The Farm Next Door
August 19, 2018 12:33 PM   Subscribe

Weed'em and Reap is the vlog channel of an Arizona family that turned their home on an acre in the middle of Phoenix into a small goat farm.

There's also two pigs, a bunch of chickens, a turkey, and a man-made pond with tilapia for harvesting.

Or you can check out their Instagram.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit (21 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
Not sure I'd want to be their neighbor myself, but I find it all fascinating.

It looks like something hosted by HGTV.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 12:35 PM on August 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


This is like that British series ‘Good Neighbors’ !
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 1:23 PM on August 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


The subject is interesting, but the "my life as a TV show" thing is unsettling to me.
But that seems to be the way things are now.
posted by bongo_x at 2:10 PM on August 19, 2018 [8 favorites]


It’s a cool thing they’re doing, and great for the kids to grow up that way. I think I’d enjoy it myself.

(Of course, I’m also thinking that they must be fairly well off or have significant income from other sources, because an acre in a residential area “smack dab in Phoenix” ain’t cheap, y’all.)
posted by darkstar at 2:33 PM on August 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


It looks like something hosted by HGTV.

This family is definitely positioning themselves to be picked up by HGTV. No doubt.
posted by steamynachos at 3:15 PM on August 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


I grew up in Phoenix. Many of our neighbors did this back in the day (circa '70's) This is white people discover, and monetize latin culture. Big deal.
posted by evilDoug at 3:29 PM on August 19, 2018 [10 favorites]


When I read "the middle of Phoenix", east coast me was expecting to see people living in an actual city not way out in rural-suburbia.
posted by octothorpe at 3:46 PM on August 19, 2018 [7 favorites]


Yeah, nothing against what this family is doing, but their marketing of their “urban” farm is somewhat inaccurate. Having perused their website, it seems more appropriately a “suburban” farm, of the semi-rural sort that the outlying areas of Phoenix have that still include irrigation rights from an adjoining canal. That makes a lot more sense to me.

There are tons of folks doing the same thing on one- and two- acre lots out here. When I was in college, my Mom and Stepdad had a place very similar, in the horse-zoned neighborhoods of North Glendale. They kept goats and chickens. Friends of mine have a small citrus orchard on irrigated land, technically within Scottsdale city limits, with a large food garden and chickens.

The land is still pricey on the outskirts, but just within reach of a middle-class family, especially if one spouse is working an outside job. I’d totally be up for it if I didn’t have to work in town. Maybe when I retire...
posted by darkstar at 4:51 PM on August 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


The subject is interesting, but the "my life as a TV show" thing is unsettling to me. But that seems to be the way things are now.

I had pretty much the exact same thoughts (although my take may be rather grumpier than yours). If you want to grow a garden or keep a goat, then great – go for it. Just don't be so...performative about it. Actual commercial farms don't have YouTube reality shows or twee Instagram pages; why does their tiny backyard concern need one?

Answer: because it's not really about the farming. It looks like they spend as much time shooting and editing video as they do farming. It's unclear whether they sell their surplus harvest, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're losing money on this, what with all of the pond landscaping and "modern farmhouse" kitchen renovations. It's a hobby.

And it's fine to have a hobby, of course – but something really sticks in my craw about this whole phenomenon of upper-middle-class suburbanites cosplaying as farmers. People used to make "artisanal" soap and can their own tomatoes because they had no choice. "Shabby chic" used to be simply "shabby, because we're broke". "Farmhouse style" used to be "actually a farmhouse, because we're actually farmers". Now it's just a lifestyle aesthetic for rich people.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 6:04 PM on August 19, 2018 [11 favorites]


+1 for the title.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:31 PM on August 19, 2018


Seems pretty promotional.
posted by k8t at 6:44 PM on August 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


Tough crowd. I'm glad my Previously wasn't met with this much grumpiness.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:41 PM on August 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


Maybe it's wrong of me, but I do love vlogs of people going about their daily activities, whether it's milking goats, shopping at Trader Joe's, or getting their eyebrows waxed.

That said, damn do they have a green yard for having goats in Arizona!
posted by stowaway at 10:05 PM on August 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


I grew up in Phoenix. Many of our neighbors did this back in the day (circa '70's) This is white people discover, and monetize latin culture. Big deal.
posted by evilDoug


And I bet they'd clutch their pearls about cabrito. Mmm.
posted by fiercecupcake at 11:56 AM on August 20, 2018


The whole pond construction and method is pretty interesting!
posted by amanda at 1:30 PM on August 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


But, to be more cynical, I'm not surprised to see that the miracle of MLM-style essential oils has a hand in their suburban farm online success. You, too, can join their upstream!
posted by amanda at 1:40 PM on August 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


I found the time lapse of the pond construction interesting.
posted by namewithoutwords at 2:55 PM on August 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


amanda: "But, to be more cynical, I'm not surprised to see that the miracle of MLM-style essential oils has a hand in their suburban farm online success. You, too, can join their upstream!"

Of course they're DoTerra sales bots, I should have guesssed. And shockingly enough, they're Mormon Libertarians too, which kind of explains everything that weirded me out about their videos.
posted by octothorpe at 4:07 PM on August 20, 2018 [6 favorites]


I’m super nosey about other people’s finacial lives so when I saw one of the blog posts was on how they paid off their mortgage in seven years I was intrigued. Her solution? Easily applied to almost everyone and everywhere? Buy a cheap house (because the area is cheap) and make a lot of money as a dual-income family and *you too* can pay off your house quick. Yes, they did do a lot of work themselves, but they also had the time and resources to do that work themselves, rather than both working multiple jobs.

Good for them in finding financial stability, but a little humbleness and acknowledgement that they started on third base might be nice.
posted by saucysault at 7:51 AM on August 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


Ahhh...another devoutly religious person who doesn't believe in supporting social welfare. How surprising.
posted by amanda at 10:19 AM on August 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


I enjoyed watching Willow, the goat, prance around the pond in progress, but the people were somehow creepy. Reading through the comments here, now I know what it was I was sensing.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 10:23 AM on August 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


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