For years people have asked me how they can grow food without land and while living in the city. For years I have talked about building relationships and connecting with people who have land.
Not many are willing to make significant changes in their lives in order to do what it takes! I suspect it is fear and a lack of knowledge that keeps people stuck. So ironically, I find myself in a situation this year where I have no land and I’m confronted with growing food during a period where food shortages are a clear and present danger for the majority if people.
What did I do? I I built relationships and approached people who have land. I’m working with two families this year and spending a lot of time on these relationships. I’m also helping both of them as they did not have gardens and was not sure how to proceed. So in exchange of sharing the food, I’m teaching them how to garden.
The picture above is the garden here in town which was nothing but a lawn about 6 weeks ago. It is about 1000 square feet, taking up the majority if the back yard. The other family owns an acreage out of town and they now have a 2000+ square foot garden as well (third picture).
In both of these gardens we have about 1100 hills of potatoes (total), carrots, peas, lettuce, cucumbers, dill, beats, radish, sunflowers, spinach, turnip, zucchini, pumpkin, onions and a few other plants. On top of that, I am teaching them how to harvest wild foods as there is plenty of that growing around, available for anybody to harvest.
I’m harvesting food for me and others through a win/win relationship with multiple families, all while having no land of my own to steward. Teaching others how to steward is proving to be rewarding as well. Having two gardens is also spreading the risk as the failure of one garden due to hail or other natural events does not mean 100% failure of our crops. I’m rather enjoying this approach.
If you live in the city or a small town, have no land and still want to grow your own food, there is plenty of opportunities to do that! Get out there, get your hands dirty and let’s get to work. There is no reason why people should go hungry. That duty and responsibility is up to the individual. For those that have the ability and will, our duty is to then feed those that do not have the ability and confront those who lack the will!
All of this requires the capacity to build healthy relationships with other people, with Mother Earth and the knowledge helps too! The knowledge is out there, being shared by people all over the world. What most people are missing is the courage to reach out to other people, talk to them and work on building relationships so that they can share with one another. The Pacem Arts can help people heal and practice what it takes to build those relationships.
I pray that my example here inspires others to do the same. It is VERY possible to be food independent without owning land. There are people out there wanting to learn and share. Be creative! There is literally food all around us. People die of starvation in a sea of food. What we are lacking is the knowledge, will and ability to see it for what it is. We have been hoodwinked into thinking that only that which we find in a store is actually food. That context is absolutely false. Expanding our palette and minds, we will find food all around us and be able to harvest it, store it and nourish our bodies when others are starving. We are then in a position to help them and ensure nobody goes hungry, especially when the food system collapses and the financial system melts down.
It is not even July yet and we are eating out of the garden and preserving food for winter for two families!!! Doing what it takes!
