How to grow your own food

Justin Rhodes is my guest today on Inside Ideas. A permaculturalist, film producer, author and teacher, he helps people learn to work with nature to produce their own sustenance so they can live a more abundant life.

Rhodes is a seasoned homesteader who has been practicing beyond organic and permaculture methods on a 75 acre family farm near Asheville NC for a number of years. He is also the founder of Abundant Permaculture, an online resource hub packed with permaculture articles, educational films and business tip and tricks.

“One night I saw a movie called Permaculture Orchard and it made an impression on me because it was so educational but it was also cinematic, beautiful and entertaining and that planted a seed in me,” he told me. “And then I read ‘the four-hour work week’ – a concept of this is to create a piece of content that is a video, and a companion e-book and go for it.”

This inspired Rhodes and his family to launch their first product on kickstarter in 2015.

“The four-hour work week’ taught me that technology levels the playing field. It means a little guy like me can compete and go against big guys. I don’t need a bank. I don’t need a corporation. I don’t need a publisher. I can go to the crowd: hey crowd do you want this? If you want it great, put some skin in the game and let’s create this together, and if you don’t, nobody gets charged.”

The first kickstarter he did was to produce a film and ebook about permaculture and it raised more than $35,000. And the lockdown has done nothing to dampen the progress of the Rhodes family.

“There were quarantines all over the world, and I guess there still are but I’m just like: welcome to my world,” he told me. “We’ve been quarantining for 15 years – welcome to homesteading. We stay at home, we do everything at home. We home school, I work from home, we even home birth. We grow most of our own food, pretty much all of our own meat and Wholefoods even delvers out here. So – if we could get the dentist to come we’d be set, but otherwise, we’ve gotta go to the town for the dentist.”

It is also where he wrote: The Rooted Life: Cultivating Health and Wholeness Through Growing your own Food, which is due to be published in March 2022.

I am delighted to welcome Justin onto the show to get some insight about his upcoming book, and also a few inside tips and ideas for my viewers and listeners who are keen to start growing their own food.