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Farming the City, Creating Community Roots
My name is Kipp Nash and I am a farmer. Well, I'm a gardener. Wait, I'm a landscaper. Hrmmm, I guess I have a bit of an identity crisis, but the truth is that I'm really all three. I'm also an entrepreneur and a concerned citizen taking action and I'm trying to create a stir in my neighborhood with my urban farming adventure. Let me explain. A few years back I was pacing around my south Boulder home trying to figure out what to do with myself. I was employed part-time and knew that I wanted to find a way to incorporate my dream of farming into my day to day schedule. I thought about working for an established local farmer, and I dreamed of acreages out in the country. I also thought about just forgetting it, but the part of me that yearns to grow food kept pestering me. I looked out onto our backyard and realized that, well, if nothing else I can grow right here. But then it hit me (and my life hasn't been the same since): I can grow right here AND in my neighbors' yards too. Why, I bet there are people all over this neighborhood who would love to have a garden in their backyard but just don't have the time, or the interest, or the skills to do it. I'll grow vegetables all over the neighborhood, offer some to the homeowners who offer their yards, and sell the rest to support this yearning habit of mine. That was the start of it all and, two years later, I'm happy to report that I'm doing just what I set out to do! Currently, myself and my partner Kimberly, plus one dedicated helper, Kristin, are growing organic vegetables, flowers, herbs, and fruits on ¼ acre of land, in 6 gardens scattered across south boulder (and one downtown). We're selling to restaurants and at the farmers market. The name of our enterprise is Community Roots. We have grown everything from broccoli, to carrots, to tomatoes, to black radishes, beets, bok choi, potatoes, spinach, lettuce, and much, much more. We have also started a CSA (community supported agriculture) program where members (customers in a CSA are called members) pay a flat fee at the beginning of the season and then are given a weekly distribution of the harvest (a share) for 20 weeks during the growing season. Our CSA has been an incredible success, signing up 9 members in the first year, mostly all coming from right down the street here in our neighborhood. We grow the food in the yards of our neighbors, and then offer the harvest to the shareholders who are also our neighbors. Can you think of a better model for local food production and community building? The response that we have gotten from the folks in our neighborhood has been overwhelmingly positive-overwhelming because we have far more yards offered to us, and membership applications than we can come close to dealing with at this point. A side effect of neighborhood farming is that it seems to be contagious. Last year we decided to create a front yard garden and it turned out to be a great success-especially nice since it was (and is) so visible to the public. We added another this year (our house is actually sandwiched by two of our front yard gardens), and were shocked as vegetable gardens started springing up in front yards up and down the street-it's true, and it's totally amazing! In addition, just down my street in south Boulder (and remember, this is right in suburban USA) lives an extraordinary woman named Kelly Simmons who is starting a sustainability education center right out of her backyard. She already has chickens and ducks and a number of beehives in her backyard as well as an ever-growing array of fruit trees and bushes. Kelly's influence on the neighborhood is spreading and chickens are starting to appear in more yards on our street. What I'm getting at here is that there is a movement happening. It's starting small and it's very grassroots. For now I'm going to call it "urban homesteading." Yes, you can plow up your yard (front or back) and you can have chickens or bees or duck or rabbits. You can grow vegetables to eat yourself and share with your neighbors. You can put a greenhouse in your yard and eat fresh all year long. The most important part of this, however, is that we can organize and we can influence and we can really build some steam if we work together. Let's get our neighbors involved in this, let's talk with our neighborhood associations to get sustainability/food security committees started (it's on my to-do list). You have a passion in this fight to build community and rescue our ailing earth. Find that passion and let it take you for a ride and then go and rally the troops. Build a garden, research co-housing, connect the neighborhood to put solar-panels on the clubhouse! Do something! If I can make a small difference with this, you can too. If you live in Martin Acres, South Boulder and want to contact me, email me at kippnash@hotmail.com. If you live in some other neighborhood in Boulder, find a green thumb in your area and encourage that person to start farmin' the 'hood (or better yet, do it yourself)!
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