So What Exactly is a Microfarm?

Simply put, a microfarm is a small amount of land - an acre or less to be exact- that is devoted to the production of food.  The term often applies to tiny farms operating in dense urban settings, but can just as easily describe a small area used for food production in a suburban or rural setting .  The idea is to utilize available space for raising food, and harvest the property’s natural resources, like rainwater and leaves, and recycle them back into the farm. For example, a series of sturdy raised beds installed in a tiny but sunny back yard near Uptown Charlotte, would provide a year round supply of seasonal produce for a family. Well placed fruit and nut trees on the property would complement the vegetables and herbs grown in the beds. Rainwater would be harvested with a series of rain barrels or a cistern, and recycled back into the garden to improve crop yields. A high capacity compost system would be built on site, to convert every bit of unused organic material like vegetable scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds and leaves, into organic humus for the garden.

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Tackling the Problem of Food Deserts

There are parts of the Charlotte area that have been deemed deserts. Don’t spend too much time looking for camels or sand dunes, though, because these are food deserts : typically low income urban and rural areas where residents don’t have  access to healthy foods, largely because of the distance to well stocked supermarkets and  grocery stores. Much of this problem can be attributed to the shift of large chain food stores away from urban areas and into higher income suburban areas. Food retailers are discouraged from opening chains in low-income urban communities because of high crime rates, transportation costs and low return on investment, as the poor have less money to spend on healthy food. This leaves residents of these areas to purchase food from convenience stores or corner shops that stock mainly cheap, processed foods or foods high in fats and sugars.

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Microfarming in Plaza-Midwood

Meet Colleen and Dr. Jason Sperati- two of Plaza Midwood's newest  organic gardeners . Jason is a pediatric dentist who's just as talented with a saw and hammer as he is with a drill. He used untreated yellow pine to build two burly raised garden beds measuring 5' by 10' for growing vegetables, and a 4' b y 4' bed nearby for herbs. They filled their  beds with a premium soil and amendment blend created by Microfarm Organic Gardens, and also planted an assortment of our organically grown heirloom vegetable seedlings.

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Planting for a Fall Harvest

Here in the midst of Summer’s furnace, It’s hard to imagine a row of cold hardy vegetables like Cabbage, Beets, and Kale swaying in a crisp October breeze. The heat loving varieties you planted this Spring, like tomatoes and okra, may just now be hitting their stride, and  you’ve likely tried every possible way to serve beans and squash this Summer. Leafy greens like spinach, and root vegetables like beets and carrots, prefer the cooler temperatures of early Spring and Autumn, and while it’s still just a bit early to plant most cool weather varieties for a Fall/Winter harvest, now is the time to begin thinking about how you'll arrange them in those newly vacated spaces in your garden. The idea is to get cold hardy plants in the ground about a month or two before the first frost date of Autumn, so that they’ll be nice and strong when really cold weather sets in.

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Restaurant Kitchen Gardeners

Ask any restaurant owner about rising food costs, and you’ll wish you brought up politics instead. Higher energy prices have made the business of delivering food more expensive, and these costs are often passed from food vendors to restaurants like the bread basket at dinner time. This economic factor, plus a growing awareness and appreciation for locally produced organic food, can take much of the credit for the handful of new specialty farms that are thriving like just outside the city of Charlotte. Then there are those restaurant owners and chefs that make the trip from Farm to Fork really short, and grow their own organic produce.

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