Comedian gets kick out of urban farming in Oregon

Comedian Timmy Williams, right, and wife Kristin prepare for a photograph with some of their laying hens in Portland, Ore. One of the newest urban farmers in the area, Williams, 28, is one-fifth of The Whitest Kids U’Know, a New York-based comedy troupe he joined as a college student in 2001. Photo by Ross William Hamilton / The Oregonian

I want to be a comedian-farmer

By Peter Ames Carlin
The Associated Press
4/17/2010

Excerpt:

(AP) — PORTLAND, Ore. – Timmy Williams has a glass-front chicken brooder in one corner of his living room and a rabbit in a cage in another. The guest room is dominated by a table full of just-sprouted lettuce, broccoli, spinach and kale soaking up grow-light. And the fridge in the step-in kitchen holds his own home-brewed ginger beer, along with a freshly made pumpkin pie. He’s particularly proud of the pie.

“I’m trying to prove,” Williams says, “that you can be bad-ass AND bake.”

Which is funny. And explains why the shelf by the TV includes at least one boxed set of DVDs with Williams’ picture on its cover.

The newest urban farmer in Rose City is also a TV star. Williams, 28, is one-fifth of The Whitest Kids U’Know, a New York-based comedy troupe he joined as a college student in 2001.

The group is still together, and Williams will soon rejoin his mates to write and shoot their show’s fifth season. But he won’t be away for long: Portland’s relaxed pace, and the balance between funky oddities, cosmopolitan culture and the balm of nature, won him and his wife Kristin, 30, over for good. “We want to grow our own food, raise our own animals and make stuff on our own. We’ve already made our own cheese, our own pickles and pizza dough.”

Along the way he’s making himself into what may be an entirely new breed.

“I want to be a comedian-farmer.”

Sitting at his small kitchen table, a glass of homemade ginger beer in one hand and a frequently ringing cell phone in the other, Williams describes his plans with a kind of electric enthusiasm. His cheeks flush with excitement, his already-boyish voice climbs to keep up with his excitement.

Forget the intricacies of showbiz for a moment and tune into what’s really cool: the secondhand chicken coop outside that will house the four growing hens (all named for the other Whitest Kids, despite the obvious gender discrepancy). Soon the ragged back lawn in their Rose City bungalow will be plowed under to make room for lines of lettuce, broccoli and other leafy greens that will prepare the land for subsequent seasons of potatoes, carrots, cucumbers and who knows what all.

If they can turn their ordinary-sized backyard (about a tenth of an acre, Williams estimates) into a minifarm productive enough to feed themselves, Williams and Kristin will head further from town for a larger spread where they can produce crops large enough to send to market.

See the rest of the story here.