Subscriber Spotlight: Author, Landowner, and Visionary, Eli from About the Farm
Lots of people have a crazy dream; Eli is actually making hers happen.
IN CASE YOU’RE NEW HERE, Jenna’s Side Subscriber Spotlight is a perk for paid subscribers who have something they’d like to share with the class. Think of it as show-and-tell for grownups—except instead of a stick of petrified string cheese from your Y2K survival kit or the mixtape you made for your eighth grade crush (but never had the guts to gift), it’s your business, project, purpose, or genius idea. Upgrade today and get yourself featured here!
When my husband and I moved from California to Texas, one of our dreams was to buy some land and build a compound of tiny homes; a place where friends and family could gather, unplug, get outside, and swap conspiracy theories just have fun. After a few failed escrow attempts (and a beating or two with the reality stick), we put that plan aside… but it’s something we think and talk about often and would still very much love to make a reality someday.
With that in mind, “meeting” Eli feels especially serendipitous. She’s basically out there farmfluencing—by helping young agriculturalists who can’t afford land get started on hers. I cannot even tell you guys how much I love this idea! Maybe that could be part of my little compound? 💡
Eli’s recently launched her own ‘stack—and the gal’s clearly got writing chops. (Note how she casually drops the fact that her YA books have sold more than a million-and-a-half copies, no big deal.) I can’t tell you anything else about them, though, because Eli’s hell bent on staying anonymous on the web (her call, not mine!).
With that, meet the lovely, mononymous Eli. :)
WHO EVEN ARE YOU?
With encouragement from Jenna and a few other ladies here at Jenna’s Side, I started a Substack of my own, called About the Farm… so now I'm motivated to answer your subscriber spotlight questionnaire! (I'm answering only as Eli, since I'm still staying personally incognito on Substack.)
Who am I? First of all, I'm a woman. It's been fun using my childhood nickname on Substack and have folks think I'm a man, but the jig is up and I'm coming out, so to speak.
Second, I had a dream for a long time (over 20 years) of being able to help young farmers do their thing by providing land for them to do it on (and taking part in that adventure). That dream is in the process of being lived, and that's what I'm writing about on @aboutthefarm.
PITCH THE [BLEEP] OUT OF ME.
My Substack is the serialized story of how an older landowner connected with young farmers to make everyone's dreams come true. I'll add helpful resources from time to time in case anyone wants to follow a similar path. It will always be free. I'm promoting the paradigm of folks who have money* (*old) teaming up with folks who have energy* (*young) to keep growing high quality food for us all.
A large majority of farmers in the US and Canada will be retiring in the next 20 years. Most of them (they're saying 93% of farmers in Canada!) don't have heirs who want to take over the farm. And yet there are young people who want to farm, but will not be inheriting farmland. Investing in land and farming is the bomb. It's better than the stock market because you get to eat it!
What's in it for you if you read the story? I hope it's a rollicking good time. My novels for young readers have sold over 1.5 million copies, and I'm working at making this story as fun to read as those books (except that it's nonfiction—I promise I'm not just making stuff up this time!).
GIVE US SOME DIRT.
I totally believe in Nature Spirits and talk to them a lot. I’ve never heard back, but they hear boatloads from me.
NOW YOU GET TO BRAG!
I play blues/ragtime/jazz keyboard, and sometimes sing, in a band. My husband plays blues harmonica and our lead singer plays a mean guitar. We're good! We play restaurants and small festivals and some retirement community festivities—any place that will pay us and feed us. It's like having a second teenage-hood.
WHAT’S A HILL YOU’D DIE ON?
We need to kill the deer. Seriously. We need to shoot them and eat them. They eat too much of the forests, so that there are vast areas of woodlands that are actually dying because the deer don't let any tree seedlings grow. When the big trees age out or get cut down, there is no succession forest to take over.
Deer also are the final vector for deer ticks which means they are the place the deer ticks lay their eggs to hatch. I don't want to get into the controversy about whether killing the deer will result in less Lyme and other tick-borne diseases—too many voices on either side. But start with their overpopulation, their damage to ecosystems, and the fact that over 150 people are killed (and many more are injured) each year when deer jump out in front of cars (and reduction of deer populations DOES result in fewer accidents). That's enough for me. It's time to commit mass Bambicide. There are bow hunters who will come to your urban or suburban neighborhood—there are safe ways to do it, and organizations that offer the service.
GIVE US SOMETHING GOOD.
“Everybody is different, and I'm no different from anybody else.” ~my brother Daniel
WHY DO YOU SUPPORT JENNA’S SIDE?
Because you are funny. Because I love your writing style. And because your opinions quite often match mine (and it's fun when people agree with me.) It's always an enjoyable thing to look at the time-space illusion and find a reason to laugh at it.
WHAT IF WE WANT MORE?
Please visit my Substack, About the Farm (and subscribe and give me little hearts and stuff). Subscriptions are free and our motto is “stay free.”
I LOVE the plan for the younger/older partnership as well as your band! More than most you have really "figured it out." I'm subscribed. Thanks!
We meet such fascinating people here! Eli, you are fantastic! I love the idea of combining youth with those of us that are a bit older. {grin}