The last front fence
The last front fence on our street came down about two or three years ago – I can't quite remember. Before that, a decent proportion of the front fences between properties were already getting ripped down. It made more sense to easily move between the yards & garden beds that neighbours were sharing, and most owners enjoyed the fact that it was one less thing that can break or fall over.
This year, I'll be using the vegetable beds in our front yard to focus on tomatoes and cucumbers. Leanne a few houses down is doing zucchini, and Gareth across the road is focusing on a range of herbs in his front yard. He already has a great rosemary bush that we all take from; he says he's going to plant another one. Noone will be able to get away from cooking minestrone, I guess!
Grocery stores are still crucial, but the fresh food section only stocks items out of season – it doesn't matter how cheap the in-season stock is, it rarely sells because the same stuff available on our street is free (and obviously tastes better). So they only focus on selling the goods that you can't easily get in the current climate. Still, there isn't a huge amount. We adjust our meals based on what's around.
The first big “penny drop” moment for most people came when food manufacturers had to put labels on food which showed the distance that the food had to travel to get to the grocery store. 'From Picked to Placed' was the marketing campaign for the legislation. I remember that ready-to-cook fish fillets was a really large distance, causing us to learn that frozen fish were sent halfway across the world just to get descaled, then shipped back again. Everyone found it ridiculous. The number on the label was also converted into an equivalent volume of carbon using some average figure and displayed below the distance.
I still remember that first conversation while doing my weekly shopping trip (i.e. 'the old way') when the labels started to appear, and hearing a gasp from a fellow shopper which prompted me to strike up a conversation. Everyone had a few of those 'firsts' as we discovered how global our food supply was, and so the trend of home gardening gradually took off.
The thing with most food is that when the harvest comes, you either need to sell it or share it. Because people had to find a seller before the food goes off, it was just easier to put it in a cardboard box out the front of the house. Not too many people minded that they were giving away their hard work for free – most people enjoyed the satisfaction of doing a bit more gardening in their lives. Plus, the pay-it-forward mindset meant that most of the time you were receiving instead of providing.
So we were all amateur farmers & traders, using the space we had available. The simple act of being out the front of our house more often meant striking up conversations was far more commonplace. For the households that didn't have a green thumb, they turned their front yard into a communal play area or gathering area. Ol' Man Jerry (he liked the nickname, enjoyed how endearing it was) built a few workbenches using some wood from the torn down fences and turned his garage into a shared tool library and DIY area. He was happy to keep it clean, manage the sign-in/sign-out sheet and teach a few basic handyman tips from time to time, but often he retreated into his front room and read a book. He was just happy that the garage was being put to good use, especially since he sold his car over a decade ago. I can't remember the last time I had to buy a tool; we've all gotten by on the 'Noahs Ark' of tools. We all had to chip in to replace the lawn mower a few months ago; the collection box in Jerry's garage got the required amount within two days.
I'm especially looking forward to this winter. Arthur & Bea who moved in a few years ago have tried to organise a 'community calendar' to keep things fun during the colder months, and stop us from being in our own homes every night. There's a simple roster of Sunday group dinners that five or six houses have signed up for hosting, and Thursdays are board game nights. In a few Fridays time there will be a bonfire party; me and a few others have promised to each bring along an old favourite whiskey, and do a bit of a mini-tasting event. Play it up a bit, pretend we're experts. Should be a good laugh.