Heath, thanks so much for your reports! I have strongly admired Fukuoka for many years, back in the eighties I nearly went to try apprenticing there at his farm. I have made a few experiments of throwing seeds without success, which didn’t surprise me as I didn’t put in any time or much effort at all. Now I am in California, grape growing region, and think I need to get more serious about the garden. We have been here a year and planted some fruit trees and a lot of potatoes so far. Today I happened to be reading about James Kunstler’s gardens and someone made a comment about successfully using some of Fukuoka’s ideas so I got inspired to try some experiments with our gardens as we develop them, and your letters were very inspiring. Your remark about timing seemed really great and right in line with my memory about Fukuoka’s masterful sense of timing, (like when he would flood a field to”choke” the clover for a few days so that his rice could sprout and grow without intense competition from the clover.) I used to worry that the state Fukuoka enjoyed after his flash of insight equipped him uniquely in some way that helped him, for example “time” things with such uniquely sensitive powers of observation that maybe he couldn’t be duplicated without someone enjoying a similar “flash.” However, it seems like you made some great discoveries about Mediterranean climate farming in only two years. From memory, I read somewhere that when Fukuoka visited Santa Cruz a young man showed him his attempt at Natural Farming, which he was shy about his results, and Fukuoka was very encouraging and praised his work. You seem maybe a similar person, and I find your report very inspiring, so thank you!
