Investors Wanted for Food Independence

I have a dream. Famous words I know… but can I just say that its impossible to have a goal without first having a dream. My dream is to see the revitalization of our land in my lifetime. I dream that we can teach the world to grow food in a way that benefits our earth instead of poisoning it. I have a dream that we can eliminate hunger by helping every single person on the planet to grow food. I dream that we can use permaculture practices to renew soil health and green the planet instead of using chemical pesticides and fertilizers that kills microbes in the soil and increases desertification across the globe.

This is the dream… so what are the goals?

Use permaculture practices to grow food abundantly.

Focus on soil health by using cover crops, compost, mulches, and swales to promote microbes in the soil and retain rain water.

Grow abundance with a wide diversity of crops instead of monocropping.

Integrate nitrogen fixing plants and pollinator plants into our growing spaces.

Teach children, and adults how to grow food by first teaching them about soil health

Grow as much nutrient rich food as possible and get the community together while doing it.

Its time to focus on healing the earth and ourselves by growing nutrient rich food in a way that benefits the earth instead of depleting its resources.

At Jones Creek Farm, I am striving to do all of these things but I am only one person. Will you join me? I am looking for volunteers, investors, and fellow farm stewards that want to turn a 4 acre plot into an abundant food oasis that is teaming with life and diversity as well as happiness and peace.

As you are aware, we are facing a global crisis of hunger and societal collapse. So we are looking for 10 investors wanting a stake in a growing farm operation to provide them food security. We are teaming up with Food Forest Abundance to install a food forest that will generate hundreds if not thousands of pounds of food for years and generations to come. Will you join me?

Details:

I am looking for 10 investors to each invest $10,000. The goal is $100,000 total to install all of the infrastructure and of course the food forest design as well as all the trees and plants needed for this venture. You get a stake in the farm, guaranteeing food security for the next 5 years. Come help us on the farm with planting, harvesting and any other tasks or just come visit! Whatever level of involvement you’d like to have is fine with us. No matter what, your initial investment insures you food security for years to come.

A little about Jones Creek Farm. My name is Stephanie and I run and operate the farm while my husband, Jacob works off site. This has allowed us to grow this farm with minimal debt but it also means progress has been slow. So far we have a front yard food forest that is currently on its second year of growth, we have a large garden with 100 foot rows and we call this our market garden. We also have raised beds that we grow in as well as a small orchard with peach, plum, pear, pomegranate, pecan, and loquat trees. We are in the process of turning this traditional orchard into a food forest. This spring we have added wood chips to the entire orchard in preparation for interplanting many different fruit and berry bushes, edible ground covers and vines. If you walk through the orchard now, you will see bee hives among the trees and the bees are happily zipping from tree to tree. Last year we got our first plums and peaches so we expect a lot more fruit this year.

We are currently building a 20 ft by 20 ft structure for meat rabbit production. We dug out the soil and added rubber conveyor belt and cinderblocks 3 high and then back filled that with dirt and then started building an enclosed structure above it. Once this structure is completed, the rabbits will all live in the space together, colony style and will allow them to dig tunnels in the soil to get out of the heat and live life as they do in the wild all while keeping them safe from predators. We also use their manure in the orchards to fertilize the beds, eliminating the need for outside resources.

We have about 100 laying hens and constantly hatch more to sell so that others may start their own flocks and get one step closer to food independence. We have an abundance of eggs from our flock and turn their manure into compost for the following growing season.

We have baby dairy goats that we are currently bottle feeding. These goats will be our future milkers to make cheese and other dairy products. We also use goat milk in our soap line.

Moringa is a crop that we have been experimenting with for about 8 years. Moringa is a complete plant protein that we routinely eat fresh as well as dried and powdered. With 96 nutrients and 46 antioxidants, it’s a crop that will benefit us all.  New research has shown that it is also an amazing fodder crop to feed rabbits! Exciting! If we can close the loop and provide food for a meat source completely off the farm, this makes us that much more food independent. Our chickens eat moringa too!

We have started a large compost pile but also utilize our county’s compost program which is a free resource for county residents. We also utilize wood chips from the county trimming tree lines along city and county roads.

Next we are almost completed with our farmstand/soap production area. This is where we make all of our 40 varieties of soap and also where we display our honey, eggs, produce, tea, and other products that are available to the public. We also support other local farms and businesses buy wholesaling their products and displaying them on our farm.

Our next project will be building a commercial kitchen so that we can produce our food products in a commercially certified kitchen, and this will allow us to rent out the space to other farms that need a commercial kitchen to produce their products as well.

The money you invest will go towards finishing these projects and getting one more acre designed as a food forest. This will include the food forest designed by a permaculture specialist, the installation of the food forest including walking paths to enjoy our oasis but also to hold tours and classes to show others what is possible. The goal is to have edible trees, edible shrubs, edible ground cover, edible root crops and edible vines all growing together in a food system that doesn’t need any outside resources (Fertilizers and pesticides.) Can you imagine food hanging from every tree, shrub and plant as you walk the paths?!?!? Oasis indeed.

I really want to inspire community and helping one another as we head into hard times. The world seems more and more crazy with each passing day but we can stand together and work together to create a space that will benefit everyone.