Food sheds, where neighbors exchange homegrown produce, are gaining ground.
That dirt in our backyard can give us much more than pretty flowers. Lying under that brown soil are opportunities to create a better community, fossil-free food production, a way to save money, and a healthy, pesticide-free and balanced diet for the whole neighborhood. These opportunities can blossom from a working system called a food shed.
According to Owen Dell, a local landscape architect and contractor, a neighborhood food shed is a system where neighbors — usually within walking distance of each other — grow produce in their yards to share without exchange of money or need for gas-powered transportation. Dell has been involved with sustainable landscaping for many years and came to question our suburban way of land use.
According to Dell, suburbs were originally created to get out of cities and grow food on one’s own property. By the 1950s, however, this land use pattern changed and, for the most part, people mainly planted ornamentals and lawns.
Since the 1970s, there has been a growing movement, which started in Australia, for more awareness in how food is produced and transported. About two years ago, after taking a permaculture course, Dell wanted to do something on a local level. At this same time, a client called him to say that he had extra produce and was wondering how he could set up some kind of distribution system in the neighborhood. Since Dell already was thinking about ways neighborhood food sharing might work, he was more than ready to help his client with the idea to contact neighbors within an eight- to 10-block radius. Thus, Mesa Exchange was born.Since that time, according to Mesa’s Web site, Mesa has four food sheds, and there is one each in Goleta and Santa Barbara as well. About twice a month, neighbors meet at different homes to share their produce and to catch up with gardening tips. Dell says people often enjoy mini feasts during these exchanges, and that different perennial produce, such as dragon fruit, also provides the opportunity for people to try new foods.
The goal is to try to grow foods that are suited to the local climate and that can be grown in a sustainable way without pesticides and with little water usage. Within this food shed model, people can begin to tune the neighborhood for a more balanced diet. For instance, one neighbor can grow annual crops of vegetables, another person could share eggs from their chickens, someone else can plant fruit trees. Thus, a food shed can turn the neighborhood into a communal farm. Help from local permaculturists can bring even more productivity.
Dell says that ideally, people could start to make use of everything on their property. In fact, his yard sustains 130 edibles within a 100-square-foot lot.
Dell says food sheds not only create an opportunity where people grow healthy food but also allow for a healthier community. Neighbors get to know one another, share ideas, have fun and learn how to depend on one another, too. For instance, if an elderly neighbor can’t plant or harvest, the surrounding neighbors could do the work and bring food from the community food shed.
“Suburbs are the biggest missed opportunity on the planet right now,” Dell says. With the use of neighborhood food sheds, he says, “We can make suburbia the most functional land use.”
Click here for more information on how to start a food shed.
