Lauren's Space Coast Florida: Home to roost with David Poole

Brigitte, herself. photo by David Poole

Brigitte is the star. She's French, you know. A salmon Faverolle hen. She has the run of a little homestead as neat and well-ordered as any English garden, because she behaves herself and does not scratch up the vegetable plots, notes David Poole in one of his intermittent 'Poole Family Urban Farm Reports' on You Tube.

A long-time gardener, Poole, 48, is an engineer who lives with wife Dawn, and three of five children who are still at home. 'When we first built the house in 1986, I intended to have a kitchen garden,' Poole said in a telephone interview from his Cocoa homestead, 'but then I had kids and I didn't have room for it, and I let it go.' Recently, though, the Pooles have expanded their interest in an edible landscape.

They began by planting fruit trees four years ago, and in the past couple of years began to devote more time and backyard space to vegetable cultivation in raised-bed gardens. 'I have always had an interest in how things were done in the past and like the idea of having some level of self-sufficiency, even if it is somewhat symbolic, as a reminder to not take things for granted.'

David Poole

This year the soil improvements should pay off in spinach and kale. 'We compost everything here, all green material on our property. Along with a conviction of biblical stewardship, we are concerned with food quality and sustainability,' said Poole. 'We have slowly switched to humanely raised meats and organic dairy products. At first it was hard to find, but now we have witnessed the free-market responding to that demand with more selection, lower prices and increased availability. I would also love to see market demand correct other issues, as consumers reject GMOs and hormone laden meats.'

The current U.S. economy has also heightened the Pooles' interest. Although it does not sustain the family completely, the backyard garden '...does help with the grocery bills,' he said. They are also able to sell a modest surplus of eggs from 'the girls,'Brigitte and the compliment of hens they keep in the back yard; they are pets with benefits. 'Well, it won't really save you money, but that is usually not the reason most people are doing this. I would say the main reasons would be availability, control and quality. I love knowing where my eggs come from.'

Florida 'Cracker' coop, design/build D. Poole

'We treat our animal humanely,' Poole said. 'when you have a chicken in a cage -- look at the size of the cage -- ours weren't producing, you find out how small the cage is.' That piqued Poole's interest in building chicken coops which were both comfortable for the chickens and the neighbors. 'People have nice houses, and I recognized there was a need for a coop that would be attractive enough to add to the landscape and not have to be hidden out back or look like a pile of scrap lumber.' He builds coops as a both method for providing an entry point to those with an interest in keeping fowl, and sells them on Craigslist.

Cute coops, with an eye towards neighbor's property values

Poole said he's noticed interest in backyard farming transitioning from niche magazines to those magazines with mainstream appeal.

On April 3, Brevard County Board of Commissioners did hear from local residents on the subject of loosening rules for keeping fowl on 1/4 acre lots.

Currently the county considers two and a half acres suitable for raising poultry.

According to minutes from the Brevard County website:

"Toby Napier requested approval of backyard poultry, excluding roosters, on residential lots having a minimum of .20 acre in un-incorporated residential neighborhoods, and a preliminary number of poultry to be allowed would be two fowl per .10 acre of property.

The following individuals spoke in favor of backyard poultry: Penny Norrie, Margaret Goydelod, Susanne Richmond, and Andy Schneider.

The Board directed staff to come back with a report on what is occurring in various communities around the area, and to have discussions with different organizations that could be affected relating to raising poultry on non-agricultural property."

So, we shall see.

But, given, some municipalities and homeowners' associations once thought they might dictate how homeowners could do laundry, intent on banning unsightly clothes lines (O, how delicate their sensibilities). Florida answered in 2009 with 'right to dry' legislation, passing a law forbidding any ban on this basic solar energy right.

Given mounting food inflation pressures, backyard eggs might start looking mighty attractive to families, especially those with children and it could be los pollos ninas might win this round. Go Brigitte.

'If the trucks stopped delivering tomorrow,' Poole said, 'and you decided that was the time to start gardening, you can count yourself about two years behind where you should be. I encourage people to do small things whilst they can and learn a little as they go. Two hens and a couple of raised garden beds is a great start, and requires very little time.'