Introductions

The deal with this blog is that I'll be moving to this former tobacco farm at the end of the year in order to start a new farm with my friend Mr. Matt Jenkins. I don't yet know the things I need to do that, because I intend to keep animals as soon as possible. Plants-only, I could muddle through, it being eminently clear so far that growing plants really well depends on building great soil and I understand the fundamentals there. But I am not certain I know how to keep the animals healthy and well fed. I believe I know my sources: Greg Judy, Allan Nation, Joel Salatin, Newman Turner, ATTRA, and The Stockman Grass Farmer magazine, and their ilk. They advocate livestock rotation on pasture in such a way that allows grass to grow back rapidly and builds soil: Management Intensive Grazing, or MiG.

I'm also about to start taking some classes at Merritt College in Oakland - Permaculture, Dams to Greywater, Herbs, Cycles of Land Use.

One day this will be a real farm blog. For now it's a record of the stuff I want to do and learn, and the stuff I'm doing and learning. I'll work on plans and post drafts of them here.

So, here's the broad plan, as just promised: I want to build a mixed farm where microscopic life, plants, and animals work with humans to build fertility and abundance without chemical inputs, and eventually, without inputs of any kind. I want to first establish a subsistence farm, with at most a farmstand at the street. When this proves viable, we can expand our volume, first to serve the immediate community (at bargain prices) and later the broader area (at boutique prices). One of the goals is to incentivize economic action in the community. I want to produce a broad variety of crops and value-added products, and become a reliable source for clean, ethical, health-promoting goods for my neighbors and family.

Please, write me with any questions or comments you may have. Encouragement or reinforcement, especially from Chesapeake farmers or food people, is particularly appreciated.