Jay,

I just wanted to cry when I read the article you linked from the Dallas Observer. How frustrating it must be for all the folks who want to start/participate in community gardens within the Dallas city limite!

As a former long-time resident of the D-FW Metro area, though, I am not surprised. There are many things to love about Dallas, but their city government is not one of them. There is a reason that Texas Stadium was in Irving and that Dallas Cowboys Stadium is in Arlington. There is a reason the The Ballpark in Arlington is in Arlington and not in Dallas. The reason? Dallas City Hall and all its employees. The city of Dallas cannot get its act together and manage to do anything right to encourage growth and development in the city of Dallas. Dallas city government is the gang that can't shoot straight.

Many areas in the metroplex have flourishing community gardens, whether they are on city-owned land, abandoned/absentee owner land, or privately owned land (often owned by churches or schools). However, you will find them in Fort Worth (like in the Fairmount neighborhood), Grapevine, Richardson, Denton, Colleyville, Southlake, etc. You will rarely find them in Dallas.

The Old East Dallas Community Garden is the exception to the rule, and the GICD group that runs it has six or seven community gardens scattered around the region. They, however, have flourished in spite of the city of Dallas, not because of any help or encouragement they've received from it. As far as I know, the Old East Dallas Community Garden has been around for maybe 20 years and when it took off and started getting some attention, I thought dozens of other community gardens would follow. If it were up to the people of Dallas, that would have happened. But, because the city of Dallas has a massive, well-entrenched, behind-the-times bureacracy, it hasn't happened and it won't happen.

About the only way to have a community garden inside the city limits there is to do guerilla gardening, where you QUIETLY take over an abandoned or unused plot of land and have your community garden and hope the city of Dallas doesn't notice....because, if they do, they're likely to come shut you down. I just hate it for the sake of all the would-be urban gardeners.

Nothing gets accomplished in the city of Dallas quickly. They spend 10-20 years planning something (anything!) and then another 10-20 years implementing the plan. Well, that is, unless one of the big-dollar movers and shakers, i.e. well-connected and wealthy businesspeople, want it....and then it can happen very quickly. Do I have a lot of hope for community gardens in the city of Dallas? No. The city government is light years behind forward-thinking and progressive cities like Austin, and they'll never catch up because they don't want to.

There is an strong underground backyard chicken movement in Dallas too, but the city is making that difficult as well. When a long-time, well-established, highly-regarded local nursery (North Haven Gardens) became the center of the backyard chicken movement, the city of Dallas started harassing and threatening them. (I believe the city wouldn't let them sell chicks from the nursery, nor would they allow a man who'd been selling chicks to would-be chicken owners in the parking lot on Saturday mornings to continue doing so.

So, in the city of Dallas, if you want to have a community garden or backyard chickens, the city isn't going to do one single thing to help you or encourage you and will do all it can to discourage you....of course, that's just my opinion, but I think oddles of plain old wannabe community gardeners and backyard chickens owners in Dallas would share that opinion.

If you want to participate in a community garden or have backyard chickens in the Dallas area, it is best to find a friendly suburb that encourages both and just move there.

In keeping with the 'eat local' movement, some small farmer's markets had popped up in different places around the city this year (and local residents loved them and were patronizing them), and the city shut that down too. They claimed it was for zoning reasons, but I suspect the truth is that they don't want any small farmer's markets competing with the big Dallas Farmer's Market in downtown Dallas.

Dallas is the city that "can't" and it is just so pathetic. There is a perception that you have to "pay to play" in the city of Dallas, which has had a major corruption trial underway for months now...I believe a guilty verdict was delivered this past week or the week before. It is unlikely community garden advocates will pay to play (bribes), so they can't play. I love Dallas and hope to see positive changes made there, but the sustainable living folks who advocate for community gardens, truly local farmer's markets, backyard chickens, etc., really, really, really have their work cut out for them if those dreams are ever to become a reality.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: The Few Successful Dallas Community Gardens

Dawn when I read it I felt the same way. But knew you would know more about it and was just hoping it was a misinformed journalist although I figured it was true. Every day I realize how fortunate I am to live and have what I do. I feel for those that just want to get out in the sunlight and feel the soil and taste the rewards. So good for their health if they don't raise much. And then when you read the one man was interested in it if he could get stimulas money but seemed to drop interest when he couldn't get a large sum of money to spend. Shows he was interested for the wrong reasons in my opinion. Of course you mention pay to play. The same goes on here in KS and I suppose other places. Some laws have been brought to my attention recently. If I sell plants legally according to a law I have to get permits, spray twice, pay for an inspection and keep track of every plant I sell, who bought and location of garden. But if Wally World, Alco sells it they don't have to have any of that done. Explain that to me. And I saw plants at a Home Depot a while back all diseased that I would never have on my place. Look at the Late Blight situation. Big box stores are just as guilty as the home gardener. I understand this law and others were silently pushed through by the big stores and nurseries. Makes it hard for a small gardener to get started and survive. JMO. Jay

Jay,

All I have to add on the community garden issue is that the city government and bureacracy are as dysfuntional as can be and I pity the nice normal residents of Dallas who have to put up with that.

Pay to play probably exists everywhere to some degree, but it disgusts me. I don't think that's what our founding fathers had in mind when they founded this nation.

One thing we ALL need to remember is that pretty much all laws in this country nowadays are written to benefit whichever special interest group is pushing for them and putting their money behind them. That is what this nation has become.

The laws you speak of in Kansas are mirrored on a nationwide scale that makes it hard for small operators to compete against large multinational agricultural interests. Where are all the small, local dairies that sell to grocery stores? The small, local meatpacking processors? The small, local cheese factories or bakeries? Where they are is next to nonexistent--they are slowly being legislated out of existence by powerful agricultural interests who lobby for laws that benefit them. (I know you already know this.)

How long has it been since a farm bill was written that treats small producers on the same level as the major commercial agricultural mega corporations? Thirty years? Forty years? Fifty years? These days the Farm Bills are written to benefit the big guys, not the small ones that really need help to survive, and the agricultural support $ are nothing more than corporate welfare for huge corporate farms.

I keep thinking the locavore/farmer's market/CSA movement will change the agricultural system so that the little guys have a level playing field again. But, do I think it will happen? Not hardly. Look at what big agriculture is doing just to stop seed-saving....putting terminator technology into seeds, suing innocent growers whose fields are 'infected' with pollen of GMO crops blown in from elsewhere, attempting to patent 'warty winter squashes' that have been O-P forever just so they can claim the seedlines as their own and charge more for them, etc.

On the other hand, if you go to a really large Farmer's Market like the one in Dallas or the one in McKinney, and you see local growers offering not just home-grown fruits, veggies and grains, but also honey, grass-fed beef, artisanal cheese or bread, home-canned salsas, jellies, jams, herbs, homemade soap, home-raised eggs, etc., it gives you a certain amount of hope. I haven't been to the OKC Farmer's Market but hope it is the same there. Even though these small producers face lots of regulation, including licensing in some cases, at least some of them are fighting their way through the red tape in order to be able to do what they love to do.

As you know, my "amusement park" adventures don't involve going to Six Flags or Disney World. Instead, I amuse myself by going to Whole Foods or Central Market. At both of them, and especially at Central Market, you can find every kind of meat, cheese, bread, salsa, jam, jelly, etc. that you can imagine made by small independent producers. The variety is amazing. The flavors are outstanding. Naturally, the prices of the small producers cannot begin to compete with what you'd pay in a big box store, but the quality is out of this world. Even though they produce an incredible product, these small producers often struggle to survive because the food production/distribution system is weighted against them. THAT is what's wrong with this country--the big guys win and the little guys struggle. I always go out of my way to buy products from the little guys when I'm at Central Market, because I am rooting for them to survive and give us all more food options. And I appreciate Central Market for giving these small-time independent producers a place to sell their unique products.

Dawn

Look at it another way....If everyone works for wages from a large business, then the government knows EXACTLY how much money you make and it is much easier to collect taxes from you. Small cottage businesses, not so much. So which one do you think they will encourage. Just my 2 cents. Do we still have a government that we can trust?

Dawn,
As you know I planned on selling at a Farmer's market in Guymon this summer and never made it but already making plans for next year. 08 was the first year for it. There was some who brought homemade jellies, cookies, canned goods and ect. I was told that some state department said no more. Anything canned or cooked had to come from an inspected kitchen. I was told the farmer's market wouldn't do it but the department would if it happened. Not sure how they would handle it me being in KS. I had thought about making frresh salsa made early that morning. As it wouldn't be canned or cooked. But then may not be worth the hassle. So yes big business wants the little man out of the way. And like Soonergrandmom stated I feel a lot of government does also. Jay

Jay,

Have you followed JRSlick's Kansas market-growing adventures on the tomato forum? I know he sells jams and jellies at the market too, but don't think he's ever mentioned whether he is licensed and has a licensed, commercial kitchen.

They just stopped a woman from somewhere in OK from selling her homemade candies on the internet because she didn't have a license and wasn't using a licensed commercial kitchen. It is my understanding that she is working towards licensing.

Dawn

Dawn, I haven't followed his market adventures, but I am envious of the tomatoes he grows. His plants look fantastic.

Dawn no I haven't. I don't go over too that forum much because of the one lady. Is he the same one who built the hoop frames for his tomatoes. I'm not sure the laws in KS on jellies ect. This was OK laws I was referring too. The form I had to fill out even stated it had to be a liscensed kitchen. Jay

Jay,

That's the one, and I envy his hoop houses. He had amazing tomato production in them this year. I don't normally post there....just lurk and read stuff and stay caught up on what's happening in the tomato world.....including a 7-pound plus tomato that won a Giant Tomato contest this year but still didn't set a new world record. (We Okies hope the tomato world record holds forever, of course, since it was set by an Okie.)

He talks about his jams and jellies and pickled products occasionally on the Harvest Forum.....I visit and read at several forums, but generally only post here. I'm afraid if I started posting elsewhere, I'd be so glued to the computer that I wouldn't leave myself time to garden. LOL

I think there is a law in every state that you have to have a license for yourself (which generally involves taking a safe food handling course) and also have to prepare food items in a commercially licensed kitchen in order to sell the prepared food items in any public venue. I also suspect a lot of folks sell prepared food items without that license....at least until they get caught.

Dawn

I know there are many laws like you've mentioned that seems to touch every possibility. Some are good and others are to make money. Just read an article about Houston threatening to sue veternarians because they won't release the name of the owners of pets they give rabies shots too. Guess they feel many are getting their pets shots but not getting the required permit. Saying it could be costing them 1 million a year. The public health and safety isn't the issue. Money is. Money drives too many decisions for public officials in my opinion. We do it fi there is a monetery benefit and don't if there isn't. I know the law in a few places used to be you could sell small quanities of some items on a seasonal basis. Plants were among those. Similar to garage sales. You can only have so many before you have to collect taxes ect. I've always gave my extra away. Have thought about charging enough to cover the seeds and soil buy haven't. I've read of at least one state that says all seeds of plants being sold have to come from al source with approved seed saving methods. I'm all for safety but think things have been carried too far. Jay