I think things are finally moving! We got the ok to go ahead and start clearing the kudzu in the new strawberry space, and Chris is going to take a first pass out there this week. And I think I found a veggie space out in Austell - we're still working out details, but it's a fenced half acre attached to a restaurant and a community space. I'll be doing planning and bed prep out there tomorrow, because there's absolutely no time to waste if I'm going to have any fall and winter crops this year. I don't see myself out there long term - I'd much rather have my growing spaces within a 15 minute drive. But I'm hoping to hire someone from the area next spring and spend a year training them to work in the space and understand the business model. Then I can pass management of the space over to them and let them operate as the first franchise of The Community Ecosystem.
The larger vision has always been for more than just a farm - I want to document income streams and help other farmers build custom franchises for the spaces they're in. Our food system is a gigantic house of cards dependent on oil, and when it comes tumbling down the only way we'll be able to survive as a society will be do have farmers in every community. Farming is hard - those of you who put in a garden this year, think of all the seeds that didn't sprout, the bugs that attacked, and the time it took to grow enough for just one meal. Now multiply that by every meal, every day, for every person. We need millions of farmers tucked into every neighborhood across the globe. And we need to train them not just to grow food, but to sustain themselves while doing it. I'm trying to create a system that can help train the wave of farmers who will step in when industrial agriculture collapses, and do so in a way that lets those farmers remain independent and responsive to the needs of their communities. With any luck, this space in Austell will let me get back to growing myself for the next year, and then serve as a testing ground for the first franchise.
