High-end consumers taking up urban farming

Coco de Mer co-founder Sam Roddick in her “bee buffet” garden in London’s Hampstead. Photo by James Ostrer.

Putting the Chic in Chicken Coop

By Jemima Sissons
Wall Street Journal
Aug 5, 2011

Excerpt:

Sam Roddick, co-founder of London boutique Coco de Mer and daughter of Body Shop founder Anita Roddick, is also passionate about the preservation of the honey bee. She is part of a new campaign entitled “Bee Lovely,” run by natural-remedy store Neal’s Yard, which aims to help address the problems facing bees and educate those who want to keep them. “I went to the Natural Beekeeping Trust course a few years ago and, soon after, started transforming my garden,” Ms. Roddick says. She has planted what she calls a “bee buffet” in her London garden, including lavender, rosemary, thyme and hawthorne, and plans to start keeping bees there soon.

Her 30-meter garden in Hampstead also provides her with abundant fruit and vegetables, and she is considering keeping chickens. “There is nothing better than fresh vegetables out of the garden; it makes you feel vital, alive. I eat so well. All my garden is organic, the compost is unbelievable,” says Ms. Roddick. “I believe that everybody is becoming more proactive. You cannot shop your way into happiness; growing your own like this is sustenance for the soul and you cannot attach a price to it.”

Read the complete article here.

Bee Lovely website here.