Sacramento County is poised to expand urban farming
SACRAMENTO — Chanowk Yisrael already has the pop-up tent for the farm stand he’ll operate on Roosevelt Avenue as soon as Sacramento County gives him the go-ahead.
Just blocks away in the city of Sacramento, his neighbors are already allowed to sell produce on their properties under a 2015 ordinance. A similar urban agriculture ordinance is working its way through Sacramento County’s bureaucratic process and will be considered by county supervisors early next year.
It covers a wide variety of urban agriculture activities: allowing farm stands where produce can be sold, legalizing chicken-keeping and beekeeping on small lots and keeping livestock in conjunction with educational programs.
At a county Planning Commission meeting this month, about a dozen urban farmers got up to testify in favor of the ordinance, including one woman who wants to teach her daughter to take care of goats on their property.
“The kids get along,” she joked, referring to the term for baby goats.
To craft the ordinances, county staff members worked closely with the Sacramento Urban Agriculture Coalition, a group of urban farmers focused on legislation at the city and the county level. The coalition wants an ordinance that addresses the needs of all the urban farmers in the area, not just the traditional community gardeners, said coordinator Katie Valenzuela Garcia.
“There’s a lot of ways these gardens look ... large Hmong gardens seem lowtech, but they’re really successful for growing produce,” Valenzuela Garcia said. “It’s an incredible opportunity to showcase what’s possible in a region as diverse as Sacramento.”
On a recent chilly morning, The Bee visited some urban farms to see what may be possible in the county if the ordinance passes.
Oak Park Sol
Valenzuela Garcia said the community garden in the middle of Oak Park is a traditional example of urban farming. Twelve families or individuals from the surrounding neighborhood pay an annual fee to farm the plots in the long, narrow lot. They grow lettuce, tomatoes, winter greens and a myriad of other vegetables.
Walking between rows of frosty greenery and carrying her baby against her chest, board member Rebecca Campbell said Oak Park Sol leases the quarter-acre plot from a property owner who enthusiastically agreed to help out when residents approached him about using his vacant lot.
A well-established garden operating since 2011, Oak Park Sol has expanded its reach to become a nonprofit that offers nutrition and cooking classes and is slowly acquiring leases for other open plots in Oak Park, Campbell said.
“This lot really shows, I think, a little bit of what’s possible with the county ordinance,” Valenzuela Garcia said. “They’ve really turned this into a space that I think exemplifies ... if you create the space, if you work with residents, great things grow.”
Yisrael Family Urban Farm
Yisrael and his family run their farm on two 12,000-square-foot parcels, both behind homes, in the South Oak Park neighborhood in unincorporated Sacramento County.
“It’s not something that’s like a new activity, really,” Yisrael said. “Now that it’s going to be known and it’s going to be above ground ... people are going to be able to be more open and vocal about the fact that they’re growing food in their backyard or in their yard, and being able to take it and sell it.”
His backyards are full of fruit trees — including a fig tree that produces about 150 pounds a year — and rows of vegetables. Selling his produce and the eggs produced by his flock of chickens would make fresh food available in an area that has few such options, he said.