Sherman's Planet

An inhabited planet in the Beta Quadrant, along the borders of the Klingon Empire. Sherman's Planet (so named, according to conflicting stories in the Memory Alpha databanks, either to repay a staggeringly large bar tab, to serve as a warning that a particularly obnoxious individual lived there, or to impress a woman) was in an area of space first mapped by Terrans in 2067 by John Burke, the chief astronomer of the Royal Academy of England. The Klingons were active in the area during the early-mid 23rd century, and claimed the planet around the 2250s, as did the United Federation of Planets. Under the dictates of the Organian Peace Treaty, the Federation was eventually given control.

The planet itself is quite hostile to most Earth plants, with only a few exceptions- fortunately for the humans, one of the exceptions is the grape. Within a few years of settling, superlative vintages were coming off the planet. Some of the native flora blended well with the Terran grapes, creating unheard-of varieties of wine. All in all, the colonists were able to eke out a comfortable existence- certainly until replicator technology had advanced enough so that a comfortable existence was almost a given for any citizen of the Federation who wanted it. The human population of the planet grew rather quickly over the next century, with an estimated three million people living there. Of course, on a planet about the size of Venus, that left a lot of room for people to spread out. It was rare for a family to have less than a few dozen acres of land under their domain- even if that land was still mostly rocks and trees.