Urban Farmer
He Grows Crops in Other People’s Backyards
By Wally S., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
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| Wally and Gail harvesting a backyard crop. |
I didn’t set out to make a living by farming less than an acre of land inside a city. But that’s what my wife, Gail V., and I do full-time.
Unlike other farmers, when I jump into my truck to inspect my crops, I don’t bump down backroads and dirt trails. My crop tour takes me through the back alleys of Saskatoon’s inner-city neighborhoods. And unlike the huge, monochromatic blocks of golden wheat and tasseled cornstalks that define America’s heartland, my farm is a patchwork of 25 different backyard plots that I don’t own, and that add up to well under an acre.
I started thinking about becoming a farmer when I first went to farmers’ markets to buy fresh produce. I got closer to my goal in the mid-1980s when my family acquired a small acreage just outside Saskatoon. Dad had a butcher shop in the city, and Mom was an avid gardener.
Her gardening inspired me to experiment with small-scale growing in a 1-acre garden. I was soon returning to the farmers’ markets, this time as a vendor selling my own produce. But I had to keep driving a taxi to support myself.
Gail and I met when she became one of my customers at the farmers’ market. I hadn’t yet figured out how to make a living off an acre or less, so Gail and I bought a quarter section of land near the South Saskatchewan River. We grew potatoes, beans, peas and onions. By the early 1990s, I was able to farm full-time, but Gail kept her job as a library technician.
Like a lot of farmers, I thought to become successful I had to keep getting bigger. I bought machinery and invested in an irrigation system that cost tens of thousands of dollars. I also hired work crews.
But Gail and I continued to live in the city where her job was, and I commuted to the farm. We had a small garden in our backyard, and sold produce from it, too. I began noticing the differences between growing vegetables in our city garden and on the farm. The crops on the farm had lower economic value per unit than the crops of spinach, beets, carrots, radish and salad greens in our backyard.
Yet the crops on the farm required a big investment in land, irrigation, machinery and labor. Our garden didn’t require much of anything—a hoe, a spade, a rototiller, a hose attached to the faucet on the house.
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| Wally rototilling one of the other backyards he rents. |
In the country, high-value crops like leafy greens were prone to damage by deer and other wildlife, something not true in the city. On the farm, we left lots of space between plants to allow tractors, seeders and other equipment to traverse the fields. In the city, all we needed was space enough to walk, resulting in much more intensive and productive use of land.
Our garden was only minutes from urban farmers’ markets, and it wasn’t dependent on rainfall or the water level in the river.
I eventually realized another, less obvious but very important, difference: Because cities have their own microclimates, the growing season in our garden was longer and the weather a bit more moderate than at the farm. Sidewalks, streets, parking lots and buildings soak up heat during the day then radiate it back at night, keeping our yard warmer than the countryside around Saskatoon. Neighborhood houses acted as windbreaks.
I could plant spinach, lettuce, green onion and garlic in our city garden in early April, several weeks before larger growers in the country could get their heavy equipment into their fields. Occasionally, late summer or early fall frosts hit the countryside, but didn’t affect our city garden. In 2005, we were one of the few growers whose green beans weren’t destroyed by early frost, and we were still selling them at summer’s end.
My notions about farming were getting spun around and turned on their head. Could it possibly be better to farm in the city than in the country? I decided to go to my spreadsheets and crunch some numbers. I found I could earn a greater profit on much less than an acre in the city than I could on a full acre on the farm—especially if I’d had a bad crop year on the farm.
Seed, fuel, oil, equipment repair—they’re obviously all part of farm costs. I grossed around $25,000 on 10 to 15 acres on the farm, but operating expenses (not including capital expenditures and debt service) approached $10,000. In the city, I could gross between $30,000 and $40,000 on less than an acre, and costs were under $5,000.
Gail and I decided to sell the farm and begin growing produce not just in our own yard, but in backyards rented from others. I put an ad in the newspaper to find backyards and got several responses.
Our first lessor thought we were the best thing since sliced bread. She had a 2,000-square-foot garden that we kept clean and productive, relieving her of any work or worry. Today, people actually come to us hoping to lease out their yards. Some are older and don’t want the expense or hassle of maintaining their yard—but they enjoy looking out on a nice garden.
Some of the people we lease from are landlords who rent their houses to tenants. The landlords are so happy not to maintain the yards that they give them to us for free. We use water from their outdoor faucets, but their bill is far less than they would pay to maintain the yard.
When we do pay a rental fee, it’s either a combination of cash and produce, or just cash. Usually, home owners are at work when we’re working at their place several times a week. When the owners are at home, they enjoy coming out to chat.
With careful calculations, we decide when to grow what crops. In some yards, we grow three or more crops sequentially each season. In others, we grow one or two crops. By balancing high-value with low-value crops, we produce a steady stream of revenue from May until Christmas.
We now call ourselves Wally’s Urban Market Garden. We sell our produce at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market on Saturdays. It’s a producer-only market, with about 70 stalls, and it moves indoors November 1.
I love going to market on Saturdays. We know so many people—both vendors and repeat customers—that it’s a gathering of friends. We often swap produce with other vendors, taking home items like delicious artisan bread. Being at market makes all the hard work of the last week worthwhile.
Now that we make a living as sub-acre, urban farmers, Gail has quit her job. Besides farming full-time with me, she makes floral wreaths and bird feeders to sell at the farmers’ market. The bird feeders have wreaths with bird treats on them: seed-coated cookies and sunflower heads; peanuts; dried fruit; pinecones and corncobs slathered in peanut butter and sprinkled with birdseed.
Unlike many farmers who get ready for market by harvesting on Fridays, sometimes working late into the night, we harvest all week. We might pick and prep carrots on Monday, onion bunches on Tuesday, potatoes on Wednesday, leafy greens on Thursday and summer squash on Friday.
What makes this possible is the walk-in cooler in our backyard that keeps everything fresh. The cooler is our biggest investment—even so, it, our shed, the rototiller and our hand tools cost less than $5,000.
One of the many advantages of sub-acre farming is that we usually have several months off after Christmas. That allows us to visit relatives, take a trip somewhere special and recharge our batteries.
A vendor we know at the farmers’ market sells coffee she grows and harvests on a small farm in Costa Rica. We’ve visited her farm, and last year spent 10 days working on another nearby farm.
This might not sound like a great idea for a vacation, but it really was. We cleaned out pig stalls, then hand-tilled 1/4 acre of land and planted corn on it.
Working in the soil and growing things is my passion. I love experimenting with different crops—this last season, I grew spinach-like orach, one of the oldest of cultivated plants; and yellow purslane, a plant many people consider a weed but that has more healthful omega-3 fatty acids than any other plant. I also love growing golden beets.
When I was in college, I studied sociology. Ironically, that may have helped lead me to farming—many of the classes emphasized workplace alienation, something that made me want to be my own boss. As a farmer, I like making my own decisions and having control of my work.
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| People who lease their backyards to Wally and Gail sometimes get produce as payment. Wally says many lessors don’t want the hassle of caring for a yard, but enjoy seeing a lush garden. |
Sociology may have instilled in me something else: A desire to make a difference in the world. I believe small plot, organic-intensive farming—whether in the city or country—can do that. During the winter, I spend time writing about what I’ve learned so it can be shared with others.
I have an Internet newsletter and chat room dedicated to the subject. I’ve also cowritten guides with urban agriculture advocate Roxanne Christensen of Philadelphia. This winter, my wife and I are planning to speak at a workshop designed to help elderly immigrants earn money by growing crops in backyards and selling produce at farmers’ markets.
If you’d have told me when I first started thinking about becoming a farmer that I’d end up doing what I’m doing, I’d have thought you were crazy. Had I known then what I know now, I could have saved myself a lot of money and stress. But then I might not have appreciated as much the very special life Gail and I have.
Editor’s Note: To contact Wally, visit his Web site or chat room, or to learn how to get one of his and Roxanne’s guides, visit our “Links” page.
Philadelphia Water Department Experiments with Growing Veggies Instead of Grass
Back in 1999, the Philadelphia Water Department asked itself whether there was something more productive it could do with all its lawns and vacant land. Officials didn’t think growing grass just for aesthetic reasons was the highest and best use of the land.
One idea they kicked around was urban agriculture. Nancy Weissman, Economic Development Director of the department, says she and her colleagues didn’t know much about agriculture, so they contacted Roxanne Christensen, an urban agriculture advocate in Philadelphia.
Roxanne, cofounder and president of the Institute for Innovations in Local Farming, helped create Somerton Tanks Farm, a prototype organic-based, 1/2-acre farm on land surrounding two of the Water Department’s red-and-white-checkered water tanks. She also asked Wally Satzewich to come down from Saskatoon as a consultant.
In 2002, planning on the experimental farm began. The next year, the farm’s first year of operation, $26,000 worth of produce was sold from the 1/2 acre of growing space. This last season, that figure had risen to $52,200. Nancy Weissman hopes gross annual sales will soon exceed $70,000, making the sub-acre farm self-sustaining.
Until then, it is partly supported by grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and by donations. Kyle Nagurny, director of the ag department’s Bureau of Market Development, says Somerton Tanks Farm is the only project of its kind in Pennsylvania.
Steve and Nicole Shelly, two urban farmers in Philadelphia, run Somerton Tanks Farm on a day-to-day basis. Under the farm’s Community Supported Agriculture program, people purchase a share of the harvest before the growing season begins. In turn, they get a weekly share of produce and can experience some of what it’s like to farm.
Meantime, Wally and Roxanne created SPIN Farming LLC, a for-profit business to publish guides explaining the financial and agricultural aspects of sub-acre, organic-intensive farming on small plots (SPIN stands for Small Plot INtensive farming).
SPIN farm guides available through its Web site describe, among other things, a 5,000-square-foot part-time farm that produces up to $20,000 in annual gross sales; a 20,000-square-foot intermediate full-time farm that produces up to $54,000 in annual gross sales; and a 1-acre full-time farm that produces up to $65,000 in gross annual sales.
One point emphasized by Wally Satzewich: Although he’s an urban farmer, the organic-intensive growing techniques he uses can also be employed on small rural acreages.
Editor’s Note: To visit the Web sites of SPIN or Somerton Tanks Farm—or to learn about Community Supported Agriculture—visit our “Links” page.
