Looking for place to farm, or a community

I am a single parent (dad) of a 12 year old boy who is independently. homeschooled.

We would like to start a small farm that we could scale up to a larger small farm over time, so I am seeking a partner, or possibly a community.

The ideal situation would be one where someone owned a piece of property that had a shack, cabin,  trailer, or some sort of modest dwelling, and a shed, barn or some kind of out building,  land and water access, that they don't necessarily think of as a rental property.

There are a few situations that I am open too.

Ideally what I would like to do is run a farm from which most of the produce and eggs would be donated to food banks for distribution.

That would require that someone allowed us to live/work there rent free. This may be something that someone who would like to be a part of that would feel good about donating the space, in the same way I would be donating time, financing and labor.

I am realizing that not many people are that detached, and so I have not gotten very far with that search although I have talked with some people about it.

So I am getting to the point where I would be willing to make it a market farm for farmers markets, local restaurants etc, and pay an agreed upon percentage to the land owners; crop share arrangement.

One other potential fit would be an intentional community., But it must be one where I am able to start a farm/garden, and chicken operation according to my design. A big part of this for me is that I am a visionary who has worked out a very specific and detailed design for a fully functioning and self contained working model a completely self sufficient farm.

So if someone was starting up an intentional community and was looking for partners  who know what they are doing and can do it that might be a good fit.

I am 45, I do not use drugs and quit smoking cigs. About 1.5 years ago and will never go back.

I smoke a little herb, and consider myself a selective social drinker who has not drank socially in several years because it has not seemed appropriate.

I have a lot of experience with horticulture, (almost 30 years)and some experience in small scale agriculture (4-5 years). I have a firm grip on many cutting edge permaculture techniques and have innovated many solutions to the challenges of successful no-till farming. I am proficient in working sterile procedures and mushroom cultivation and I culture all the microorganisms that I use on the field.

Building soil using microorganisms is my specialty. Soil will be greatly improved and will be bursting with life.

I'm also open to any ideas anyone may have and possibly collaborating so if you've got an idea that you don't see here feel free to reach out and lets discuss it.

I realize that at the time of my writing this that it's a little late in the season but I would really like to get started getting everything going NOW. We can have the soil teeming with life, and very well arated, with well established mycelial networks if we get started now.thanks for reading.

Hi Seth,

Are you aware of Wheaton Labs Ant program, Deep Roots program and the permies Boot Camp?

Permies Boot Camp At Wheaton Labs

One way to see if you're a good fit or if Wheaton Labs is a good fit for you, is to spend a month in the Boot Camp.

Orin Raichart wrote:Hi Seth,

Are you aware of Wheaton Labs Ant program, Deep Roots program and the permies Boot Camp?

Permies Boot Camp At Wheaton Labs

One way to see if you're a good fit or if Wheaton Labs is a good fit for you, is to spend a month in the Boot Camp.

Hello Orin, and thank you for trying to share with others something that was obviously special for you.

I for one certainly appreciate that, but it might be more  appropriate for you to start your own threads instead of using other threads in what basicly ammounts to spamming.

I have noticed that you have been randomly promoting this Boot camp in strange places. A person who put up a singles ad recieved a post similar to this one where in you tried to convince her to join the boot camp by assuring her that there would be many males who she could potentially pair bond with. That information might be true, but it would have been more appropriate to start your own thread that was open to all permie singles and suggesting that it might be a good place for potential pair binding instead of just one specific young woman.

But unlike the singles thread I can not see any corelative factors between the OP and your advertisment therefore I am curious what about my post in general inspired you to post the advertisment here? Is there something about my post that inspired you to promote an idea to abandon what I am looking for to do something completely different? Was there something about my posting in a region specific forum (California) that inspired you to post about an unrelated event in an entirely different state?

Maybe it would be a good idea to advertise in this forum, but it would probably be better to advertise it as its own thread in the region where the boot camp is being held?

Just my two sense.

Thanks again for trying to share the things that have brought you joy.

Hello Seth,

Pretty sure I didn't try and share...pretty sure I did share!

Random?  Wheaton Labs is indeed an intentional community....and one way to enter it is through the Boot Camp  

When one looks for a community, one may easily change their mind about where, as in not California. Seems you have no intention of changing your mind.....which is very clear from your tone.


-so very appropriate and very relevant!

I suspect you are male so I'm not really interested in you that way, but thanks for looking at my ad
As for the one person,  ooops! no, all that seem appropriate for Wheaton Labs, so no Seth it wasn't just one person.  ...so far Seth, none of the moderators have had an issue with my approach to women...funny you'd take issue though, especially since two of those women found my posts so relevant and appropriate, they are on their way here as I type!

Advertise?!?  yep, you were right the first time....sharing what I really like

If you have any more carefully thought out questions that are relevant, pose them!

be well Seth and take care

Hi Seth. We recently returned from community living on Maui to our 5 acres in south central Washington state. We would like to have more dialog about what we have to offer to see if it may be a good fit for you, your son, us and the land.
The dream and plan is to start a small and truly sustainable community of land based friends. Were passionate gardeners but most of our experience is animal husbandry currently we raise a variety of free range poultry, game birds, water fowl and rabbits and honeybees.
We have wanted to start mushrooms in the forested acres and one of our main goals is to improve our clay soil to increase the pasture and garden yields.