Posted on 05/08/2008 5:36:57 AM PDT by Invisigoth
By now, the collard greens, kale, chard, peppers and eggplants should be in the ground, along with the carrots and corn. The latest planting season is pretty much over at Barking Cat Farm, a tiny grower in Heath, Texas, which is owned and operated by Laurie Bostic and Kim Martin, two former engineers.
“You’d expect two engineers to go into farming about as much as you’d expect a cat to bark,” is their explanation for the name of their thriving micro-business, which sells its organic produce and cut flowers to Dallas restaurants and florists and direct to local consumers.
And yes, there is a waiting list of people who want to pay a $520.00 annual fee (in eight-week installments) to be one of the customers who receives a weekly box of no-pesticide veggies straight from the field and $182.00 yearly (in eight-week installments) for a weekly dozen of farm-fresh eggs free of hormones or other additives from chickens that are not imprisoned in fetid, football-field-size coops.
Organic produce is such big business now that even Wal-Mart has gotten in on the act. But Bostic and Martin go it one better. By selling locally, they avoid the energy expenditures and resulting costs involved in shipping food and other produce thousands of miles from its place of origin – the way most of us obtain it. That’s green in more ways than one.
(Excerpt) Read more at northstarwriters.com ...
Maybe my son and I can sell some spare produce this summer from a simple stand by our home.
We buy from local farmers. All we can grow in this yard is deer food.
I’ve just moved in to a new office. One of my office mates, charming man, is a big lib. There was an article in a magazine about how to be green. I commented that my husband and I were doing pretty much all those things because we garden and because we’re cheap (mainly the later). The one thing we don’t do is buy carbon credits but we have been planting trees on our little hobby farm. Mr. Big Lib said he didn’t do any of those things because he had more money than time. He went away from that conversation with the idea that I was an even bigger lib than he is. Later my secretary outed me. LOL Sort of fun dynamic.
Made me laugh. At my house it would be rabbit food. I buy from the local farmer’s market and roadside stands. I don’t have the patience or the time to grow it myself.
Ain't that the truth?
We recently planted a flower bed, only to discover the deer thought we put in a buffet (for them).
Anytime Green = the conservation of money normally used for things we have to do, so I can splurge on something else, I'm very green!
Organic gardening isn’t all yummy tomatoes and bushels of bright, green beans.
Wait till the potato bugs hit his two acre spud plot, and he’s out there every morning for three hours picking the little buggers off and dropping them one at time into recycled plastic jugs.
My guess is he’ll soon be driving to Home Depot looking for cheap stoop labor or “Kill-em-All” bug spray.
Then you are going in the right direction: growing your own forage for your venison feedlot.
No hunting allowed in the neighborhood
DEAF!!!
Good to see you up and about again!!!
I saw your grave in Rosenberg last week....
not even bowhunting?
Nothing. And we are eat up with deer
We’ll if they’re doing this in Heath it ain’t exactly Green Acres deux. Heath is pretty high end, there may be some areas around there that are more reasonable but it’s still going to be very expensive for ag production. While looking for some property around Dallas a couple years ago I had a realtor describe Heath as the new Highland Park.
Constructive comment, albeit off topic. Just curious, how many engineers do you know who went into farming after 15 year careers, male OR female?
Yes, the Heath area is fairly affluent and land value is pretty high (although I think the realtor might have been stretching it with the Highland Park analogy). That, coupled with the fact that the land is mostly clay, is why we have only our raised bed nursery in Heath. Here we grow perennials and experiment with new crops. Our main farm is on 20 very green acres a short distance east of the nursery. The soil there is wonderful sandy loam, much easier and more cost-effective to farm. We have a variety of deer, raccoon, and crow food planted there as we speak.
And more constructivitity? Engineers into farming - none have I seen, but then I’m only one man. Female engineers leaving, though, that angle I’ve got covered.
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