By Brian Barth

From his home in a California planned community, Paul Stroff walks five minutes to get his fix. "I'm a tomato freak," the 77-year-old retired cosmetics executive admits. At the end of his is Esencia Farm, where he spends time helping to tend the produce. An emerging trend in residential planning is building around a small farm. The community pays a professional farmer to oversee it, and volunteers split up the bounty. Ed McMahon, a senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute and a proponent of *agrihoods," says some 100 developments across the country have embraced the concept. "Farms are less expensive to build than fairways," McMahon notes. At Serenbe- a growing community outside Atlanta with plans for some age-restricted housing-three restaurants, a coffee shop and a grocery store all feature neighborhood-farm produce.