Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer (32 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

One of Willow’s chickens turned out to be a rooster. We had distributed most of the chickens to her backyard-garden people, but I still had a few, including the rooster. He was beautiful, with red glossy chest feathers and giant bobbing green tail feathers. At first I enjoyed the crowing, but then I noticed it was happening around 3:30, 4 a.m. It was never just one crow, either—it was over and over again.

In any case, it was extremely annoying. And dangerous. If my neighbors complained, who knows, maybe animal control would come and take my chickens and rabbits. Thinking about my options, I rode my bike past Brother’s Market.

“Hey-hey,” Mosed the shopkeeper yelled.

I slowed down and peeked in.

“Where’s my honey?” he asked.

“I’ve got some for you—I’ve just been busy,” I answered. We had harvested a boatload in the fall. “Want a rooster?”

He came outside. His dyed red hair sparkled in the weak December sun. He nodded. Tomorrow, I told him, I’d bring him the rooster and some honey.

The rooster slept outside the henhouse, protecting his ladies, I guess. I nabbed him in the morning, tossed him in a cage, and walked half a block to Mosed’s market. The rooster had already put in a few crows before 8 a.m.

Inside the store, filled with malt liquor and chips, a woman wearing a head scarf sat on a chair peeling an orange. When she saw me, she let out a torrent of words. The customer in line did a double take at the rooster, then gathered his black plastic bag of beer and left.

I set the cage on the ground. Mosed came around to look at the rooster. I handed him the jar of honey. He smiled. “How much?” he asked.

“Ten dollars for the rooster. The honey’s a gift.”

Mosed went back around to the cash register and opened the till. His wife shouted a few words, ate a slice of orange.

“She thinks that’s too much, huh?” I said. A woman’s displeasure is apparent in any language.

“Yes, but don’t worry about it,” he said. To make her feel better, Mosed showed her the honey. He waved the jar in front of her until she took it out of his hands.

I looked down at the rooster. I was sure Mosed would do a better job dispatching this guy than I would.

Then I was walking home in the cold December air, the sun suddenly bright, a well-worn GhostTown ten-dollar bill in my pants pocket. I wanted to tell Mosed that I had finally figured out who I was, who my people were: they were folks who love and respect animals, who learn from them, draw sustenance from them directly.

Although my holding was small—and temporary—I had come to realize that urban farming wasn’t about one farm, just as a beehive isn’t about an individual bee. I thought of Jennifer’s beehive and garden. Of Willow’s backyard farms that dot the city of Oakland. Urban farms have to be added together in order to make a farm. So when I say that I’m an urban “farmer,” I’m depending on other urban farmers, too. It’s only with them that our backyards and squatted gardens add up to something significant. And if one of ours goes down, another will spring up.

Now facing eviction and change, which is always part of our shifting city life, this time it was my farm that would go under. It was sad, yes, but I knew that wherever I went I would continue to grow my own food, raise animals, love and nurture life in places people thought were dead. And if anyone asked, I could say: I am a farmer.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For helping me through the awkward molting stages of this project: Russ Rymer, Lisa Margonelli, Heather Smith, Lygia Navarro, Morgen VanVorst, Peter Alsop, Zach Slobig, Chris Colin, Kate Golden, Kristin Reynolds, Sue King, and Traci Vogel, I thank you.

I would not be an urban farmer without the help of my fellow agriculturalists Willow Rosenthal, Severine von Tscharner Fleming, Jim Montgomery, John White, and Jennifer Radtke. For showing me how to respect pork, huge hugs to Chris Lee and Samin Nosrat. Thanks to my ever-patient neighbors, especially Lana, the monks at the Kwan Yin Temple, BBob, Logo, and the Nguyen family.

Much love to my father and mother; to my sister, Riana; to Benji Lagarde and his family; and to the future: Amaya Madeline Lagarde. Lawry Gold, I named my hard drive after you.

I’d like to thank my copy editor, Candice Gianetti, and production editor, Bruce Giffords, for their careful work. At The Penguin Press, my editor, Jane Fleming, and publisher, Ann Godoff, were a dream team—thanks for believing in me. Michelle Brower, my agent, has been a source of delight.

Billy Jacobs, you are the best reader—and bf—a gal could have.

And finally, thanks to the farm animals:
Mellagris gallapavo, Gallus domesticus, Sus scrufo, Anas domesticus, Oryctolagus cuniculus,
and
Apis mellifera
. I couldn’t have done it without you.

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