MAD, adj: not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action… at odds with the majority; in short, unusual.

-Ambrose Bierce, A Devil’s Dictionary

What is Mad Farmer?

I’m Brett Gallagher. I’m from the suburbs of St. Louis and now farming in a little valley village in Prague.

We, my wife Lucie and I, are entering our fifth season farming in the city. We found a jungle of blackberries and turned it into a garden in which we grow food for a few dozen families who stop by each week for a share of the harvest. We’ve got a flock of chickens, a hippie commune of ducks, and a pair of geese. We had some rabbits, a few sheep, goats, and pigs that now occupy our freezer. The last three years we’ve been living off grid and building our house. I’ve yet to find someone more surprised than I am about the beautiful situation in which I find myself.

We used to travel a lot - rode our bikes through the Balkans a few thousand miles, hitchhiked across the U.S., and bought a clunker for cash a few summers back that we drove around the West for a while. Some of those tales might make their way here.

I’ve taught an “English for IT” class at a university in Prague the last eight years despite kind of hating technology and not knowing too much about English. The students have taught me a lot. Sometimes, I think, I return the favor. This course has been an eye-opener. The extent and speed at which our attention and perception is shaped and controlled online is troubling and worthy or broader discussion. Some of these essays or stories will be my own attempt to make sense of the digital world.

Why’d we start farming? We were motivated to start growing our own food out of a desire to remove ourselves from a system that destroys the life it depends on. All that noble stuff. Sure, there was a lot of that. But to be honest, after spending years in the idea-lands of school, we felt like doing something real, and trying to make living off a little piece of land is about as real as it gets. What keeps us going is just how rewarding, meaningful and engaging it is.

What can you, dear reader, expect from The Mad Farmer? Some farming/gardening tips and tricks we’ve learned along the way. But stories, mostly. And the ravings of a lunatic.

“As soon as the generals and the politicos
    can predict the motions of your mind,
    lose it. Leave it as a sign
    to mark the false trail, the way
    you didn’t go. Be like the fox
    who makes more tracks than necessary,
    some in the wrong direction.
    Practice resurrection.

-Wendell Berry, “The Mad Farmer Liberation Front”

I’m all in. I joined the Mad Farmer Liberation Front. I’ve drank from the cool-spring water of the hills, and blackened my hands in the earth. There’s no going back. So I’ll take my stand, while sitting here, writing to you.

Sincere thanks for reading.

Brett Gallagher