local farms
Many years ago, the name C H I C O S was spelled out in huge white letters, made with white rocks, set into the northeast bank of the PCH/Morningview intersection. You couldn’t miss it. It was the natural sign and a Malibu landmark for an organic farm.
Chico’s was one of the first organic farms in California and probably the first in Malibu. Its owner and founder, Chico Bucaro, was a rare Earth Man indeed. He farmed directly across from Zuma beach back in the sixties, welcoming the public to his Malibu estate where he provided real produce in a real farm environment. He coached many on how to grow food locally, and encouraged the start of many a backyard orchard and vegetable garden.
The memory of the Chico sign on PCH is a good reminder of today’s disappearing urban and suburban farms and of the instant disconnect our culture seems to have between our living spaces and our growing spaces. Chico’s was the first organic farm in Malibu, one of the first in the state.
Could we, should we, challenge ourselves to reverse this significant and unfortunate trend? Shall we gently call for our nation’s heritage organic farm properties and traditions to be re-identified and, where possible, reconnect with their local communities, through farm stand or CSA, at least part of the year? Let’s ask around. The communities that do will be enriched, edified, and on the cutting edge of the necessary locally grown food movement.
Some point out that suburban farms tend to be less than ten acres, so what’s the big deal anyway? Suburban farms, wide and diverse in their food cultivation, are sized for service to their immediate areas, not to produce a mad scientist’s mono crop to be shipped to another continent. Chico’s, at four acres, was ideal. Some very abundant and nationally noted CSA programs are run on only two acres.
This is the time of the little big farm, farms that connect directly with their local communities, providing both real food and real earth training.
There are many beautiful locations on which to realize large mansions and private estates, but very few local traditional food growers, like
Chico’s, willing to open their estates to the community at large. Here’s to Chico Bucaro of Malibu. May the memory of his farm serve and inspire us all in the years ahead.
Alan G. Cunningham