Backyard Tomatoes, by Lee Coursey. http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeco/30775936/

Jason Tallent, Executive Chef at Globe Restaurant, is a regular farmers market shopper, but when he needs Meyer lemons, he gives one of his regular diners a ring.  She picks them fresh off a 300-lb tree in her backyard, and gets a gratis meal at Globe in return.

Blue Barn Gourmet and Umami also have insider connections: Their own Oak Hill Farm located in Glen Ellen.  And, Spruce claims that it gets 80 percent of its produce from its parent company’s 5 organically-farmed acres.  In the Mission, Amyitis Gardens, founded by David Stockhausen, is growing food for a few restaurants in the hood.

FIMBY — Food In My Back Yard — is here and it’s growing!  In November, I went to a proactive conference put on by the California Food & Justice Coalition where we talked policy and best practices to transform unused (or just ugly) urban spaces into food production sites.

MyFarm in SF and Backyard Food Gardens in Berkeley will transform your backyard into an edible garden.  And if you can’t eat all that you grow, MyFarm coordinates a CSA program to feed your neighbors with your bounty. In SF and wondering what tasty pickins you can get from your neighbors?  Check out the SF Garden Registry or Neighborhood Fruit.

As farmland continues to shrink and the costs of shipping food around the globe rises, transforming our vacant lots and open space into lush Victory Gardens sounds like a mighty fine idea.