Start at home to farm, it may save you from harm.
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(This newsletter has been split into two parts. The first part is mindset. The second part is knowhow. Both parts are important for beginners. The first part is particularly important for the experienced).
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Become a farmer in two hours? Impossible!
No, sir, no, sir.
Very possible, once you understand what a farmer is.
A farmer is someone who raises food for practical reasons.
That’s it.
And now the practical reasons for raising food are getting strong.
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Until very recently, basically everyone farmed. Even the clerks in towns might have their little garden or their chickens or their hog sty.
What we call a farmer now—someone who raises food for the market as a full-time job—is just one kind of farmer, and not the most common type either. It’s pretty silly that we have a special phrase “subsistence farmer” for the type of farmer that has been by far the most common throughout history and across the world. It would be like calling professional game wardens “hunters” and everyone else who went hunting like normal we called “personal animal-kill hunters” or something just as nuts. A farmer is someone who raises food for themselves or their friends or families.
You can become a farmer this weekend out in your yard or in your patio.
Or if this weekend doesn’t work (your climate gets a vote on when you start your garden) STOP RIGHT NOW, go circle a day on your calendar. You’ve got time but it is that time of year. Even if you have small spaces, this is a muscle you need to develop.
If you are already a home farmer, great, read on. This year you will be expanding your farming toolset by one. If not, read on. This year we will be expanding your farming toolset by one. Zero to one, you’ll never look back.
Here’s your goal.
Pick one from the following list and do it.
Plant pumpkins (or some other produce).
Get some poultry.
Or if you are already pretty advanced and have the inclination, get a milk goat.
Here’s what we are going to do here for your goal.
You are going to get good, simple advice on what to do and the common sense framework you will need to make sense of all the information out there You are going to get what you need to pick an option for yourself. You are going to appreciate how easy and rewarding it will be to do it.
Then you will do it, and people you know and love will thank you. You will give them peace of mind and a glimpse of a better way of doing things.
Now let’s talk about why.
Home Farming is Practical
Plants in the ground or Poultry in the coop is practical preparedness.
Fertilizer prices are going up. Food prices are going up. Shortages are likely. The yield curve just inverted so the economy going into recession is likely.
My cousin’s 20-30% increase in fertilizer prices is looking like a best-case scenario.
Right now, grim is an option.
Here is the deep wisdom of our ancestors
Forewarned is forearmed.
Or
When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
And in the morning ye say, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring.
… Discern the signs of the times
In other words, know what time it is.
For steaders we set out a simple and practical preparedness program that you can easily put into place. All of these things are economical and worth doing even if the worst doesn’t happen.
The first step is getting a little cushion of food. Do one of buy some bulk beans and rice, get prepared for iffy water supplies, store some fats (especially tallow), and make some jerky. That was last week’s newsletter.
If you haven’t done that yet, start there. Especially with the bulk beans and rice, and tallow.
The second step is raising just a little bit more food than you already do. That’s this right here. Step two, you are looking at it.
And the third step is to deepen and extend your local ties so your network is just a bit more resilient. Friends and neighbors. Family. We’ll talk about some simple, easy ways to do that next time.
Let’s understand each other. This newsletter isn’t going to make you self-sufficient. You aren’t going to grow all your own food on your own acres, as noble as that would be. We don’t want to discourage anyone from that vision if they feel called to it. Just be aware that it will require major life changes, on par with converting to a religion or completely switching careers, not just for you but for your family. At minimum, you probably have to be move. Worth it, but not a step to take lightly.
But preparedness and some home farming are good things even if they don’t get you all the way, even if you don’t intend to ever go all the way. Even in a complete and utter breakdown having that little bit extra of food and that little bit reservoir of experience could make the difference. But most likely you are looking at something that falls short of of full civilizational collapse. Most likely you are looking at different kinds of hard times. Just that little bit of extra preparedness may be what it takes to get you over the hump, especially if your friends and family and neighbors are all doing just that little bit too.
(Please share this newsletter or others like it. It’s important.)
Prepare now and beat the rush.
Get it out of your head that you only need to become a home farmer if you are someday planning on going the whole hog and doing it for a living. Get it out of your head that you should give up on preparedness unless you are ready to self-sufficient for months on end.
Both of these are good goals, good steady goals, but they aren’t necessary goals. Have you heard of the 80-20 rule? It says that for important goals, the last 20% of the project takes 80% of the effort. Some people take this as the counsel of despair. They see how much more they would have to do after the first easy part and so don’t even bother. But the wise see the 80-20 rule as the cheat code of life. With only 20% of the effort you can get 80% of the results! Those numbers are just made up, of course, but the basic point is that in many areas you can get OK results with just basic effort. That’s wonderful.
Some of the best people are some of the most driven. This message in particular is for you. Take this to heart. No one can do 100% of everything. Some things just need every one to give 20%. Preparedness is one of those. Whether you go beyond that 20% effort is going to be a question of judgment and inspiration and your local ties. But start with the 20%.
Farming is Fertile for the Soul
Besides the strictly practical benefits, there are people benefits to home farming.
It is good to be outside and scrabbling around a bit. If you have children or family who help you, you will be surprised to find how long these memories will last. You will be surprised at how your love for friends and family and children deepens and changes when they aren’t just fun time pals, but people who work the land with you.
It is good to own your space, to create part of your environment for your own reasons and not because of a corporation somewhere built it that way, or because that is the societal expectation for what a suburban home is supposed to look like. Broken modern life doesn’t offer us those opportunities except through the soul-killing method of brand identification or the color of your trim. But your soil does. When your first seed goes into the ground, that is a bit of land that you own, really own, not just as digits in a property database somewhere. It is surprisingly good for the soul.
It is good to connect yourself to the cycle of the seasons. The human being has daily circadian rhythms and seasonal ones. Being outside helps with both. Being outside and working with the plants and the soil, or the animals, connects you to those seasons in a deeper, richer way. These are real spiritual and psychological benefits.
Something important needs to be said here. You get these spiritual benefits even if your garden fails. You are part of the circle of death and life, of the great God-granted drama of action and consequence and weather and fate. High-falutin’? You bet. Also true.
If you have the fortitude to be high-falutin’ about it, here’s more. By taking steps now to care for the future you are knitting the present and the future more tightly together. By taking steps to lead and preserve those around you, you are drawing them closer to you. You are bringing together what the broken world tries to pull apart.
Some of the simplest practical things are also the best for the soul.