We are a part of a farmer's networking group and the Wall Street Journal contacted the head of the group whoe emailed us this:
Hi SPINners.
A reporter for the Wall Street Journal is interested in knowing what kind of relations do you urban and suburban farmers have with neighbors who live next to your backyard or front lawn plots. Apparently there has been an explosion of farm and garden creation within neighborhoods, and this reporter is doing a story on whether that has created any problems (not surprisingly, I guess, he is looking for negatives.) But if you have any feedback on reaction you are getting, positive or negative, please let me know, and I will pass on your feedback to him.
Thanks.
--Roxanne
And this was my response:
Hi SPINners.
A reporter for the Wall Street Journal is interested in knowing what kind of relations do you urban and suburban farmers have with neighbors who live next to your backyard or front lawn plots. Apparently there has been an explosion of farm and garden creation within neighborhoods, and this reporter is doing a story on whether that has created any problems (not surprisingly, I guess, he is looking for negatives.) But if you have any feedback on reaction you are getting, positive or negative, please let me know, and I will pass on your feedback to him.
Thanks.
--Roxanne
And this was my response:
We are on almost 10 acres, although we are still considered an urban farm since we are technically still in the city of Columbus. We do a lot of cut flowers which take up most of our space, so our produce is done on a SPIN model. We use up most of the space we can and have gardens in the front and side yards around the house. At first, I'm sure the neighbors were wondering what we were doing tilling up the whole front yard, but now that we have been operating for a few years, they are all very accepting. They are just glad that something is being done with the property because before it was not taken care of. One neighbor is a science teacher so she enjoys that we have chickens and are contributing to the lan.
The part of town that we live in used to be more farm land before the city expanded, so the older folks that live in the neighborhood feel like it is taking this area back to the way things used to be. And, there is a little retail produce stand up the street that gets to dump their unsold produce on our land for composting. It works out great for us! We are close to the city so we have access to resources that other farmers may not have that live out in the country. There was one older lady next door who wasn't comfortable with the spot where we had the compost pile because she was afraid of rodents, but was understanding. She just asked that we put it further away from her house, but was supportive of us composting.
Also, we are in the process of working out a lease city owned property that is vacant. The program that they have allows properties in rough areas of town to be rented out for farm or garden use. They would rather have something done with the land than have it sit there vacant and unkempt. They will have us pay for the water, but the houses on the property are not using water so it will be easy to keep track of.
It seems like gardening is catching on again though. We are both in our mid-20's so it's encouraging to see that people from different generations are reconnecting through farming. It gives us more of an idea of how things used to be before there were factory corporate farms and before all our food was processed before eating it. And, it seems that older folks enjoy seeing young farmers who are passionate enough about growing fresh, all natural food that they want to till up their whole yard.
So, overall I would say that people may be shocked by it at first, but the more you advocate what you are doing, the more supportive they will be. If you can try to get them to understand the importance of buying locally and eating fresh, then it will be easier to convince them. My advice, just start giving them some of your product so that they can taste the difference themselves. Talk to them when you see them outside, and let them take a bite out of a freshly picked heirloom tomato, give them some flowers, or cook them some farm fresh zucchini bread; then they'll give in!
Gretel Adams
Sunny Meadows Flower Farm
3555 Watkins Road
Columbus, OH 43232
www.oursunnymeadows.com
The part of town that we live in used to be more farm land before the city expanded, so the older folks that live in the neighborhood feel like it is taking this area back to the way things used to be. And, there is a little retail produce stand up the street that gets to dump their unsold produce on our land for composting. It works out great for us! We are close to the city so we have access to resources that other farmers may not have that live out in the country. There was one older lady next door who wasn't comfortable with the spot where we had the compost pile because she was afraid of rodents, but was understanding. She just asked that we put it further away from her house, but was supportive of us composting.
Also, we are in the process of working out a lease city owned property that is vacant. The program that they have allows properties in rough areas of town to be rented out for farm or garden use. They would rather have something done with the land than have it sit there vacant and unkempt. They will have us pay for the water, but the houses on the property are not using water so it will be easy to keep track of.
It seems like gardening is catching on again though. We are both in our mid-20's so it's encouraging to see that people from different generations are reconnecting through farming. It gives us more of an idea of how things used to be before there were factory corporate farms and before all our food was processed before eating it. And, it seems that older folks enjoy seeing young farmers who are passionate enough about growing fresh, all natural food that they want to till up their whole yard.
So, overall I would say that people may be shocked by it at first, but the more you advocate what you are doing, the more supportive they will be. If you can try to get them to understand the importance of buying locally and eating fresh, then it will be easier to convince them. My advice, just start giving them some of your product so that they can taste the difference themselves. Talk to them when you see them outside, and let them take a bite out of a freshly picked heirloom tomato, give them some flowers, or cook them some farm fresh zucchini bread; then they'll give in!
Gretel Adams
Sunny Meadows Flower Farm
3555 Watkins Road
Columbus, OH 43232
www.oursunnymeadows.com
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