From the outbox of Meyer’s inbox:
To make a list of the trials and tribulations of the average farmer would be the make a very long list. For everything that can control, there is so much more that is out of their control like the weather. As more and more urban farms begin popping up around the country, a new generation of farmers will no doubt grow to have a stronger appreciation for the hard work of the farmer. Here’s one such story from Uncommon Grounds an organic farm smack dab in the middle of New York City. And by smack dab I mean up on the roofs.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE FUNGI ON A ROOFTOP FARM by Dave Synder
While I was tying up the hops vines this afternoon, my boss Michael Cameron came up behind me. He looked agog about something, and I was worried that something was wrong.
“Those beans!” he gasped.
“What beans?” I asked, still unsure if I was in trouble or not.
“The ones in the kitchen! Chris said they were from the roof. They’re HUGE!”
Whew. And Mike was right, too. The Italian Pole Beans we’re pulling off the roof right now are as long as my forearm, an inch wide, and sweet enough to be eaten raw. We’re harvesting almost every other day and working them into a bunch of dishes on the menu. I’ve been pleased to say that the chefs have been very positive about the produce I’ve been delivering to the kitchen this season. Indeed, it would be easy to get cocky on occasion, like when the chef said the sugar snaps were better than any he was getting from the local farms.
But the truth of the matter is, it’s an unfair contest. At Uncommon Ground we get to let our veggies vine ripen as long as we can and when it comes time to transport, all we have to do is walk it down to the kitchen (of course, by way of our washing station). Around here, sometimes the amount of time between the moment something is harvested and the moment a customer bites down on it could be under an hour.
To me, this is at the heart of the heart of the urban agriculture movement. Few people believe that urban agriculture can significantly replace rural farming as the primary mode of food production in America. Instead, it seems that urban agriculture has the opportunity to play a significant role in improving food security and nutrition, while saving urbanites money and building community. I believe very strongly in many of these ideas but they can be hard to communicate, especially when the discourse is peppered with terminology like “peri-urban,” “phytoremediation,” and “bioregional ecologies.”
You can dig the rest of this story here.
