Urban farmer grows really, really local veggies
And he’ll deliver them to your door
BY KATHLEEN WILKER
Jesse Payne grows organic veg-
etables on borrowed land in central Ottawa, an operation called The Vegetable Patch which he started two years ago when he was laid off from a high tech job. “I wanted to work for myself and I wanted to work outside,” says Payne, who grew up in Carleton Place and honed his green thumb as a volunteer organic farmer in Nelson, B.C. The Vegetable Patch began after
Payne asked people living in Ottawa’s city centre to donate unused land for him to farm. Payne was overwhelmed by the response. “I had over 80 people offer plots of land,”
he says. Selecting five plots totalling just over 800 square metres, Payne signed contracts with the owners about water usage and payment in vegetables. “I’m starting a Post-a-Patch op-
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tion on my website to promote more land sharing,” says Payne, who wants to capitalize on people’s generosity to promote low-impact, organic city life. Like a ride board, where people post offers and requests for rides, Payne’s Post-a-Patch is to be a forum for people to offer and request small patches of land. “Lots of people want to garden but don’t have land to do so, and lots of people with land would rather see it growing vegeta-
bles instead of grass,” says Payne. When the site is up and running,
Payne will also post the contract he uses with land owners. “We made ar- rangements for me to offset the cost of land owners’ water bills if they were substantially higher because of my water usage, but in the two years I’ve been doing this, I’ve only had to water once,” Payne says. He’s sold at roadside stands before,
but last year Payne operated a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture Co-op on the land he was farming. Close to 50 people bought shares at the beginning of the season and received weekly baskets of fresh vegetables delivered to their door.
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