The self-sufficient foodie

San Diegans are demonstrating one can produce a fair portion of their food.  And it doesn’t have to be for a vegetarian diet.  Fish, poultry and eggs can be harvested straight from the yard.

“It’s pretty hard to grow all your food, but you can grow a percentage of it,” Paul Maschka said, an urban farmer at City College’s Seeds at City.

Aside from growing vegetables, Maschka makes cheese, sauerkraut, kimchi, tempeh, honey wine and honey at home.

“Part of food production is the preservation, drying and canning of food which is becoming a lost art,” Maschka said.  “It’s uncommon to Americans.  But it’s so easy to make, and it’s healthy and delicious.”

Those interested in living off their harvest should focus on nutrient-rich vegetables.

“The key is to grow healthy super foods like kale, which normally people don’t like,” Maschka said.

It’s thought that bitter greens like kale play an important role against internal inflammation, which may contribute to health disorders such as heart disease.

According to Maschka, Americans have a lazy palate compared to Europeans who eat tons of bitter greens.

“Americans have been flooded with processed foods from the food industry that have too many ingredients,” said Karon Klipple, the co-founder of Seeds at City.  “Only aggressive flavors hit us.  Once you get used to sugar-like carbs, why would you want to eat anything else if you don’t know better?”

It might be hard for the average grower, but Bill Tall, founder of City Farmer’s Nursery in City Heights, produces about 80 percent of his food.   And still, he isn’t satisfied.  Tall is planning for an entire year without groceries.  To walk across his nursery, which connects to the land surrounding his home, is to stumble into a wonderland of gardening ideas.  Though his business allows him three acres of land to produce food on, most of his projects can be geared to a small, backyard environment.  Or even an indoor one.

Aside from growing an endless variety of fruits and vegetables, Tall raises his own poultry, eggs and fish.

Yes, fish.  Specifically tilapia.

This year, Tall is selling fry, the baby tilapia, so that people can grow them in small tanks at home.

“I tell people to get 20 of them, that way they don’t name them,” said Tall.

The tank can be hooked up to a hydroponic system so that fish droppings fertilize the water which then feeds the plant.  In turn, plant clippings can be used to feed the fish, along with duck weed which grows quickly and effortlessly once put in the tank.  Tall plans to experiment with feeding his tilapia basil or peppers, to see if it would change their flavor.

“I foresee neighbors getting together,” Tall said.  “One would grow fish, one chickens, one vegetables.   It’s a great way to get to know your neighbors.  How many people can say they know everyone on the block?”

Hydroponics is a nutrient and water efficient way to grow plants.  The plants are grown in bins with a pump and because of the high level of control, exude a creepy amount of health.  Any unused resources are captured and then readministered to the plant.  No soil is needed, and they can be grown indoors and off season with special lights.  Using these methods, one can manipulate the crop yields and speed of the plant’s growth.

It’s a good option for those who don’t have space to grow outside.   Tall is so convinced of the benefits of growing food at home, he wishes the city would give tax breaks to people who maintain a vegetable garden.  It would keep them off the road and from using gas.  And it seems his customers agree with his philosophy, as his edible plant sales have rocketed in the last few years, while ornamental sales have diminished.

Tall also thinks the city could ease up on regulations for keeping chickens.  He’s noticed more San Diego city dwellers have been producing their own eggs.

Marc Bailey, an electrical engineer that volunteers at Seeds at City, has recently started keeping chickens in the home he rents.   Bailey spends about 12 bucks on 50 pounds of chicken feed, which last his six chickens about 12 weeks.   Chicks cost about $3 a piece and once mature, lay about an egg a day.

Before he raised his own eggs, Bailey wouldn’t eat them.

“I didn’t care to support the chicken factory industry,” Bailey said.  “Even when they say they’re free range, they’re really not.”

Bailey thinks the more chickens in back yards, the better.  They’re easy to care for, don’t need too much space, and don’t make a lot of noise.   You just have to remember to coop them up at night.

Many supporters of the urban farming movement cite the recession as a good reason to grow or raise food at home.  Perhaps it is, though with hours spent and tools purchased and water used, one should keep a careful eye on expenses if saving money is the goal.

But what about making a profit?

In San Diego, Backyard Growers gives those with surplus harvest an opportunity to sell their fruits at the City Heights Farmers’ Market.  Growers must cultivate no more than a half-acre of crop, and no less than a paper bag’s worth of product.  A $5 fee allows them to sell at the booth, or Backyard Growers will sell it for them for a 20 percent cut.

Hardly a way to make a living.

But according to Roxanne Christensen, co-founder of SPIN Farming, half an acre, or even a third, is plenty to make a profit from.  SPIN, which stands for small plot intensive farming, assists people in setting up organic commercial farms in backyards across the country.

“We’re getting smarter,” Christensen said.  “We don’t have to make a choice between an urbanized landscape or an environmental ethos.  We can have a connection to nature in the city.”

Somerton Tanks Farm, a half-acre SPIN model in Philadelphia, brought in $68,000 in sales last year.  The state was so impressed with their efforts they commissioned an economic feasibility study.   The study concluded the farm could eventually total $100,000 in annual sales.

According to Christensen, that makes the small-scale farm more profitable than the industrial farm, whose average revenue is $3,000 per acre.

Anyone can do it, Christensen said.  SPIN estimates that a farming novice could make about five hundred dollars a week on a half acre during their first three years.   She reports that Kipp Nash, a bus driver turned SPIN farmer spotlighted by national media, is about to quit his job to live off farming profits.

Around 300 people nationally are using the SPIN system, which is sold as a series of guides from the SPIN Web site.  Many are first time farmers and do it either full or part time.

“No city is too far ahead or behind,” Christensen said.  “Each city is starting from square one.”

The SPIN system is based on growing cash crops in the relay cropping method.  Three crops are grown in the same bed in the same season which increases the farm’s productivity.

“There used to be all these arguments that organic cannot feed the world,” Christensen said. “Now it looks like it can.”

Erin Glass is the SDNN health and lifestyle editor.

Tags: SDNN

This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 5:51 am and is filed under Environment, Food, Home & Garden, Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.