The Family Farm

PrettySquareGal · Feb 19, 2007

I read this and am very saddened since it's where I got my produce every year:

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/070219cape.html

Do you have family owned farm stands or markets in your area?

Johnnysan · Feb 19, 2007

Here in the Midwest they are quite common and I'm pleased to say that they get a lot of business throughout the growing season...including mine!

One particular vendor/grower we like grows some of the finest blackberries that you'll ever see or taste. They're selling their home and the tract of land that goes with it...complete with the berry bushes! We can only hope that the new owner will have the good sense to keep them alive and well and producing!

happyfilmluvguy · Feb 19, 2007

There was a family owned farm about 2 miles from here. Porter Ranch. Mr. Porter died long ago, and since then the land has been increasingly developed with track homes, shopping malls, and lots of road leading to one another. The homes cost a million dollars at least to live there, and that's without the backyard. One with a backyard is probably more than a million. But there are plenty of lots of farm, rather than acres around my area. There is even a private community that is all for farms and horse ranches. No developing around there. I hope the land in Portland goes to good use in terms of farming and not developing. Such a waste of beauty and a poison to the environment

PADDY · Feb 19, 2007

Many family farms still here...

And I only buy my fresh 'in season' veggies from them. Also my meat from another family farm where you can see how loved and looked after the livestock are.

The 'foot and mouth' disease in the UK a few years back really decimated many of the farms in my area and I can still remember all the funeral pyres burning at night like a scene from the middle ages and the smell...ughh! Those sorts of smells stay with you, trust me.

Anyway..it's good to support local family owned farms and you know where the produce comes from and that it's fresh and helping the local economy too!

LadyDeWinter · Feb 20, 2007

Farm markets

As I live in a big city I can't buy my meat and vegetables directly from farmers. But I use to buying meat in a special butcher that got the meat from farms around the area from so calles bio farmers.

I also buy fresh vegetables from my local farm market. I don't like these wraped fruits and vegetables you can buy in the supermarket.

Sly Style · Feb 20, 2007

That is sad. I saw that in the paper. You must be a mainer like me!!

Rooster · Feb 20, 2007

We raise chickens and sheep here on our small "hobby farm". It's a left over dairy farm from the 1920's that the city has now completly surronded. We sell eggs to a few of our neibors, they really get a kick out of the whole ordeal. Most of them that have built house up next to our property comment on how much they enjoy their coffee out on their decks , watching the sheep graze and listening to the 30+ roosters crowing.
I might add, we're nearly self sufficiant when it comes to what we eat these days.

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WH1 · Feb 22, 2007

Beautiful bird what breed is he?

Now that is a true cock of the walk as they used to say in the old days.

Rooster · Feb 22, 2007

WH1 said:
Now that is a true cock of the walk as they used to say in the old days.

It's an Old English Game (large fowl, not banty) The variety is Golden Duckwing. They are an english pit fighting breed, I raise them for showing at poultry shows. I raise about 10 different colors.

carebear · Feb 22, 2007

Heard a story on NPR about Philly(?). They have multitudes of vacant, non-economically viable lots throughout city neighborhoods. Apparently they have started a program to put in small truck farms on those lots and grow fresh fruits and veggies which the neighborhood can buy. It is directed by adults but the kids do much of the work. Apparently wildly popular and they grow a variety of items (instead of monoculture) which variety is modified based on what sells (capitalism at its finest). For example, they are putting in more okra and less eggplant this year due to consumer request.

The program appears to be growing and would help the cities lose some of their dependence on imported foods, increase the variety of healthy foods for residents (since it appears not to be viable for the local markets to import f&v's) and provide a "return to the soil" for the kids. Also, if the lot is empty and no one is going to be building (and paying taxes) on it anyway, it beats having it be an eyesore. The sales I believe pretty much subsidize the program cost.

This is one of those things the local .gov can set in motion and then get out of the way of. My kind of program.

They had a 12 year old girl give the audio tour and she really seemed to know her farming.

Novella · Feb 22, 2007

I'm not sure how family owned they are, but back in Santa Barbara there were two farmer's markets I really liked to visit - there must have been some family owned farm products there somewhere. Good strawberries, although I usually bought my veggies and fruits from Trader Joe's (I miss that store!).

NRay · Feb 22, 2007

My Grandpa was a farmer in Iowa until he couldn't keep up with the work anymore. He mostly raised crops and a few cattle. He still has the land and keeps it maintained, leasing out fields for others to grow crops.
The land is beautiful, but a poorly-managed industrial hog farm was put in up-stream from him and now his Creek is polluted and all of the fish have been killed off. More than that, there is some land nearby that might be developed for housing. I understand that you can't slow progress, but it makes me sad that the old farm and the surrounding land probably won't be the same that it was when I was little.

Marc Chevalier · Feb 22, 2007

carebear said:
They have multitudes of vacant, non-economically viable lots throughout city neighborhoods. Apparently they have started a program to put in small truck farms on those lots and grow fresh fruits and veggies which the neighborhood can buy. ... This is one of those things the local .gov can set in motion and then get out of the way of.

And will hopefully get back into, once those non-economically viable lots become viable to developers. We've had these kinds of truck farms here, and they're vulnerable to bulldozing. Sooner or later, housing trumps farming.

.

carebear · Feb 22, 2007

Marc Chevalier said:
And will hopefully get back into, once those non-economically viable lots become viable to developers. We've had these kinds of truck farms here, and they're vulnerable to bulldozing. Sooner or later, housing trumps farming.

.

Why would they have to "get back into"? As long as the folks who vote decide the farms are better than the housing the farms are safe. I'm not sure if the city retains land trusteeship (assuming the property was foreclosed on or donated) and rents it out to the farms, but that's how I envision it. (I wasn't listening closely at the beginning)

In any event, the farms might not only be operationally self-sustainable but could give back in property taxes in some fashion. Otherwise if the voters in the area prefer the farms they will have to accept the lost tax revenue from housing (assuming the farm can't cover the same amount). We should always, as voters, be free (limited by our various applicable Constitutions) to accept monetary losses from things we decide have non-monetary community value.

If the land is owned by the city, it is owned by the voters of that city, the decision is theirs.

PrettySquareGal · Feb 23, 2007

Marc Chevalier said:
And will hopefully get back into, once those non-economically viable lots become viable to developers. We've had these kinds of truck farms here, and they're vulnerable to bulldozing. Sooner or later, housing trumps farming.

.

I have to agree with this and it keep me awake at night.

fftopic: The same thing goes for artists- they move in, give an area value, and get priced out.

Story · Jun 10, 2009

Now they're historical sites

In Illinois -

ST. CHARLES -- After nearly a decade of planning and hundreds of thousands of grant dollars, the 1930s-era farm in St. Charles' Primrose Farm Park is restored and ready for the public.

"It has been a work in progress for almost a decade," St. Charles Park District Marketing Manager Erika Young said.

Primrose Farm, the 183-acre park at 5N726 Crane Road is home to historic re-enactments, tours and classes on everything from blacksmithing to milking cows. A grand opening and ribbon cutting was held on Sunday.

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/genevasun/entertainment/1601817,2_6_2_TC03_FARM_S1-090603.article

and

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/print/?id=296618

Had to go look this up - http://www.st-charlesparks.org/Parks/Primrose-Farm-Park.htm

jeep44 · Jun 11, 2009

We're busy turning our little 6-acre place into a sort of farm. We grow just about every common Korean fruit or vegetable-we are up to about 100 Korean pear trees, and we make trips far afield to dig up various wild plants eaten by Koreans, and bring them back to cultivate at our place. My wife buys nothing but rice now, as everything else she needs is growing somewhere on our place. We once raised many chickens, but stopped when we got too busy at work. Now that I'm retired, we will be getting back into them,too. I really miss the taste of free-range eggs.

FinalVestige79 · Jun 11, 2009

There used to be 2 farms in my county, all family run and they both had a small market on the property. One was within walking distance of my grandmothers house, it was called Sakioka Farms...now gone for about 4 years now. And then another one in Santa Ana, the name escapes me but the county claimed imminent domain on it to make more additions to Spurgeon Middle school which shared a wall with the farming property. I was rather saddened by this.

dhermann1 · Jun 11, 2009

Here in New York we have a well developed farmers' market system. There are about 30 locations city wide where there are Green Markets two or three days a week. The one at Union Square on 14th St is the flagship. There are all sorts of arguments pro and con about local farmers markets. One major one is the amount of fuel used transporting local produce to consumers vs shipping cross country. I recently read an article that disputed some of this. I wish I remembered the details.
One reason I like them is that many fruits and vegetables, whether organic or not, are MUCH better in season for a short time, as opposed to the Florida or California produce that gets picked before it's ripe, and never properly ripens, but is available all year long. Corn and strawberries in particular.

Feng_Li · Jun 11, 2009

carebear said:
Why would they have to "get back into"? As long as the folks who vote decide the farms are better than the housing the farms are safe. I'm not sure if the city retains land trusteeship (assuming the property was foreclosed on or donated) and rents it out to the farms, but that's how I envision it. (I wasn't listening closely at the beginning)

In any event, the farms might not only be operationally self-sustainable but could give back in property taxes in some fashion. Otherwise if the voters in the area prefer the farms they will have to accept the lost tax revenue from housing (assuming the farm can't cover the same amount). We should always, as voters, be free (limited by our various applicable Constitutions) to accept monetary losses from things we decide have non-monetary community value.

If the land is owned by the city, it is owned by the voters of that city, the decision is theirs.

The the city government's interest is in property that will generate the most tax revenue. If it becomes set on development it can often invoke eminent domain.

The Family Farm

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