There is concern among many people in Gilbert for the loss of farming within the Town. At Agritopia, we intend to continue farming, but in an urban sort of way.
The land upon which Agritopia is being built was converted from desert into farmland in the early 1900's and has been farmed ever since. Agriculture continues to play an important role in Agritopia.
The farm was used for growing hay during much of its early years. At one time, Gilbert was known as the "Hay Capitol of the World". The men shown here are cutting hay on the farm.
Factoid
The family farm of the kind we have operated is becoming a rarity. The commodity crops are worth so little now that it is nearly impossible to make a living without farming a large acreage. The price of cotton, for instance, is about where it was in 1940. That makes it worth about 1/8 as much in real terms.
The Johnston Farm has grown a number of crops over the 40 years we have owned it. For many years, cotton was king. The famous long-staple Pima cotton grew quite well on the farm. For a short period of time, we raised sugar beets for the production of table sugar. Grain and feed crops have and are currently being grown. These include hay, wheat, barley, corn, and milo.
The Johnston Family is shown in the late 1960's in one of their cotton fields. Cotton was an important cash crop at the farm.
Conversion to Urban Agriculture
Within Agritopia, there is nearly 15 acres of urban farm. Urban farms are very different from farms you currently see in the rural areas. For instance, an urban farm must create more value per acre. That means specialized crops that people are willing to pay more for. These include specialty greens, heirloom tomatoes, and fresh herbs. This implies a mosaic of diverse crops, rather than a standard crop.
The farming operation at Agritopia grows not only vegetables and herbs, but fruits and flowers as well.
Urban agriculture is much more dense, diverse, and focused on specialty crops.
Initially, we have focused on a broad mix of lettuce and other salad greens plus a vegetable garden. We have chosen these because we will need these items in large quantities, they are high value crops, and they have a long growing season. A farmer who grows organic greens commercially has aided us set up our systems.
It is important to make good use of the production of the farm and to let little go to waste. If something is not being sold fresh at our retail produce stand or as a meal in the Joe's Farm Grill, then we will likely convert it in our commercial kitchen to salsa, jam, or preserved items.
Lettuce comes in a huge variety of sizes, shapes, colors, and flavors. We intend to grow several of them.
After we master the salad greens and the herbs, we would like to slowly add other crops. One of the first will be an assortment of tomatoes. After that, we hope to gradually add crops until we have a mature, diverse garden of plants known to be adapted to our area. An experimental area in which we can test tropicals and other marginally adapted plants will come later.
We intend to have more than just fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Animals will be a part of the urban farm as well. Some candidates are goats (for milk and cheese), chickens (for eggs), cows, and bees (honey and pollination).
Tasty, vine ripened tomatoes are on our list of crops that we would like to grow in addition to salad greens. They taste so much better than what one finds in a supermarket.