Fifth Season's five stores in the Carolinas and Virginia sell gardening supplies and chicken feed, as well as kits for making sake wine and chevre cheese and cultures for yogurt, kefir, sour cream and buttermilk.

WSJ: The $1,300 Chicken Coop and Other Signs That Backyard Farming Is Getting Fancy

It is rather like one of the buffet dinners so favoured by global gatherings, where you have to balance a wine glass and a plate in one hand, feed yourself with the other, try and have a sensible conversation and exchange cards with three people at the same time.

ECONOMIST: Economic globalisation

"Farmers are now discovering you can make wine under an ecologically sensitive set of circumstances, own no more than five hectares, feed a family and live decently, " Mr. Nossiter says.

WSJ: Will Lyons on Wine: Jonathan Nossiter Continues to Cast His Critical Eye