Little City Gardens: Exploring the Profitability of Urban Market Gardens in Growing Cities

Urban Farm Hub is launching a series of articles addressing the long-term economic viability of urban agriculture. We know commercial agriculture enterprises pencil in shrinking midwest cities such as Detroit, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, but what about thriving metropolitan areas such as Seattle where there’s a shortage of developable land?

We’ll be interviewing small business owners, design professionals, urban farm entrepreneurs, and commercial developers in rapidly growing metropolitan areas to see what they have to say about reaping the green from urban agriculture. The first people we interviewed are Brooke Budner
and Caitlyn Galloway of Little City Gardens in the Mission District of San Francisco—a neighborhood where average home prices are more than $700k and less expensive homes are being torn down to make way for condo projects.

Nestled on a 2,500 square foot lot in the middle of the Mission District, Little City Gardens is an experiment in the economic viability of small-scale urban market-gardening in San Francisco. Brooke and Caitlyn have been working steadily for more than a year to craft an urban food production strategy that sustains them economically while helping to establish a career path for other urban farmers.

What inspired you to start Little City Gardens?

Brooke: The space we work in now was a personal garden for the first few years. At the beginning of 2009 both Caitlyn and I were in the midst of job transitions. We found ourselves surveying the scene for urban ag jobs, but found most of the positions were in the nonprofit sector working with youth employment or school gardening programs. There wasn’t anything out there that resembled a ‘job’ on an urban farm. Frustrated that something didn’t already exist, we decided to start an urban farm here on our mini-plot.

It all started as an open experimentation. What we wanted to sell, who we wanted to sell to, crop rotation, etc. By the end of the first growing season, we realized we were super successful in some areas, but needed work in others. We decided to take a step back before we burned out. We spent the winter working on a business plan.

We realize food production won’t reach its full potential until people can figure out a way to make money doing it. No skilled person will enter the field unless it’s economically viable. There’s only room for so many non-profits.

Caitlyn: Yeah, the beginning of 2009 was when the economy collapsed. We figured the opportunity was ripe for us young people to take the initiative to create jobs for ourselves, and others. We were both in places where we wanted jobs in the field of urban ag, but the jobs didn’t exist. So we decided to create them for ourselves. It’s also turned into a creative outlet. We’re both artists and enjoy spending time on the details like writing thank you notes and designing our logo.

What was your experience in agriculture prior to launching this experiment?

Caitlyn: I started with smaller scale food gardening on a backyard scale. My desire to grow food evolved out of my involvement in politics. I lived in New York City where I was part of a community garden. Then I worked as a landscaper, which gave me a lot of experience tending to plants. When I moved back to San Francisco, I apprenticed at a nearby farm where I learned about the systems of larger scale farming.

Brooke: I didn’t grow up in an agricultural area, but in college I became aware of food systems and how they impact us. I took summers off to apprentice on farms in California, Italy, and Rhode Island. I also did an apprenticeship at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center. This is where I learned to garden on a human-scale, without machinery. This turned out to be a scale of production I felt comfortable with.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced in getting Little City Gardens off the ground?

Brooke: One thing I felt like has been a challenge is what steps to take first. For example, in order to market, you have to have a sample, which means you have to know how to produce the right sample. Where do you step out on a limb and where do you go slow and experiment? Everything hinges on everything else. Early on we realized we needed more space, but we lacked credibility to get it.

Caitlyn: The biggest challenge right now is definitely trying to expand. It’s a huge process. Trying to acquire a larger piece of land and raise enough capital to invest in the tools and materials we need is difficult. One can’t move forward without the other.

How does Little City Gardens support itself financially?

Caitlyn: We spent early winter putting together a business plan. Our current site is 2,500 square feet and is a vacant portion of a double lot. We established a generous arrangement with landlord where we came in, cleaned up the lot and started the garden. Our new business plan calls for a tenfold increase in production in 2010. We’re now looking to get a one-half acre lot (about 21,000 square feet) in order to ramp up production.

We’re raising funds now—with a goal of $25,000–to get the materials we need for the larger site. We’re planning to move away from capital and be financially stable by mid-summer of this year.

Brooke: Here in San Francisco there is ever encroaching development. Every vacant lot is in really high demand. The land we’re looking at for our new site is very long and narrow and would be hard to develop. Our plan is to get access to the site in exchange for cleaning it up and keeping it maintained. The margins of profit are so slim in this business; we can’t afford to pay a monthly land lease.

What is Little City Gardens’ revenue model?

Caitlyn: Our marketing strategy is to create a value added product so we can achieve the greatest monetary value with the smallest amount of space. In 2009 we marketed an artisanal salad mix with 30 different ingredients. We were selling to one restaurant weekly and 4-5 caterers sporadically. We also had an email list with 50-60 people on it. If we had extra produce we’d send out an email and host an informal farmers’ market.

This coming year we hope to start a CSA and be selling to four restaurants. The restaurants are definitely the most profitable. It’s easier for them to spend more on produce because they have such a higher profit margin. There’s also way less administration involved. The informal farmers’ market took way more time and coordination, but we realized other benefits. We’ve now built an alternative structure of support.

What is your current employment model?

Caitlyn: Brooke and I both worked part time last season on the farm. We worked two days a week at the farm and the other three days at our jobs at a sign shop and as a freelance illustrator. We’re hoping to scale up this year to a point where we can work on the farm full-time.

We have so many people that want to volunteer! We have a few interns for this coming season. They’ll start work as soon as we have the new site. We’ve also built extra produce into our business plan so we can start a workshare in 2010.

Has the City of San Francisco been supportive of your business? What else could the City do to help your business grow?

Brooke: I have not found the city government to be especially supportive, if at all, thus far.  That may be because we haven’t contacted the right city officials.  We know the city talks a lot about stimulating more urban agriculture.  But as a small grassroots urban ag startup we would like policy makers and program designers to include us in the dialogue–there are definitely some things they could do to help small farmers in the city. They could offer small start-up grants. Everyone that starts a farm needs start-up capital, but the profit margins are so unexplored it’s really hard to get a business loan from a bank.

It would be great to see tax exceptions for small businesses that are providing community benefit. If the city could step in and financially incentivize our type of work it would open up vacant space. The city could also rezone certain lands to urban agriculture, which would make them available at a reasonable rate to purchase. Right now most projects could be classified as ‘interim’ agriculture. It’s a temporary use until the land is developed for residential or commercial uses.

What do you envision for Little City Gardens a year from now; five years from now?

Brooke: In a year I hope it’s an up and running farm and that we have the capacity to turn it into a community space, a place where people can come and learn about urban agriculture. I’d like the farm to open up opportunities for other folks that want to engage in food production and distribution.

Five years from now I hope the farm will provide enough income to sustain us financially. But unless people’s attitudes change radically and the city steps in with support, this is a short-term project. We need a permanent space to build a viable farm. I remain hopeful though.

Caitlyn: It’s really important to us to be as accessible as we can to the community. We’re really fortunate that we can afford to do what we’re doing. Not everyone has the same kinds of privileges we do. I see this project being a starting point for similar businesses to blossom, turning urban farming into a viable career for people of all socio-economic backgrounds.

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