54. Farm Search
Farming urban yards is a huge break from agricultural convention, and there are many who say it shouldn’t or can’t be done. Some homeowners and their associations reject it flat out saying there is no way to be a responsible neighbor if you don’t have a manicured turf-type fescue kept at 3 inches in height. Some city planners say that properties zoned as residential are off-limits for farming because it’s a commercial activity.
I have been fortunate that Roanoke is the place we decided to start this urban farm. I’ve been met with an abundance of willing landlords who want to be part of local food systems. I’ve found hungry customers ready to trust and enjoy the products we grow. And nobody from the zoning or planning department has ever bothered me at all. It’s been a tremendous amount of work, because farming always is. But the micro-farm network has proven a fine way to break into local food production and I’ve much appreciated the way proximity has kept me plugged into local food and gardening circles.
Yard farming has always been a means to an end, the end being the possibility of farming a single piece of land we can call our own. This goal has roots in convenience, of course: driving from yard-plot to yard-plot, sometimes multiple visits per day, gets old and feels like a waste of resources. And if I’m ever going to expand the business and hire team members, I’d owe them more than 10 minutes notice as to which disparate yard farm needs their attention.
The goal of a single-site farm is also rooted in a desire for sustainability. I’ve made thousands of dollars in investments in fertility and infrastructure on land I’ll never own. After GVH moves on from a plot, it could quite likely be turned back to a healthy grass lawn.
The most compelling reason behind the goal of a single-site farm is our strong belief in the ability of food production to build community. Our dream farm (and business plan) has a wealth of space open to the public for events and tours. We’ll have a farm cafe and veggie store so that folks can enjoy our food in view of the ground where it was grown. We believe small farm businesses make their communities stronger and that’s a role we look forward to playing.
So over the last 6 months or so we’ve been lightly searching for the right piece of ground to move GVH onto. We’ve teamed up with the Southwest Virginia Agrarian Commons, a non-profit dedicated to bolstering community-led local food systems by providing access to land for people who want to steward land and feed their neighbors. Once we find the right fit, the Commons will issue GVH a long-term equitable lease which the business is truly capable of paying for. I don’t believe small farms should be responsible for paying developer pricing to secure land to grow on. And the Agrarian Commons can help to decommodify agricultural land so that a business like ours isn’t saddled with insurmountable debt just to have long-term security for their farm.
The heartbreak induced by the roller coaster that is searching for our forever farm is rough. We fill our heads with images of where everything will go and we imagine the problems that may arise. Then we imagine solutions to those problems and our vision starts to embody the space we’re considering. Then, for one of any number of reasons, the balloon is popped, our enthusiasm deflates, and we start looking again. But we have to trust the process and our judgment. And more importantly, we trust the people who have taken up this journey with us. We are not alone in our search for a farm, and we are elated to have the Agrarian Commons taking every step with us.
The reason I’m writing this blog is because I’m hopeful that you may join us in this search. I’m confident there are folks in our network who have land we may consider exciting opportunities for the future of our farm. So a little bit about exactly what we’re looking for:
Our ideal farm is 3-8+ acres with at least 1.5 acres cleared and relatively flat. We’d like to be within 30-45 minutes from our farmers market in Grandin Village. Because we’d like to open an on-farm cafe, we’d like to be on a road with significant daily car traffic and visibility. We’d probably like to live on farm, so an existing home or potential build site is a plus.
If you or someone you know has property you think meets these criteria, please send me an email! And if not, I hope you may be willing to share this here blog with your networks so that we can get as many eyes in the search as possible.
Thanks so much for the love and support you have given our farming dream these last three years. Here’s to many, many more!
For more information on all things Southwest Virginia Agrarian Commons, click these links:
SWVA AC Land Search / Farmer Cam on SoundCloud / WFXR News Story