I haven’t posted on Hive for over 2 months now. For a number of different reasons really, but one of the bigger ones is that I’ve taken on a new endeavor. It’s one that I hope will be profitable, but really it’s (another) passion project that aligns with my core beliefs and looks to be an obvious part of my journey forward. It’s hard to explain that without sounding like some new age hippy, but it does feel spiritual to me in some ways. In short, I am building an organic farming business.
I’ve always been interested in self sufficiency and (as part of that) food security. Having been locked out of my society a few years back and with current global developments as they are I don’t think that food security is something that should be taken for granted like most of us in the West have in the past. I’ve been toying with my own little “Victory Garden” for a couple of years now and have found out that I do have an affinity for growing organic produce so this latest endeavor seems like a logical next step. Let me tell you a little bit about it.
I’m renting just over half an acre of irrigated garden beds at a nearby organic farm. The farm is run by a couple of nice folks who have been in the business for years and are regular attendees at the local farmers markets. However, the day to day operations of running the farm itself has become a bit difficult for them and so they’ve been under-utilizing their land lately. They recently offered up part of their farm operation for rent and that’s where I have come in with some fresh legs.
The understanding is that we will work together to get the farm running closer to its capacity. They’ll help me with my beds and I’ll help them with theirs. There’s a bit of heavy machinery around (one which you can see in the photo above) and 2 or 3 people are needed to operate others. Some of it is a bit tired but it still works and to me this opportunity has come at a good time for me to sink my teeth into something fresh and learn about a new industry while picking up some valuable expertise from experienced operators in the process.
So far it’s going ok. I’ve got almost 1800 seedlings planted cross 9 beds already. At the moment that’s only about 30% of capacity so there is still a lot of work to do to get done to restore my patch to full production. I’m still here on Hive though I am probably not going to be posting much going forward. The rain has stopped here so now I’m going to stop talking and get back to work.