My goal is to buy my own
land and support myself through either (or a combination of)
gardening, raising animals, edible landscaping and wild foraging. Right now I have a lot of plant identification
experience in the midwest and a fair amount of knowledge of plant use, so I'd prefer to stay in an area with similar plant communities. I also have about 10,000 dollars, which I would like to invest in land once I become more confident that I will succeed.
What I'm looking for is experience in either organic
gardening, raising organic livestock and/or edible landscaping, and preferably I'd like to gain experience in
greenhouse operation. I'm thinking the best way to get this is a
permaculture apprenticeship or internship somewhere in the mid-west (I'm from Ohio, so anywhere with similar plant communities). I'm very interested in wild foraging and using plants not commonly grown on farms or gardens. While I have gardened before and I have a little experience in organic gardening, I don't have
enough experience to confidently start out on my own. So I'm looking for somewhere that I can spend a year or two experience and knowledge.
I'm able to start any time (I just dropped out of grad school, was originally planning to get a job in invasive species management and then try to start an organic farm as a hobby on the side, but I realized that I'm not interested enough in invasive plants that I'd want to work a job dealing with them for more than a year or so, and I decided it wasn't worth the money). Looking for any available internship/apprenticeship, or for any advice on what the best way to start into
permaculture is (right now I'm planning to get an internship/apprenticeship and also want to start trying to
sell homemade teas and jams (from wild foraged plants) at either farmers markets or online (etsy)).
