Ever wanted to grow your own?

Keeping it legal, of course. ;)

Coffee in Kona?
Grapes in Tasmania, Melbourne or the Gold Coast?
Waygu or Angus way out west, superfine merino here or enzed?
Anything in Asia?
Something in Spain?


This comes from the recent trip to three wine regions recently but also the fascinating story of one (or maybe >1) FTer and a coffee plantation lease. ;)

It's just a far-off fantasy right now but it's fun to speculate.

So, have you ever thought about growing your own?

Briefly, after reading a story in the local paper about the demand and prices received for organic produce, I wondered about growing strawberries on 10 acres in Alabama. Then the local u-pick blueberry operation closed with the owner stating that it had never been more than a break even operation. Now, if he had gone organic and been willing to ship ....?

I wish I had a garden (or access to one) in London.

I want to go back to growing shiso/perilla leaves and I want to start growing nagaimo/yamaimo.

Perilla grows easily in the UK but is quite expensive to buy (red shiso leaves are planted in some of London's parks as ornamentals).

There are very few places in London that sell okonomiyaki and none of them taste as nice as the ones I make do. I think it would do really well in Spain. If I hadn't been pursuing my husband 4/5 years ago (the Tokyo/Europe romance left no room for capital or savings) my fantasy was to open a part time 'restaurant' in collaboration with a bar that did all its business in the late evenings.
The idea was to sell only the kind of food people like to eat in hot weather, and to ensure that a good deal of the menu was vegetarian (Alicante, at that time, only had a couple of Vegetarian places, yet these were very popular, and not very good).

I even knew where I was going to grow a lot of the herbs I would need to pull it off. The restaurant idea wouldn't have worked without a niche herb garden to feed it.

The restaurant scene in Alicante is blossoming now, more young people have ventured abroad, making them more open to foreign tastes. I missed my chance in many ways, but I still think it would work, traditional lunch time food still seems to assume that you'll be having a siesta after eating it.
And slices of okonomiyaki (or takoyaki balls) make a perfect tapas dish in the evening. You'd probably need to grow your own nagaimo to make it feasible.

My unlce is retired and has an acre in the heart of Orange County. He makes a little bit of spending cash selling organic avocados, lemons and other assorted fruit from his small orchard to a couple of local restaurants. Nowhere near enough to live on but it justifies some of the time and effort he spends on his trees. He has a beehive as well, that produces enough honey to keep his friends and neighors stocked. Avocado honey is amazing, dark, almost grenish with a strong, rich flavor.

Ever wanted to grow your own?

Keeping it legal, of course. ;)

Coffee in Kona?
Grapes in Tasmania, Melbourne or the Gold Coast?
Waygu or Angus way out west, superfine merino here or enzed?
Anything in Asia?
Something in Spain?


This comes from the recent trip to three wine regions recently but also the fascinating story of one (or maybe >1) FTer and a coffee plantation lease. ;)

It's just a far-off fantasy right now but it's fun to speculate.

So, have you ever thought about growing your own?


Yes, most certainly.

Having a small hobby farm growing various herbs for a local farmers market. I am based in Toronto, Canada so I'd have to bring in heat to my igloo to do it. Otherwise I'd think about a green house or even going to hydroponic.

I was tempted to start a small honey farm and was looking at a house a few years ago with a huge backyard, backing onto undeveloped wilderness and a neighbour on only one side.

It wasn't to 'bee'.

Avocado honey is interesting. :eek: That's one reason why I adopted a Busy Bee handle. :)
Mrs BB hates insects so I might not have been able to do much anywhere near the house. ;)

This reminded me that when I first arrived in AL 6 years ago, I looked at one house with a small orchard on the premises. There were no more than 30 peach trees. One of the reasons I rejected the place though is my fear of bees.

As a kid, I grew up in a yard with fruit trees; apples, cherries and 2 kinds of plums. By late August I wouldn't get within 20 feet of the apple tree. Every apple on the ground would be swarming with yellowjackets who would also burrow into the fruit on the tree. I remember a friend getting a bad surprise when he picked one and took a bite of yellowjacket. :eek:

My folks always had a bit of a garden, usually just peas and stuff. My grandmother had at least a quarter-acre, all organic, with all kinds of berries and stuff. Back when I was first married, we rented about a 30'x30' plot at a friends' farm and grew a bunch of things. My current house came with a few slow-bearing pineapple plants amidst the weeds in the postage-stamp-sized back yard, and there's a banana plant back near them now. The yard's supposed to get torn up one of these days for a sewer hookup, and once that's all finished, I plan to put in some small fruit trees, and raised beds for berries or other small crops.

Briefly, after reading a story in the local paper about the demand and prices received for organic produce, I wondered about growing strawberries on 10 acres in Alabama. Then the local u-pick blueberry operation closed with the owner stating that it had never been more than a break even operation. Now, if he had gone organic and been willing to ship ....?

There's a strawberry farm in middle TN that we visit about once a summer (Valley Home Farm, in Wartrace...check it out if you're in the area)--the berries, and their strawberry jam, strawberry cake, etc., are delicious. We are on their mailing list and get a postcard from them about once a quarter advertising whatever seasonal event is going on there--they have a fall "Harvest Festival", with pumpkins, etc., and also have a game-processing business on the farm. My guess is that without these "farm tourism" activities (which draw from Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, even Atlanta) they wouldn't be able to make a go of it on strawberries alone.

My guess is that without these "farm tourism" activities (which draw from Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, even Atlanta) they wouldn't be able to make a go of it on strawberries alone.


Absolutely true for many small farms or wineries. Many Tasmanian and Victorian wineries (really in all regions bar the large scale operations) need a lot more than just a cellar door shop to be viable.

Taking it back to my original question, is a B&B style operation viable for some of the coffee plantation operators?

That is the dream destination of the missus, provided the HI inter-island market doesn't get too expensive now that it's almost all HA's.


.
We don't need much - maybe a tiny cottage, a view and unlimited Kona coffee! :D

My father-in-law fell in love with the idea of growing his own organic vegetables so much that he went out bought an 11 acre farm near Davis, CA. Most of it is leased out to UC Davis for organic orchard and a small plot is also leased out to another farmer who grows various organic vegetables. FIL kept a small plot for himself to do whatever he wants to do. He only spends the weekends there, so I wouldn't call him a "farmer" yet.