Agorist Agriculture
I’m going to overthrow the state by growing fruits and vegetables! Not really, but it’s at least a step forward for myself. I am finally learning my farming skills this week. Lots of hard work and lots of hot sun. It will be a great boon to have tax free monsanto free food. It is my daydream to open ‘Agorist Farms’ as a means to sustain myself. ‘The Stateless Wonder’ who comments here from time to time was over this weekend while we got some tomatoes and peppers planted.
I am a city boy. I grew up in Cleveland and live in Kansas City. Working in the earth planting food is a brand new thing for me. It is one that I am enjoying. I have daydreams of becoming the great anarchist urban farmer, opening the land to a community and working together to create a self sustaining co-op where we can meet all our needs by working together and growing what we need to sustain ourselves year round. This year I am not making an attempt to go that far, I am just learning to grow. I hope to possibly share some with a local community.
I love to cook, so I have been learning how to cook with more raw materials, grinding wheat and making breads, pastas and all sorts of good stuff from scratch. This will help me migrate to a more self sustainable diet. I am not growing wheat yet, but as time goes on I hope to be able to achieve this along with what I have begun. For now we are buying bulk organic wheat, rice and beans. This cuts back on the cost drastically.
As I finish getting my agorist agriculture in order this spring I will most likely be on the site much less. Scott will be taking over as admin for a few weeks. I plan on getting some work done on other writing projects outside of the site and getting a great deal done on my little plot of land in the city.
2:50 pm
A³ = ¡Agricultura! ¡Anarquía! ¡Acción!
10:46 am
We picked up a bag of worm castings last night. I’m planning on putting them into my planters today and tracking the progress. They’re supposed to be the most amazing shit — no pun intended — you can use in container gardening. Thank science for my local co-op!
5:08 pm
Hey, picked up on your blog via a Facebook feed– I’m an urban farmer sort in Riverside, CA. Don’t sweat it about growing your own grains or beans. Honestly, the yield on dry beans isn’t all that great, and they are cheap enough that this one can pretty much be left to the large-scale farms (organic, since that’s your preference and mine) I’d focus on veggies, since that is where the biggest savings are at. You can grow enough Swiss chard to feed a family (using the cut and come again method) 1-2x per week for six months or more in just a few square feet. That stuff is pretty expensive at the stores, so growing chard is very much worthwhile. And it’s easy to grow, too. Tomatoes are a great “beginner” veggie and also very productive, especially if you cage or tie it to grow vertically. Grow what you like to eat, eat what you grow, compost everything. It’s your best fertilizer. If your city allows urban chickens or goats, that’s also something to consider. I hear the return on chickens isn’t terribly special compared to store-bought, but of course they are much fresher and you can control their feed and their treatment. I’m told many people name their hens, etc. I don’t know as it is illegal on my lot size. Goats for milk are also an option if you have the space. Raw milk ain’t cheap… raw goat’s milk even more so– and it isn’t exactly going down in price. Know that with enough soil building (compost and other amendments like composted manures, kelp, etc) and experience you can put a serious dent into your food bill, and get much better food from your garden in the bargain. I’ve been doing this most of my life, still a lot further to go and you are always learning!