McMansion Farms

Check out this Washington Post article about farming among the sprawling mansions of Loudoun County, Virginia...

The Farmer and the Lawn

Ex-CIA Man Stakes New Career on a Few Acres

Small farmer Jim Dunlap grows fruit and vegetables in Loudoun County on an 11-acre enclave surrounded by suburban mansions. (By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)

He uses a wheel hoe for weed control at his Round Hill farm. To keep expenses down, he hasn't bought expensive mechanized equipment. (Katherine Frey - The Washington Post)

Dunlap bands together the top leaves of a cauliflower plant to keep the vegetable from losing its desirable white color. (Katherine Frey - The Washington Post)

By Jane Black

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Set among the rolling green hills of Loudoun County, Jim Dunlap's farm hasn't changed much since the 1780s. The original fieldstone farmhouse, designed by William Penn, is still there, albeit larger after two additions. So is the stone smokehouse and a spring house. There are peach trees, raspberry bushes and vegetables. If Isaac James, a former owner and the great-grandfather of outlaw Jesse, were to visit, he would see just one real difference: SnowBear Farm is now the only farm in sight. The property is surrounded by huge suburban mansions with wide, empty lawns.

Of course, these days it's more surprising to find a working farm than McMansions in Loudoun. But Dunlap, a retired CIA operations officer, wanted to farm here. His little piece of suburbia is perfectly situated for a small farmer just starting out: The land is fertile, and the location, just 55 miles from Washington, puts him within striking distance of lucrative urban farmers markets, where prices and demand are high for produce grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers. "We need to take a lot of this land that's used for pet horses and giant lawns and find ways to grow food on it again," Dunlap said. "My work is an experiment to figure out how we can do it."

Local-food advocates salivate at the idea of creating farms near the city. So do small farmers, who can earn a good living meeting the growing demand for local products. But suburban and exurban farming remains an anomaly. Every year in the United States, more than 6 million acres of agricultural land, an area the size of Maryland, are lost to development, according to the American Farmland Trust, a nonprofit organization that supports conservation. The pop of the real estate bubble hasn't lowered home and land prices enough for new farmers to get into the market. Case in point: Though home prices in Loudoun dropped steeply in 2008, the average detached house still costs $482,000.

Dunlap didn't set out to turn back suburban sprawl. He just wanted to farm. Throughout his life, personality tests such as Myers-Briggs had told him that he was well-suited to the profession. He's analytical, content to work alone and generally an introvert (though he's not shy about discussing his mission). After retiring in 2005, he hiked the Appalachian Trail. On the path, Dunlap decided there might be something to the farming idea and decided to plant crops on part of his 11 acres.

Turns out the wiry 55-year-old liked it. An engineer by training, Dunlap sees every obstacle as a problem to be solved. Storage? He built his own 10-foot-by-17-foot refrigerated room. Celery? "It's the weirdest vegetable to grow," he said on a tour of his fields. "But I've never had truly fresh celery, so we'll try."

Check out the rest of the article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/30/AR2009063000924.html?hpid=artslot