Apocalyptic Gardening

attack of killer tomatoWhen the end of civilization comes knocking you don’t want to be stuck scrambling for Alpo among the zombie hordes at Albertsons. The best means to ensure a continuous supply of foodstuffs throughout the apocalypse is to plant a healthy end times garden full of the essentials. In this post I’ll cover the basics of apocalyptic gardening.

Location: Don’t go planting your new garden in your backyard. That’s the first place resentful neighbors will ransack, and as much as you might try, you probably won’t be able to kill them all.

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Big Box Agriculture: Can Stores Become Farms?

forrest_fulton_reburbia_ext-670x270America’s farmland has long been under siege by suburban development. This is nothing new. What is new is that a cease-fire has been called in most parts of the nation. And a conversation is developing about how to move into this new window of opportunity in a manner that not only restores the balance between urban demand and farm supply, but also helps to reenergize our failing economy heavily dependent on the construction industry.

This summer, Reburbia, a suburban design competition, was held by Inhabitat and Dwell Magazine. The competition set out to gather creative and imaginative ideas on how to go about re-visioning the American suburban sprawl that will almost certainly become our suburban wasteland without intervention. Several of the ideas were great, but one in particular caught my eye.

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Loco for Locals (cooperatives that is)

ricolocalsCoop has just come closer to home for those in the SLC downtown area.  And I, for one, feel it is a happy trend.  Urban and fringe agricultural areas all over the U.S. have been seeing an increase in small artisan farming operations teaming up with each other to provide convenient store fronts to locals.  Salt Lake City has now joined in the game.

Rico Locals has opened up on 800 S. and 500 E., SLC.  The founding vendors include empanadas, cheese, beef, a goat dairy, eggs, lamb, and Rico Brand mexican stuffs.  Not too shabby.  And I have to say that I really hope this sort of Urban farming and cooperative trend takes off.  I sometimes wake in a cold sweat thinking about small, artisan farms being gobbled up by large, industrialized tenant farming outfits.  I just don’t think that anyone can care better for the sustainability of farm lands than a small generational farm supported by local customers and a local market.

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