This year my husband and I joined other family members in a membership to a local community garden. This was probably a bad year to begin, because the weather in Cedar Rapids, Iowa has been awful, first with the floods and then no rain for about a month. But it has been fun to get fresh vegetables each week, all through the season, and to plan our meals around whatever is fresh at the time. With these home-grown vegetables, my insistence on free range chickens, and my weekly trips to the farmer’s market, I’ve become a Locavore (def: Someone who purchases mostly local foods.)
The “locally grown” movement seems to be gaining strength, both from renewed focus on environmentally friendly initiatives and food costs. And, of course, “local” usually means “organic.” The lady who runs the community garden doesn’t put anything on the plants and she worries about the drift from pesticides from neighboring farms. The Organic Consumers Association (a Canadian group) states the organic food market is over $40 billion in the U.S. alone.Â
Now that “organic” foods have gone corporate (you can find so-called organic foods in Wal-Mart), many of us are looking to local markets because:
- Locally grown food is fresher and tastier
- Local growers are more honestly “organic” (yes, that means I don’t trust Wal-Mart)
- Many of us want to support local businesses whenever we can.
So, have you considered starting a community garden business? This would be a large garden that you work, selling the produce to members or to the community at the local farmer’s market. You could have people come to you to pick up the food or you could come into town to deliver the food. Some additional thoughts:
- Our community garden lady (Laura)  is a instructor, and she hires college students to work for her. Great summer job for all of them.
- If you want to travel south in the winter, your summer gardening business might be just the ticket to get you some extra money.
- You would need to advertise on the internet or in local businesses and the local newspaper, but this isn’t terribly pricey.
- Laura puts out a weekly newsletter with information on what’s fresh that week, recipes and other tidbits.
I don’t know all the details on costs for this kind of venture, but I’ll do some more research and let you know. In the meantime, let me know if you have questions for me to ask Laura.
Tags: baby boomers, community garden business, farmer’s market, locavore, organic foods
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