Before I was meeting to talk with Jordan a few days ago, on his entryway table was a book - "Family Friendly Farming" by Joel Salatin, a rather outspoken and prolific farmer in the Shenandoah Valley. I only read a few pages before we started talking but after that I knew this was a worthwhile book, so I borrowed it and read all 300-something pages in the past few days.

As a head of a family, head of a farm, and man of God, you need to read this book. I've ordered a copy to you.

In chapters "Encourage Separate Child Business", "Multiple Use Infrastructure", and "Complimentary Enterprises", he writes on the importance of children having their own enterprises within or connected to the farm.

"Commonly, our sleuthing showed that these farms were producing five tons of cow goodies per year. Then I'd flip over to the fertilizer budget and they'd be spending $15,000 a year on fertilizer... These farms could have easily put a child in charge of a composting program and other nutrient cycling techniques, eliminated the fertilizer bill, and thereby created a full-time salaried position."

There's a vision here not of just "expansion" and "enterprise" but of connectedness in the enterprise. That we can use (at least mostly) existing general-purpose capital to create additional opportunities and return and stewardship opportunities.

I can't really summarize it with justice, but it's the clearest articulation of the spirit I am drawn to, and it's something that's not only doable, but worth doing.