Mike Dickson

We have an area that we are turning into a food forest. It already has walnut trees and LOTs of persimmon trees. Last year it was so dry that all of our persimmon trees dropped their fruit early and we weren't able to harvest anything. Since then we have mulched (6 to 12in deep) most of that area and just yesterday I was checking that area and the trees that we mulched are loaded up with persimmons. I know adding mulch to that area helped those trees retain the moisture they needed.

We also have NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger, and Mrs. North Carolina, Wendy Jordan, lined up to be interviewed to speak to how a sustainable diet helps them in their personal and professional lives.

By having people from different backgrounds we hope that it will open our Kickstarter up to different groups of people.

We also hope to add more teachers for this course.

Here is a new promo video that we did the other day with with AJ.
 

Hello Everyone!

We recently launched, under the guidance of  our mentor Justin Rhodes, a Kickstarter for our Sustainable Health Series

You can check it out here---->  The Sustainable Health Series - Kickstarter


My family and I own Big Pond Farm and were a stop on The Great American Farm Tour, in April. Justin referred to me then as the "Duck Man." Along with our farm we also have a YouTube channel where we teach people (in a fun way) about farm life, permaculture principles, how to grow a market garden, the trials we face, etc.. I was originally going to create a Permaculture Ducks  course but after asking our followers what their interests were I decided right now was not the best time, however a large majority of people did want to know about HEALTH. This area I am well versed in. I have been a personal trainer and nutritional coach for over 15 years, I am a former All Natural Pro Bodybuilder, and a true All Natural Nerd. Now I am known as The Fit Farmer.


Years ago I was eating a dozen eggs, 6 chicken breasts, and large amounts of sweet potatoes, rice etc.. each day! I didn't think about how unsustainable that diet was, until I became interested in where my food was coming from and started growing my own food. Once I really dove in, the switch flipped and I realized that this was not the way to be eating. That was over 7 years ago and so much has changed since then. We went from living in the city to moving into a 30ft yurt in the country and running a polyculture market garden along with raising chickens and ducks for eggs. Our goal as farmers is to grow nutrient dense food, for ourselves and our customers, in a way that is beneficial to the environment.

Now here is where our Kickstarter comes in. I know from the thousands of hours that I have spent with my clients that most people want to eat a healthy diet but really don't know HOW ?

It is not enough to just grow nutrient dense food, we have to educate people about:

-How to Know Your Farmer Know Your Food
-How to become better connected with where your food comes from.
-How to find local farmers.
-How to make high quality food affordable.
-How to grow their own kitchen garden.
-How to purchase the best food at the grocery store.
-How to read food labels.
-How to make your diet sustainable for you and the environment.


Justin Rhodes has also agreed to be one of out teachers in this course "if" our kickstarter is fully funded!!

My wife (Lacie) and I have always had a passion for educating people on how to live a more healthy life. We want to share this information to not only help people live a more healthy sustainable life but also we want to help farmers. As farmers ourselves we know that one of the biggest struggles is educating people on why they should support local organic growers.

This is a HUGE opportunity for us as a family and The Sustainable Health Series has the potential to help many people learn how to live a life that is more sustainable for themselves and the environment. We want to use this course to introduce the masses to permaculture who would otherwise never hear about it any other way. We would LOVE all the support that we could get to make this project happen!


We have been on the dailyish email list for over three years and even though we don't comment in the forums we have gleaned a ton of information from all of the permies goofballs and appreciate all of the education that permies.com contains.

We have not started filming this project yet because we need to upgrade some of our equipment in order to do so. Both of our computers we use are ancient (one is running Vista) and we can't do this without better gear. What we do have "almost" ready to go is a Jump Start Program, this will be ready to go out to our backers in October. The Jump Start Program just needs some polishing up to make it look pretty.

We, Lacie and I, edit all of our own video and this project will be edited by us as well.

Please let us know what else we could be doing!? We want this project to benefit everyone!

Thank you so much for checking out our Kickstarter!




Here is Justin's Vlogs of when they came to visit Big Pond Farm

Our vlog about the Rhodes visit

Farm Update since the Rhodes were here in April