Civic Agriculture

What is Civic Agriculture? from Wikipedia: 

Civic Agriculture is the trend towards locally based agriculture and food production that is tightly linked to a community's social and economic development.

Civic agriculture represents a sustainable alternative to the potentially destructive practices of conventional, large-scale agriculture. The term was coined by the late Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor Thomas A. Lyson, Department of Development Sociology, Cornell University, at the 1999 Rural Sociology Society Annual Meeting.^[1]

Professor Lyson wrote a follow-up book titled Civic Agriculture, in which he expounds on his ideas, arguing that because of the interlocked relationship between the food economy and consumers, people have a civic duty to support important agricultural engagements. In his book, Lyson claims that communities that show an active involvement in civic agriculture aid economic development by supporting their local food production.^[1] Thus, in committing to civic agriculture, local communities contribute to an economy growth in the agricultural sector.

After taking a Civic Agriculture class through the University of Oregon, I found that I was looking for ways to connect my own life to self sufficiency and civic based agriculture. I wanted to know more about how to create 'stolen' gardens through cuttings, seed saving, and splitting of plants that were from the surrounding area, but then it evolved past that. I wanted to preserve knowledge that was handed down to me from my grandma and her grandma and the ladies in our communities. I wanted to preserve the way of life that I grew up with, in a rural ranching community, for my kids to experience and for their kids to experience too. Then, it grew into an even bigger love outside the class. My family and friends, who I was asking for information and knowledge, began wanting copies of my paper and project. They, too, were wanting to preserve knowledge and circulate information about gardening, building communities, and preserving historic gardening methods. 

This blog is a product of that evolution. I've created it to preserve stories from old timers, community memories, and so much more. You can find different information under the tabs at the top of the blog... and I'll be posting more and more as I find more information and knowledge from new to me sources like vintage gardening books and other frugal gardening/lifestyle techniques.