Latest / SpaceTomatoes / You Don't Own That Tractor Agricultural Agorism with Geoff Wacker S3-EP11
Transcript
- 0:00they they're gonna pass because i've processed and it wasn't processed by somebody that really
- 0:06didn't care for the chicken or you know i mean they just they just stare at you know cut it open
- 0:11and you know move on whereas i i cared for the chicken i processed the chicken you know humanely
- 0:19and then i packaged it beautifully and they're still like weird weird about it yeah it's so weird
- 0:27It is weird.
- 0:28My parents were like that at first, and they didn't want to try the eggs from my house.
- 0:35And then I finally got them to do it, and then they're like, oh, those are great.
- 0:39And then they want more.
- 0:41It just takes that little bit of a try there at first.
- 0:45But it was like a thing.
- 0:47We had a friend come over, and we went out and got eggs fresh from the coop.
- 0:51Which, by the way, that's not a morning thing.
- 0:53I don't know who came up with that idea, but mine are like noon.
- 0:57It's never in the morning.
- 0:58Two in the afternoon.
- 1:00Three o'clock's a nice time to go get them all.
- 1:02Right?
- 1:03So, you know, I went out there and collected some eggs and brought them in.
- 1:06I'm like, yeah, let's have some eggs.
- 1:08And I put them down and grabbed one of them, picked it up.
- 1:11He goes, it's still warm.
- 1:12Is this safe?
- 1:14I'm like, there's no safer thing on the planet to digest, man.
- 1:27all right everybody welcome back to another episode of the space tomatoes podcast i'm one
- 1:45of your hosts havoc i'm the other guy lx hello welcome back all that other guy we love him
- 1:52Today we have with us a special guest, Jeff Wacker, author of Agricultural Agrism, From Soil to Sovereignty.
- 2:01Welcome to the show, Jeff.
- 2:02Jeff.
- 2:03Thank you. Thank you.
- 2:06So, I guess we'll start off real quick.
- 2:10What is agorism?
- 2:14What is agorism?
- 2:15Um, well, agorism is, it is free market, right?
- 2:24So it is the expression of that free market.
- 2:27Um, so I guess I get so amped up.
- 2:33So agorism is the, the expression.
- 2:36It's the action, um, of the market.
- 2:39Um, it's, it's colors, black and gray kind of represent those markets.
- 2:44A lot of the agorism is done in like the black and gray markets just as being done freely, right?
- 2:52So once you've changed your mind on what that looks like, the action is easy.
- 2:58So that's kind of like the layman's terms.
- 3:02Yeah, I like to say one of the things I like to say in the crowd, the liberty-oriented crowd is anarchy is the idea.
- 3:13Yeah. Agorism is the way. Right. And yeah, it really is just kind of removing the middleman, allowing free market trade between two individuals that agree on a price and, you know, are both walking away feeling like they they did OK in that deal with nobody coming in and saying, well, we're going to protect you by robbing you.
- 3:37right or we just would like to just be a part of this transaction for
- 3:43no reason just to be a part of it yeah yeah yeah and take our cut i'm sure i'm sure you know that's
- 3:48part of it too right absolutely and it's and it is and and i think that um i think the word
- 3:58agorism puts a puts a name on it puts a face on it right um but you still have so many people out
- 4:05there that are doing this all the time. They don't realize it. They don't put a name to it
- 4:10every day, but they do it every day. And this book really kind of opened my eyes to that,
- 4:18that there are so many people out there that just, they just do this. And it could be just a
- 4:24small ladies group. And they're trading, you know, four prescription pills for a dozen eggs,
- 4:31right and that there's there's agorism right there's the action there's the free market
- 4:38should they be trading prescription pills to somebody else no but i didn't need the government
- 4:44to tell me i didn't need any of that so um that that really is kind of putting a name and a face
- 4:53on it it's just putting that that agorism name on it awesome awesome that makes sense i i had
- 5:00never heard that term before today actually before you know i saw your book yeah i've never
- 5:06heard that lx is a bit more on the apolitical side like i don know i don care i don want to know uh which is fine and and you know has its own merits right yes well there there definitely
- 5:21principles in it right so and i think that um just putting aside those politics you know you
- 5:30can look at agorism and you can say, look, it's, um, it's practical. Um, and then when you put it
- 5:37in the agricultural sense, um, it really kind of, I know what I do, I was going to, when I wrote the
- 5:43book that, um, people in the agorist communities, they would, they would like this book. Um, it kind
- 5:50of sings to them, but it's harder to get the agricultural people involved, right? They, a lot
- 5:56of these people, they depend on the government. They, they need it. They, they have to have it.
- 6:01There's people out there that have subsidies and, um, that are all tied to this. So they believe in
- 6:09it and they, I'm finding more and more that they're not believing in it. Um, they're really
- 6:15kind of separating themselves from this and it's not, it's not even a political issue. It's not,
- 6:20um it's just a it it's more of a becomes more of a personal issue yeah you know like i have to kind
- 6:30of do what i have to do for my family for myself and i i also have principles so that that makes
- 6:36sense do you think farmers actually like believe that that's the way things have to be done or do
- 6:42you think that's just kind of the way things have been done for a while and that's just kind of like
- 6:46what they learned how to do it i i mean i i know personally uh some farmers and they've kind of
- 6:52learned the ways from their parents and i'm sure their parents learned it from their parents and
- 6:56that's just kind of how the way things have been done for a long time yeah and i and i as i'm kind
- 7:02of going through i'm doing another project as well right now and i'm i'm talking to these farmers
- 7:07and you know there's a lot of these guys that they'll do the the genetically modified stuff and
- 7:13And it's corn and soy.
- 7:15It's rotation corn and soy.
- 7:17And that's what they do because that's what their parents made money with.
- 7:21And that's what their grandparents made money with.
- 7:23Right.
- 7:24It's subsidized by the government.
- 7:25So I'm guaranteed that paycheck.
- 7:28But at the end of the day, that paycheck's not going as far.
- 7:36It's just the government's pretty much working against them at this point.
- 7:43they they're looking for a way out. Um, and I'm seeing a lot more people coming to me from the
- 7:50agriculture, like, just like, like what's agorism? What does this mean? What, what,
- 7:55what am I looking at here? And that is, that's something that I think that when we look at
- 8:03what they'll do in the future, you'll see this being more of what they do in the future.
- 8:09They're not going to grow this corn soy rotation anymore.
- 8:12They're not going to look for the government for those subsidies anymore.
- 8:16They're tired of being told what they can and can't grow.
- 8:20And this book isn't really even for big agriculture.
- 8:24It's really for small ag.
- 8:26It's for my homesteader.
- 8:28It's for the person who's on the fence, who doesn't see a way that they can ever have chickens, because I'll never be able to afford that feed.
- 8:35um but the big ag is taken to this they're looking at this like why am i why am i continuing to do
- 8:44the same old thing i got a declining dollar i've got the government telling me what i can and can't
- 8:49grow because they don't want to spend that money on the subsidy um it just it's it's a bleak look
- 8:56for the farmer right now um and especially you know when we need to i'm sorry go ahead go ahead
- 9:04no, I was like, we need 10 million more. And you know what I mean? That's like,
- 9:08it's a hard sell. It's a hard sell.
- 9:10It is. And it's, it's something I've talked to at least one about is, you know,
- 9:15why not take a five or a 10, 20 acre portion and, you know,
- 9:21kind of split that out and, and start, make a start, see what you can do. Right.
- 9:26I mean,
- 9:26you're not talking about a game changer with that small piece of land when
- 9:30you're managing, you know, a thousand acres. Right. But you know,
- 9:34And then you come into, you know, I mean, one of the things I think a lot of them, it becomes very difficult is the government contracts are, they're longer term and they include penalties for changing, right?
- 9:49So, you know, and that's a tough one.
- 9:52So I think part of this, hopefully we'll see more of this as the years go by and those contracts start coming up.
- 9:59People shortening their acreage.
- 10:03and starting to build out more regenerative agriculture on,
- 10:10my hope would be heirloom, but that might be a stretch at this point,
- 10:14but at least growing food that they can market.
- 10:19They can market themselves and they can make can make that uh contract with other people between themselves Right
- 10:31Correct.
- 10:32And, and, and that's, and that's kind of a, um, well, I mean, if you, if you look at
- 10:42some of these people, what they're doing is they're a lot of them are getting into these
- 10:45like systems um systems like um like there was a gentleman i just saw recently on twitter he
- 10:56he grows nectarines right so he grows an entire field of these nectarines and um the company is
- 11:05telling him you know they're they're basically shutting him down they're shutting him down
- 11:09just take all these nectarines i need you to just destroy it and he's you know he's selling this
- 11:14stuff and then they're they're saying no we're going to take it to court for breach of contract
- 11:19so i think a lot of these things are you know just like everything else nowadays it's uh
- 11:25it's corporate driven government subsidized government enforced um and it doesn't give
- 11:36these people even a way out like they can't just take like five or ten acres off their property and
- 11:41say hey listen this is mine i'm gonna they've all that stuff's in place and they are they're
- 11:48kind of stuck with you know what they got yeah that then the other end of the spectrum you're
- 11:52fighting against the people that are probably frustrated have been doing it for a long time
- 11:56and they're like all right this developer is going to dangle his carrot in front of me
- 11:59i'll take their money and run with it and then they don't even want to do the farming thing anymore
- 12:05yes and that's a million houses next to you yeah we and we can't we can't really afford to lose
- 12:11those farmers right i can't afford to lose those farmers i can't afford to lose that farmland
- 12:15um yeah you know that's uh it's it's a lot of a lot of money it's a lot of food and now we
- 12:22now a lot of the food we get um you know gets imported and you know we have all we have the
- 12:28resources we have everything here but we just want the farmers you know and then you get into
- 12:33you know, what, um, you know, just doing the small agriculture, how much that actually will help.
- 12:42Um, I think that that actually is a great supplement for the loss of the large ag. If I can get, you
- 12:48know, four or five homesteaders or even just some market farmers, right. Just some people, you know,
- 12:53that'll do, you know, 500 chickens in their, in their, you know, 10 acre yard and, um, you know,
- 12:59take those to market, uh, that's, that's super huge. Yeah, it is. And so it's, it's interesting
- 13:07too. You know, you, you hit on that, uh, we export a lot of this stuff. We import a lot of,
- 13:12of food as well. And it's, it's always been interesting to me. I mean, we have the capability
- 13:17to grow all the food we could ever need for, for, you know, this particular country and probably
- 13:22still export food. Uh, but the way things are set up, you know, we're, you know, beholden to,
- 13:28you know, so many tons of soy going out the door and so many tons of corn going out the door. And,
- 13:36you know, of course now they've got the fuel subsidies with corn, right? Ethanol,
- 13:41you know, and then you've got, you know, the, the, you know, corn syrup is,
- 13:46well, I mean, it's basically in everything. So, you know, it's interesting how we set these up
- 13:54for global trade, but at the expense of the local people.
- 14:01Yeah, I agree.
- 14:03Yeah, I do.
- 14:05So one of the things we were talking about yesterday I thought was really cool, right,
- 14:09is, you know, we've been on this topic a number of times,
- 14:12is the increasing amount of subscription everything, right?
- 14:17And you were talking about now tractors having subscription services to them.
- 14:22And, um, yeah, I mean, yeah, what is going on?
- 14:26I mean, and they have the, right.
- 14:28And they have the cameras on everything.
- 14:30Um, and, and I think that that's, you know, when you turn that, you have that ability
- 14:34to turn off, you don't, you don't own that.
- 14:37You know what I mean?
- 14:38You can, if I can, if you can turn it off, you don't own it.
- 14:41You're, if they tell you, Hey, listen, I don't want you to, I don't want you to, to, to do
- 14:45this part of your field and they can just shut your tractor off.
- 14:49you don't own that tractor and and i i really think that
- 14:56there's a really hard look at these kind of things like people are looking for the old tractors right
- 15:04they're looking for that old stuff and i was even i was talking to you there's a
- 15:08a company it's out of alberta canada um just north of where i'm at and it is um
- 15:13it has just mechanical stuff.
- 15:19There's no computers in it.
- 15:20It's just a mechanical tractor.
- 15:22And it's because people want out.
- 15:25They want,
- 15:26they want out of that John Deere thing where,
- 15:28you know,
- 15:29they get to tell you like,
- 15:30Oh,
- 15:30you can,
- 15:31you can repair it,
- 15:32but you going to need this special tool And that going to I mean and then there these parts that are licensed and all those things kind of factor into that Um that why people are going back to the old stuff
- 15:46They're getting back to the old tractors. They're looking for it.
- 15:49Those things are a high commodity. Um, you know,
- 15:52and a lot of the people I deal with are Amish. Um,
- 15:55they don't have any need for any of that kind of stuff anyways. Um, so
- 15:59I think that that is something that is that constant creep, that constant creep of,
- 16:08we're going to take this to the next level. And now I'm going to put cameras on there to make
- 16:13sure what you're, what you're doing on your tractor. And then I'm going to give you a
- 16:17you want air conditioning in that tractor. Well, that's going to cost another $19.95 a month.
- 16:21Right. And that's, and that's that growing creep. And that's in everything now. I mean,
- 16:26Like we were talking yesterday, it's, you know, you buy a new refrigerator and the subscription is ice.
- 16:31You want ice out of your little ice maker there?
- 16:33That's it.
- 16:33We pay a fee for that every month.
- 16:37That's a lose, you know, and nobody's going to go with that.
- 16:41And again, agorism has an opportunity there.
- 16:46We have a solution for that, right?
- 16:48I'm always looking for the counter economic way to get around that.
- 16:52Maybe it's an old model.
- 16:53Maybe it's a like this tractor company.
- 16:55They're like, we don't want that.
- 16:57So we're going to make our own thing.
- 16:58And that's going to look like this.
- 17:01The problem with that really relies in how far the government wants to enforce this.
- 17:08Right.
- 17:08So if they're saying, listen, it's just like the cameras everywhere.
- 17:12The government says, hey, listen, we're going to do these cameras.
- 17:17There's more complicated to get it to go the other direction.
- 17:21Well, you could just be like the antiflop movement and, you know, just chop them off at the limb.
- 17:30Cut them off. Yeah.
- 17:31Bye-bye.
- 17:33It's worth my entertainment.
- 17:36And so on a scale, I would say probably, you know, maybe 70 acres or lower. I think that's a great thing, right? But when you start looking at, you know, large plot agriculture, right? You know, you start to look at it and there is a tradeoff here, right? Removing all the technology is great.
- 17:57But if you're spending three days out in the field, you know, harvesting on a combine and you don't have a GPS system, you know, what do your lines start to look like at that point?
- 18:09And, you know, what's your efficiency on the field and, you know, things of that nature?
- 18:15I know we used to do it, but I feel like that's probably a long gone technique of how people used to actually manage that.
- 18:24What are your thoughts on that?
- 18:25Yeah, and you're absolutely right.
- 18:26No, you're absolutely right. And there's definitely a lot more like modern things that you can do, even as a market farmer, right? So when I think of market farmer, I'm thinking someone that is, let's say I deal in cattle. For me, I'm a poultry person.
- 18:43So that market farmer might need a little bit more acres.
- 18:50If I have a grazing animal or something like that.
- 18:53And I think that that market farmer, he might actually just take his – I mean, I'm sorry.
- 19:05I kind of lost my train of thought here, which happens to me every once in a while.
- 19:08It's all right.
- 19:08But I think that the market farmer, I think, is the one that I'm more concerned about than maybe like even your homesteader.
- 19:17You know what I mean?
- 19:18Yeah.
- 19:18I'm not really the person that's actually making the trade.
- 19:24Yeah.
- 19:25Well, a lot of homesteaders do that as well.
- 19:27You know, I mean, I.
- 19:28They do.
- 19:29Yes.
- 19:30And I'm happy for that.
- 19:31Yeah.
- 19:31Out here, I've traded chicken, you know, freezer camp chicken for freezer camp rabbits and, you know, tomatoes for eggplants and you name it, right?
- 19:43So it's one of those things.
- 19:45Yes.
- 19:46People in that community, they're happy to, right?
- 19:50I've got an abundance.
- 19:51I can't eat all this stuff.
- 19:52I've put up all I need to.
- 19:54Now what do I do, right?
- 19:56Start feeding it to my animals, I guess.
- 19:58But you can't just feed one thing to animals.
- 20:01They need, you know, balanced nutrition. So you start looking for people that are like-minded and next thing you know, you're organizing a trade or like you said, the, you know, the, the ladies group, right? Maybe one of them, you know, made an Afghan and, you know, the other ones, you know, a pottery person or something. And, oh, Hey, I really like this, you know, set you made. Would you be willing to trade an Afghan for that? Oh, heck yeah. Here you go.
- 20:26you know and people do this in their daily lives they hear these words and yes you know they hear
- 20:33the concept behind it and they think oh that's not good and then you just just think about your life
- 20:37when was the last time you traded something with someone else and and didn't like report it
- 20:42isn't that essentially what we've been doing for ages like all the way back like just bartering with people
- 20:50Yeah. Yeah. Yes. And it comes off as like some radical idea, right? Like this is some radical idea that before we had, you know, almost like pre-colonial America, that there were people just trading.
- 21:05they were just they did sans government right i don't doesn't need a participation it just needs
- 21:12um a face a handshake um it needs it needs a partner you need to be make make a trade
- 21:20um but it is it's basically just what we probably do every day anyways raccoons or fox come in and
- 21:28and seeing 70 carcasses the next morning and you know things of that nature you know and you're just
- 21:34like, I don't, why, you know, but you, you know, it's like everything else, you know,
- 21:40it's a failure. Yes. It's, it's a learning experience and it's a way to, you know, figure
- 21:46out what to shore up, what to change and do that iterative, you know, a thing to bolster
- 21:54their defense, right. To make sure maybe this won't happen again. And then the owls will
- 21:58come in and then you'd fix that.
- 22:01you know it's a never ending it's a never ending battle it is which i mean i i totally understand
- 22:09that i also had a i had a big loss this year um you know protocols broken um it's just uh you
- 22:16know you have a big loss and you you know you kind of you think about it you learn from it um i've
- 22:22been doing this for 11 years. So, um, and you know, we even in 11 years into this still, you
- 22:33know, have those kinds of problems, you know, and you, there's no way around it. You know, we have,
- 22:38um, even with, uh, like meat chickens, which are just basic, very easy, very easy to raise. I mean,
- 22:45they pretty much take care of themselves. Um, you know, you still lose those as well. I mean,
- 22:50they'll just they just die which which which breed do you do for those do you do the cornish or do
- 22:56you use like the red rangers or so um have traditionally done the um the cornish uh just
- 23:05it's it's it's size matters right um but i've that's that's been a learning curve you really
- 23:12have to watch the cornish the rangers a little bit um a little bit better when it comes to kind
- 23:19figuring out your harvesting you know what i mean like it's i've i've had my my i've had him too big
- 23:26i've had him too small um with the cornish cross but the red rangers work out real well yeah it's
- 23:32really really weird people myself included to look like look at a gigantic chicken a broiler
- 23:38and go nope that's something no i don't know what what that is but that's too big you know
- 23:45i'd rather see i remember this i'd rather see a four pound one myself and just be like perfect
- 23:52then then some of these like eight pound i'm like what is that that's like half turkey or something
- 23:58no it's a corn issue yes and then that's a mistake bird right like you like you're not
- 24:03supposed to grow them that big in fact at that point you've probably got all kinds of leg issues
- 24:07and um it's just not good for the bird uh but for us we we've learned our lesson i mean i've
- 24:14I've grown the nine pound birds and it's terrible.
- 24:16Like it's such a mistake.
- 24:17And then I've grown the birds where maybe I probably didn't get the feed
- 24:21right the first time.
- 24:22And so they were too small.
- 24:24They were kind of scrawny.
- 24:26But we've,
- 24:26we've gotten like to the right place and,
- 24:29but you have to really hit it right on the spot with the Cornish cross or
- 24:32they're a little too big or a little too small,
- 24:34but there's like that one little window where they're just right.
- 24:37With the red Rangers,
- 24:38you can kind of just kind of track and like,
- 24:39eh,
- 24:40we'll do you next week.
- 24:41Yeah.
- 24:41So.
- 24:42So do you.
- 24:43What kind of chickens do you usually get at the grocery store or that stuff?
- 24:48So you're probably getting a Cornish cross.
- 24:50Is that what they are?
- 24:50You're probably getting a Cornish cross.
- 24:51It is.
- 24:52It's your regular genetically modified bird that-
- 24:56Got the gigantic breasts on it.
- 24:59Yep.
- 24:59Yeah.
- 25:00Yes.
- 25:00That is the thing.
- 25:02And they grow out really fast.
- 25:03I can grow one out and probably-
- 25:07I'll harvest you one of those little four-pound birds in about five weeks.
- 25:10Wow.
- 25:11That's quick.
- 25:12Yeah, right?
- 25:13So it's super fast.
- 25:15And when I go to put them in their little cone, that's a full grown bird.
- 25:19You wouldn't think in five weeks you had that big of a bird, but you do.
- 25:23Some of these things look like my layers.
- 25:25Oh, yeah.
- 25:26We grew out our first round turkeys.
- 25:29We went with broad breasted mammoths.
- 25:31Never again.
- 25:33Never again.
- 25:34So this was the year they did that whole, like, I don't know, stupidity and closed down all of the local processors.
- 25:43And it was only the big ones and I'm calling places up and they're like, yeah, we can get you in in like six or seven months.
- 25:50And I'm like, you got to be kidding me.
- 25:52Like, I'm not equipped to deal with these monstrous birds.
- 25:55My kill cone isn even like their neck might fit in there you know and I like what am I going to do with these things So we found they reversed the rules and put them in but because they had been left for so long
- 26:09what we came back with was, was monster birds. I mean, they're really good. I thought, uh, but
- 26:16they were 36 pounds dressed. And I'm, I'm like, we had people telling us like, I can't even put
- 26:23that in my oven like my oven does not physically fit that bird yeah i know what are you gonna do
- 26:33with it right i mean and you know it's um it's just not good for the bird either
- 26:37no they were having trouble walking we were getting to our wits end about ready to just
- 26:43start doing them ourselves but that also meant plucking manually which if you've ever done that
- 26:49before i promise you there is one job you'll never want to do again i promise you that's correct
- 26:54that's one of those jobs that we talked about before where like we can do it better now
- 26:59than the old traditional way yeah that's one of them right nobody wants to do that like
- 27:04plucking that thing and dipping in the hot water oh no yeah yeah yeah sometimes technology is a
- 27:11really good thing right i mean like i like ac i think i'd like to keep that around you know
- 27:17Yes, yes, yes. Well, you know, that's funny, though, because I've got these Amish farmers, man, and they're using a horse. And these these fields are as tight as some of these ones that are on these like these beautiful, you know, million dollar tractors.
- 27:33and these rows and this guy's just he's trying to get a horse to go in a straight line while he's
- 27:38you know doing the tilty thing and and it doesn't look good either i mean these guys are fighting
- 27:44this horse wanting to go and it's you know um but i mean i i would prefer to be on a tractor myself
- 27:52so yeah you know my wife my wife's uh family is from pennsylvania so uh and and right in like
- 28:00Amish country. In fact, across the street was an Amish farm. So, you know, got plenty of, of times
- 28:07viewing them out there and, you know, plowing and, and bailing and doing all this stuff.
- 28:13Oh yeah.
- 28:13And it's like, man, they are putting in work. I mean, it's, it's, it's a whole different ball
- 28:18game when you're bailing hay and you've got a wagon on the back with like eight people on it.
- 28:24It's a whole different ball game from a bailer being towed behind the one guy in a tractor.
- 28:29It really is.
- 28:31You're not wrong.
- 28:31That is totally right.
- 28:33I bet they sleep good at night, though.
- 28:35Oh, yeah.
- 28:36Oh, yeah.
- 28:37Oh, yeah.
- 28:38No phones to distract you.
- 28:40No alarm clocks to go off.
- 28:43True.
- 28:44And these guys are the masters of agorism.
- 28:47I mean, they have networks of, and they're trading.
- 28:53We trade our labor.
- 28:54If you have a job, we trade our labor for fiat.
- 28:57That's what we do, right?
- 28:58These guys will trade labor for just for a trade of labor next time.
- 29:05Yep.
- 29:05Right.
- 29:06They're not they're not worried about.
- 29:08But they also don't worry about the government.
- 29:11They prefer to just, you know, do their thing and they'll appease the government.
- 29:17But not always, you know, they're they're doing the things that they probably shouldn't on their own property.
- 29:24They'll dig a well.
- 29:25They're not going to call and get any permits.
- 29:27I'm not going to get permission to put a well on their own property.
- 29:33So they're already they're the masters of this already.
- 29:36So they they kind of do their thing.
- 29:40They don't deal a lot.
- 29:41What they deal with with the they call the English with with us out here is mainly just their excess.
- 29:52and then if you if you make good friends with them like i i'll teach them how to grow mushrooms
- 30:00right so i do a class where i'll you know i have another guy that lives next to me here and we
- 30:05do like uh mushrooms every year so we'll make these uh big columns and we'll do mushrooms and
- 30:12then the amish come over and i'm showing them how to cultivate mushrooms as well and they can do
- 30:16this. It's not hard. Um, so when you, when you get in with them like that, the, they're, they'll
- 30:25allow you to, to trade with them, to, to barter with them, to bargain with them. Um, it's in a
- 30:32limited setting, but they'll still allow you in. So once you're in, you kind of, you know, as long
- 30:36as you don't mess it all up, you're in and the, um, but their network is deep. It goes states deep,
- 30:45right there the pennsylvania ohio um all these places they they all the way down in kentucky
- 30:52oh yeah they they all have big networks of like how they trade maybe it's maybe it's uh the the
- 30:59people up in northern ohio they they make metal works um they might trade with the people in
- 31:05pennsylvania for um they make wag they make wheels you know they they specialized in you know their little cartwheels So they they completely circumvent the government on everything that they possibly can um admirable it is and they also a really high trust society
- 31:25and and it bleeds out even to the english right it does um an example would be my wife went and
- 31:32we were i didn't go this time she went up there and she found a mailbox she really wanted a little
- 31:37Amish barn looking mailbox, you know, handcrafted, everything. Nice, nice little thing.
- 31:44And she's like, you know, OK. And she's like, and how much do I owe you? He goes, I'll send you,
- 31:48you know, the bill with the mailbox. She's like, what? He's like, yeah, I'll just send you the
- 31:54mailbox. The bill will be in there. Just, you know, write us a check or whatever. OK. I mean,
- 32:00how many how many shops do you think you can walk into, order something? They'll ship it to you with
- 32:04the bill inside of it so you can pay for the item that they just handcrafted that they shipped to
- 32:10you they don't they don't know you from adam you know what i mean right so it's kind of and if you
- 32:16if you stole from them you know they might but they're they won't they won't pursue you they
- 32:24they're very very pacifist in that way they would just forgive you and move on um
- 32:29Of course, you're done.
- 32:33We're not doing any trades with you any longer, which is totally understandable as well.
- 32:37I mean, but they what they do and how they do it.
- 32:43And a very it's very organized.
- 32:47And the way that they even just down to their farming, it's very organized.
- 32:51It's very their labor is organized.
- 32:55Everything's organized.
- 32:56And it's something that I see and I watch because it's something that I'd like to kind of help other people do that see that lifestyle as something that's plain and traditional, but it's very intentional.
- 33:16And it's very, there's a lot of consistency and continuity in it, you know?
- 33:25Yeah. So looking at this beautiful book, let's get it, let's get it up there. There it is. There's the book. What were some of your favorite parts to write in this?
- 33:42oh that's a good question um
- 33:47so i like some of the scenarios so i went through um
- 33:58i i talked to farmers every day so i would put them through scenarios of
- 34:05different things that i would just brainstorm i would just write down
- 34:09And one of the things that I had noticed on one of your messages to me was something about solar grazing.
- 34:16And that's something that I've actually seen here locally.
- 34:20But those kind of things are those potential things, those things that somebody is going to look at and say, I can take action on that.
- 34:32I can do that.
- 34:33I can do that.
- 34:36And there's a lot of that in the book.
- 34:37There's a lot of the scenarios like, hey, this is what you can do, or you can do this, or this is a thing. And I feel like that part of the book, those parts of the book, I feel like just rereading it a few times, those are the parts of the book where I feel like I put in the most excitement to what I was writing.
- 35:03Right. So everything else is just kind of it's very structured. I started the book with kind of the definition of what agorism is. Right. So what it's about, what it is, because it's the thing on the front of the cover that people are opening the book to figure out what is this.
- 35:20um and i think that when you look at the inside of the book you're looking at um
- 35:29those aspects of what is agorism and then what you can do right it's the action part
- 35:38and i think that that's that's kind of what i would those are my favorite parts of the book is
- 35:42the is that action that you can do this you can you can trade your your stuff for crypto you know
- 35:49I've already set up people's crypto wallets, just talking to them.
- 35:55What's Xeno? What's Fero? I don't understand.
- 35:59We'll talk about it. I'll take the phone out.
- 36:02We'll put it into terms you can understand.
- 36:06That's a lot of the agricultural community, again, because people in the agorism community, they know that.
- 36:12They know about cryptocurrencies and they know about what it is.
- 36:16It's that agricultural community.
- 36:18It's that small ag.
- 36:20And some of these people are doing it.
- 36:23Some people are taking that action And the keyboard warriors also need to get an action Yeah for sure And the cool thing about the crypto piece is you you you drop your transaction fees from like
- 36:33you know,
- 36:34two and a half to 5% or whatever they are down to like 0.03 of a percent.
- 36:41You know what I mean?
- 36:42It's,
- 36:42and it's,
- 36:43it's instantaneous.
- 36:45So Alex,
- 36:46you had something.
- 36:47No,
- 36:47I was just going to ask who is the book geared more towards people that have,
- 36:51you know, thousands or hundreds of acres, or is it geared towards the smaller guy or is it
- 36:56something for everybody in there? There's something for everybody in there. Um,
- 37:01you want to grow some micro greens in your, in your living room, but you can do that. You can do
- 37:08that. You can trade that. You can use that to your advantage. Um, this is, this is for anybody,
- 37:15Anybody that wants to, you know, get a piece of the game, get some sovereignty, you know, have something in, you know, that's tangible.
- 37:27But I think I think the homesteader and the market farmer is kind of who I put this to.
- 37:33And the people who are on the fence, I don't know how many people say, you know, I want to I'd really like to move out to the country and just get some chickens or I'd like to have like, you know, a couple of sheep in my backyard.
- 37:44or just kind of keep the, keep the weeds down or it's,
- 37:47it's those people I'm talking to.
- 37:49It's the people that are sitting behind the keyboard thinking, you know,
- 37:53I would do this, but I don't know where to even start.
- 37:58Or the guy living in Florida with like half a dozen chickens in his backyard
- 38:02or something.
- 38:03Yeah, no, yeah.
- 38:05People are surprised.
- 38:06I've only got a quarter acre here in the, you know,
- 38:09we've got the white vinyl fence and people are actually kind of surprised what
- 38:13we get behind there.
- 38:14We got, you know, half a dozen chickens and we try to grow as much as we can.
- 38:17And it's limited by the climate here.
- 38:21But, you know, we do the best we can with what we have.
- 38:23It would be nice if, you know, we could trade with other people that have other things that we don't have.
- 38:30But, you know, I'm kind of working towards that goal.
- 38:34Right.
- 38:35And that's it.
- 38:36You're working towards that goal.
- 38:37That's the action, right?
- 38:38but I think that just the six chickens in your backyard that's great that's that's the start
- 38:46right that's you know I watched a lot of the when I got started I watched a lot of like Joel Salatin
- 38:53Justin Rhodes these guys that were you know they were really doing the homestead like these guys
- 39:00had like 50 chickens I mean Joel I mean Joel Salatin's got this huge they do 3,000 chickens
- 39:06on their, you know, farm every year. And, um, so that seemed overwhelming. Um, and it,
- 39:15it doesn't have to be like, it just six chickens is a great start. And that's a good thing.
- 39:20Like for your family, for just, if you just were just on your own, if you're just on your own,
- 39:25you just have six chickens. That's great. Um, I mean, with a quarter acre, gosh, I think of so
- 39:32many things i could do with a quarter acre i mean i i would i mean you could probably raise
- 39:36like meat chickens on a quarter acre just thinking about it just in a you know um yeah you could
- 39:42smaller scale maybe do 25 in a chicken tractor move it around in a chicken tractor move it around
- 39:48yeah around the yard a little bit we're limited we're only allowed to have six so that you know
- 39:54If you follow the law.
- 39:58Right?
- 39:59Well, we can't have roosters either because I'm sure we'd get ticketed for roosters.
- 40:03Oh, gosh.
- 40:05Right.
- 40:05Well, and the thing is, these are very, very young, very young chickens.
- 40:09I bet no one would even know that you had those chickens in your backyard.
- 40:14And we are talking about agorism here.
- 40:16We're talking free markets here.
- 40:18And, you know, I mean, I'm a big fan of Robert Heinlein.
- 40:22And he just says, you know, I don't like your rules.
- 40:25I'm going to break them.
- 40:26If I agree with them, sure, I'll follow your rules.
- 40:29But, you know, I think that, you know, but the government doesn't know.
- 40:37I think the biggest thing for us is, I mean, my wife was raised more rurally, but they didn't really raise chickens for me.
- 40:44They had laying hens, but I don't have a mentor or anybody to shadow or learn from.
- 40:50So it's a pretty big learning curve there.
- 40:53And like you said, the death thing, if you're not used to it, it's kind of something to get used to.
- 40:58For me, that's probably the biggest and hardest part.
- 41:01Where am I?
- 41:04Well, I mean, I go there to enjoy your company, not to, you know, do the whole chicken thing.
- 41:09We're talking right now.
- 41:10We can do this.
- 41:11It doesn't have to be in person.
- 41:13Well, it's hard to do it over the internet, I think.
- 41:17We'll do freezer camp one winter or something when you come out.
- 41:20Teach my wife.
- 41:21That's a great idea.
- 41:23I just don't, I don't know.
- 41:24I have a hard time with it.
- 41:25She does not have as hard a time with it.
- 41:27It's just not my thing.
- 41:29You know, like I'll care for them and raise them and feed them and stuff.
- 41:32But when it comes time to do the slaughtering, it's just, I don't know, something for me personally.
- 41:37But I mean, I understand it.
- 41:39I don't like, you know, think bad about it.
- 41:41I don't not eat meat, but it's just, you know, for me.
- 41:45Well, I'll mentor her.
- 41:46There you go.
- 41:47She can do the calling and you can just pretend that they came from the store.
- 41:51That's right.
- 41:54But I'll tell you what, you'll not have better chicken.
- 41:57Yeah.
- 41:57You know, that stuff in the store, those, you know, I mean, that's, it is amazing.
- 42:03But it's, and it's not for everybody.
- 42:05And that's why there's, there's more than one aspect to this, right?
- 42:09There's, there's, um, it's agriculture in a complete way.
- 42:14You know, if, um, if you're not into the animal farming, like I'm an animal farmer.
- 42:17So, um, but a lot of the people around me are, are, they grow, they, they grow for five
- 42:23minutes out of the year, six minutes out of the year, and then they're done.
- 42:25And then next year they start all over again.
- 42:28And, um, we're an animal farmer.
- 42:31It's all the time, all year long.
- 42:33Um, whatever you got, you know, you've got pigs, you're, you're, you know, you've got
- 42:37to make sure your pigs are warm most, you know?
- 42:39So there's a lot of responsibility to it. I don't expect everybody to be into that. You know what I mean? My goal for my farm is to be an educational farm, is to kind of help people like you take that next step over that, right? So it takes away all the stigma. You get to watch and participate if you'd like.
- 42:59but I have a lot of people that want to take that extra step
- 43:03take that next step they're concerned what their family is eating
- 43:06and that's you know right people are concerned
- 43:09they don't want to eat the genetically modified
- 43:12they don't even know what's in the food anymore
- 43:13I probably don't want to know what's in that chicken that you get at Sam's Club
- 43:18or whatever I'm sure there's all kinds of
- 43:21nastiness to it. It's been bleach blasted
- 43:24at least a dozen times you know
- 43:27So, I mean, that is for sure.
- 43:30And it's probably been plumped up with some, you know, some brine as well.
- 43:35You know, they like to inject a little extra weight in there, get the water percentage up and, you know, makes for a juicier chicken.
- 43:43But it's also questionable as to what is actually in that brine, right?
- 43:47For us, it would be salt and water.
- 43:49For them, I don't know, you know.
- 43:53But you guys grow a ton of vegetables.
- 43:55I mean, that would be a thing where you, you know, a few more raised beds and you'd have capacity to trade possibly.
- 44:04Right.
- 44:05And then next thing you know, your wife grows beautiful tomatoes, by the way.
- 44:09We're still on the soil building road.
- 44:12So, you know, at least with the chickens, we can make our compost.
- 44:14And, you know, we haven't had to buy fertilizer in a while and get a little compost pile going.
- 44:19So, I mean, we're getting there.
- 44:21Right.
- 44:22And that's just about being resourceful, right?
- 44:24that's and that is one of the huge things that's one of the things i love about
- 44:30for us you know having all of the livestock is we've just got tons of manure right and then of
- 44:37course we've got plenty of leaf litter and you know grass clippings and everything else as well
- 44:42as our food waste that doesn't go to the chickens goes into compost and and next thing you know your
- 44:48fertilizer bill is zero, you know, now you might have, you know, some areas where you've got to
- 44:55supplement, right? Like blueberries aren't going to do well with, with chicken or livestock manure,
- 44:59but you know, for the most part, your, your bill goes way, way down, if not to zero on fertilizer.
- 45:07And that's, that's a huge thing. And that's that regenerative agriculture, you know,
- 45:11And the more you don't waste your waste, I guess, right?
- 45:18Keep it in that loop.
- 45:20Put it back into that cycle and use it again, right?
- 45:27I think that's good.
- 45:28We were digging through some of the beds the other day.
- 45:30My wife was so excited because she was seeing actually worms for the first time in Florida.
- 45:35We don't really have that.
- 45:36We have sand.
- 45:37So she was super excited that we were seeing that.
- 45:40That's great.
- 45:41That's soil building.
- 45:42Oh, yeah.
- 45:43Now, they've got beautiful gardens.
- 45:45They really do.
- 45:47Thank you.
- 45:48It's a really nice setup.
- 45:49For being on a quarter acre, they've made a really, really efficient utilization of space and, you know, kind of set up a really nice place where they can, you know, grow a good amount of food.
- 46:01And, you know, of course the chickens and, you know, taking the, you know, the inputs and putting them back in, you know, is just a huge thing.
- 46:13So you even grow pineapples.
- 46:14Yeah, absolutely.
- 46:15I wish I could grow pineapples.
- 46:15I just harvested a pineapple today.
- 46:18A little one.
- 46:19Get out.
- 46:19Still, yeah.
- 46:21Squirrels are the biggest enemy of pineapples.
- 46:24Oh.
- 46:26Right?
- 46:27Yeah.
- 46:28We have a lot of those.
- 46:29but i mean we can't grow them anyway because it's like an 18 month cycle there's no possible way
- 46:34that thing's going to live through our winter oh gosh we had them die back this last year but then
- 46:41they came back they like kind of died to the ground but then they popped back up yeah yeah so in your in your practice you said you do a lot of teaching and so you you run a farm and what the name of the farm again
- 46:58I'm a zero box farms. Um, so my, I mean, we're, I'm just a small, small hobby farm. Um, and my
- 47:09main focus is poultry. Um, we do meat chickens here, but my goal, um, is to be more educational.
- 47:15Um, I, my goals for, uh, 2027 is to, um, turn us into a 501 C3, um, and then, um, become more educational, um, and be able to show people different aspects of, of, of farming, right?
- 47:33It doesn't always have to be just the one aspect, right?
- 47:36I think, um, there's so many people that there's so many needs outside of just putting a plant in a ground or, you know, you know, raising a chick or anything like that.
- 47:45But there's – Alex, if you – for example, if you grow a nice garden and you have extra starts, right, those extra starts are as good as anything you probably can grow in the ground, right?
- 48:01So there's so many other things that people need and that don't have to but that can be around agriculture.
- 48:10What state are you in, Jeff?
- 48:12I don't think we asked you that yet.
- 48:13I'm in Ohio.
- 48:14Oh, OK.
- 48:15yeah i'm in ohio i'm like right dead center of ohio um lots of amish um in fact if i just uh
- 48:24just generally speaking i have it's probably 75 just surrounding me at this point so yeah and
- 48:33that's the other direction is kind of starts or starts are a tradable item and i mean for real
- 48:39right i mean you go down to the store and buy a start it's going to cost you they're expensive
- 48:44yeah so if you plant a few extra seeds and grow some starts and then there you go there's an easy
- 48:51way to do it with very little effort to be honest with you my wife is the best at starts well there
- 48:58you go have her double the starts and start uh you know talking to people that that want them
- 49:04you know instead of going over there where you're getting gmo neonicotinoid sprayed garbage you know
- 49:12I'll give you this beautiful, healthy plant that's been raised without chemical inputs.
- 49:19It's just a huge market out there for that.
- 49:22A huge market.
- 49:24And I think that sometimes those things are overlooked, even within the agricultural field, that the small, small, small things, the little intangibles, like they, they just, they stand out when they need to.
- 49:38Right. Like if you're at the farmer's market and it's it's May and you see a table full of starts, I'm stopping.
- 49:46Right. I'm going to stop. I'm going to take a look.
- 49:50So there's there's more than just just that, you know, that maybe the chicken, that the person that's not does not see themselves being a farmer or, you know, having a homestead, even they can still do it, too.
- 50:04yeah worm bins are another idea right and you can make some that's a great idea absolutely
- 50:10yep oh yeah amazing soil and you can also take the liquid that comes from them and it's it's a
- 50:16power power boost i mean that stuff will make stuff grow like crazy and it doesn't even take
- 50:23that much room to make you know several gallons of this stuff every year so and the soil that
- 50:30comes out of it and you're just getting rid of your food scraps so it's kind of like you're just
- 50:35winning it's a win yeah all over the place yeah yes right and i think that's and that's important
- 50:44and and again the the action behind it right like i want to make sure that that's kind of the
- 50:53the whole part of this is that you got to do it you know what i mean you got it you got to do it
- 51:00And so many people, they'll tell me like, I was going to do it, but I just don't see a way for me to get to that point.
- 51:08Or I don't have a farm or I could never do that.
- 51:11Or maybe they're talking about it all the time, but they just haven't taken that next step.
- 51:15And I think that that's what I want.
- 51:17I want this to be about taking that next step.
- 51:20It's like getting that six chickens in your backyard.
- 51:23It's that step.
- 51:25It's the next step of whatever that looks like.
- 51:28Maybe it's market garden or maybe it's just a garden and I don't grow onions because I can't grow onions.
- 51:36So I just trade with my neighbor who can and I give them whatever I grow.
- 51:41Maybe I get garlic and they get onions and we swap and that's what that looks like.
- 51:46And everybody's better off that way and I can really build community that way.
- 51:50Yeah I always tell people that are kind of in that position or just regular old folks you can start with a five bucket and I would suggest a cherry tomato but take a five gallon bucket and a packet of cherry tomato seeds and put like three seeds in
- 52:12there and, and start out your cherry tomato. The reason I would suggest a cherry is because the
- 52:17slicers and everything else, they're a little more challenging. They, they, they tend to be
- 52:22a little bit more finicky, um, and, and they produce less, right? Bigger fruits, but less of
- 52:28them. The cherries are prolific. They'll just pop them out. Just keep popping them out for the entire
- 52:33season. And most people like cherry tomatoes on their salads, right? Or you could do grapes,
- 52:39but I prefer cherries. And there's a variety. I always tell people if you, if you want
- 52:44tomatoes forever, and I do mean this quite literally, get yourself some Chadwick cherry
- 52:50tomatoes. Chadwick is a prolific volunteer. Like my compost pile will turn into a patch,
- 52:59you know, 15 feet by 15 feet of nothing but Chadwick cherry tomatoes. We've gone out there
- 53:05and picked like three, five gallon buckets. I don't prune them. I don't water them. I don't
- 53:10touch them. For some reason, when they grow like that naturally too, we don't even get issues with
- 53:16the horned worms. They just, they just grow and thrive. And I mean, but anyway, you can put them
- 53:23in a five gallon bucket. You can grow a really beautiful tomato plant, food, food grade bucket,
- 53:29drill seven holes with a half inch drill bit on the bottom, right? Six around the outside,
- 53:33one in the center, fill it with one bag of soil, put those seeds in there, grow yourself a cherry,
- 53:38a cherry tomato plant. You do this and you're not doing much, but what you are doing is now
- 53:45you're eating food from your own garden, you're going to see what a real tomato actually tastes
- 53:49like. Because if you haven't ever had one off of a plant, I guarantee you, you won't recognize it
- 53:56from the store. You will never want to eat another store-bought tomato in your life. And I don't care
- 54:01if you got the beautiful, organic, wonderful, amazing, super expensive, it still will pale
- 54:08in comparison. And then you can have those fresh tomatoes on your salads for the season.
- 54:14and now you've got to feel for what it takes and it's not that difficult once you get into the swing
- 54:19and start doing this stuff um and you know hey that's a hobby worth having right maybe next year
- 54:26you grow a few other things you know but it literally this is in the space of a five-gallon
- 54:31bucket you don't need more than a balcony good start i totally agree it is that is really i mean
- 54:40And I think that what you're saying here is so – it really kind of wraps up my book.
- 54:52It really does.
- 54:54It talks about like your – once you've kind of started, then you're on your way.
- 55:04Yeah.
- 55:04You know what I mean?
- 55:05Like you're, you're, you're going to look for the next thing.
- 55:07Cause it's, it's instant reward.
- 55:09That cherry tomato is just like, it's there.
- 55:11It's that instant reward.
- 55:13Right.
- 55:13And we, we live in that age, um, of instant reward and not everything that I do is instant
- 55:18reward, but, um, there are those things that are like, that's nice.
- 55:22Right.
- 55:22That's it.
- 55:23That's, I can see it.
- 55:24It's tangible.
- 55:25Yeah.
- 55:26We have, you do make a point about it being different though.
- 55:28I mean, like the, the chicken eggs too.
- 55:30I can't eat store eggs anymore.
- 55:31They're kind of gross now to me.
- 55:33Oh yeah.
- 55:34Yeah.
- 55:34oh yeah no way are they financially worth it like if you think about like you know you know
- 55:40a complete fiscal level no they're they're they're not you can buy them at the store way cheaper than
- 55:45you can make them yourself but is it worth it in the end yes i think it is yeah and it also then
- 55:51also some of that depends on scale right it's going to be far more expensive to raise you know
- 55:56each individual chicken priced out for what you're putting into it with a half dozen when you get to
- 56:0250, all of a sudden that flips, you start to realize I am, I am now putting in less money
- 56:08on, on caring for these chickens than I am getting out from just eggs.
- 56:13Even if it's just layers, uh, it, it really does flip because, you know, 50 pound bag
- 56:19should last you a good, a good decent while for 50 chickens.
- 56:24And, uh, you know, you, you're talking, you know, when you're buying in bulk, you're talking
- 56:30about, you know, 10, 12 bucks a bag, probably depending on what you're feeding. Um, and then
- 56:37if you have more chickens, then you can go to a greenery and that's where you get real sales and
- 56:42you buy a bag, a sack, right. And it's, you know, one ton sack that they bring in and it's special
- 56:48mixed for you. If you want it, uh, you can, you know, obviously get it non GMO, soy free,
- 56:55you can do all kinds of stuff, which will raise your prices. But again, you know, it's what you
- 56:59put into it and the eggs that you put out, you, you notice the difference. Everyone else will too.
- 57:06So the sale price of them is no longer what the store sale price is for like you know the white box dozen of eggs The sale price is more like the price for one of these you know a brown box They all brown eggs That makes them good right No it doesn
- 57:25But, um, they're all brown eggs and you pay, you know, 10 bucks a dozen or something. I'd say
- 57:30probably about eight bucks a dozen. You're making, you're making a little bit of money.
- 57:34yeah or you're getting what you need right you're just you're filling in that gap of whatever you
- 57:44might need yeah absolutely yeah i'd love and then like for me i've i've felt good i haven't bought
- 57:52eggs in nine years well that's not true we we had one winter where we had to buy we had to buy eggs
- 57:58for the baking because damn it we we had a big loss before coming into the winter normally we've
- 58:05got enough chickens to where even in the winter we'll still get you know a couple a day few a day
- 58:11maybe um and especially if we we brewed out in the you know september time frame august time frame
- 58:19uh then we'll get eggs in the winter because they're too young to know they're not supposed
- 58:24to be laying um don't tell anyone man that had to be enough to like get you going right that you
- 58:31had to go to the store and buy eggs i'd be like i don't think i would i think i'd be like no
- 58:36i'll go without we bumped up we bumped up our uh chicken supply to i think at that time we bumped
- 58:42up to 85 because of that and uh yeah that was a loss pattern that was one of those heartbreaks
- 58:49We came out and, you know, a fox had gotten in the pen and we suffered a pretty big loss.
- 58:57So, yeah, it happens.
- 58:59Yeah.
- 59:00I mean, the six keep us pretty good.
- 59:02We do the water glassing thing.
- 59:04So we're either swimming in eggs or we don't really have that many, but the water glassing helps.
- 59:09Oh, it does.
- 59:10It does.
- 59:11it's it's you know it's interesting how you know this so if you're not familiar with water
- 59:19glassing it's it's you take a rehydrated lime food grade and you mix it with water and then
- 59:26you take eggs that are fresh you cannot use store eggs no store egg is capable of doing this you
- 59:32can't wash them either wash the balloon off of it you need farm fresh unwashed clean eggs you put
- 59:39I'm in this and they'll last up to a year on your shelf in the maybe a year and a half.
- 59:45Yeah. Yeah. I've, I've seen people do tests where they've done it over two years. The consistency
- 59:50of the egg starts to break down probably in the six to nine month range, uh, where, you know,
- 59:56the yoke will kind of break, but the taste and, and everything else for like scrambled is fine
- 1:00:01or for baking. It's fine. Um, but yeah, you can sit there and put eggs on your shelf for
- 1:00:07up to a year easily in this water and lime solution and just pull them out, rinse them
- 1:00:14off and eat them.
- 1:00:15And, you know, this is, this is a hundred year old knowledge that nobody knows today.
- 1:00:21And instead we've all got to have a refrigerator box to put our eggs in.
- 1:00:25Well, I don't, all my eggs sit on the counter.
- 1:00:28Yeah.
- 1:00:29It blew my mind to think that you could have eggs for over a year on the counter with no
- 1:00:33refrigeration necessary.
- 1:00:35I mean, it honestly blew my mind that when I found out you didn't have to refrigerate eggs, period.
- 1:00:41Like, I mean, that's just something we've always done.
- 1:00:45Well, you go to Mexico, they're on the shelf.
- 1:00:47Yeah, right.
- 1:00:47They're not in a refrigerator.
- 1:00:49They just put them on the shelf.
- 1:00:50So you go in there, you're like, oh, I just take it on off the shelf.
- 1:00:53Yeah, I think.
- 1:00:54But people get so they're so they I don't know if you've tried to give people your eggs and if they get a little funny.
- 1:01:02Have you had run into this at all?
- 1:01:03Well, my parents like, yeah, right.
- 1:01:06They're like, I don't know.
- 1:01:09Right.
- 1:01:10You know, they feel comfortable with the store, right?
- 1:01:13If they feel comfortable with that store bought thing, because it's it's it's you know, they've taken care of it.
- 1:01:18They processed it.
- 1:01:19You've just picked yours out.
- 1:01:21And now I'm having to eat that.
- 1:01:23They do the same thing with chicken, like fresh chicken that I've grown.
- 1:01:26they they're gonna pass because i've processed and it wasn't processed by somebody that really
- 1:01:34didn't care for the chicken or you know i mean they just they just there to you know cut it open
- 1:01:39and you know move on whereas i i cared for the chicken i processed the chicken you know humanely
- 1:01:46and then i packaged it beautifully and they're still like weird weird about it yeah it's so weird
- 1:01:55It is weird.
- 1:01:56My parents were like that at first, and they didn't want to try the eggs from my house.
- 1:02:03Then I finally got them to do it, and then they're like, oh, those are great.
- 1:02:07Then they want more.
- 1:02:09It just takes that little bit of a try there at first.
- 1:02:13It was like a thing.
- 1:02:14We had a friend come over, and we went out and got eggs fresh from the coop.
- 1:02:19Which, by the way, that's not a morning thing.
- 1:02:21I don't know who came up with that idea, but mine are like noon.
- 1:02:25It's never in the morning.
- 1:02:26Two in the afternoon.
- 1:02:27Three o'clock's a nice time to go get them all.
- 1:02:29Right. So, you know, I went out there and collected some eggs and brought them in.
- 1:02:34I'm like, yeah, let's have some eggs.
- 1:02:36And I put them down and grabbed one of them, picked it up.
- 1:02:38He goes, it's still warm. Is this safe?
- 1:02:41I'm like, there's no safer thing on the planet to digest, man.
- 1:02:46Thank you. Right. That is that's pure gold right there, my friend.
- 1:02:51Holy smokes. Yeah.
- 1:02:52But I've noticed that that people will get just really bizarre about like anything that you've maybe grown and processed yourself.
- 1:02:59um though i think the eggs were the gateway for that and then it just got worse the more
- 1:03:05more meat you try to hand out to people like oh you made that yourself yeah we've had people come
- 1:03:11to the farm too and i'm like walking up to plants just grabbing you know a pepper or tomato off and
- 1:03:17i start eating it they're like you're not gonna wash that i'm like why would i do that they're
- 1:03:22like well you don't know what's on it i'm like i absolutely do i can tell you exactly what's on it
- 1:03:27air that's what's on it maybe that's right but you know i brush the dirt off it's okay
- 1:03:32it's my dirt right it's it's it's my dirt i'm okay yeah there's no pesticides no fungicides
- 1:03:41no herbicides no sides whatsoever and no chemical input so i don't know what you're worried about
- 1:03:47but it didn't maybe jeff can uh maybe jeff can teach you how to grow your own mushrooms maybe
- 1:03:52you'll like them then if you grew your own oh man you know what i'm telling you i actually
- 1:03:57does i cannot stand mushrooms i but i still try them when people when people tell me oh i've got
- 1:04:03this and it's going to be good you're going to like it it just takes one with that taste and i'm
- 1:04:08like and uh but i still want to grow them to see hey is there a difference between difference between
- 1:04:15you know kind of like tomatoes and every other vegetable when you freshly harvest them and cook
- 1:04:20them as opposed to things that are bought from the store. And I've tried everything I can think
- 1:04:26of and nothing, nothing, nothing will take. And I, you know, I haven't grown them on a countertop
- 1:04:33with one of the tent things, et cetera, because I, my fear is the smell of that's going to make me go.
- 1:04:40Well, and you know, the thing is with those is that, um, a lot of probably what you're getting
- 1:04:46is the media. So oftentimes, you know, they would talk about the mushrooms that kind of,
- 1:04:52you know, grown in some foul stuff, right. Um, that flavor oftentimes comes from the media. So
- 1:04:58what it's grown in, right. It's, it, it's, um, it's kind of pulling in some of that,
- 1:05:03even if you don't want it to. Um, and what I grow it in is wood. So a lot of the things I'll take
- 1:05:09I'll take wood or I'll take straw so one of those two items and then there that
- 1:05:16stuff is boiled and then the media is so it's all sterilized and then once that
- 1:05:22they put my all of my media and everything in it then it will start to like pop out mushrooms all over the it it is um a very easy process but it very finicky
- 1:05:37Like you have to kind of have to have the right setting.
- 1:05:40You have to have the right atmosphere.
- 1:05:42Um, but you know what, once you have them in a different media, it's just an, it is a
- 1:05:47different flavor.
- 1:05:48It just is.
- 1:05:49I know you probably heard that a thousand times and you're like,
- 1:05:51No, I, again, I'm, so I'm one of these weird individuals.
- 1:05:56Like, I don't care.
- 1:05:57You know, I mean, beef fries, lamb fries, pork fries, I'll eat them.
- 1:06:02I like them.
- 1:06:03I made them the first time unwittingly, but they were really good.
- 1:06:06I don't get squeamish about that.
- 1:06:08And beef, the, the, the fries I'm talking about, that's testicles, by the way.
- 1:06:12So, you know, it's good stuff.
- 1:06:15I mean, it's good meat.
- 1:06:17You know, why throw it away?
- 1:06:18But, you know, someone's going.
- 1:06:21I'm not going to throw it away.
- 1:06:22I'm just going to give it to you.
- 1:06:23I'll eat it.
- 1:06:25But, you know, mushrooms are the same way for me.
- 1:06:28Like I said, if someone says, yeah, I've got a way to cook them that you'll like, I'll try it.
- 1:06:33And, you know, in some cases I've gotten, you know, most of the way through something before I got that one bite.
- 1:06:40And then it was like, I can't.
- 1:06:42But I do want to grow them.
- 1:06:43I've gotten plugs and done plugs on, you know, downed trees out here and everything else.
- 1:06:50And just so far, I've tried all sorts of things, putting them in crevices of rotten trees.
- 1:06:56I've tried, you know, of tree that was downed by me the next year coming in and putting plugs in, clearing the bark off and everything.
- 1:07:04But I had zero luck.
- 1:07:08Oh, man, I have a surefire way.
- 1:07:13Awesome.
- 1:07:13Just to get to a point where like you can grow them on a regular basis and then just keep growing and growing and growing them.
- 1:07:19It's like, uh, it's like the, it's like the Chadwick cherries, you know what I mean?
- 1:07:22You just keep going.
- 1:07:24Um, and the doing that, um, it's, it's such a, it's such a skill once you've got it down
- 1:07:32that like, it feels, it's one of those things where like, I, now I have another skill that
- 1:07:37I can do.
- 1:07:38Um, and just, I kind of put that on, you know, on the side, but I don't, for the most part,
- 1:07:42I don't actually grow mushrooms myself to eat.
- 1:07:46I just don't.
- 1:07:48But I can grow any of them.
- 1:07:50I can grow anything that's mushroom related.
- 1:07:54And they'll just go.
- 1:07:55They'll just grow.
- 1:07:58We even did an experiment with the morels.
- 1:08:03So we actually got to grow morels where we wanted to grow them.
- 1:08:09Are you kidding me?
- 1:08:11No.
- 1:08:12And it was amazing.
- 1:08:14it was actually
- 1:08:15someone that I had actually learned this from
- 1:08:19had worked with Paul Stamets
- 1:08:21I don know if you know who that is that the mushroom godfather and this was kind of passed down from him but we made like a big slurry and we poured it out in the woods and I telling you we could
- 1:08:32have followed the trail of the, of the slurry that we poured of just this massive bloom of morels.
- 1:08:39Um, and so, yeah, and it, these are just old techniques, just old techniques.
- 1:08:47yeah i'll have to i'll have to hit you up on on some of the recipes there because that that to me
- 1:08:52is exciting i i do want to i want to find a mushroom that i can enjoy i really do now i i
- 1:08:58do enjoy my mycelium all of my berry plants joy enjoy it as well um but you know that's a different
- 1:09:05kind of fungus i guess and not something i think i want to eat i agree all right well hey i i think
- 1:09:15this is probably a good place to start wrapping up. I really appreciate you coming on. I think
- 1:09:19this has been a wonderful discussion. And once again, folks, if you haven't, I've only gotten
- 1:09:25through the forward, which is written by Brandon from agorist or agorist nexus. Uh, and, uh, the,
- 1:09:33the first few pages of it, but I'm telling you it's, it's, it's packed and it's really good.
- 1:09:39And it's also, it's not like some dictionary, you know, thick type of a thing.
- 1:09:45So go grab this book.
- 1:09:46I promise you.
- 1:09:47If anything we said here has resonated with you, this is a good book.
- 1:09:54You need to grab it.
- 1:09:55All right.
- 1:09:56So one question we like to ask every guest.
- 1:09:59Throughout our lives, there's someone that has an impact on our lives that's lasting.
- 1:10:03This could be a sixth grade science teacher.
- 1:10:06It could be an author, a historical figure.
- 1:10:09Heck, it could be mom.
- 1:10:11We like to give our guests the opportunity to give back a little bit by giving a shout out to that person that had that impact.
- 1:10:21So.
- 1:10:24So mine would be.
- 1:10:27My best friend when I was when I was a kid, it was his mom.
- 1:10:34Her name is Myra Lauterbach.
- 1:10:35She actually just passed like two years ago.
- 1:10:39But probably the most inspirational person to me in that she kind of lit a fire for me.
- 1:10:48I was sitting at their house and she had, I was an 18-year-old kid.
- 1:10:54I didn't know what I wanted to do.
- 1:10:56What are you going to do when you're older?
- 1:10:57I have no idea.
- 1:10:59And she told me to go and do everything.
- 1:11:03She told me to go experience life.
- 1:11:06She told me to go out and, you know, make my way.
- 1:11:08And just, it didn't matter what it looked like.
- 1:11:11Just to go and, you know, if it meant, you know, just, you know, going sleeping on a
- 1:11:16beach somewhere or you know taking a train to someplace you never been And so I I hated that advice And it didn always look pretty but it was an adventure that I I would not um I wouldn trade for anything So um that that my most
- 1:11:37inspirational person. It, I mean, I wouldn't be doing this right now. I really wouldn't. So
- 1:11:42that's awesome. That's awesome. That's, that's a huge one right there. I like that. Um, all right.
- 1:11:49Well, where can people find you?
- 1:11:51What do you have?
- 1:11:52What are you working on?
- 1:11:53And where's the best place to get your book?
- 1:11:58Oh, well, right now, probably the best place to get my book is on Amazon.
- 1:12:05So I have a lot of so many things I'm working on.
- 1:12:08I'm working on a new project about some of the things that we talked about today, just about that technological and government creep.
- 1:12:17It's called Farming Without Permission.
- 1:12:19That should probably be out, I'm hoping, spring of 27.
- 1:12:26And my farm is Zero Fox Farms.
- 1:12:31I'm on X.
- 1:12:32I have the farm, takes care of the farm handle.
- 1:12:38And then I have my own handle on Jeff Wacker at X.
- 1:12:41That's where you can find me.
- 1:12:43But yeah, I'm just a regular guy.
- 1:12:45Like I, this was, um, just something that I, um, felt very, very passionate about.
- 1:12:52And I just kind of turned into a book of all things.
- 1:12:58I'm just going to say this, right?
- 1:12:59Like, I'm sorry, but you wrote a book.
- 1:13:01So I started a book about 35 years ago, got three pages in.
- 1:13:05That's where I am.
- 1:13:06So, um, I'm going to say you, you, you've done something awesome and I appreciate it.
- 1:13:12Um, yeah, very much.
- 1:13:14so thank you thank you again for giving us some of your time we really appreciate it time is the
- 1:13:21most precious you guys this is the most precious commodity we have and thank you for giving us some
- 1:13:27of your time you know where you can find us we're everywhere podcasts or hosts you can find it hosted
- 1:13:32you can find us on youtube you can also follow us on x uh we've got telegram channel if you're
- 1:13:38interested drop a comment we'll get you in there uh if you have an idea for a guest drop it in the
- 1:13:43comments. We'll do what we can.
- 1:13:45Give us a like if you liked us. If you didn't,
- 1:13:47give us a thumbs down. Tell us we sucked.
- 1:13:49We'll reply to that too.
- 1:13:51And remember,
- 1:13:53wherever you are, whenever you're
- 1:13:55watching this, have an amazing
- 1:13:57day.
- 1:13:58Thanks for stopping by. Jeff, see you later,
- 1:14:01everybody.
- 1:14:13We'll be right back.