It’s All or Nothing. And yes – when you watch the video we have attached – you will realize we are “all in” for this project. In fact – you might say we are a little crazy (although we like to use the word “passionate” ) about our book project “Growing Simple.”
I wrote two articles this week to publish and send out for this morning’s Sunday Farm Update – knowing I could only choose one.
Let me stop right there – if you really want to see the video first – here is the link – but promise you will come back to read the rest of this article??? 🙂 OWG VIDEO
One is very boring, actually it is a downright lame article announcing our book project and asking in a very humble way for your help.
The other post is a bit more direct – a bit more edgy – and directly to the point. And if you are reading this right now – that means that I had the guts to hit the send button on the edgy one. I hope I did – and I hope you are reading this. After all – are we not the two people who always say if something is important to you – go for it?! So – here it goes…
There are three things that we are most proud of with our farm and website.
One – we have never accepted a single dollar from a single advertiser. We choose to keep it free of ads – free of distraction – and free of any worries that we recommend or talk about something in order to be paid for it.
Two – we have always stayed true to our promise to keep it real and create the farm on a zero-debt basis.
Easy and simple recipes like our Homemade Artisan Bread have been a favorite
Three – That this “simple life of gardening, cooking, canning and DIY” that we talk about has somehow led to 60,000 followers from around the world to believe in it too!
As we talked about last week in our update – there is one final goal for us that completes the entire farm project – to write a book and tour around the country to talk about the “growing simple” concept.
We genuinely believe in what we are doing at our little farm – and I know that others do too. I think most people can tell that we LOVE what we do in every article we write. We are real – we make mistakes – we are not afraid to fail – and when we do – we laugh and try again.
For all of the simple gardening methods we have tried – a few have turned out so poorly that even the deer and rabbits leave them alone. Same for a few of our DIY projects we have attempted – trust me when I say that some that would never make the “Worst Of This Old House” TV show if it existed. And yes – every once in a while – a recipe attempt just might be better suited for the compost pile than our mouths – when even our dog Jazzy gives us a funny “no thank you” look when offered a taste.
The ill-fated silo project! It may have failed -but we still have fun talking about trying to build it.
But that realness and simplicity is what we believe is so important – and why we think the Growing Simple book would be of value!
Too many times – people watch garden and cooking shows or read about those subjects in magazines and books and it’s all about the project turning out perfect. That’s just not real – and I think when people can’t duplicate those results in the garden, kitchen or wood shop – they simply give up and feel like they have failed. I think our blog have proven the real success of any project is in the trying – and that nothing is ever a true failure if you simply don’t give up. In the end – if you can smile and laugh at what you did – it was all worth it.
So – back to the book. One way or another – we are going to figure out how to do it – and we hope we are worthy of your help. It’s not an inexpensive venture to say the least – and I am not afraid to say that this time – we need a little help to launch it all!
For that help – we created a Kickstarter campaign.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Kickstarter, it is the world’s largest on-line funding platform for creative projects.
With this funding, we can create and self-publish a beautiful, full-color, approximately 200 page hard-bound book, with a first-run printing of 500 copies to use in our book tour. It will also pay for the set up of on-demand printing for all additional orders, and defray initial set up costs of the tour to cover the 10 most popular cities that currently follow us on the blog in the U.S.
The total cost of the production of the book, e-book and printing for 500 full color hard bound copies is estimated at $8500.00.
So – the question is this – is what we are doing worth it? Is it worth it enough to help? Is it worth enough to support us in a cause that we not only believe in – but give our hearts to?
Old World Garden Farms
Last week – when we announced the book – we were blown away by more than 115 comments to the post about wanting us to pursue this adventure – and it made us think there was a chance to make it happen.
So – If you have every “liked”, shared, laughed, cried or related to one of our posts; If you have ever built one of our DIY projects or made one of our recipes….then this next statement will get right to the point.
Will you help us? Can you donate to the cause on our Kickstarter site and share this with your circle of friends? If you are unable to donate – then can you share and forward this to friends, family or others to help us get the word out. You can view the campaign here : OWG Kickstarter Campaign
As a little extra – for anyone that donates $10 or more – we will put your name right there in the credits of the book. Any and everything is appreciated and gets us closer to the goal.
Here is the scary thing about our Kickstarter campaign – it’s an all or nothing proposition. IF we make our goal – we get our funds and we can create it all. If we fall one dollar short – all the money pledged is never charged and the campaign is not funded. Talk about pressure! 🙂
With that said – we quietly launched the campaign this weekend and already want to thank Rob F., Kelsey F., Ted V, Joe C., Katie H and Andy C. – who together have already pledged a total of $730 to the project!
THANK YOU!!
Jim and Mary – Old World Garden Farms