Love gardening? Hate gardening? Love fresh food? No time to grow it? Have I got a business for you!
Micro-economics has hit the food business, according to a story in the New York Times. People in San Francisco who love fresh food but don't have time to grow it are hiring their own personal farmers to grow fruits and vegetables in the back yard.
Growing a garden sounds like a good part-time job for a teenager can manage, hmm? Even caterers are getting in on this act because more people want local food. Now there's something for everyone. Read the full story here.
"The highest form of luxury is now growing it yourself or paying other people to grow it for you," said Corby Kummer, the food columnist and book author. "This has become fashion."
More lazy elites thinking they are making a difference.Kudos to the guy who is making money off these whack jobs.Having and tending your own garden for fresh food...Cool.Paying someone else to tend your garden because your just too busy to personally save the planet.Ridiclous!
"Lazy elites"? You're just making assumptions as usual, Brian. Maybe they're too busy making money to do their own gardening, but like the taste of fresh vegetables. Sounds very Republican to me.
And to think me mates in London were posh before this came to light. Planting a Victory Garden was all the fashion in UK during the war years.
Republicans are firm beleivers in 'trickle down' economics. They love to share their good fortune with others, so they create a whole new way for folks to make cash. MOI is right proud of being a Republican.....now let me find some folks in neighborhood to plant that garden.
If my back lawn that forever needs watering and mowing, and instead yielded tomatoes, peppers,
radishes and strawberries, it sure would be a much better use for the water.
Unfortunately, physically we can't do it and financially we can't afford a personal back yard farmer.
Really!... you'd pay someone to plant and maintain a vegetable garden on your own property.Why not... while your farming out the kids to daycare, paying the other gardener,maid and pool man so you have time to go to the car wash and the cleaners on the way home from the health club.It takes a lot of hours to pay those bills but ooooh...fresh vegetables from my own garden tended by others...kind of like having children raised by other people...sort of sounds like the elitist approach.Meanwhile people complain about outsourcing jobs as they outsource all the things we used to call chores that built work ethic in families. I'd make it a family project like Dr.Gail mentioned.Teach the kids something other than making enough money so that other people can do your chores.That may not be Republican but it seems Conservative... definitely not Democrat
What's the difference between paying someone to tend your own garden vs. stopping by a farmer's market or roadside stand for fresh fruits & vegetables? I think buying the fresh stuff would be cheaper than paying someone to tend the garden. Maybe the title of the thread says it all--"haute-couture." Two other words sum it up as well--"luxury" and "fashion."
I can picture some poseur sitting in the hot tub trying to impress a bunch of neighbors and so-called friends, discussing his/her "connection to the earth" while sipping his/her wine and munching on an "earth-friendly" snack from "The Garden," espousing the virtues of growing your own food, even though a paid helper does all the work. It must be a great source of fulfillment to buy your way out of the personal work it takes to save the earth, via "carbon offsets" and anything with the word "organic" attached.
That's my interpretation of Brian's term, "lazy elitist."
Gail's idea is right on the mark; show the kids how to tend the garden in order to instill a work ethic (don't forget cut the lawn, fold the laundry, clean the dishes...). If you have no kids or no time, go buy your produce somewhere like any other lower/middle class sot.
Kind of amusing to see a couple of self-proclaimed conservatives criticizing rich people for how they choose to spend their excess money.
Would it be better if they spent it on bigger cars, fancier vacations, or invested it in offshore tax-shelters? Are they violating some conservative moral code for the wealthy?
I'm right in the middle of peach and nectarine harvest now.
I've got more tomatoes and zucchinis than I can eat. Nothing like garden grown vegetables.
Looks excellent for the comming citrus crop as well. Hope we can avoid any of those ice wedging freezes this year, the kind that don't really happen... technically speaking.
Fresh veggies are the best and at least you know where they came from so as to avoid the salmonella mess of the past couple years. I tried to grow a couple things this year and got nothing but I tried. I don't think I will do it again but wont hire anyone either. I will just support the Hmong folks that do it for a living.
I (personally) would let go of the crack issue. One of you POSTEES is wrong.
Global Warming or not; I remember icy winters and what ice does. Climats have changed, physics not.
Mike D.
Okay...I'll engage the rabbit trail.
To answer your question; no. These poseurs flaunt their environmental "concern" only because it is fashionable. They might otherwise give no thought to any organic pursuits if it didn't gain some attention for them. Other poseurs flaunt their possessions or vacations for the approval of others. The point of my response to this thread is generally to mock poseurs, regardless of their political slant.
In contrast, note Bart's post; sounds to me like he might know what he's doing. More power to folks like him!
The "lazy elitists" (the group of whom does NOT include people like Bart) think they're saving the environment by growing their own produce. However, by hiring another individual to tend their gardens, the extra fuel consumption and air pollution from the hired gardener's travels seem counterproductive to saving anything. I guess that's why carbon offsets exist.
People can spend their extra cash however they want (if it's legal). I have no problem mocking conservatives who spend their money foolishly, as well. Although, by definition, true "conservatives" are pretty conservative with their spending--I'm talking about individuals, not politicians, on this point.
Now, any legal tax shelter is a great way to keep more money for me and my family instead of it going to some general fund that Sen. Stevens funnels to VECO for Alaskan energy projects. It's better than giving my money to Rep. Pelosi to travel to Afghanistan and overstep her boundaries as House Speaker. Or...[insert any of about 150,000 ridiculously unnecessary pet projects or bills passed by Congress].
Summary: poseurs will always be poseurs and their actions are not typically driven by the heart of issues, but only by their own imagined popularity contest.
Well, Matt, I can't argue with this mental image of "poseurs" and "lazy elitists" that you've created in your mind. I do note, however, that one of the people quoted in the article said she was working "24/7" and therefore simply didn't have time to do her own gardening, but wanted "something growing in front" of her. But if it makes you feel better somehow to criticize them, that's no skin off my teeth. I'm just curious, though - is it okay for rich people to flaunt their wealth as long as they don't pretend they're doing something positive for the environment?
And now back to the to the blog topic.
The family (from Dinuba) breadwinner has the un-greenest thumb in the universe. But his Okie elders always had a backyard fruit and vegetable garden. Some
to eat fresh and the rest to be canned.
While we lived on an acre in the City of Clovis, we had almonds, apricots,
grapes, peaches, pome- granates, quince, walnuts (black and English) and
shade trees. Altogether 31 trees. In summer I grew tomatoes, green peppers and cucumbers
( invariably bitter) and watermelons. Although the soil was truly Good blessed sandy loam, I had only luck with the tomatoes and peppers.
Though I was a big city person, I appreciated that wonderful soil. People walking by stopped to enjoy the roses and vines along the 110 feet chain- link fence. The adjacent
2 acres also had homes on them. Together we had 127 trees. I counted them for
City Council hearings to discourage commercial development of the properties. We surrendered when the realtor showed up at the house with a city council member.And some of the weirdest interim ordinances and zoning would have made it virtually impossible to keep maintaining the residences. Now we live in a very nice older Fresno subdivision with lots of tree around us. But the soil is terrible
clay. Better for making bricks than raising vegetables.
The question had been posted as to what's the difference between growing your own and buying it at a vegetable stand? The use of pesticides....one can only vouch for oneself And the guaranteed organic crops are truly expensive. I had to stop buying at that wonderful market in Fig Garden because of their prices. Some of the prices have been raised by 30% because of the high gas prices. Even if the gas goes down, those store prices will not. And our retirement income is fixed save a few dollars a year.
And gardening is good to relieve stress. And, as it has been pointed out, it could teach children a lot and keep them healthy, away from sitting at those computer things.
My daughter, who today, is the internet manager for a word-wide business, as a child has learned to always have a beautiful garden of exhibition quality. We had no computer in the house. UNIVAC was toolarge...and TV was rationed. And now I am blogged out for a while.
Well, excuuuse me. I thought the blog topic was people who don't have the time/desire to garden, so they hire others to do it for them. Maybe Gail's opening post was off-topic?
alright Bart, sounds like you've got a little piece of heaven...no argument with you brother, there's a sacredness in soil and magic in garden-grown food.
The topic "...Growing it yourself or paying other people..."
The accent is on "or"
That's actually part of a quote from Corby Kummer, not the question posed by Ms. Marshall. However, in order to avoid turning this into an extended (and possibly tedious) debate over the topic of the debate, I shall concede the topic to you.
Since the topic now includes our individual attempts at home gardening (courtesy of Ms. Lawson), I admit that I have a small vegetable garden, but that it has suffered serious neglect this year because of my preoccupation with my kids and other projects around the house.
Attempts at growing vegtables without a hired "personal gardener."
8:33 A.M. Jackie Krage
1:21 P.M. Isabell Lawson
We were told that used-car-sales persons are trained to keep talking to a prospective buyer, no matter if it lacks validity or substance, just keep talking.
...and a fine job of that you're doing!
The bottom line is that we all still live in a U.S.A. where you can do things with your own real estate, in spite other opinions.
You can grow food or fiber on your land.
You can arrange for someone who knows how to grow food or fiber, do it for you.
If you don't have land, you can make an arrangement to grow food or fiber on someone elses.
It's all good. Until the revolution is complete, these freedoms remain.
Y'know Mike, if someone has a garden for simple, innocent reasons, I don't give a rip how the garden gets tended. The title of the thread and Kummy's reference to "fashion" are mostly what triggered my comments. If someone works so much that they don't have any time, maybe they should consider a career change. I would also suggest they use their CNN or other TV-watching time to spend in the garden; as Isabelle says, it can be a source of relaxation. Right now, I have to go tend to my own yard...