I Have A Disease

Hi, my name is Jason and I'm an urban homesteader. OK, I'm not a homesteader but I'm addicted to the idea that I will be. I have been for a very long time; I used to think I just had a healthy fondness for gardening, but recently I have accepted that I have an addiction.

A homesteader from the beginning, here I am picking cherries in the backyard at 14 months old.

My gardening adventure at my first apartment in Orlando, FL. I should have seen the signs at the time. By the end of the summer, my little patio was full of pots of tomatoes, beans, mini pumpkins, sunflowers, basil, thyme, mints, rosemary, strawberries, and a pineapple. I always had some fresh vegetables for what little time I was actually home that summer. I was working 40-50 hour weeks at Primo By Melissa Kelly.

The seed catalogs know about me. They are my pushers, tempting me to embrace my desires and run away with my dreams. I have not ordered from one in more than five years, nor I remember ever signing up to receive one, yet in the last week I have received six, and a poultry catalog in the mail. I tried to resist, I tried to behave, but it was impossible. I went on a gardening binge, spending hours flipping through their tempting pages. Many hours of sleep were lost thinking about uprooting a yard I do not have to cultivate the garden of my dreams.
It is a dangerous addiction. I spend all my time researching ways to raise small livestock like rabbits, chicken, quail, pigeons, fish, etc. in the backyard. I once blurted out at a gathering of friends that "people underestimate me, but I spent all weekend researching peacock genetics!" I don't really want to raise peacocks in my backyard, they are lovely creatures except for their screech like crow. Besides, have you ever heard of someone with a peacock in the backyard? (Actually, I have! My two great Aunts, who live in a tiny Alpine village have a pet peacock named Hansi, but that story is for another post.)

Now, I am coming down off my seed catalog high and the cold slap of reality is setting in: I can't homestead now because I don't even have a yard. I travel too much, there are still too many things I would like to do before I have commitments like a house and an urban farm. The pressures of living with people who don't understand my disease force me to conform. I take my dose of "medicine" (bland, insipid GMO produce from Chile) which sedates me into living a "normal" life, eating "normal" food, that some scientist modified genetically to make it grow "normally." Then it was boxed and shipped hundreds of miles to my "normal" grocery store, where my mother bought it to cook a "normal" dinner. The masses eat this "medicine" everyday and they like it. They buy it on sale and say it tastes wonderful. If someone doesn't like that flavor of "medicine," they can buy 1000's of processed combinations of rearranged corn. (I guarantee every boxed item and meat product you buy has some form of corn in it)Is there a cure for someone like me? Someone obsessed with a need to eat at least something that they grew and harvested, is there any help for those of us that cannot tolerate "normal medicine?"

There are those who also suffer with my affliction and they embrace it. They are my heroes. Rachel, of Rachel's Tiny Farm, is probably my favorite homesteader. I am constantly amazed by the things she accomplishes in her Arizona backyard. This is not even her full time job, she just wants to provide fresh, healthy food for her family. Barbra Kingsolver wrote a wonderful book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" with her family about their story of moving to Tennessee to eat locally and farm their own food. If you want to see a full scale working urban farm operation, the Dervaes family created it. Their whole life style is about growing organic food in their yard and it is their only source of income. If you think you might be infected like me, their Path to Freedom website will inspire you!

Slowly, awareness and thus, acceptance for my disease is spreading. If you think you might be catching the germs, I urge you to embrace them! Then infect everyone you know, especially your family. Do the bare minimum and plant heirloom tomatoes and a few vegetables your family will enjoy over the summer. If you enjoy that, plant a fall garden. There are many vegetables you can grow right up to first snow and store some for the winter. If you don't have a green thumb, visit your local farmer's market. It is 2011, every city in the country has one! Buy your produce there and support those who have a severe case of the disease; they grow so much food, they have to sell the excess. If you do nothing else, please, challenge yourself not buy "medicine."