Small Farm Aims To Produce Sustainable Community

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We're concluding the podcast series from Fairview Gardens Organic Farm, near Santa Barbara, CA. I visited the farm on January 25 to conduct interviews and take pictures.  If you missed the earlier posts and podcasts, I hope you'll have a look back.  Fairview is a 12 acre remnant of farmland in a suburban tract. The farm also works an additional 11 acres on another site.

   Suburban tractors do tillage, turn compost and form planting beds (Click to enlarge)

Fairview is on a coastal plain below the Santa Ynez Mountains near Santa Barbara. The area was developed with houses in the 1960's and 70's.  In that era, the farm was already organic.  It is now one of the oldest organic farm operations in California.

 

Even in January, the farm greenhouse is active with starts for the next rotation.  Year round cropping is a challenge for the crew and the management of production. And there is no freeze to kill weeds or pests.

   

Jen and Toby in the greenhouse.  In the podcast you'll hear Jen talk about her experience on the farm as an aspiring farmer and what she learns from walking the farm.  Farm manager Toby talks about working with a crew that has been farming the same small acreage for 20 years.  The crew at this farm knows the soil and growing conditions in every "micro zone" of the farm.  This intimate connection with the soil is re-enforced in every day, hands-on operation.

 

Toby McPartland talked to me about his ideas for operating Fairview Gardens as a small farm business. His thinking includes ways to establish an economic niche for small farms in local communities.  He's also looking at ways to involve the community in feeding itself. 

I really appreciated having a talk with this young farmer who is finding innovative ways to re-integrate small agriculture into our community.

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It's A Good Business - Fairview Gardens Tour Part 3

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The blog continues with our visit to Fairview Gardens Farm in Goleta, California, just a few minutes away from our home in Santa Barbara.   

I visited the farm several weeks ago, so yes, these are pictures of the farm in the current season.  These strawberries were threatened by heavy rain and hail last week, but careful harvesting and good luck saved the farm from losing much of this valuable crop.  

For this podcast I interviewed farm manager Toby McPartland.  Don't miss it if you are pondering small farming on your own.  Toby explains that he plans for profit.  Value added products and business links in the community are ways in which he is growing the farm as a small business.

These honey bees are at work on the farm in this very informal hive set up.  The bees work in a grove of avocado trees, adjacent to a fruit orchard.

We use Fairview Gardens as a way to see farming differently. A lot of current organic methods are in practice here and this was an opportunity to learn on a farm which stays in production year round.  In fact, the challenge here is that there is no significant period of down time for farmers, managers and marketing workers on this farm.

But they are imagining  new possibilities. Even as North America continues to produce massive amounts of food for processing and export, kids in farm country don't get fresh local food in their school lunch meals.  In many places, local food culture and traditions are disappearing under a wave of yogurt in plastic tubes and mass produced pizza.  In another generation, grandmother's home made mustard pickles could be a delicacy that their children don't even recognize.

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