Markets in Everything: Backyard Urban Farming
MyFarm was started by Trevor Paque, a young mortgage broker, who decided in 2007 to get out of the office and take up farming. Hardly a new idea, but Paque took a new approach. His business plan called for building, planting, and harvesting vegetable gardens in small overgrown, weed-infested patches of soil that many people in San Francisco call back yards.
Pricing for each garden includes $50 for a site analysis to check sunlight and soil; $600 to $1,000 to build raised beds, install drip irrigation, and plant seeds; and $20 to $35 for weekly maintenance and harvesting. As part of the weekly maintenance, the farmer harvests a box of vegetables for the owner. To test the market, Paque posted an ad on Craigslist and within 20 minutes he had 200 responses.
~Down On The Urban Farm, by Linda Platts in Perc Reports
6 Comments:
Hmmm, so what's new with this urban greens gardening movement?
Back in the '70's when I was living in Chicago there were urban (all inside the Chicago city limits) truck patches that sold greens and flowers at local farmer's markets...
I'd visited a couple of the truck patches, one in Roger's Park and one in Hyde Park and both had been in use since the 2nd world war...
There were people that offered the same services as Paque but I don't remember them being so expensive...
I farm my own back 40. That's forty square yards of garden at the back of my yard.
The city has set aside a fairly large area they plot out for people to have gardens.
That's some expensive veggies!
I thought it was funny that the linked article mentioned composting food waste as a benefit of the gardens as an alternative to being "hauled off in diesel burning trucks". I'm sure the trash trucks in SF are still going to drive just as much as if they weren't composting. I also wonder if the service guys ride their bikes around to do the weekly maintenance and harvesting or if they're driving diesel-burning trucks? This is just typical SF nonsense, pay more for your food, pretend like it's eco-friendly, and look down your nose at anyone who isn't "eating locally".
All that aside, kudos to Trevor for knowing his market and catering to it. It looks like he'll make a killing off this idea.
In Kansas, we prize locally-produced foods, especially clover honey and elderberry, for preventing allergies and infections. Way cheaper than medicine!!!
Best wishes from Kansas! --Redbud
This would only work in a libtard loony place like friggin' SF, though.
Post a Comment
<< Home