why do i farm?

There are a lot of reasons. I have always been drawn to trees and plants and nature, I have that strong earth connection. Growing up in a city rowhouse, with lots of blacktop and concrete around, most of my memories revolve around the plants that found a way..... Some of my earliest memories are of catching bugs. I remember catching bees from the flowering privet hedge behind our little backyard. It was really tall, and the smell of privet flowers is stinky-sweet, the bees would go crazy when it flowered. I was trying to catch enough bees to make a hive in a cardboard box. The bees didn't like it.

We had a rope swing hung from a big tulip poplar tree. The flowers really do look like tulips, google it! The poplar would get covered in aphids in the summer, and the aphid feces, literately a sweet rain, would pour down making everything sticky and black.

Just one house down, the neighbor had peonies. There are two really cool things about peony flowers. Large black ants would farm the aphids that are always on peony buds, they would stoke the aphids with their legs to make them defecate their sweet feces and then carry it back to the nest to feed their babies. It is always fun to watch ants at work, especially milking aphids. The other fun thing was throwing the flower buds, as they were perfect tight balls. It drove the poor woman who planted those peony crazy that I would pick her flower buds. I understand her feelings much better now.

There was a big crabapple tree a little further down the road, it was absolutely covered with the blossoms every year. It had the best shade in the neighborhood, and the soapy water from all the men washing their cars on warm summer weekends would flow down the road gutter and run off the road to where a big willow was growing. The willow had roots like a japanese zen painting. Little stream with beautiful roots.

Are you noticing my theme, it's all about the plants. All my memories are punctuated and bookended and exclamation pointed with plants. The smell of the night flowering cactus on my island honeymoon. The itty bitty flowers of the super tight bent grass lawns in L.A. The smell of cherry leaves. Curly grass fern in the pine barrens,,,

I wish I could say I farm because I love to feed people, I certainly do, but that's only some part of it. I am just overwhelming drawn to plants, the subtlety of the witch hazel bloom unrolling, (and the unbelievable fragrance), the monumental character of the Fagaceae , beeches, chestnuts and the oaks. I want to know chestnuts like I know oaks. That's what makes me want to farm, I want to know these plants. When I find myself wondering about the nature of gods I just remember how the trees are.

Many of us feel this same way. This is why I say I like plant people, cause no matter how different we are, all that disappears when we start talking plants. So I am very lucky to be able to start to work on the emerging science and practice of agroforesty through the permaculture lens. At 63 it seems most sensible people wouldn't be planting crops that take 20-30 years to mature.

This is my art, so it doesn't need make sense... So I will mix it up with some plants that will bear sooner too! And flowers we can smell this summer, veggies too.. come and get some from me!

Buzz’s bio..

…..forever preoccupied with the natural system of the planet we currently inhabit. My earliest memories are of crabapples, flowers, rocks and water. Spending my childhood collecting bugs, leaves and being lost in the woods studying plant communities further skewed my naturally twisted perspective. I continue my naturalist study daily. Totally convinced that either bacteria or fungus (or both together) actually run the show, I nonetheless work hard in human society.

It's no wonder I spend this life building soils, making less “waste” at all scales and learning about meeting human needs at farmstead scale, this helps me feel better about my addiction to fossil fuel and the absurd packaging I can't seem to escape from.

In the 70's I studied horticulture and landscape design at the feet of my father and continue with my horticulture fantasy at my farm in Berlin Corners VT.

In 1975 I was a research associate in “Critical Natural Areas of Delaware”, a systematic natural inventory of places that absolutely should not be developed, I've said goodbye to many of them....

In the 80's and 90's I worked with two of the largest mushroom growers in Pennsylvania to build revenue producing operations from their previously underutilized stream of mushroom growing substrate, aka compost. Both operations were producing 5000+ cubic yards per week of compost for the production of agaricus bisporus. I also had access to the countries largest stream of compost from organic mushroom production, primarily from the production of exotics mushrooms.

I spent lots of research time understanding and overcoming the particular issues with using this material as a horticultural growing media. I also spent quite a bit of time researching and developing mushroom compost as the organic fraction in green roof media.

I have worked for 30 years as a consultant to farming operations on every scale, to design, and develop on-farm composting as appropriate technology.

I have worked since 1980 in a parallel career as a general contractor, designing and building homes and doing major renovations to existing buildings.

When I first moved to Vermont in 2004, I spent 2 years at Intervale Compost where I was tragically introduced to the Act 250 State Land Use Permit and Vermont politics surrounding composting on Aboriginal Burial Grounds. Thankfully time and poetry have eased my mind.

I worked for 5 years with Filtrexx International, the inventor of compost filter socks for erosion and sedimentation control, providing support to Filtrexx Installers, doing education and trainings, and assisting in research on horticultural and agricultural applications of compost socks.

Broadly using permaculture principles to help guide my farms development, I propagate, plant and plant and plant. And make compost. And build soil.

I was on the Board of Directors of Yestermorrow Design Build School for 9 years and still teach there periodically.

I have killed thousands of nut tree seedling in no time at all in the quest for Zone 4 hardiness.

Hoping to retire into farming in 2 years....

I have four children, and three grandchildren.