Urban Farming Colloquialisms

A few months ago over the course of one week, I heard three separate urban farmisms for the first time that all meant the same thing in context. These three colloquialisms were "redneck tech," "ghetto tech," and my personal favorite that epitomizes the Cleveland Urban Farm scene, "hoodbilly." Hoodbilly was courtesy of Gordon Square Farm Market Manager, Josh Klein.

Conceptually, all these terms mean doing something on the cheap and often with recycled/salvaged/repurposed materials. The aesthetics are somewhat anti-suburban. You get bragging rights for how much something didn't cost and bonus points for duct tape and pallets. Most often, function triumphs over fashion. This ain'ta Martha Stewart chicken coop. This is hoodbillyism.

The pictures up top are perfectly hoodbilly. The first pic is a clandestine chicken coop. You know it's clandestine because of the pirate flag. In Cleveland, would-be neighbor narcs can easily be bribed to look the other way for a few eggs. Surprisingly, the pallet construction blends well in the background with the other fence.

The second and third pics are what I think Lakewood doesn't have in mind with it's "Keep Lakewood Beautiful" campaign. Nonetheless, we got five gallon buckets from the Beer Engine, broken shovel-handle tent posts, duct tape, salvaged planks from some court between 84th and 85th, and twine! Even the greenhouse plastic came second hand from a commercial operation out in Oberlin.

Finally, the last picture is of a retaining wall at the base of my storage container. Again, the planks were salvaged, the woodchips were free, the yard bags re-used, and subsequent leaf humus and dirt were hand dug. However, some of my hoodbilly brethren may call me a sellout because the stakes were store bought. To that I say, all good hoodbillys know how to choose their battles and stakes were just not in the free-cycled cards that week.

Stay hoodbilly, yall!