Urban & Farm-friendly

November 29, 2007 9:11 PM

Looking for some cool cities with close proximity to agricultural work...

I'm currently finishing up a degree in horticulture and planning on beginning my job search in the next month. Ideally I'd like to get into small-scale, organic farming, without having to move out to the boonies.

Are there any cities (bigger is better) you would recommend where I could live within the city, and have a relatively short commute outside to rural areas and farmland?

I'm open to moving anywhere in the US and Canada...but if I had my choice would probably prefer the east coast US.

thanks.

posted by pilibeen to travel & transportation (19 comments total)

Wine country, my friend.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:16 PM on November 29, 2007

I can't speak to how easy it would be to get agriculture work in any of these places.

You get to farmland pretty quickly in the counties that surround Baltimore.

There are farms in North Jersey, which puts you near New York.

Of course there's also Des Moines, where you get to farmland super-quickly, though that doesn't help you with "bigger is better."
posted by Airhen at 9:22 PM on November 29, 2007

And I meant to add: There is farmland outside Philadelphia, too.
posted by Airhen at 9:23 PM on November 29, 2007

Burlington Vermont is not that urban, but it's a real city by local standards and Intervale is right nearby and sort of amazing.
posted by jessamyn at 9:24 PM on November 29, 2007

Well, you could do a lot worse than D.C. in terms of distance from city living to farmland. Although, depending on your idea of a short commute, Boston might not be a bad idea either. There are possibly better choices, but those are the two that I'm most familiar with. I do know that D.C. has a few really awesome farmer's markets, including the famous Eastern Market, and I often patronize the Takoma Park Farmers Market just over the border in Maryland.

Another possibility, actually, might be either Burlington or Brattleboro, Vermont, or even Northampton, Massachusetts. They all have great farmers' cultures and while not cities in the same scope, are not out in the boonies either.
posted by General Malaise at 9:26 PM on November 29, 2007

Minneapolis area is somewhat sprawl-prone, but it's not too far to get to dairies, orchards and wheatfields from here. There's a very thriving co-op tradition (both in the farmers co-op sense and the co-op natural grocery sense), and a strong market for natural/organic foods. The Univ. of Minn. is a big ag school, among other things, they're big on apples.

One variation would be to locate someplace like Northfield, Minnesota, where you could live in a just about walkable college town and see cows and barns out your back window, but still be a reasonable drive from the center city.
posted by gimonca at 9:44 PM on November 29, 2007

I'm in the process of moving to Durham, NC, and from what I can tell, something in the Durham/Raleigh/Chapel Hill area might work very well for you.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 9:52 PM on November 29, 2007

Minneapolis.
posted by InnocentBystander at 12:05 AM on November 30, 2007

Davis, CA is a walkable (ag) college town. Nice place.
posted by sebastienbailard at 1:58 AM on November 30, 2007

In Ontario, Canada the main Canadian city Toronto has farms ringing it (about a 30 min commute to the nearest farm from the the city centre, excepting riverdale farm that is just outside downtown) but lots of smaller towns around it, extending down to Niagara Falls (locally this area is called the Golden Horseshoe as it hugs lake Ontario in a horsehoe shape). The Niagara region is well-know for it's grapes and orchards. In the urban areas there are several farms still existing that are surrounded by subdivisions. I live outside Toronto in a smaller town. I live right downtown with a vibrant Farmers Market, the nearest pick-your-own farm is about a 20 minute walk (so like 2 minutes by car). The organic farms seem to be a 10-15 minute car ride away. Because farmwork is so seasonal there is a large influx of Jamacian/Mexican workers that (legally) come up from spring to fall.
posted by saucysault at 4:51 AM on November 30, 2007

Madison, Wisconsin? I've never actually been there, but I've heard it's a great university town.
posted by alms at 4:52 AM on November 30, 2007

Pittsburgh. We have a few small organic farms within the city limits and several more within a short commute. THere is a small scale urban farming initiative developing that is organizing community garderns and microfarms. There's also a rumor the food co-op wants to try greenhouses and raised beds on its roof.

Finially, Pittsburgh could be considered 'the west coast of the east coast'
posted by buttercup at 5:39 AM on November 30, 2007

Seconding Vermont. There is a great culinary school (New England Culinary Institute) in Montpelier and Burlington, and they train those culinary students how to buy fresh and organic if they can. There are a lot of small time operations scattered all around Vermont and the students also go to Montreal quite often. The overall culture of the people in those towns support organic farming also. Check out the home prices before you move, though...it ain't cheap.
posted by 45moore45 at 6:39 AM on November 30, 2007

Portland, Ore., has a surprising amount of urban farming, as well as normal agriculture close to town, plus the necessary supply of wealthy residents and high-end restaurants to use the produce. Here is something I found via google; there is doubtless better information available if you know what you are looking for.
posted by Forktine at 6:40 AM on November 30, 2007

Durham, Chapel Hill and Raleigh, NC. Lots of farming, lots of great farmer's markets, a really big growing restaurant industry wanting locally grown organic food, and I've heard they're having trouble keeping up. The south is having quite a bit of a drought problem though (still!).
posted by barnone at 6:44 AM on November 30, 2007

Seattle Seattle Seattle. Year-round growing season (winter crops, but crops nonetheless), big and supportive organic/local/sustainable/polyculture community, colleges and universities with resources, low risk of drought, several year-round farmers' markets, lots of chefs who buy direct from local farmers ...

(To be fair, most of this is probably true of Portland as well. Don't know about the farmers' markets though. And Seattle is a bigger city than Portland.)

Drawback: Cost of land. But it drops pretty dramatically within a relatively short radius outside of the city.

There are some successful producers doing what you describe -- living in the city and commuting out to their farmland. There are also plenty of folks living on 2-10 acres within 30-90 minutes of the city, such as myself. I commute to a day job and am not farming full-time at this point.

MeFiMail or email me if you want to know more! I love this aspect of Seattle and will happily babble further.
posted by librarina at 10:34 AM on November 30, 2007

Remember also that if you live within the city and work in a nearby rural area, you'll most likely have a reverse commute. The horror stories that you hear about large city commutes are typically from people going the other direction from you.

I think you could probably pick almost any big city (with a few exceptions) that you like, with the climate and type of agriculture that you like, and have a reasonable commute.

Of course, it also depends on what you think is "relatively short". I think a half-hour or less would qualify to get you into the boonies from many city centers at rush hour, given that revese commute.
posted by Robert Angelo at 3:32 PM on November 30, 2007

Like librarina, I live on 2 acres a 35-minute ferry ride from Seattle. In point of fact, I share those acres with librarina. The thing that's great about the Seattle area is that you've got a mess of islands a ferry ride away. This is not a great commute and if you take a truck/van/car it can get expensive.

However, Bainbridge Island, where we are in the process of moving, has a mess of farmland owned by the city and they're desperate for people to farm it. The cost of land is prohibitive for pure grower-owner agriculture ($100k/acre), but leasing or renting farmland is supported by the community and city council in order to preserve the rural character of the island. Further from the ferry, land gets a lot cheaper and I know a couple of profitable small organic farms in Kitsap county.

Lopez Island, one of our neighbor Islands, is home of the first mobile slaughterhouse in the United States. It's leased to the Island Land co-op and makes a lot of small beef production possible.

Furthermore, the Washington State Department of Agriculture has a lot of support for small organic producers. Not everyone in the organization of course, but at a recent conference I attended I was shocked at the extent to which the WSDA would bend over backwards for small growers and producers. I am, of course, a complete noob at this and that might be the case nationwide.

There are a couple of organizations, Tilth Producers and Oregon Tilth, that cater to small growers and are great sources of information.

Also worth considering is that Seattle is a great market. At every farmer's market I've been to in town, every vendor has been selling out of pastured eggs at $6/dozen within 15 minutes of opening. We've got a lot of chefs who love to buy from growers and a mess of infrastructure to make marketing easier.

Like librarina, email (in profile) or MeFiMail me and I'm glad to go on about this sort of thing.
posted by stet at 7:01 PM on November 30, 2007

Seconding Portland. It's a medium city with a small town feel. Not only is there a lot of agricultural work nearby, there's a healthy respect for it in the city...especially organic farming.
posted by amfea at 7:28 AM on December 2, 2007