InsIde thIs Issue

Upskill by Taking Charge of Your Own Lifelong Learning

Reclaiming Survival Skills while Living a Simpler Life

Extend the Growing Season by Upcycling in Your Garden

Health Benefits Now, Food Security Later

Enjoy the Simple Pleasure of Cooking for Friends

www.waldenpublishing.com

Mitigating Franklin’s Tax CertaintyBy Joel Bowman

Vol. 1, No. 5July 2016

INDEPENDENCEMONTHLY

4

6

9

12

14

“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

—Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was indeed a clever fellow. A reliably quotable polymath in his day,

it was sometimes said that you could take the man’s word to the bank…and that was long before his affable-looking bust appeared on the U.S. $100 bill.

Still, for the above quip, America’s first Postmaster General didn’t employ any special or unique insight. After all, the obituary pages are—now as then—filled with the names of fools who thought they could live (tax) free…or forever…or both. Mr. Franklin had merely to observe an unyielding tendency of history: Nobody here gets out alive…and certainly not without

paying their dues while here among the living.

Franklin’s assertion notwith-standing, the inquiring mind is sometimes given to wonder…what might this world look like without death and taxes, the immovable rock and hard place between which we mortals must dwell?

First, the obvious: It would be awfully crowded, with no saints to fill the heavens…and no tax collectors to kick and squeal in eternal damnation. Just ordinary people going about their business, day in, day out, for all of eternity.

Doesn’t sound like much fun…

And yet, there are few among us who wouldn’t like to live a little longer…and to pay a little less in taxes.

After all, we may not be able to ultimately cheat death, but we’ve nevertheless got some of the planet’s best minds on the job.

As for taxes, the long arm of the state may forever be in the short end of our pocket, but there are options available for those who are not content to simply “render unto Caesar…”

____________“Render unto Caesar the things that

are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”

—The Nazarene____________

To be clear, unlike kings and tyrants, we here at Independence Monthly have no designs on your “taxable income” and no preference for the way you use it.

So to those who are conspicuous-ly eager to pay higher taxes we say, “Hey, don’t let us stand in your way!”

In fact, if you do find yourself in this category, we’ve got good news: There are plenty of locales around the country where you can pay through the nose…and no shortage of bureaucrats waiting to welcome you to their jurisdiction.

As for those among us yearning for something of a gentler yoke, there are options here too. What follows is a quick look at the most (and least) tax efficient addresses in the United States of America…a nation that was

Benjamin Franklin saw no way around paying taxes...but how much you pay

depends on where you live.

©Is

tock

phot

o.co

m/r

dj51

50

2 Independence Monthly | July 2016

JULY 2016Volume 1 | Number 5

WaldenPublishing.com

Editor-in-Chief: Joel BowmanManaging Editor: Cleo MurphyCopyeditor: Morgan OrmondContributors: Andy Fleming, Jan Davis, Tom Kerr, and Anna Lebedeva

INDEPENDENCEMONTHLY

© Copyright 2016 Walden Publishing All Rights Reserved. Reproduction, copying, or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including online) is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of the Publisher. Copies of Independence Monthly are furnished directly by subscription only. Annual subscription is $59.

To make an inquiry, see: customerservice@waldenpublishing.com or call (800)-896-0763 (Toll Free), (443)-353-4768 (Local/INTL). Independence Monthly presents information and research believed to be reliable, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Readers should investigate any opportunity fully before committing to it.

founded, it should be mentioned, on the back of a tax rebellion.

____________“The only difference between death and

taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”

—Will Rogers____________

The Price We Pay: State by State

When it comes to taxes, most people think of the amount that comes out of their salary. And when it comes to state income taxes, there’s no place quite like (in alphabetical order)…

Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.

Income taxes for residents of these states weigh in at a nice round number: Zero. Nada. Zilch. No income tax at all. (And that includes retirement income, by the way.)

Two other states—New Hampshire and Tennessee—deserve special mention. They only impose income taxes on dividends and interest earned. At time of writing, those rates were 5% for New Hampshire (whose motto is “Live Free or Die”) and 6% for Tennessee (nicknamed, oddly enough, “The Volunteer State”).

States with the lowest flat tax rates are Indiana (3.4 %), North Dakota (3.99%), and Pennsylvania (3.07%). As for states with the lowest marginal tax rates on the highest brackets (i.e. the lowest tax on top

earners), Arizona, North Dakota, and New Mexico are all below 5%.

____________“The hardest thing in the world to

understand is the income tax.” —Albert Einstein____________

But Wait! There’s More!Of course, there’s plenty more to

consider when it comes to taxes than simply the pound of flesh extracted from your salary. At the state level, individuals should also take into consideration:• Taxes on retirement benefits• State (and local) property taxes• State (and local) sales tax• State estate taxes.

(That last one is particularly important for anyone planning to mount a brave and courageous challenge to Mr. Franklin’s other certainty sometime in the foreseeable future…)

Let’s start at the top.

Although many states offer exemptions for certain age and income brackets, only eight states can claim to impose no tax on pension income.

They are: Alaska, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.

As for state taxes on Social Security income, most states do not directly tax these benefits. Only Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah, and Vermont do so without restrictions…though some others impose a tax, but with certain exemptions (like Connecticut’s exemption based on adjusted gross income (AGI), for example).

Clear as the mud under a tax rebel’s boots?

Good. Let’s move on…

If It Moves, Tax ItThe Beatles were right on the

money when they sang…

If you drive a car, I’ll tax the streetIf you try to sit, I’ll tax your seatIf you get too cold, I’ll tax the heatIf you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet

Incredibly, 45 of the 50 states in the union (that’s 90% of them…as well as the District of Columbia) impose taxes on virtually any good or service deemed to be “for sale or use.”

Only Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon offer sales tax-free living.

©Is

tock

phot

o.co

m/Q

vasi

mod

o

3Independence Monthly | July 2016

States with the highest rates, in order of grandest purloiners, are:• California 7.5%• Indiana, Mississippi, New Jersey,

Rhode Island, and Tennessee all 7%; Minnesota 6.875%

• Nevada 6.85%• Arkansas and Washington 6.5%• Connecticut 6.35%.

Now, consider all the things in your yearly budget that are not, at one time or another, considered by the authorities to be “for sale or use,” and you begin to see how those percentages add up.

All of a sudden, Alaska doesn’t seem that cold, right?

That leaves us with the curiously named “property taxes” (is your income, for example, not also your property?) and estate taxes, sometimes called the “death tax.”

____________“What is the difference between

a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.”

—Mark Twain____________

What’s Yours is Mine and What’s Mine is…Mine

There are many methodologies by which to rank states by property taxes. You might care to know the highest rates relative to average income, for example or adjusted for cost of living. Different metrics will, of course, give you different results.

One simple, apples-to-apples way of figuring the highest and lowest rates is to calculate taxes paid as a percentage of median home value for owner-occupied properties in each state. Someone paying $2,500 in property taxes on a $1 million pad in one state is clearly doing better

than his neighbor, who might pay the same amount on a home worth half as much (or twice as much on a similarly valued dwelling).

Using this “tax relative to underlying asset value” methodology, non-profit group The Tax Foundation compiled a list of the best and worst states around the country.

The top five…

1. Louisiana: 0.18%2. Hawaii: 0.26%3. Alabama: 0.33%4. Delaware: 0.43%5. West Virginia: 0.49%

And the bottom five…

1. New Jersey: 1.89%2. New Hampshire: 1.86%3. Texas: 1.81%4. Wisconsin: 1.76%5. Nebraska: 1.70%

Of course, if you don’t pay the taxes owed, the state (whichever it may be) will eventually evict you…which may cause you to wonder who is the real tenant and who is the real landowner when it comes to your “own” home.

____________“Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors…and miss.”

—Robert Heinlein____________

The End of the RoadAnd that brings us to the final

chapter, the estate tax…sometimes called the death tax. According to the IRS’s own website, this is simply a “tax on your right to transfer property at your death.”

Typically, this tax is levied at the federal level, though 15 individual states (as well as the District of Columbia) impose their own penalty for giving up the ghost. They are (in alphabetical order):

Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, as well as the District of Columbia.

Many states enact “pick-up” taxes (sometimes called “sponge taxes”), a mechanism by which individual states can share in the fed’s spoils.

But lest we be accused of ending on a morbid note…there is a silver lining to the death and taxes narrative.

It comes in the form of a tax-free threshold (which, if you happen to depart this world via the fine state of New Jersey, kicks in at just $675,000).

So you see, Dear Reader, there really is a way to avoid the death tax without living forever…you just have to not live too well.

©Istockphoto.com/DNY59

©Is

tock

phot

o.co

m/A

lex

Slob

odki

n

4 Independence Monthly | July 2016

educatIonUpskill by Taking Charge of Your

Own Lifelong LearningBy Jan Davis

Where are you, right now, right this second?

Maybe you're in a cubicle plotting your escape…or planning your next promotion to a corner office with windows. Maybe you're sitting at home pondering how to grow that garden, but you never seem to get started.

Wherever you are, you know there's somewhere else you'd rather be—somewhere money takes you, or freedom gives you time to do as you please. Some place you want to go, but can’t because of lack of skills. But how can you go from where you are, to where you want to be?

Easy…gain knowledge. The more usable knowledge you

have as an adult, the more you’re in control of your life. Just having the ability to learn and find knowledge is a skill in itself. The important thing is to be open to learning new things in order to gain what you want.

Become a lifelong learner…someone who learns throughout their life to better themselves, gaining freedom and choices along the way. Lifelong learning includes any means you use to gain knowledge—formal and informal training, mentoring, reading, and doing. And lucky for you, lifelong learning is easy in today's internet world, no matter where you live.

Open Source LearningOpen-source learning is the new

buzz in lifelong learning. It allows you, the learner, to take charge of your learning through the power of the internet. You can learn in your

own time and—with the education and training world embracing online learning—the availability of quality information and training is increasing on a daily basis. No matter where you live or what you want to learn, you can now do it online.

Do you want to learn a skill to further your business, gain skills to get a better job, or are you just curious how to use Facebook or an array of other technology?

You'll find both free and paid resources online for learning essential skills in computers, math, and more. Sites like GCF LearnFree.org are funded by the Goodwill Community Foundation and are completely free. GCF LearnFree.org keeps current on basic skills. Lessons are perfect for the technological beginner and those wanting to brush up on their skills.

Other sources, such as Lynda.com and Udemy, are maintained by training companies and charge a fee. The advantage to using a site like Lynda.com and Udemy is the depth and real-life connection between what you need to know and learning it.

Each site has thousands of courses available to you. Plus, your instructors are doing, on a daily basis, what it is you want to learn.

Both sites have an easy interface, with slide shows, videos, and step-by-step instructions. Lynda.com is a membership site, where for a monthly membership fee you have complete access. Udemy is course based, but many of their courses give you access to the course forever. If the instructor updates the course, you have access to the new information.

These resources and others allow you to gain real-world, hands-on experience.

Your ChoiceThe type of lifelong learning you

choose depends on your end reason for gaining the new knowledge or skill. If your end goal requires a degree—for instance, if you want to be a high school history teacher—you're going to need a degree in history education, but today, you can obtain it via online education.

Most colleges and universities now have online or distance learning

departments and programs. Students can complete many different degrees, from certifications to doctorates online.

Even if you don't want a degree, check out your local college for non-credit courses. Many colleges have a continuing education or community education department. They offer courses in everything, from You can upskill in a multitude of fields

from your own computer.©Is

tock

phot

o.co

m/m

egai

narm

i

5Independence Monthly | July 2016

yoga to photography to Microsoft Office. Instructors are normally professionals in the field who also teach at the college.

New Opportunities For those wanting a hands-on,

formal education, such as a pastry chef or motorcycle mechanic, try a trade school, skills center, or community college. You'll gain skills and knowledge needed for a job without embarking on a four-year degree.

If you don't want, need, or like formal education, there are other lifelong learning opportunities. Informal education includes any training that doesn't lead to a degree or certificate. This includes non-credit coursework from an institution, seminars from industry, self-taught knowledge, and more.

Check out your local community centers and libraries for available courses and seminars. You'll be amazed at how many public places offer learning—often for free. And don’t forget to check out your local and online libraries. Many libraries are connected with larger library systems, enabling you to get almost any book you choose without cost. Plus, many libraries also have e-books readily available through e-book library systems.

Whatever knowledge you seek, you can find answers from people within your community and online. Interested in agriculture? Contact your local agriculture extension office or search out the agriculture division of a nearby university. Cornell Cooperative Extension is one example of a great resource. Cornell maintains a small farms program, which helps small farmers get started.

Talk to a local CSA (community supported agriculture) owner.

access to tools

Over the past few months, lots of info has been cropping up about four couples who built their own tiny-home community on the banks of the Llano river in Texas. Dubbed the “Llano Exit Strategy,” this village is the perfect example of how well self-sufficiency integrates into a small community.

Unless you’re a strict isolationist, forming tight bonds with others living the independent lifestyle is an absolute must. After all, no matter how many hours you spend researching techniques like farming, water filtration, and energy production, you’re unlikely to master them all. A communal lifestyle allows members to focus and hone their skills in specific areas for maximum effect. You’re still likely to learn a little bit about everything, and you’ll have an expert on hand when you need them the most.

Here comes the best part. You can now try out this style of living without making any serious commitments. The Mt Hood Tiny House Village allows you to rent up to five tiny homes at once. By spending some time in a rental tiny house, you’ll be able to get a feel for the compact lifestyle and sample some creative storage solutions first hand.

Renting out the entire village with friends or family will also give you a good chance to practice living in a self-sufficient, tight-knit community. All five homes feature a nearby grill and share a communal fire pit. Bring someone with good campfire cooking experience and you’re guaranteed to learn a thing or two.

For anyone interested in homesteading, but wary of leaving some of the conveniences of modern life, this is the perfect jumping off point. The tiny homes offered at Mt Hood are custom builds constructed by Tumbleweed and are a great example of just how luxurious tiny living can be. In the words of one renter, “The loft was very spacious. Even more so than our own.”

Rent a Tiny-Home Community

They may agree to let you work for knowledge and food. Talk to local small farmers and homesteaders; most love to tell you what they do and why.

Find groups and clubs who specialize in what you want to learn. You'll find bee clubs, garden clubs, car clubs, and more.

Do you want to learn about hydroponics or how to play a guitar? No matter what you're trying to learn, there's a business already doing it. They may have classes, books, or seminars, but they will all have expert advice in their field.

In today's world, it's so easy to search the internet and gain knowledge. Find people who are already doing what you want to learn—people who have like-minded ideas and philosophies as yourself. Read their blogs, watch their videos, and sign up for their newsletters.

There is no age limit and definitely no criteria for what you can learn.

And, of course, the best means of learning is doing. So just start doing; don't wait until you know everything, because you never will. And half the fun of learning is doing.

©Istockphoto.com/Rawpixel Ltd

6 Independence Monthly | July 2016

Reclaiming Survival Skills while Living a Simpler Life

By Tom Kerr

Independence In actIon

These days, I work from home…or from wherever I happen to be. I don’t owe

anyone a cent and make enough money freelancing to support my simple, debt-free lifestyle. I live in a rustic home in the woods of western North Carolina next to a magnificent river and within commuting distance of a small city, in case I need anything urban life has to offer.

Within the past few hours, my visitors included a rafter of wild turkeys and a stately whitetail deer. From my porch, I can usually spot a gray heron and a family of wood ducks…and Canadian geese frequently fly overhead, as do watchful and graceful hawks.

Winters are cold here, but I heat with wood and stay nice and toasty even when there’s a power outage in the area. I often cook in my fireplace and have a supply of fresh water from the well. There is sufficient firewood in the shed to weather three hard winters and, in a few weeks, there will be enough vegetables in the garden to prepare a feast for a dozen friends.

But I haven’t always lived this way.

From High Rise to Mountainside

Twenty years ago, I lived in the mega-city of Houston, Texas in a cookie-cutter suburb. I sat in traffic for hours every day while driving back and forth to my corporate sales job inside a fluorescent-lit, glass-box high rise.

The climate was hot nine months of the year, and unbearable

without air conditioning. I suffered from chronic respiratory and skin problems that doctors said were related to allergens, stress, or both.

I began to question my purpose in life and my sense of self. I talked to a psychologist, who told me, “You seem so disconnected from yourself that I want you to go home, take off all your clothes, lie down on the floor, and don’t move until you are motivated to do something you really want. Take it from there, one small step at a time.”

Two weeks later, I called for a follow-up appointment and was informed by the receptionist that my therapist had died.

Synchronicity wasn’t on my side.I decided that to get my life back

I needed to start over and create a brand new one from scratch. But instead of taking off my clothes, I removed virtually all of the external trappings of my life.

I quit my job, gave away or sold most of my belongings, moved to a little, remote cabin in the mountains of Appalachia, and embarked—cold-turkey—on a lifestyle that I wasn’t sure I could endure.

Retreating to RediscoverI figured synchronicity was

returning to my life because the name of the little mountain community I chose was Independence.

It had a population of 800, and I mostly used my vehicle for occasional trips to the nearest town when I needed essential supplies. I wasn’t completely off the grid, by any means. But I heated with wood,

cooked outside over an open fire, and hauled water from the spring-fed creek to bathe and flush the toilet. After dark, I used oil lamps, and on wintry mornings, I put glowing embers from the woodstove into an ashcan and used it as a space heater.

When I found a mysterious, sticky stain on the floor, I traced it to the ceiling. Placing my hand there on the rough-hewn oak planks, I found they were unusually warm to the touch, vibrating a little, and buzzing loudly. Then I realized it was body heat from a swarm of bees busy making the wildflower honey that was dripping into my home. The hive was inaccessible, so I couldn’t harvest the honeycombs. But I did manage to capture some honey in a coffee cup I placed beneath it.

I kept a journal, and I immersed myself in the Foxfire Books, a 12-volume series of books based on interviews with folks in southern Appalachia who lived off the land for generations. Each book covers a different set of homesteading skills.

Taking time out in the wilderness helped Tom Kerr to find a more

independent lifestyle.

©D

ream

stim

e.co

m/D

avea

llenp

hoto

7Independence Monthly | July 2016

Get the best heat from your fire by choosing good firewood.

• Hardwoods are best; thanks to their dense cellular structure, they burn slow and steady for sustained heat. Dead wood is abundantly available, so you don’t need to kill a tree—just avoid rotten wood.

• The fuel value of wood depends largely upon its water content, and fresh cut wood contains up to 50% moisture. Wood that has been cut and stacked to dry for at least six months and preferably a year is the most reliable and easiest to use to start a fire.

• Pine for kindling or fire starter ignites immediately. But the resin can create creosote build-up inside chimneys or stove pipes. If it catches fire, it can be catastrophic.

• It is safer to use kindling made from small sticks of very dry hardwood, or store-bought fire starters made from paraffin and sawdust.

I learned from the tales of those old-timers to hand-carve a massive yoke out of a block of raw bass wood for a farmer in the area who plowed with a team of supersized oxen.

I read about using a spring house over a cold creek for alternative refrigeration…and constructed one for myself so I no longer depended on my fridge. I learned to grow cold-weather vegetables and to cut, split, and properly stack firewood. Soon, I knew how to sharpen my hand tools with a file—or the bottom of an unglazed ceramic cup. I accidentally found out that a thick, stout oak tree limb that I was normally unable to cut with an axe would burst into pieces with a single blow from a small hatchet if I waited until the wood was frozen solid.

I baked apple cobbler in a Dutch oven, over a fire pit, and used the ashes as nutrients to grow bigger potatoes. When I burned my hand

pretty badly and the ointment purchased at a pharmacy by a friend didn’t work, I was able to stop the pain and accelerate the healing with an Appalachian folk remedy made from vinegar and native plants. I began to appreciate, relish, and adopt the rituals of a more organic life. Over a period of two years, living almost like a hermit, I reinvented myself in a more natural and sustainably harmonious way.

The chronic health problems and hacking cough from the city disappeared and never returned. Along the way, I discovered the incalculable and incomparable value of a more independent lifestyle.

Freelancing and Geographic FreedomEventually, I moved to the

outskirts of Asheville, N.C., a small city about 100 miles away, to be closer to friends, but I took a lot

of valuable lessons with me. I needed work and to follow my passions, so I apprenticed as a stone mason. I was shown the centuries-old method of dry-stacking without mortar so that walls and other structures would last for 200 years without tilting and crumbling.

Stone masonry was a viable trade, but it was also a personal form of meditation. To succeed you have to find the “sweet spot” and gravitational center of each rock, and to do so I had to simultaneously find my own center of gravity that revolved around calm patience, sensitive awareness, and steadiness of hand. I plied that trade for a few years while also freelancing as a gardener and landscaper.

Then the journal-keeping I had begun while living as

a hermit evolved into freelance writing—and that developed into a new career covering music, art, and entertainment events for newspapers and magazines.

When it occurred to me that freelance writing was a portable career, I invested in a laptop computer and airfare and began to travel. I could submit my assignments to editors from anywhere and support myself financially without the legal requirement of applying for a work permit or special visa. My employers paid me through direct deposit in the U.S., and I

Fueling Your Home for Free

Tom Kerr learned skills like building a fire stove and freelance writing to achieve the

kind of independence he now enjoys.

8 Independence Monthly | July 2016

withdrew funds as needed using wire transfers or an ATM card.

That was convenient, but it also meant that I could support the local economy wherever I lived, without competing with the locals for jobs. I lived for several months in Central America, where the majority of people struggle just to put food on the table. The cost of living was cheap since I was spending strong American dollars, and I was able to contribute in some small way to the local economy as a consumer while also doing volunteer work in my spare time.

Settling into a Community

When I returned to the Asheville area to help care for a sick family member, I moved into a small cottage in the woods with a woodstove and fireplace and worked from home while doing pro bono work for nonprofit organizations whenever feasible. Volunteerism introduced me to a group of accomplished artists, and they inspired me to take up painting, a hobby I had abandoned around the same time I began my unsatisfying corporate career.

During a snowstorm that stranded me in my mountain cottage, I placed my easel next to a north-facing window for that soft light that artists prefer and painted for 10 hours a day. From then on, I was hooked and painting became my winter pastime, especially on weekends when the weather outside was inhospitable.

When springtime came, I was asked to volunteer to help promote a local nonprofit that mentors and tutors children challenged by poverty. They were holding a fundraiser, auctioning off original works of art, and enlisted me to write their press releases. While I don’t make enough as a writer to be a philanthropist, I can afford oils, paints, and canvas.

So, for the past three years, I have donated paintings to that organization that have sold them for generous amounts of money—and all of the funds go directly to initiatives that help children and their families break the cycle of multigenerational poverty. To me, the privilege and reward of helping those kids is priceless and is another unexpected benefit of living a more intentionally independent life.

Living more independently affords me luxuries that I can’t buy in the marketplace. Pursuing that kind of lifestyle also guides me into experiences that I wouldn’t trade for the world. Please don’t get me wrong. Life isn’t easy. But in my experience, a more independent and unfettered life can definitely be easier—and much more pleasant, exciting, and fulfilling.

Tom Kerr has kept himself warm in his rural homes by building his own fire pit. Here are his tips on how to do it successfully:

• When building a fire pit with a ring of stones, make an oval with a large, tall, flat stone at one end. It will draw annoying smoke upward and away while reflecting heat back toward you.

• At the opposite end, remove enough stones to leave an opening of about 10 inches, which will invite more air flow into the fire.

• Concrete blocks, river rocks, and ordinary bricks, as well as regular mortar or cement typically contain pockets of moisture. When heated, that

water turns to steam and rapidly expands, which can actually cause an explosion.

• Instead, always use special “fire bricks” and “fire mortar” when constructing a fireplace or chimney to avoid that kind of dangerous mishap.

• Fires are fueled by oxygen, so ensure that the fire has good airflow—otherwise, it will choke itself out and die.

• To encourage a healthy flow of oxygen, place the wood in a slightly elevated position on a grate and ensure there is some space beneath the firewood for the fire to breathe.

How to Build Your Own Fire Pit

Learning old-timer skills is a great way to feel more empowered about

what you can do for yourself.

©Is

tock

phot

o.co

m/s

man

ter

9Independence Monthly | July 2016

Extend the Growing Season by Upcycling in Your Garden—

and Save Money to BootBy Andy Fleming

sImple lIvIng

You’d be surprised the kinds of things you have sitting around your backyard or cellar that can

save you hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars if you’re willing to put in a little work to clean or repair them. And you won’t have to rely so much on municipal trash removal.

Upcycling means you’re creating something different and personal that will most likely give you a sense of pride. What you choose to make can be either practical or decorative…lanterns from old wine bottles, herb planters from old bathtubs, or barbecue grills from old drums.

Creating something from upcycled materials gives it a personal touch and gives you a much better understanding of how the finished product works.

Countless people only seem to feel content if they have the most up-to-date version of their cellphone or tablet and scoff at the notion of buying anything “used.” Independent thinkers know better: “junk” repurposed into functional tools and materials is just as good as anything made in a factory.

Here in the U.S., we generate about 220 million tons of waste each year, much of which still has potential uses. That’s not only bad for the environment; it’s also bad for your wallet. Modern culture encourages rampant and excessive consumerism. You can become independent of it by taking a second look at what you’re about to throw out.

Here are some handy techniques for creating useful gardening structures from common household items that often end up in the trash.

The Cold FrameLive in any one house for long

enough and you’re almost guaranteed to have to replace a few windows—or you can find one on Freecycle. Don’t throw the old ones away; they make the perfect material to build a mini-greenhouse.

Compact greenhouse boxes are easy to build and will allow you to plant seeds early without fear of frost damage. Depending on your local climate, you might be able to extend your growing season by up to four months.

The only thing you really need, besides a window or two, are bricks or bales of hay. Because hay and window glass make great insulators, these cold frames will stay warm even during light wintery conditions.

If you’re using hay, all you need to do is arrange the bales in a U-shape roughly the size of your window(s) so that the opening faces south. Lean your window against the bales so that it becomes the “ceiling” of the cold frame and fill in any gaps with extra hay. You’ll also want to add a layer of hay between the bottom of your window and the ground to help the whole structure insulate.

The Branch ClocheThe “Branch Cloche” is the

perfect build for any self-sufficient gardener, as almost all the needed materials can be found in nature. This structure will help keep plants warm during early spring months and ward off late frosts.

The bulk of this build is made from tree branches. Cedar works best because it’s flexible and has natural rot-resistant properties, but you can use branches from pretty much any conifer. You’ll need some bits of string, staples, and some transparent plastic sheeting.1. Find a few branches (six is a

good starting number) and prune off any branch spurs, and then sharpen the bottom of each branch so it can be easily inserted into the dirt.

2. Stick the branches into the soil in your garden in two rows, about every six inches. You’re essentially building a frame to form your cloche, so your branches should be long enough that they will overlap if you bend them. Here’s a picture of what you’re going for. You want the branches to go down about 12 inches to make sure they’re secure. If you’re having trouble getting them in the dirt, it could be a sign that the soil in your garden is too compacted. If this seems to be the case, loosen the soil and try again.

3. Bend the branches into hoop shapes to form the frame. Twisting the branches around one another will help create the shape you’re looking for. Tie each pair of branches together with string.

Using old windows to create cold frames gives you a much longer

growing season.

©is

tock

phot

o.co

m/S

Fpho

to

10 Independence Monthly | July 2016

Don’t worry if the hoop shape isn’t perfect, you’ll reinforce it during the next step.

4. Lay a straight branch or stick along the top of the hoops and tie it in place to form a ridge. Scrap lumber or an old broom handle works great here. As you tie each hoop to the stick, pull them into position so the ridge is tied at the approximate center. This helps the whole construction keep a uniform shape.

5. Cut a piece of plastic 36 inches longer than the entire cloche and wide enough to cover the hoops. Lay the plastic over the entire frame and fasten it to the hoops and ridge. You may need to trim the ends of the plastic, depending on the size of your garden.

Make sure the structure is enclosed during cold nights and roll up the ends of your cloche during hotter days to allow for ventilation and prevent overheating. The cloche can be removed entirely once the weather is consistently warm. In order to keep the branches from springing out at you when you remove them from the ground, simply tie the base of each branch to the one opposite.

Drip Irrigation BottlesInstead of recycling empty

plastic bottles, put them to good use. Drip irrigation is great to have in any garden for a number of reasons. It allows you to avoid encouraging weeds by only watering the plants you want to grow and helps a garden thrive in arid environments. It’s also a great solution for vine garden crops that don’t respond well to sprinkler systems, like pumpkins and zucchini.

All you need to get started is one plastic bottle per plant, a knife or box cutter, and a shovel or garden trowel.1. Put two small slits in the bottom

third of the bottle, one opposite the other. Then turn the bottle upside down and add three-to-five small slits in the bottom.

2. Fill the bottle with water and hold it up to see how fast the water drips through the slits. You want a slow, steady drip. Getting the size and number of slits perfect can be a little tricky, so start with just a few tiny incisions and add more if need be. Empty the bottle once it feels right.

access to tools

Between ever-expanding internet businesses and the advent of the sharing economy, new ways to earn a few extra bucks on the side appear every day. The best part is that many of these “side gigs” require very little effort on your part and can be done from any location with internet access. If you know what you’re doing, you can make money while on the bus or while sitting in a waiting room.

• Become an eBay Middleman: If you’ve ever used eBay to sell extra stuff, you already know everything you need to become an eBay “Middleman.” SaleHoo offers a service which connects you to wholesale suppliers so that you can become a “dropshipper.” Basically, you set up an eBay storefront page which sells goods at retail prices. You never have to directly handle the products yourself because they’re shipped directly from the wholesaler, and you receive profit from the price markup. SaleHoo offers several helpful guides on setting up an eBay storefront, and a comprehensive guide to dropshipping can be found here.

• Serve as an Online Juror: Attorneys preparing cases for jury trials often seek test jury panels to see how a random sampling of people will respond to the case. You can earn up to $1 per minute simply by reviewing cases on OnlineVerdict and weighing in with your opinion.

• Join a Focus Group: FindFocusGroups.com offers a database of programs actively seeking people to focus test products and services. The site is easily broken down into jobs which require your physical presence and those that can be completed online. If you meet certain target demographics, you can earn hundreds of dollars by giving your opinion on music, food, beauty products, and marketing campaigns. It’s a great way to earn cash and get some free stuff too.

Three Tips to Earn Some Extra Cash from Home

©Is

tock

phot

o.co

m/E

l4an

es

Create your own cloche using branches and you’ll save on costs.

©ea

rthe

asy

11Independence Monthly | July 2016

3. Take the bottle to your garden and bury it in the soil next to a plant you want to irrigate.

4. Fill the bottle with water daily. Three-quarters full for a 1L bottle is a good amount.

You’re finished. The bottles will slowly drip into the soil, irrigating the earth around the roots of your plant. Check the bottles a few times during the first day to make sure they’re draining properly. You should only need to fill them once every 24 hours.

The CD-Spindle Herb Greenhouse

Now that the age of CDs is over and digital music dominates the industry, why not turn old CD spindles into tiny herb greenhouses? These make great propagators for starting seeds or helping moisture-loving plants to flourish.

All you need is a knife or some scissors, a little bit of putty or other sealant (even tape will work), and a small pot for your plant. 1. Use your cutting tool to remove the central

column from the spindle.2. Plug any holes in the bottom of the case with

sealant.3. Drill holes in the cover to allow air to reach

your plants. 4. Place your potted plant in the spindle, and

seal the case.That’s it for this simple build. Here’s a video

guide if you need any clarification. If you have more CD cases than CD spindles, you can turn them into a mini greenhouse as well.

Journal of a Wannabe HomesteaderBy Cleo Murphy

The overgrown garden that looked so full of potential in January when I moved in has blossomed into a jungle in the summer heat. I struggle to find time to whack back its excesses amid the pressure of a busy life.

I would feel totally demoralized if it weren’t for the fact that I managed to dig the space that was covered by the previous grower. (The blessings of my heart go out to him.) The earth was soft beneath my spade and for an hour one Saturday morning in February, I felt like a real farmer. I got a few buckets of dark, rich compost from a friend and mixed it in.

Now, I was ready for my first crop—potatoes.

Potatoes are a great crop for breaking up old ground. You dig in deep because you’ll need to bank up the stem as the plant grows. The tubers grow out from the stem in the little hill that surrounds it. All through April, May, and June, they continue to grow in their darkened home as I weed around them and pile up more earth to keep them protected.

I’m waiting patiently for the moment…

A poetic British friend once described it as “the golden orbs emerging from the earth.” At another harvest, my three-year-old niece squealed in delight, “Oh look…anudder tayto!”

Don’t harvest potatoes alone. The joy of it simply has to be shared.

Very soon now. Very soon…

In the meantime, I’m preparing my follow-on crop. Purple sprouting broccoli is the ideal second act in a four-part crop rotation program. I planted the seeds in little pots at the end of April, and they are waiting their turn to go into the ground when the potatoes come out. They’re a slow, winter grower and will be ready for cutting around February…just when you need something fresh and new on your dinner plate.

Right now, they require daily watering during the dry spell, but that just means I get to stroll down the garden to check on their progress every day.

And even if I groan inwardly at the height of the grasses and the proliferation of weeds on the walkway, at least I know my potatoes and broccoli are happily growing.

It’s a start, folks, it’s a start.

An overgrown garden is full of potential...it just requires a little

effort to get it in shape.

Three Tips to Earn Some Extra Cash from Home

© W

alde

n Pu

blis

hing

/Cle

o M

urph

y

Let plastic bottles do the work for you...irrigating your garden during dry spells.

©Istockphoto.com/DLeoinis

12 Independence Monthly | July 2016

Health Benefits Now, Food Security Later: Why Growing Your

Own is a Win-Win ActivityBy Cleo Murphy

Marjory Wildcraft is 53 but feels better than she did as a teenager.

“My health has improved—my physical ability, flexibility, agility, and mental fitness. I’m almost at the point where I’m more physically fit than I was when I was a teenager. I can certainly skateboard better now,” she says.

But better health wasn’t the reason why Marjory and her husband, David Glowka, wound down their financial services company, moved from Austin, Texas to the small, rural community of Red Rock, and began cultivating the land to produce their own food.

“I got into this from a survival mindset,” explains Marjory, an engineer by training. “I had become a money manager and had my own investment company. That’s when I started looking at how the world’s financial markets worked. I realized that the United States was bankrupt, and we were going to be facing economic collapse at some point in the future.

“I did a lot of interviews and visited countries where economic

Having her own food source makes Marjory Wildcraft feel more secure.

collapse had occurred to see how they coped. I visited Cuba about 20 years ago when the Soviet Union collapsed and they lost all their imports overnight. Argentina recently underwent a collapse, and I’ve done a lot of interviews with people who went through that process.

“I read a lot about different historical events—civil wars and major traumatic tsunami events. I knew a French woman who had lived through WW2. There’s also Weimar Germany during the First World War, and even the southern United States during the Civil War. And, yes, you should know how to handle a gun…yes, you should have basic medical training and be able to handle home medicine…but the most important thing that people talked about was that they were hungry.”

Marjory’s research made her more conscious of the need to have your own supply of locally grown food. She began to look at the situation around her in Texas and made a terrifying discovery.

Reality Bites “I had no intention of growing

my own at that point. I preferred to eat out and have someone cook for me,” she admits.

But realizing the need to know your local farmer, she volunteered with the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. At the time, they wanted to have locally grown food available for schools. Enthused by the idea, Marjory proposed a pilot project for the local elementary school. It had the backing of the state, grants were made available, and

the growers were on board. Teachers and parents were pleased because of the association between better food and higher grades. The whole project seemed to be on course for success.

But when they sat down to work out the details, reality hit.

“There were not enough farmers in the entire county to supply enough fresh vegetables for part of the lunches at one elementary school,” recalls Marjory. “It scared the living daylights out of me. I was shaking for hours after we discovered that. People have this idea that there’s plenty of food growing out in the countryside. There is no locally grown food. We are all dependent on a just-in-time trucking system.”

First StepsThat was back in 2003, and it was

the turning point for Marjory and David. They decided to go the self-sufficient route.

Along with their two children, they moved to Red Rock, but their business was still in financial investment. Marjory started a garden but made the initial, classical mistake of being too ambitious. She had taken her cue from David’s grandmother, Nanny, who was growing food on her own acre of land.

“Nanny grew up growing food since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, following her parents around,” says Marjory. “By the time she was a grown woman, she was able for that.”

Marjory followed suit, ploughed up an acre of land, and was left with an acre of weeds and frustration.

Independence In actIon

13Independence Monthly | July 2016

Reap and Sow: Outsource Your Garden access to tools

“It was quite humbling to go from being a big-time money manager, signing checks for $100,000 or $500,000 daily, to being faced with tomatoes that were dying,” she says. “I was in tears.

“An acre is way too much land, starting out. You really don’t need that much. You can do a huge amount on your average backyard space. You should begin with 50 square feet.”

In addition to her early tribulations, Marjory lives in an intersection of several different

biospheres where she experiences extreme drought, extreme flooding, poor soil, extreme heat, and extreme cold. She’s thought about moving to easier climates, but she loves the area and figures if you can grow your own food there, you can do it anywhere.

Ongoing Motivation It took three years for Marjory

and David to wrap up their finance company, but by doing so, they avoided the bankruptcy that would have been inevitable when the bust came. 2008 brought confirmation of everything Marjory had feared and predicted, and she was horrified by talking heads on TV discussing the crisis she had forecast.

“The US is still bankrupt,” she says. “What I underestimated was the government’s ability to spend a trillion dollars and keep the country afloat.”

She still believes in the need for “preparedness,” but these days, her motivation comes more from realizing

the health benefits of fresh, organic, home-grown food for herself and her family.

She is the founder of The Grow Network, which has 125,000 online members worldwide and aims to have 10% of Americans growing half their own food.

“One of the things I can do easily and quickly is show people how to grow their own food in their back yard in less than an hour a day,” says Marjory. “We’re looking at the impact of water savings, fuel savings, and a reduction in pesticides in our water sheds if 10% of people were growing half their own food. But we’re a global organization, and the next question is: how do we inspire 33 million people to grow their own food?”

So while she enjoys an outdoor life of growing food, eating well, and knowing that she has a food supply in the event of economic collapse, Marjory is determined to spread the word and bring more people to this way of life.

When she started out, Marjory Wildcraft could barely grow a tomato but now she’s producing excellent vegetables

like this magnificent cabbage.

If you like the idea of growing fresh produce in your own yard but hate the thought of digging in the dirt…listen up. Not wanting to put in the extra effort is no excuse in the age of the sharing economy.

You can rent out your lawn to local gardeners and split the resulting harvest. You might even be able to pick up some tips and techniques from experienced workers, or find someone with additional skills like beekeeping, giving you some opportunities to branch out in the future.

Anywhere with a demand for community gardens is ripe for renting yard space, and pre-existing community gardens are a good spot to post information if you want

to rent out your yard. Yardsharing.org is a useful site that helps to pair gardeners with those who have garden space to work. Their goal is to foster relations within communities and encourage as many people as possible to move toward food independence.

Fleet Farming offers some similar programs and will actually set up raised garden beds on your property for a fee. A 18-square-foot veggie bed will cost $350, but subsidies are available. Fleet farming mostly operates in Florida at the moment, but they are very interested in expanding to cover more territory. Their website allows you to easily contact a program director about setting up a service

in your area if one isn’t currently available.

Fleet Farming doesn’t just focus on growing food; they also transport and sell it at local farmers markets. Even if you have to spend some money to set up a garden with the program, you can expect to recoup some of that from produce sales.

In fact, using any part of your yard simply to grow grass is a big waste of both water and space.

©Dreamstime.com/Forestpath

14 Independence Monthly | July 2016

Enjoy the Simple Pleasure of Cooking for Friends

By Anna Lebedeva

In 1986, Carlo Petrini, a food and wine journalist, stood on the Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy

with a small group of friends holding bowlfuls of homemade pasta to protest the opening of a McDonald’s branch in the historic center of the Eternal City.

This was the start of the international movement called Slow Food. Its growing number of members wanted good, clean, and fairly produced food to come back in our lives.

By 2000, the U.S. had embraced the Slow Food philosophy as more and more Americans wanted to know where and how their food was grown. Today, there are more than 200 chapters of the Slow Food movement in the U.S., all run by volunteers.

Laurell Sims is one of the directors of the Chicago chapter. “What is nice about having Slow Food chapters is that you find folks who are as excited about food as you are, which creates an instant community to dig deeper with,” she says.

“Becoming part of the Slow Food movement is as simple as preparing a meal. It’s beginning to incorporate Slow Food values into your daily life, simply at first and more abundantly as you can.

“Commit to making one local meal a week. Talk to your grandparents about what they ate as children. Research a local food and try out a new recipe.”

An Act of Defiance Finding time to cook a meal

is an empowering act of defiance nowadays. Researching long forgotten recipes and ingredients takes time, but it allows you to slow down, enjoy life’s small pleasures, and connect with those around you.

“For me, independence—and thriftiness—are about growing food and cooking,” says Chris Howell, vice-chair of the Slow Food movement in Vermont. “A kitchen garden with some leafy greens and just a few fresh herbs will go a long way to improving the food you already cook and inspire you to explore new recipes. Slow Food provides a local and global community to energize, educate, and welcome new people and ideas into your kitchen.

“I spend the majority of my personal food dollars at City Market Co-op, a full-blown, locally focused grocery store that makes buying healthy, fresh food easy and affordable. In the summer and fall, I split a weekly CSA (community supported agriculture—see sidebar) share with friends: on Mondays, we pick up our share and cook dinner

together, aiming to have some left over for another meal or two during the week. I also run a culinary tour company and buy the bulk of the food for the business from area farms.”

Join the HarvestAs a means to food security and

independency, Slow Food encourages small-scale farmers to grow forgotten local crops in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner to feed their families and sell excess.

In many locations, it organizes “crop mobs”—getting groups of city dwellers together to help local farms with harvesting. You can also participate in a fruit-gleaning and canning initiative (e.g. in Denver) to gather fruit in public areas and learn how to make jams and preserves, taking some of those home and sharing the rest with local nonprofits.

By encouraging local producers, Slow Food has established something of a micro-economy, matching producer with consumer. It has been successfully teaching people to make conscious choices…and to be curious about the story behind the food on their family table.

Over the last century, many heirloom fruit, vegetable, and grain varieties have been forsaken in favor of commercial, often genetically modified crops with higher yields to secure increased profits for a handful of big multinationals.

According to the Slow Food data, more than 90% of crop varieties have disappeared and half of the breeds of domestic animals have been lost. In

sImple lIvIng

Find folks who are as excited about food as you are, advises Laurell Sims

of Slow Food in Chicago.

15Independence Monthly | July 2016

the U.S., just three large companies control processing of 70% of beef, and 80% of corn seeds are patented by one company.

“Having an organization advocating for preserving native foods is critical, or those foods will become extinct,” says Laurell. “We’ve already lost over 85% of our native foods.”

Global MovementLaurell visited Uganda on a

farmer exchange at one of Slow Food’s 10,000 Gardens for Africa projects. There, she saw the good the Slow Food movement was doing on an international level.

“Internationally, Slow Food is viewed as a lifestyle, as the right thing to do,” explains Laurell.

She was inspired to bring what she learned there back home to Chicago.

“We need an organization such as Slow Food on an institutional level to challenge large corporations, while at the same time on a community level to advocate for regional food biodiversity and fair food, and for communities to come together over a shared meal,” she says.

Slow Food International and its founder, Carlo Petrini, are often mentioned as part of various global initiatives and campaigns—such as the recent Indigenous Terra Madre event in India where 600 representa-tives of indigenous communities from 58 countries got together to talk about the future of food, culture, and life on earth. (It takes place again this September in Italy.)

The movement also organizes petitions against wide uses of pesticides and voices its protests against the use of genetically modified crops.

But behind all those headlines, there is a practical side that everyone can use as a step to a self-sufficient, independent life…whether you are a small-scale farmer or conscious consumer. Local chapters connect food growers with volunteers willing to help with seed starting, weeding, thinning, harvesting, and then share a farm lunch after a morning of hard work. If you are a consumer, you have the power to shape food production practices at a local level through many opportunities offered by Slow Food.

Grow Your FoodGrowing your food is easier than

you can imagine. Start with a few boxes on your windowsill or a small vegetable patch in the backyard. Slow Food supports a network of school and community gardens (see the full list here) that welcome volunteers. If

nothing like that exists in your area, organize one and contact Slow Food for advice, marketing assistance, and a small grant. Join a local seed exchange or buy from such reputable companies as Sustainable Seed Company, Seed Savers Exchange, and Nature and Nurture Seeds, which are striving to bring back rare heirloom varieties.

Meet the FarmerThere are many ways to connect

with the people who grow sustainable

Get on Board the “Ark of Taste”

Like Noah saving the species from the flood, one of Slow Food’s greatest initiatives is the Ark of Taste which promotes biodiversity and catalogues heritage breeds and varieties, as well as foods facing extinction.

You can buy seeds to grow in your backyard; such rare varieties as “Early Blood Turnip” beet that dates back to 1825, “Tennis Ball” lettuce loved by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, or “Hidatsa Shield” bean from the ancient Hidatsa tribe in North Dakota.

When shopping at farmers markets or traveling across the country, look for some of the 200 crops and foods that are on the Ark of Taste catalogue. They are not only delicious but also tightly connected to the community and its history.

Independence is about growing food and cooking it, according to Chris Howell of Slow Food in Vermont.

16 Independence Monthly | July 2016

food in your area. Join one of the farm tours to grass-fed-cattle ranches, fruit orchards, or urban permaculture farms organized by your local Slow Food chapters to meet the people who grow good, clean, and fair produce. Buy fresh seasonal produce at a local farmers market.

With more than 8,000 farmers markets nationwide, you are bound to have one nearby (see the full directory here). Alternatively, you can go to an on-farm market selling fresh produce directly to consumers on the premises (find the nearest on-farm market here). If you are curious about the workings of a farm and want to get your hands dirty, there are plenty of opportunities. Some farms offer a share of fresh produce in exchange for help.

Laurell believes that knowing where your food comes from is powerful. “Buying food from those you know allows you to make real decisions about what and whom you are supporting,” she says. “Buying food from those you know and come to love forms community, and community is the backbone of resilience and self-sufficiency. While we would all love to live more independent lives, but the truth is we need each other, and knowing who you can trust eliminates blind spots and allows us to make self-sufficient choices.”

Dine Out WiselyAs a consumer, you can support

this movement by choosing your restaurant carefully. Whenever possible, dine in the restaurants that meet Slow Food standards and have received the organization’s “Snail of Approval” award. That way, you will be sure to support small, local producers who supply the restaurant with sustainable, seasonal ingredients

and chefs that strive to bring the best of home-style food to their customers. Many local chapters list Slow Food approved eateries on their websites, like this one for Philadelphia.

Scott Lewis, chairperson of Slow Food Glades to Coast in Florida, accepts that this is a niche option.

“While not everyone can regularly patronize high end restaurants that use farm-to-table approaches, there are many aspects of Slow Food that anyone can practice—including supporting school garden programs that encourage students to grow food, growing your own food, eating with friends and family members while

using good food produced fairly and with respect for the environment,” he says.

“One of the great parts of eating seasonally is that such foods are often abundant at that time—so they are cheaper than at other times of the year. Slow Food is a broad movement that encompasses a range of people and accommodates a number of approaches to supporting good, clean, fair food.”

Another way of making a change in your local food production system is participating in the CSA program. It has been developing in parallel with the Slow Food movement since the 80s, and both promote self-reliant, independent micro-economies and co-involvement in the food growing process.

The Community Supported Agriculture concept is based on the idea of knowing the farmers who feed you. Members of the community pay in advance for a share of seasonal produce of a farm (or a group of farms). The payments are collected early in the year before the produce season starts, when the farmer is planting the crops and needs the money most.

When the season starts, CSA members receive a weekly box of fresh produce delivered to a drop-off point in their neighborhood. There are more than 12,500 community-supported farms supplying farm-fresh food across the U.S. Share costs vary by farm and can be anything from $400 to $650 to cover a weekly box of vegetables, fruit, eggs, and meat for a family of two or three people. Many CSA farms grow certified organic crops and free-range animals. Members of CSAs understand the shared risk of the venture and that if the crops fail for one reason or another, their produce supplies will be limited.

Most CSAs offer flexible payment plans, and some accept food stamps and/or offer sliding scale fees and even financial assistance to ensure that the scheme is also accessible to limited-income households.

CSAs encourage their members to visit their farms and often organize volunteering days and community events. Find full list of CSAs here.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Share Your StoryDo you live a tale of independent life to share? We’d love to hear from you. Drop an email to editor@waldenpublishing.com