Community vows to rebuild incredible backyard feature that was lost to LA wildfires: ‘If anything, we’ll do even more than before’
“We can’t imagine living differently. It’s a lifestyle; it’s not just a home.”
By Jenna Reilly
Te Cool Down
March 18, 2025
Excerpt:
The Los Angeles wildfires in early January destroyed entire neighborhoods and leveled businesses. They also burned down vital parcels of land used for urban farming in the unique neighborhood of Altadena, but farmers like Choi Chatterjee and Omer Sayeed have vowed to rebuild, according to the Guardian.
Before the fires, Chatterjee and Sayeed’s backyard was home to a thriving farm that boasted beehives, hens, fruit and vegetable harvests — and even some goats and tortoises. The duo opened up their property to the community, offering free tours and homemade meals since 2020.
Many local residents came to know the couple while tending to their own plants in the free communal garden next to the Chatterjee and Sayeed’s home. People would swing by for guavas, citrus fruits, herbs, and persimmons.
“We’d get 100 to 200 pomegranates and just hand them out to whoever was walking by,” said Chatterjee, the co-director of the Urban Ecology Center at Cal State LA, per the Guardian. “It was just bustling with life.”
The fires destroyed the backyard garden, the couple’s 102-year-old home, and the next-door communal garden. The effects of the climate crisis and extreme winds fueled the fires that devastated many other urban farms in the area.
Read the complete article here.
Source: https://cityfarmer.info/community-vows-to-rebuild-incredible-backyard-feature-that-was-lost-to-la-wildfires-if-anything-well-do-even-more-than-before/
