Life, Truth, and Cackleberries: Family, Friends and Rest

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family! We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and time with loved ones. We are hanging out down here in good ole' sunny Florida. After several weeks in ice and snow covered Virginia and Pennsylvania, this 70--80 degree weather is quite lovely :) We have yet to make it to the beach, but it is in our plans for the very near future (probably the next few days). We have been longing to be outside and get our hands dirty, so we decided to help Rachel's parents out by doing some yard work. We cut back about 5-10 feet of brush and trees from their neighboring empty lot because it was growing over too much and shading out their garden. It was hard work (we did it all with a hand saw and hedge clippers...no power tools!) but enjoyable nonetheless. We were just glad to be working outdoors again in this beautiful weather. We are just looking for any opportunity to be outside! We miss the farm but are enjoying our time of rest. Now that the holidays are over we will be doing lots of business planning and getting our website up and running so be on the lookout for that!

Before...

After...

We decided to take a few weeks to just spend with family and friends for a couple reasons. First, we can't do much on the farm until late winter to start preparing for Spring. Second, we are starting a business so this may be one of the last times we can take this much time off. We plan on heading back to Virginia in the beginning of February. It has been so good to see all of our family over the past several weeks. We value any time that we can get with them. We have also been catching up with many "old" friends. Everyone has been so incredibly encouraging to us as they tell us that they follow our blog or admire what we're doing. There is one reoccurring comment that we have been hearing a lot through all of our conversations with people the past few weeks. As we converse about our farming life and our journey into self-sustainability, the common response from people is "I would love that, but I could just never do it." We just want to take a few moments here and tell you that...guess what? ANYONE can do it! It was only a little over a year and a half ago that we were sitting in our living room watching the documentary Fresh (a documentary that we HIGHLY recommend about the current sad state of our food system), After watching this documentary, we knew we had to do something. At the time we were also trying to figure out what we were going to do with our lives. The timing was just right for us and God knew that. But along our journey the past year and a half we have heard many stories of people at so many different stages of life who have made the decision to become more self sustainable in some way or another. We understand completely that not everyone has the same dreams and aspirations as we do of becoming full-time self-sustainable farmers, and that's great! We need people with skills of all kinds. But what we do know is that there is something in every single one of us that longs to be closer to our land. The land that we were created to steward. The land that we came from. The land that has everything we need to sustain us. And there is an endless list of life changes we can all make to become less reliant on big businesses and government and more reliant on local resources and the land around us that God has created FOR US to live off of. There is a book that we would highly recommend by farmer and entrepreneur Joel Salatin called Folks, This Ain't Normal. Throughout his book, Joel gives real, practical, everyday solutions on how we can live more sustainably and ecologically responsible. Here are a few examples from his book:

1. Grow things...anything. Indoor grow lights are still magic, and can bring sunlight indoors for remarkable discoveries. (pg. 18)

2. Spend some serious time on a farm. Many farms now have work days, or work-share opportunities. Ask your farmer - you do know your farmer, don't you? - about labor opportunities. And when you go, assume that you don't know anything and you've never really worked a day in your life. This spirit will prepare you to absorb the information and the sore muscles awaiting you. (pg 40)

3. Involve your family in gardening. Community gardens, school gardens, your own backyard. Opportunities exist everywhere to grow something. A simple plastic solarium on the southern exposure of your house can provide both winter warmth and horticultural delight. If you make it big enough you could put in a dining table. (pg 40)

4. Eat more grass-fed beef and less chicken or pork. (pg 40)

5. Raise some animals and prepare them for dinner. Small animals are best for urban settings. A cow might be a bit large for a backyard. But chickens and rabbits are extremely compatible with urban settings... (pg 40)

6. Find and patronize local farmers, in whatever venue you desire, and then ask them if you can help solve their salvage or abundance problem. What is extra that you can acquire, perhaps at a discount in volume, to reduce throwaways? (pg 55)

7. Preserve food yourself: dehydrating, canning, lacto-fermenting, parching, freezing, processing. A host of books exist to get you started. Ask your grandmother how she did it. Commit to preserve one thing so it's not daunting. (pg 55)

8.Take a fast food sabbatical - just one week, for starters. Fix a meal but make plenty so you have leftovers for lunches. (pg 55)

9. If you have any land at all, grow something. Anything edible. (pg 56)

10. Replace the parakeets with two chickens. They won't make as much noise, and they'll lay eggs. (pg 82)

We understand that not all of these are 100% doable for everyone, but they are very practical lifestyle changes that most people can do. In fact, we would go so far as to say that anyone reading this can do at least 1, if not several of these things. It's all about taking that first step. Once that first step is taken, you will see how rewarding, enjoyable, and doable this whole "living off the land" and "being self-sustainable" thing really is. Our journey started with a decision, a decision that we would travel this road together, with God's guidance, and that nothing or no one would stop us from living our dream. After the decision was made, our first steps were researching (lots and lots of reading), being conscious of where our food dollars were going, buying as locally and sustainably as possible, and from there on we were hooked. We will give a small disclaimer here...many of you who decide that you are going to do something, anything, to support this local food movement and start being conscious of your family's health and the health of this beautiful earth God has blessed us with...you too will be hooked! Stewarding this earth, getting your hands dirty in the garden, growing food, supporting local farmers or becoming a local farmer, are all incredibly rewarding acts that have been enjoyed by our ancestors for thousands of years. And although not everyone wants to be a full-time farmer, we can all enjoy being a part of restoring our land in some way shape or form! Even if that means simply financially supporting your local farmers. So we want to encourage all of you to begin thinking about ways you can be a part of this. Read some books. Some suggestions to get you started are Folks, This Ain't Normal and Holy Cows and Hog Heaven, both written by Joel Salatin. Watch some documentaries about the current state of our food system; Fresh, and Food Inc are two very well done documentaries. Start with a few small changes and see where it goes. You may discover you want to move out into the country and start a small homestead, or you may discover that you really enjoy growing tomatoes in a pot on your apartment porch in the city. Both very commendable goals :)

And of course, we are always here to encourage and support anyone who finds interest in sustainable living of any kind, or anyone who decides to live out their dream, just as you all have encouraged and supported us. Thanks again...we love you all!

Matt and Rachel