Rentonites can have a farm, e-i-e-i-o

BackYardFarm is the newest addition in the urban farming movement in Renton, following the work of nonprofit Sustainable Renton and other local gardening groups and farms.

With years of experience and learning from their farm, Ken L’Amour and Becca L’Amour want to share their lessons and advice so anyone from 1/2 to 2-acre yard can start their own homestead. They launched the business BackYardFarm in June to help other folks make this a reality.

The BackYardFarm hosted a public welcome event July 27, inviting folks to meet the animals, feed the goats and eat food sourced from their own backyard.

Photos by Haley Ausbun. The BackYardFarm, a local couple trying to help folks with small yards build their own farm, hosted an event July 27, where guests could meet the animals, feed the goats and eat food sourced from their own back yard.

Becca L’Amour wanted to have a farm her whole life, and it wasn’t until she got her 1.18 acre-property in the East Highlands area that she started trying to make it a reality. She started raising two goats in 2014. She had trouble getting it really off the ground, especially with chickens, until she met Ken L’Amour.

“Sometimes it just takes the right partner to lift you up,” Becca L’Amour said at their welcome event.

Both were born and raised in big cities and said it maybe was the reason they were attracted to the opposite lifestyle. Ken L’Amour brought technical skills and the will to help her build the coops, electric fence and environment needed, and it took off in 2017. Now they’ve got sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, ducks, a barn cat and dog.

“Everything except cows and horses,” Ken L’Amour said.

The city experiences also led them to want to help those with the smallest of yards to create some life in their grass and remove some of their food consumption from purchases. It’s sometimes hard to find the farming community in a suburb, Ken L’Amour said, but people still want to do it and be sustainable.

They wanted to create a business that can be the place people go to when they have hyperlocal questions about how to set up a farm. He also wants folks to know they don’t need 20 acres to have these animals.

“Even someone with a regular Renton backyard can have those chickens and make a big, beautiful garden,” Ken L’Amour said.

Councilmember Randy Corman recently blogged about the urban farming community in Renton and a 2008 city ordinance that made it possible to have laying hens in lots over 6,000 square feet. It also mentioned other Renton urban farms Seven Tree Farm and Homestead in the Suburbs.

More information on the L’Amours’ new business can be found on their website, mybyfarm.com.