Self Reliance by Brandon

Self Reliance by Brandon - February 2022 Scholarship Essay

I live in the suburbs near Chicago. However, in my backyard I enjoy a little piece of nature. A small forest preserve full of trees, plants, and deer gives me an escape where I can observe the seasons of growth and the complex ecosystem as it ages and changes. Closer to my house, I have a mini-homestead with honeybees, a small garden, and a compost bin. I am able to test how plants and insects react to the weather and growing conditions of my area and learn about the production of food. Having this exposure to small agriculture has given me a strong interest in the interactions of my food with its ecosystem and how I participate in that cycle.

To explore this interest, I would create a class that teaches students to work with the environment to grow their own food at home. It would emphasize sustainable agricultural and homesteading practices. This could include intercropping, composting, and use of vertical space to grow fresh vegetables. Students would learn how to save seeds and select for varieties that are nutritious and grow well in their area. They would be taught how to raise and harvest basic meat animals such as chickens and rabbits. In these ways, the class would introduce students to the important and beneficial relationship they have with their food.

Because it takes decades to bring a self-sufficient homestead to fruition, relevant experience is not widely available. Only a few people have fully attempted these practices and recorded the information they learned from their experiences. Additionally, the knowledge and skill required for homesteading has been quickly diminishing. In the past, everyone used to have a garden and chickens. Yet now, few people can even distinguish between edible and nonedible plants. Even though we no longer rely on our backyard gardens for fruits and vegetables, the specific local knowledge required to be successful takes years to perfect and losing previous generations’ progress could be catastrophic.

Not only is it important to preserve this knowledge, but teaching people basic homesteading skills will also bear fruit of joy and satisfaction. There is something special and unique about having direct experiences with procuring and harvesting your own food. The ability to follow food through its stages of growth and onto the dinner table brings a sense of wholeness and contentment that no grocery store can fill. In addition, if more people were actively growing some of their own food and saving seeds, there would be more opportunity for variation. People would be able to select for traits such as flavor or local adaptability and give rise to new varieties that add to biodiversity. A class like this would preserve the generational knowledge associated with small agriculture, educate more people about their relationship with what they consume, and allow me to pursue my interest in the personal production of food.