My grandmother’s parents and my mother, on the other hand, had a “garden” in which they grew vegetables. Later on, my mother switched to “gardening” with flowers and bushes/shrubs.

So, I suppose it depends on size, in my mind. And, yes, I usually think of men as being the “farmers” in the USA. In some Brazilian indigenous cultures, the women and men worked together on their “gardens” - which contained cultivated plants used for food. Women and men just had different roles.

Nowadays, my view of farming is changing, thanks to visits to Lawrence Farmers’ Market and my apprenticeships in Rolling Prairie Farmers Alliance and Vajra Farm. There are definitely more women farming and ranching than I ever knew; permaculture and other organic-style methods are influencing how people grow crops (edible, floral, etc.).

Keeping your question in mind, perhaps “garden” connotes a more intimate relationship with the plants one cultivates. That’s how it is for me.

And perhaps a change of perception would also change our expectations for farming itself - leading to a revolution in how the average person in the USA consumes and grows food.

Who knows? It’s worth a try.

Or, the garden could also be a place where Lawrence residents can rent a plot of land for gardening edible crops; that would include herbs and possibly trees. (This may be delving into permaculture a bit.) Perhaps the city could offer an option of paying for land use with crop harvest.

These may be risky ventures, but these ideas are mere seeds to be cultivated for something greater in the future. Let me know if you wish to discuss ideas.

Cheers,

Stephanie Barrows
barrowssa@gmail.com

If the produce farmer were American, I would suggest that he were calling himself a gardener because of societal views of farming and farmers, but I’m not this fits for the Japanese farmer. Perhaps he feels his little plot of land, however profitable, is not large enough for consideration as a farm? I’m curious to hear others’ thoughts.

There are examples of high dollar sales, small garden/farms in urban areas. The economics seem to be against small-generically identified produce farms. They can compete on freshness or localness, but they have lots of inexpensive competition from the supermarkets.

They can set themselves apart through growing practices (organic, free range, etc.) or just build customer loyalty, but if there produce leaves their hand and travels far, it will become subject to commodity pricing.

Even large farms which have committed to commodity production, are perennially under pressure to produce more, cheaper, from larger acreages.

Five or six years ago, when we had several employees performing hand labor, we had discussions in the field about the fact that we were the only farm with visible employees working with their feet on the ground. We compared ourselves and tableau to Asian paintings with people toiling in the landscape. I recall there was a similar body of paintings in Europe also among the Dutch and Flemish.