Let's Create Community!

Orange County is so damn developed that scenarios like the one depicted in this New York Times article—about how Palmetto, Georgia wants to become the Sonoma of the South—are impossible. Sure, you can find a couple of organic farms here and there, but even restaurants like Ramos House and Sapphire that grow many of their own ingredients must do so from the owner's backyard or small terrain on their property that competes with NIMBY neighbors and asphalt. That's why most of the participants in the county's farmer's markets don't actually grow their crops in Orange County but must trek from beyond the Orange Curtain. Too bad the lords of Orange County couldn't have left even a bit of our rustic charm (save the exploitation of Mexicans) when deciding to run tractors over some of the most fertile soil in America.