‘It’s too important to let go’: Sasha Kanno brings urban farming to Long Beach at Farm Lot 59
“As a farmer, you’re eternally optimistic, so of course, I’m excited for next year,” Kanno said. “As exhausted and tired and burnt out as we are, we’re still looking forward to next season.”
By Tess Kazenoff
Long Beach Post
Dec 29, 2022
Excerpt:
Built on the remnants of an illegal dump in central Long Beach, the farm’s first seeds were planted in spring 2012.
Learning the ins and outs of creating a small-scale urban farm while navigating the numerous obstacles was no easy feat, Kanno said.
“I drove to every farm I could within a 500-mile radius, I looked over fences, I went to an ecological farming conference, I went to the small farm conference in San Diego, I read every book and tried to scale it to my half-acre project,” Kanno said. “What I’ve built is a super small-scale version of all these bigger, more diverse farms.”
Since its inception, the farm has leaned into its strengths, which are salad greens and herbs, and the organization has supplied numerous local chefs and restaurants with fresh greens according to their specifications and menus, Kanno said.
“We’ve tried a lot of things— some things don’t work, some things have worked out great,” Kanno said. “You change and adapt, and agriculture, especially, is day-to-day differences . . . it’s isolating in a way, because you don’t have a lot of farming community like you would in a more rural environment.”
But over the past couple of years, the farm has turned largely to distributing produce to food hubs and fundraisers. In May, Farm Lot 59 became the vegetable and produce supplier of a new food hub located in Admiral Kidd Park, an effort that is supported by Food Finders, a food-rescue organization.
