[2] After a time managing a nursery on the coast north of Santa Barbara, in 1981 Ableman took a job grafting orange trees at Fairview Gardens.
[3][4] At its peak the farm served as an important community and education center and a national model for small-scale and urban agriculture, hosting as many as 5000 people per year for tours, classes, festivals, and apprenticeships.
Under Ableman's leadership, the farm was saved from development and preserved under one of the earliest and most unusual active agricultural conservation easements of its type in the country.
Michael, co-founded North America's largest Urban Agriculture project, Sole Food Street Farms in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Sole Food transforms vacant urban land into street farms that grow artisan quality fruits and vegetables and provides jobs to residents in the downtown Eastside of Vancouver who faces for whatever reason challenges to employment.