It’s covered with snow, and will require cleanup of debris from last November’s storms that damaged neighboring trees. The market garden lot isn’t much to look at now. Summer crops will include peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers, he says. Winter-grown crops will be leafy greens, including spinach, which tolerates cooler temperatures, Hamilton says. “We plan on pursuing a fairly experimental technology through which we try to capture subterranean heat and circulate it in hoop houses thorough the winter,” he says, adding that the same technology can be used to cool the hoop houses in the heat of the summer. Hamilton says he plans to practice four-season farming through the use of hoop-style green houses and technology that transfers heat from underground to keep garden temperatures above freezing. Prior to receiving the proposal for the market garden, the city of Coeur d’Alene had some land-use allowances for community-supported agriculture and community gardens, such as the Shared Harvest Community Garden at the southeast corner of 10th Street and Foster Avenue, in Coeur d’Alene. If there’s enough left over, he also intends to sell the market garden vegetables in Pilgrim’s deli and produce departments. Hamilton intends to supply Pilgrim’s juice and salad bars with fresh vegetables from the adjacent site. “Quite a bit is happening in the Northeast (U.S.),” he says. Though the concept is relatively new to the Inland Northwest, Hamilton says market gardens are part of a growing movement both in the U.S. “We haven’t had a single complaint to the city about anyone doing this,” he says. Stuckart says he’s not aware of any opposition to market gardens since the ordinance passed. While he’s seen a few market gardens in Spokane, he says it’s difficult to track whether such urban farming is a growing movement within the city, because the ordinance exempts urban farmers from registering as a business. “If you grow it on site, you can sell it onsite,” Stuckart says. Unless the Spokane City Council revokes the pilot program, the market garden ordinance will become permanent this spring.Ĭity Council President Ben Stuckart, who led the support for the urban-farming ordinance, says it enables people to sell their home-grown produce. The Spokane ordinance limits the size of market gardens to 6,000 square feet per half-acre of residential land. The city of Spokane approved a pilot urban-farming ordinance in the spring of 2014. It’s well within a lot of people’s reach to grow produce in their yards to sell to restaurants or farmers markets or friends. “It’s a great way for people to make use of the land to grow healthy food and also make a few extra dollars. “City codes are being amended all over the country to allow this sort of activity,” he says. Hamilton says he wants to work with the city to develop provisions that would allow anyone with a yard to create a market garden as a component of sustainable agriculture practices and the farm-to-table culture, both of which emphasize consumer connections to local food sources. “The planning committee unanimously voted for our special-use permit request,” Hamilton says, adding that the committee also encouraged the city planning staff to work on language to amend the city code to permit anyone to grow cash crops on small-scale farms. He says the city of Coeur d’Alene now seems receptive to the concept of market gardens. Prior to Hamilton’s request to develop a market garden, Coeur d’Alene’s land-use ordinances hadn’t addressed urban crop production for the consumer market. “It’s similar to gardening, but with more intensive planting.” “The movement with small-scale farms is not equipment intensive,” Hamilton says. Because of their small size, tending them usually requires only the use of hand tools, rather than tractors and power equipment. It involves concentrated planting and nurturing on garden plots, which can be home based. He also has gained city approval for the first market garden on land zoned for residential use in Coeur d’Alene.Ī market garden is a small-scale farm that raises fruits and vegetables for the consumer market. Fourth in Coeur d’Alene’s Midtown District. Hamilton recently bought an 8,000-square-foot residential lot next to the 25,000-square-foot Pilgrim’s Market, which is located at 1316 N. Joe Hamilton, owner of Pilgrim’s Market and a pioneer in Coeur d’Alene’s natural and organic food sales, now is blazing a trail for urban farming in the Lake City.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |