expands those concepts and the choices for the consumer for the freshest seafood possible. If some microfarms are “you pick,” this one could be “you catch,” so that your customers could enjoy a fishing experience as well as a shopping one. It’s a good idea for attracting families with kids. There’s no charge for catch and release, but if they want to take the catch home for eating, they pay by the pound.
Admittedly, aquaculture has its technical challenges, but it is the “wave” of the future. Here are some of the methods used.
—Open-net pens or cages enclose fish such as salmon in offshore coastal areas or in freshwater lakes. Note that this practice is regarded as environmentally destructive.
—Ponds hold fish in a coastal or inland body of fresh or salt water. Shrimp, catfish, and tilapia are commonly farmed in this manner.
—Raceways divert water from a stream or well, so that it flows through channels containing the fish. In the U.S., farmers use raceways to raise rainbow trout.
—Recirculating systems in tanks treat and recirculate the water to keep the fish healthy. Tanks can be used to farm such species as striped bass, salmon, and sturgeon.
—Shellfish culture is a method farmers use to grow shellfish on beaches or suspend them in the water by ropes, plastic trays, or mesh bags. The most commonly raised shellfish are oysters, mussels, and clams.
A seafood restaurant with a sushi bar could be part of the microfarm, making it an even more popular destination, but of course not everyone wants to be a restaurateur. The Rappahannock Oyster Company has three such restaurants in Virginia, and their oyster farm provides the basis for them. Instead of value-added products, the aquaculture microfarm would have a gift shop with seafood related merchandise including cookbooks, seafood cooking tools and supplies, and fresh seafood for sale.
I would recommend that anyone attempting such a microfarm take university courses in aquaculture. Some universities offering them are Auburn, the University of California-Davis, Hawaii, Louisiana State, Maryland, Cornell, South Carolina, and quite a few more.
The Beautiful But Deadly Microfarm and Poison Museum. This microfarm would grow and sell beautiful, ornamental, and poisonous—but legal—plants. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about just such a microfarm in 1844: “Nothing could exceed the intentness with which this scientific gardener examined every shrub which grew in his path…. The man’s demeanor was that of one walking among malignant influences, such as savage beasts, or deadly snakes, or evil spirits, which should he allow them one moment of license, would wreak upon him some terrible fatality.” Hawthorne was way ahead of his time in his portrayal of Dr. Rappaccini’s poisonous garden. There are now similar gardens around the world, including the Alnwick Poison Garden in Northumberland, England, the poison section of the Botanical Garden of Padua, the Chelsea Physic Garden in London, the Toxic Plant Garden within the Montreal Botanical Garden, the Medicinal Garden at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, and the W.C. Muenscher Poisonous Plants Garden at Cornell University. There are also drug plant gardens in various locations. The Maynard W. Quimby Medicinal Plant Garden at the University of Mississippi has what it calls the “correctly identified living plant collection” that grows about 1,500 species from all geographic regions of the world. Another drug garden is under development at the University of South Florida.
Poisonous plants like deadly nightshade (Datura wrightii) would be growing in the The Beautiful But Deadly Microfarm and Poison Museum.
NPS Photo by Neal Herbert.
Many people are unaware that some of the more beautiful ornamental landscaping plants are poisonous. Here are just a few examples of the plants in this microfarm.
—Datura or jimsonweed, with its large and beautiful flowers, has a long history of use both in South America and Europe and is known for causing delirious states and poisonings in uninformed users. Most parts of the plant contain atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine.
—Henbane is a biennial herb that grows up to one meter tall and produces spectacular veined yellow flowers and large quantities of seeds. It was historically used in combination with mandrake, deadly nightshade, and datura as an anesthetic potion, as well as for its psychoactive properties in “magic brews.”
—Oleander, a common landscaping plant with beautiful flowers of many colors, is extremely poisonous. Every part of the plant affects the heart, produces severe digestive upset, and has caused death.
—Deadly Nightshade, or belladonna, is a one- to two-meter tall perennial herb that produces small red to black berries from bright purple flowers. These berries contain atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine and have a long history of use as a medicinal, poisonous, and ceremonial herb.
Others include castor bean, lantana, lily of the valley, lupine, mistletoe, philodendron, azalea, Boston and English ivy, clematis, holly, hydrangea, sago palm, Virginia creeper, and wisteria. The microfarm would sell seeds, bedding plants, large specimen plants, books like Mark Mills’ The Savage Garden, Albert Hofmann and Richard Evans Schultes’ Plants of the Gods, and Amy Stewart’s Wicked Plants. Special promotions could include seminars on protecting your pets and farm animals from poisonous houseplants, garden plants, and weeds, and talks on drug plants. I would imagine that Halloween with a witches’ brew of plants that cause spells would be a big hit. The possibilities for promotions on local, regional, and national media would generate a lot of traffic to this microfarm because people are fascinated by deadly things—and especially the ones that seem so innocent.
The Gourdgeous Garden and Squash Courts. Gourds might seem an unlikely crop for a microfarm, but I think a cucurbit enthusiast could make go of it with gourds and squashes because they are so versatile. Gourds can be your dinner or the serving bowl for it, the dipping spoon for your squash soup, your vegetable sponge, your birdhouses, your works of art, your vases, your fishing bobber, your herb planter, your weird wall hangings, and even your banjo, rattle, flute, marimbas, or drums. And when I write “squash courts,” I’m not kidding: both gourds and squashes will grow vertically, so theoretically, with the right structure and some netting, you could give the illusion of a squash or racquetball court. Google around for “chayote” and note that to save ground space, they usually hang from netting and trellises.
For promotions to attract customers, a gourd art show and competition would be a lot of fun. After all, some of the most gorgeous painted gourds are the jicaras from Mexico and Guatemala. And gourd carving is a celebrated art in Nigeria and New Zealand. What about a concert featuring the Berry Gourdy String Band, with all the musicians playing with gourd-only instruments? For value-added products, what about bottled winter squash pasta sauces? I’ve tried some splendid ones. You could even serve them over spaghetti squash. There are canned acorn or butternut squash soups, and squash flour is popular for baking in the Philippines.
Worried about squash bugs? Hint: keep chickens or guinea fowl for eggs or meat and give them access to the squash garden for an hour each day and soon you won’t have any bugs—or grasshoppers for that matter.
The Popcorn Crazy Farm and Family Fun Maze. This would fit into the category of agritainment. There are plenty of corn mazes around the country, but I’ve never heard of one tied into popcorn. There is some method to my madness because popcorn is a profitable value-added product, especially if you’re growing your own.
Corn mazes usually have some value-added entertainment in addition to the maze. These include hay rides, zip lines, live zombie scarecrows
