Hacking The Farm! (These kids need money..or do they?)

This has been an exciting week at The Floating Farm. We are working on getting everything together and working a number of the kids at the local elementary school are pitching in.  A large part of what I do is raise money for projects that engage young minds in farming and science.  Talk about an uphill battle.  The interesting thing is that I have come to believe that necessity is the mother of invention.

My background is in developing sustainable agriculture and health systems in places in need.  A lot of my work has been about developing first world first world projects with a third world mentality.  I could tell you stories about the city zoo that threw out manure and still bought fertilizer for their gardens every year or the schools that take up collections every year to buy seeds and compost when they could easily make it themselves.  Those are easy fixes, but have been incredibly difficult in our so called developed countries.

Things are too easy here and if you think that farmers here have it bad, imagine being the farmer that has to bring his produce to market on a cart pulled by hand or a bike.  This is a commentary about the resilience of youth and how the lack of resources can make some amazing things.

Earlier this week, we built a composter for the school.  It was easy enough and to think about the restaurants that toss so many things that can be turned into fertilizer waiting for these kids when they come back in  the fall. Plus, Georgia has a really long growing season so there is even time to get some things in the ground when they come back.  Let's take a look at the reality though.  I am not a teacher in the real sense of the word, but I like to think that I was able to tell the kids a thing or two.  The problem is that I did not know what to say when a kid came up to me and asked me what to do with the three bullets he had found not fifty feet from the front door of the school.  I found out later that the school has two buses in the driveway of the school during school hours in case they have to evacuate on the fly.

The world needs work, this is true, but we are finding new farmers in all of the chaos.  Maybe "farmer" is not the right word.  Perhaps grower would be the better term.

The composter was made out to of a 55 gallon plastic drum and did not take too long to make.  Then, we started on another project where we looked at how to grow things in containers and get water to them.  The new permaculture asks us to look at how to work with what we have.

composter made from 55 gallon drum

This is the south, after all, and in the cities in the south, the smell of "fried" whatever is in the air at 9 a.m.  Fast food is a staple, but fast food means also means oil and oil means oil containers.  These containers would likely be going to landfill,   We thought of ways to "hack" these containers and use them to grow things in.

fast food deep fryer containers

We cut the tops off....

We cut the tops off

Inverted the tops inside of the containers...

inverted the tops inside of the containers and used coke bottles as downspouts

used coke bottles as downspouts...

This is the same basic design as the earth box and it is free.

DIY earth boxes soon to be filled with water, dirt, and seeds!

So I find myself in a strange position.  Part of me wants to bust my butt raising money to get these kids the things that they need to build something great, but part of me see that they are already doing great things because they have to.  We are seeing them grow like grass through concrete. The new permaculture calls for people to use what they have and we are seeing that not a lot of people are interested in helping schools grow things.

So, take a moment to give a couple of dollars to get some seeds.  I know we need shovels.  We need other tools and soil.  Or don't (I am really curious to see what these kids can do.)