one of my favorite spaces at home is my backyard. spanning two-thirds of an acre and backing up into the mianus river state park, it’s always been just the right size for flag football games, fetch with my dogs and swinging on the swingset. 

when i moved to washington, d.c., for school, my “backyard” nearly vanished (unless you count the national mall) and each year i miss the potential of a green open space more and more. according to the united nations, the world’s urban population is expected to increase by 84 percent in the next 35 years, reaching 6.3 billion in 2050. soon, there will be more people living in cities like d.c., and in cities that are even bigger; they will have to trade their backyards for small balconies and patio spaces, just like i did.

however, all has not been lost. these small spaces hold some incredible potential as love and carrots, a business in washington, d.c., is revealing to their clients in the form of vegetable gardens that can be designed specifically for small deck spaces, balconies and windowsills. urban agriculture is not a new concept, but more unconventional city spaces are being redesigned into small gardens, which can yield great payoffs.

when i visited love and carrots “headquarters,” which includes an outdoor vegetable garden, greenhouse and office space, meredith shepard, the founder of the company, walked me through a typical discussion she has with her clients on a design consultation. her goal is two-fold; give her customers the ability to grow and eat the vegetables they love and advise them in picking vegetables that will give them the highest yield for their urban space. when it comes down to it, what you choose to grow influences the productivity of your space.

take carrots, for instance. one carrot seed produces one carrot and it can take up to 3 months before it is ready to be harvested. in smaller garden spaces, carrots are not and ideal crop to grow because they are not efficient. in order to maximize urban spaces, choosing plants like kale, swiss chard and beets, vegetables that all have continual harvests, will maximize the production value of any space, big or small.

“another example of something that is good to grow in small spaces are radishes. you can have 3-4 cycles of radishes in a season and they can be harvested in about 30 days,” meredith said pointing to the radishes that she had tucked into tiny spaces all around the love and carrots vegetable garden. according to fao, an area just under 11 square feet can produce 44 pounds of food a year. 

to reduce my grocery store costs and maximize the potential of my small balcony, i’ve started considering what my own ideal container garden would look like. potted plants would clutter my very small balcony, so i would want to maximize the vertical wall space that i have and create an innovative shoe organizer garden; i would plant salad greens like spinach, peas and herbs like thyme and rosemary.

i’ve found that there are many creative ways that you can grow food in a city space, and why not? the usda expects prices for fresh fruit to increase 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent in 2015 and in 2014, prices went up 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent. growing even just some of your food at home can benefit your bottom line. growing vegetables is the most practical and sustainable use of any small city space.

i’ve found this to be the case with many of my millennial cohorts, who support notions of “healthier,” “chemical free,” “environmentally friendly” and the like, without fully understanding the regulations set by the usda and the resulting frameworks within which organic farmers operate. this past september, branding consultancy firm bfg surveyed 300 shoppers with the majority being under the the age of 35. they found that 70 percent were buying organic foods, but only 20 percent could actually define “organic” with confidence. more than half of the respondents qualified as “concerned, but confused,” not only demonstrating a lack of true knowledge about “organic,” but also, and more importantly, a willingness and sincere desire to support and actively seek out foods they believe to be better for themselves and the environment.

in an effort to broaden both my own knowledge and experience, i took a suggestion from a friend last spring and subscribed to the world wide opportunities on organic farms network. wwoof operates as an educational and cultural exchange program connecting travelers with opportunities to work on farms all around the world in exchange for room and board.

i spent hours going through their many pages of farms in locales across the country. the farm bios were compelling, detailing their mission, operations and tasks for which assistance was needed. many owners simply seemed eager to have open natured and hard working visitors to add to their communities for one, two, three weeks to several months. the photos from each farm absorbed both my attention and imagination for many hours — scenes of coastal and mountain landscapes, vibrant flora, collections of gorgeous produce and value-added goods, smiling faces and dirty hands. my mind was reeling at the thought of rolling around laughing in the soil as i sat at my desk in my dorm room.

pay it forward farm, who is now one of my closest friends. her message was full of excitement for the upcoming growing season and the ensuing projects and plans. after a few days of back and forth correspondence we established three main things:

1. we were both extremely excited individuals by nature
2. i was coming to her farm in andover, n.h.
3. my internship would be geared toward regenerative and sustainable agriculture (which later evolved into an intensive crash course in permaculture)

with the reality of the upcoming farm internship, the excitement i felt made me realize that this truly was a step in the right direction. this was something i wanted to do with my life. that “something” wasn’t exactly clear to me yet, but i knew that a farm, dirt and growing things with other excited young people greatly appealed to me.

that summer, after receiving a funding grant from my school for the planned internship, i packed my jeep, said my goodbyes and hit the road for new hampshire.

“nature always wears the colors of the spirit.” — ralph waldo emerson

my experience at pay it forward farm was phenomenal. at the risk of being too cliché, there is no other way to put it: it was life changing. for six weeks i lived with a dynamic influx of young people: camp counselors, a timber framer, a poet, a musician, a photographer, a barista, a dancer, a phish addict, a selectman of the town — and the man i’m marrying in just over a year from now. my housemates, my farm family, were dreamers, go-getters and change-makers — they were absurdly inspiring. adding to the absurdity were the friends who passed under the wooden “pay it forward” sign, who were of that same spectacular caliber: artists, writers, politicians, architects, war veterans, sailors, outdoorsmen, countless farmers and just all around good-people.

the friends at pay it forward farm gathered around a bonfire at a celebration.

in addition to these characters, i also became better acquainted with different versions of myself. the versions that had been hiding behind the desks, the city walls and the metro stops. the sides of myself that weren’t afraid to be open, to be weird, to be perfectly content with the realization that the career path that i was gravitating toward was not going to be filled with riches, stability, status or even be considered a “career” at all. this was ok with me.

“food is not rational. food is culture, habit, craving and identity.” — jonathan safran foer

our days were never uneventful. there were always projects, meetings and things to be done. in the gardens, we planted, watered, weeded and harvested. we taught kids about where their food comes from, and watched them as they planted seeds in the soil. we met with other farmers in the area and supported them at farmers markets, work parties and provided emotional support during slaughterings. i helped sophie with community events, and attended local policy and permaculture meetings. i engaged with the new hampshire permaculture meet up as they planned their annual gathering, and learned from todd workman, who is in the process of revitalizing franklin — new hampshire’s poorest city — into a permaculture center.

when the sun set and the days were done, our family gathered to cook together and sit round the kitchen table or the old wooden electric spool outside, laughing off the trials of the day and toasting to the successes. we cooked for each other, sharing favorite recipes and stories. we held parties with our farming friends, where any and all we ran into were invited and offered whatever food and drinks we had. we spent our nights under the stars talking, sometimes about heady, epistemological ideas and hopes for the future, and other times about joys and frustrations from the day. we laughed a lot, sometimes we cried, i think once or twice there was some yelling, but man, we just lived.

during these weeks my existence was materially simple yet spiritually rich, and i felt much happiness as a result. what resonated most was that the nourishment of my body, and by extension my soul, mainly came from less than 50 miles away. we ate salads, radishes, beans and herbs from the gardens we managed. our eggs were fresh every morning from our four chickens. we baked our own bread. mountains of kale, basil, chard, beets and garlic came from our farming friends. rich new hampshire maple syrup flowed from a friend’s sugar shack five miles down the road. raw milk came from the next town over. insanely delicious french pastries were baked by a friend basically next door. the hay and goat manure used in our gardens were local. almost every step along the way, from planting, to harvesting, to purchasing and consuming, we knew the face of that member of our local food system. this was the ideal.

local macarons by tarte and homemade french bread, typical fresh treats at the farm.

the not-so-ideal was that we were a group of young farmers and workers facing a mountain of practical problems. there were the hardships of financing projects, inadequate compensation in time and money, dependency on weather in determining the day’s market success (or lack thereof), and finding ways to constantly harness the necessary energy each day while oftentimes lacking the necessary support — economic, social and political. though we were well nourished, strong and highly productive, living this life took a toll on some.

i met meghan young, a young farmer and recent graduate of the university of new hampshire majoring in microbiology, during the slaughtering of two of her pigs. she is the founder of garlic hill farm, and after a long winter and several feeding sessions per day, emotions were running high. she told me that she would be putting her farm on hold after the summer growing season because it was just too hard. she was too young, she was broke and she was mainly alone. she blew her back out twice last season, leaving her unable to work, and struggled with chronic lyme disease. sunstroke was a big issue for her, especially during the summer season. hydration and protective gear are key, she warned. to live this life, you have to be very careful to protect yourself.

if done carefully, though, this life can be rewarding. sophie began her permaculture farm in the hopes that it would serve as andover’s first community center for regenerative agriculture, and she has far surpassed this goal. meghan began her farm with the mission of providing local and sustainable food to her community, and though temporarily on hold, she certainly accomplished this goal during its first year of operation, at the cost of both her wallet and health.

this experience showed me just how hard life is for those who strive to supply our communities with alternatives to the dominant industrial food system. my farming friends — my family — may waste less, flush less, wash less and do many other things outside the norm, but the social benefits, visible progress and a tight knit community is what keeps it going. it’s what inspired sophie, meghan, myself and many others to pursue this life. though i am not planning on becoming a farmer, as i enter into my last semester of college i look forward to pursuing paths in food policy and justice, to advocate for the economic, social and political support of my friends — our friends. the friends who rise at 5 a.m. to harvest the fresh produce we enjoy at farmers markets, the friends who nourish the soil as well as our bodies, and the friends who are willing to take a hit financially and physically to ensure that local, organic and sustainable food remains an option.

looking back on my experience now, i smile. i smile because i now know many of the farmers in my own local food system, because i’ve since met many other food activists who understand their battles, and i smile because i am still flushing less, spending less, wasting less and living so much more. 

eva working at the penacook community garden.

eva moss is a senior studying anthropology at sewanee, the university of the south.

what sets her crops apart? well, for one they are grown year round in “a controlled agriculture environment.” this means while other local farmers in loudon county, virginia are unable to grow, the lettuce lady still provides her products to top washington, dc restaurants and chefs and local customers.

taylor told us she got the idea from a visit to disney world’s hydroponic gardens. “i never thought i’d go into farming, but i have found it, just right now, the place to be,” the californian raised taylor said.

“this is smart farming.”

– mary ellen taylor, aka the lettuce lady

endless summer harvest grows 4,000 plants a week using just 12,000 ft.2 of greenhouse space. that is the “equivalent of 12 acres of traditional farmland,” she said.

her hydroponic farm uses no soil and she is able to recycle 90% of the water used back through her well into the mixing tanks that produce the solution used to grow her crops.

endless summer harvest’s controlled environment hydroponics system could provide a way for farmers in climates unsuitable for growing crops to provide food for a growing planet.

visitors from around the world, especially in developing nations including afghanistan and botswana have visited her farm seeing it as a model for future use in their less irrigable home regions.

the lettuce lady hopes to double the amount of greenhouses at endless summer harvest from two to four within a year.

is this the future of farming?