our arugula which was taken by worms). we have effortlessly been growing green beans, okra, tomatoes, squash, bell peppers, basil, rosemary, and sage. confession: we have not been adhering to the new watering laws. but this is sustenance, i'm not talking about flowers or grass...
Since 1992 the community of South Central Los Angeles has been pushing for access to land so food can be grown to feed people and the people growing the food.
It comes to us as no surprise that this issue has finally hit the "center", i.e. the mainstream. Poor people in communities like South Central have been dealing with the issue of food deserts for years. This community has never really recovered from the "violence of the text" of the restrictive covenants that were placed on it and finally overturned in 1948 by the supreme court case Shelley v. Kraemer.
While Mr. Behrens bemoans the loss of the South Central Farm; the "after-image" of the farm is still with us. They issues are still here in South Central. Even with the constituted ordinance of the City Council to erase the name of "South Central Los Angeles" to "South LA"; the materiality of what is South Central Los Angeles can not be masked by mere incorporeal transformations and hand waving.
The South Central Farmers are still demanding and fighting to re-instate the 14 acre farm that was stolen from the community in back-room deals and we hope Carmen Trutanich will have the guts to investigate his predecessors crooked deals.
We have fought the developer from putting a 14 acre warehouse that would bring 2500 truck trip per day into a community already burden by pollution. We are continuously fighting to prevent the development of the 14 acre site that used to be our home.
We are advocating that many of our community members convert their backyards into food production for themselves and their neighbors.
We are asking that urban planning policy include 1 acre of land for every twenty homes.
We are asking that abandoned and unsustainable parks be converted to food production in communities where hunger exists.
We are asking that QIMBY funds be used to purchase the SCF Farm again.
We are asking that land left abandon be converted to community gardens and be turned over to neighborhood land trusts that can manage food production access to these lands.
We are asking that river development include a large amount of urban farming.
Whether this is a fad, which it has not been for communities of color with no other means of sustaining themselves, or not it can only improve the quality of life in our neighborhood, clean the air, remove the gloom and doom from impact of our recent bust economy.
Water and Food!
These issues will begin to impact many at the center. Maybe then the pinkberry can lead to reall critical change in our communities.
Tezozomoc
South Central Farmers.
www.southcentralfarmers.com