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SEATTLE, WA
© 2006 Barbara Berst Adams www.BarbaraBerstAdams.com.
As micro eco-farms grow in numbers and gain momentum, their ability
to fulfill the specialized needs of their culture grows along with
their culture's progress towards a healthier and more sustainable
world.
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- Cater
to the living foods (fermented) raw foods/juicing community:
Many living/raw foods enthusiasts already eagerly seek out local
eco-farms to supply their fresh produce. Crops grown on the farm
are already quite raw! So, what's the point in a raw food emphasis?
Some crops are especially desired in larger quantities by those
on a raw food diet, and others typical of those wanting a cooking
variety are of less importance. Farms that cater to this group
can offer recipes and a sense of community, and truly listen to
their customers as far as what crops to grow in the future. Also,
the market is growing for live fermented products such as old-fashioned
sauerkraut and healthfully cultured dairy. If you can plug into
a large living/raw food community, see if they especially like
larger quantities of particular juicing vegetables and fruits,
need on-farm crafted fermented foods, or crops recently shown
to be high in lutein or other carotenoids
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- Newly
discovered edibles: Have you heard of the taradi vine and
its edible tubers? How about a delicious Shopova fruit? Did you
know there's an exotic melon with flesh like lime Jell-O (only
better)? Ever grown, seen, or baked with emmer, an ancient Egyptian
grain with up to 30% protein with no pests or disease, that even
inhibits its own weeds? Search out and supply new and unusual
crops for your customers. There are an estimated 20,000 plants
in the world that supply humans with food, about 2000 have been
cultivated, and of these, only 150 are offered on a commercial
scale. For example, the book, Melons for the Passionate Grower,
describes dozens of incredible melons on the brink of extinction
but with seeds available to the market grower. The world is amidst
a renaissance to rediscover these and other lost or locally and
naturally improved crops. Micro eco-farms are often the first
to offer these new crops to an eager market happy to support a
food supply free of GMOs (genetically modified organism created
in labs where genes of species nature does not want to cross-breed
are forced into the new organism). See Facts on Micro Eco-Farms
for a greater description of how to introduce brand new crops
while keeping your farm prosperous
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- Create
your own new crop varieties: John Yeoman reported in Heirloom
Gardening Magazine that he once grew the heirloom Cherokee Trail
of Tears bean, a delicious vegetable that produces black beans.
Though chefs loved the flavor, the muddy looking beans and their
equally muddy looking juice were visually unappealing. But he
noticed the bean occasionally naturally mutated to white seeds
which were just as delicious and healthy. Over time, he stabilized
this mutation (meaning he eventually grew seeds that would consistently
produce white beans, instead of occasionally only producing a
few). Thus was born, Yeoman's White Seeded Cherokee. Books such
as Seed Growing and Saving explain growing, choosing, saving and
proliferating your own varieties that show up with unusual changes
in your garden. Nature always experiments with occasional mutations
which may include new colors, local climate adaptability, better
flavor, earlier ripening or better disease resistance. Natural
selection then allows gardeners and farmers to save seed from
plants they grow in their own climate, and create their own one-of-a-kind
varietie
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- Set up
a U-Hunt living Christmas tree plantation that looks like a natural
wooded setting: Rather than a plantation of neat tree row
crops, create wildlife nooks and natural habitat in pockets for
customers to hunt through to find their tree. A carefully planned
layout will allow you to grow the same amount of trees as a typically
laid out tree farm, with the "wooded nooks" being planted
with crops that supply greens for wreaths, swags and garlands.
All trees are balled and burlapped because they are living trees,
but when grown in a natural setting with wood chip or bark mulch
covering the burlap ball, they look like forest trees growing
in the ground, but waiting for customers to take them home, decorate
them, then plant them in a their new location. It's a way for
you and your customers to give back to the planet during the winter
holidays, and for families to rekindle the satisfying but lost
experience of foraging through wild woods in search of something
very special. Demonstrate a bird-feeding outdoor Christmas tree
decorated with feeders kids can make at home, or feeders you make
and sell. Depending on your spiritual orientation, set up a living
nativity, or a native European solstice ceremony, or other winter
holiday celebrations in the woods to make your Christmas tree
farm one they'll always remember
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- Become
the main farm for all local independent bed and breakfasts:
And/or add a B&B element to your farm package. You don't have
to own a restored Victorian for this. MaryJane's Farm owners in
Idaho set up a few wall tents in their orchard to create a rustic
B&B retreat, as they had no desire (or income) to upgrade
their own home to B&B standards. Other farms supply crops
to both their own B&B, plus exclusive crops for other non-farm
B&Bs. A lavender farm in Washington State networks with other
B&Bs to supply food-grade organic lavender to enhance their
breakfasts, and shares tourist packages with the B&Bs, allowing
B&B customers to buy a vacation package that includes a tour
of the farm and the farm's gift shop. Eco-tourism is craving the
local, rare, exotic and newly discovered ancient foods that can't
be found in grocery stores, whether they are familiar foods such
as eggs grown in ancient ways… hens that roam free in the
sun with access to all of the trace minerals found in the jungle,
to rare fruits (see below). The freshly picked and delivered breakfast
crop possibilities are huge. Network with sources that report
new discoveries about edible plants, and read gourmet magazines
such as Saveur, to pick up ideas and trends such as cinnamon-basil
flavored sugar, alder smoked sea salt, or rose water for cooking
hot cereals
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