Greetings folks!
I thought I'd put this out there and see if anyone else might be in the same
place as I am, and would perhaps like to join forces so that our efforts might
be able to achieve more than they otherwise would on our own.
I'm a beginning farmer, hoping to start farming independently in the next 3-5
years. I have a background in horticulture and landscape design, working for
landscaping companies and a garden center in the past couple years. I'm
currently interning at a 40 acre farm in Asbury, NJ, helping them expand their
orchard and grow annual veggies, along the way encouraging them to grow more
perennials and develop their more wild systems, food forests, riparian
buffers, renewable
energy, etc. They're open to the ideas, but somewhat set
in their ways, so it's a challenge. I plan on interning for two more years
after this at different places, getting as many different experiences as
possible, and hopefully earning a
PDC along the way, and trying my hand at a
wild crafting start-up as a side business. After that, I'd like to lease
land
for two years, hopefully building up
enough capital to put a down payment on a
permanent property. I don't have a specific location or general region in
mind, but I would like to have some impact and interaction with a degenerating
urban area, while residing primarily in a rural or peri-urban setting. Camden
and Newark NJ, and Detroit MI are the three regions I've been considering. A
very big recent inspiration has been
Mark Shepard's new book Restoration
Agriculture, that calls for the creation of large scale farms that mimic the
native ecology, while producing
staple crops for humanity. This is the frame
of mind that I am coming from, large scale systems, intensively and complexly
designed, having an impact on urban areas by providing food security, plant
stock for community gardens/food forests, and education.
Is there anyone out there who is interested in pursuing this same route? A
huge roadblock to my pursuit of this idea is the sheer cost of land in the
Northeast. Perhaps, if we were to combine forces, the two or three or four of
us could afford to purchase a large plot of land (I'm thinking 100 acres
minimum, but the bigger, the better in my opinion), whereas on our own, we
would be economically forced to stay on smaller plots, having less of an
ecological impact overall.
If you're interested, please get in touch, and we'll at least
discuss our ideas. If nothing comes of it, at least let's share our paths and
experiences, and see what we can learn from each other. Even if you're not
interested in joining forces, critiques and analysis of my overall path and
plans is certainly appreciated.
