From rabbit poop to tomatoes, a new vegetable swap has a little of everything

Anyone want bunny poop?

It’s an offer only a gardener could love. Rabbit manure fertilizer is a good source of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and it can go directly from the bunny to the soil without composting.

No rabbit? No problem. Somebody in your neighborhood keeps rabbits, and they’d be happy to share the bounty — especially if you thank them with a few of your extra Meyer lemons.

Sharing is the guiding principle behind a new community of backyard gardeners, the Carmichael Community Vegetable Exchange. It’s a Facebook group for gardeners to swap produce, post their garden pics, and discuss all things vegetable. Why are my green beans wilting? When should I prune my apricot tree? What kind of bug is this? Anyone want bunny poop?

The vegetable exchange was created in early May by John Hogan, a retired college professor and resident of Carmichael. He and his wife built their own raised bed garden and filled it with vegetables. They planted squash, peppers, green beans, eggplant, cucumber, strawberries, shallots, garlic, onion, corn, potatoes, blueberries, herbs and four varieties of tomato.

“We went nuts. We put in a lot of stuff,” said Hogan. “After about a week, I’m thinking ‘Man, I’ve got a lot of vegetables here.’”

He’d planted more than he could chew. There were going to be leftovers.

So Hogan posted a question on Nextdoor: “How about if we set up a community exchange where we can share our bountiful harvests?”

The answer was a resounding yes. People began offering up lemons and grapefruits. They traded future zucchini squash for future tomatillos. Some people didn’t have gardens, but they offered up other items for barter such as composted horse manure or homemade kumquat marmalade.

“I didn’t know it was going to take off like it did,” said Hogan. “I was really surprised.”

He set up a private Facebook group, naming it the Carmichael Community Vegetable Exchange. Seventy-five people joined in the first day, many of them transplants from the Nextdoor thread. Since then, the group has grown to 139 members, with about two or three newcomers joining each week. It’s a casual group, and so far there’s really only one rule: no buying or selling.

Carmichael isn’t the only Sacramento-area neighborhood to start a crop swap. For the better part of a decade, The Oak Park Crop Swap provided a gathering place for urban homesteaders to swap produce, meet their neighbors and get tips from experts on various aspects of horticulture.

The crop swap merged with the Oak Park Farmers Market about four years ago. At that time, the drought was at its peak and trading had dwindled, according to Joany Titherington, manager of the farmers market.

But people still enjoyed learning about the various aspects of horticulture. So they added an educational component to the farmers market: the Oak Park Skills Swap brings in guest speakers to discuss a variety of subjects like bee keeping and food preservation.

The West Sac Crop Swap was inspired by the sight of wasted food. The city has lots of naturally growing fruit trees, said Martha Hanson, the group’s creator. But often the fruit went unpicked, eventually just falling into the gutters.

Hanson asked herself, “How can we stop this from going to waste?”

In January of 2019, she set up a closed Facebook group, the West Sac Crop Swap. Group members post gardening tips, share recipes and barter for cucumbers and eggplant. Hanson had been working on setting up monthly swap meets when social distancing began. For now, the crop swaps are conducted Craigslist-style, with group members arranging their individual swaps.

In Carmichael, the vegetable exchange group has a similar system. Swaps are arranged online, with the produce often exchanging hands via porch pickup.

Hogan himself hasn’t made any trades yet. His garden is new, and his lemon and avocado trees aren’t yet producing.

“I suspect that in another month, when everything starts coming in, there will be a lot of swapping,” he said. And come fall, he’d love to trade vegetables for some apples or other fruit.

The group is new, so Hogan isn’t sure how it will evolve. But once coronavirus is no longer an issue, he’d like to organize in-person swap meets, backyard cookouts or garden tours.

“I like the idea of it becoming social,” he said. “And the basis for socialization is common interest.”