A trip to Portola was in order on Tuesday, September 2nd, as EBPI set out to document a day-long, permacultural, edible garden installation in Southern San Francisco. The installers, Trevor Paque’s MyFarm, turned a decent-sized barren yard into a lovely space, with keyhole beds and woodchips.

A slow start made us miss a shot Adam really wanted - Trevor and pal leaving home on their bikes. All MyFarm employees go to work on their bikes. Dirt, woodchips, and other heavy things are delivered by truck, but none of the employees drive to work. Adam was able to gather everyone later in the day to shoot them rolling around the corner on their bikes, dismounting, and starting work. Yeah, it was staged. What of it?

When we arrived, dirt was being dragged from the street and poured from various containers into the backyard. Several keyhole-shaped plots were gradually fashioned, as the garden began to take shape. The Ryan family (right ->) was extremely friendly and accomodating - bringing out a steady supply of water and Diet Caffeine-Free Coke, and opening their home up for anything we needed. We grabbed them for an interview after lunch, and found out that they’re newlyweds; she’s a nurse, and he’s a drummer. They learned of MyFarm, as many around here have, from the Chronicle’s front page story on them in June. MyFarm also got some love in the New York Times, which has been running huge quantities of stories on urban farming, permaculture, and related topics recently.

MyFarm’s operation has a few things going for it that set it apart from other urban agriculture endeavors: for one, they’re not a non-profit. In many ways, they’re more of a landscaping company, but their goal is not (only) aesthetic - it’s about practical, sustainable, and community-based food production. It’s a business, and one that Trevor is out to prove can work. As he puts it, he envisions what they create as being a “decentralized urban farm.” Second, the bike thing. Third, the way the CSA aspect is incorporated - for “Owner Member Installations” (as opposed to “Personal Installations”), homeowners get a box of produce from their own garden, and so do others in the neighborhood. The homeowners pay to have the garden installed (as expensive as $1,800 but usually less), pay a small weekly maintenance fee, but only get a portion of the spoils. Even though MyFarm encourages homeowners to get their hands dirty, no actual work on their part is required - they basically host a CSA garden on their property.

It hasn’t taken long for MyFarm to carve out a significant presence. Their press coverage happened before they were even a viable business, and they installed a few test gardens for free to start out. Now, only weeks later, they get 10 online requests a day and already have a significant waiting list. They are doing this at the right time, in this day and age of ‘fresh, local, seasonal, sustainable.’ 

Their crew is made up of paid workers and volunteers. The crew does all of the following: test the soil, design the garden layout, install beds, plant seeds, put down woodchips, install drip installation, and come back for maintenance. Workers get assigned to be the “farmer” for a garden, and are then responsible for weekly upkeep. 

They have a lot of fun, it seems. Working on creating something useful and positive in the sun all day long will do that. They broke for Mitchell’s at lunchtime and humored us with short interviews - mostly “how did you get involved?” and “what’s your connection to farming?”, that sort of thing. Some have extensive gardening/farming experience, and some have essentially none.

In some ways it remains to be seen how successful, ultimately, MyFarm will be - since they plant seeds, nothing has yet been harvested - but it seems likely they will prove this to be a viable model. The demand is high, the time is right, and the know-how is there. Another piece of the Edible City puzzle, and another small step towards independence from agribusiness.

Photos from the day here