They started with a small, enclosed piece of property that Koogle estimates measured no more than a quarter of an acre.
Eventually they expanded it to more than an acre and now have more than two-dozen fruit trees, a variety of vegetables, and other fruit. Help with maintaining the farm came from groundskeepers and, more often, friends “who love gardening and farming but don’t have land,” he said. “Maybe a dozen friends fit the bill, so we gave them gate codes and wrote up chores on a blackboard in the chicken booth.” The friends were paid with produce, while much of the rest of the farm’s output was donated to local food banks. “It was like a little commune, but no one lived there,” he said.
Other Properties
The couple decided to give up their mini-utopia for a straightforward reason: They have at least six other houses, including a home in nearby Marin County, three homes in Mexico, one in Seattle, “and a bunch of other properties,” Koogle said. “We’ve started to realize that we don’t use all those very much, which is silly.”
In an effort to pare down, Koogle, who is currently an active investor and board member in for-profit companies through his venture capital company, a land developer, and the co-director of his philanthropic foundation, decided it was time to let the property go.
“We don’t have to sell it,” he said. “But simplification is winning out.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.