PHOTOS: Backyard farmer peddles homegrown produce to make ends meet

Cam Slocum, right, talks with Christine Moore, owner of Little Flower Candy Company Cafe, after dropping off an order of mache grown on his backyard farm. The cafe is a regular customer of Slocum’s. (Katie Falkenberg / For The Times)

March 8, 2014 7:55 PM PT

Cam Slocum pulls bags of mache from his car before making a sales call on Joe’s Restaurant in Venice. Slocum counts 10 restaurants as regular customers but needs 20 more to pay his bills. (Katie Falkenberg / For The Times)

Slocum offers a sample of his mache to Joe Miller, head chef and owner of Joe’s Restaurant in Venice. Miller ordered two pounds a week. (Katie Falkenberg / For The Times)

Slocum, a furniture dealer whose fortunes fell with the housing market, digs holes to plant tomatoes on his backyard farm. (Katie Falkenberg / For The Times)