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STEVE SOLOMON'S PAGE
Truly, a picture is worth a thousand words. To see a slide
show of what I've been up to lately, click this link:
Steve & Annie At Home: September, 2007
The Garden's Progress: November 8, 2007
The Garden's Progress: December 6, 2007
The Garden's Progress: January 16, 2008
The Garden's Progress: April 26, 2008
About Me
When I needed to earn a living
I made my work into play. My father wished that one on me. In
a moment of great sincerity he said that he only wanted me to
accomplish one thing in my life: that I would wake up each morning
and look forward to what I had to do that day
--something
he frequently failed to achieve himself. For him working was mostly
an unwanted duty done to support his family. Seeing what his ongoing
anger and resentment over this did to him and our family, I resolved
to do better myself. So most of my work has been done at home,
or out of the home; my two businesses both were started at home
but grew to substantial size.
I could use this space to try to explain
"who" I am, but I won't do that because trying would
be futile. There's little apparent consistency in most of the
personas I've worn. However, I've observed certain qualities in
myself that do seem consistent: like intensity. I tend to be totally
absorbed in whatever I am interested in. When going through phases
lacking this high level of interest I am bored and feel discontent.
If you 'll click on the word "written"
you'll see some short pieces I've written
that have never been published on paper. These bits of fiction
and fancy and meditation might tell you more honest truth about
me than I could tell you if I tried.
I understand plants and so I write how-to-vegie-garden
books. My best two are in print at this time: Growing Vegetables
West of the Cascades published by Sasquatch Press, Seattle,
and Gardening When It Counts, published by New Society
Publishing, Gabriola Is., B.C. Two older gardening-related books
of mine are available
on this web site.
I have irradicable propensities toward
independence, the expression of personal sovereignty and the exercise
of liberty. In other words, I'm a free soul who hates paying attention
to things I am not interested in. Consequently, I have rarely
been comfortable in the role of employee.
In my late twenties I became a secondary
school teacher, this done out of a foolish notion that I could
inspire a love of knowledge in the young by getting them to "do"
history, which was something I had a passion for at that time.
I tried to teach history in much the same way I present this website,
by giving my students the original documents to read and upon
which to exercise their historical imaginations. The method didn't
work very well then because the students were too young to really
appreciate history (a subject that should never be taught to someone
under thirty years of age). I also largely failed because secondary
school students rarely study because of genuine interest.
So I found teaching secondary school
history a very disappointing experience, containing little or
nothing of the high purposes I'd envisioned when I'd decided to
become a teacher.
I gave up teaching after struggling with
it for a couple of years, and then stumbled into creating my own
work—self-employment—and learned business by doing business.
This is a method of education the Latinos call autodidactico
(a self-teaching individual). Once I got the hang of running
a business, I realized self-employment was much more satisfying
than teaching school. For, when "Johnny the high school student"
did not want to study, the teacher was supposed to find fault
with themselves for being unable to motivate Johnny to want to
study. But when "Johnny the employee" did not want to
work responsibly, the boss took a simple expedient, fired him
and hired Freddy.
Also, I could never have created this website
had I not done that business, because I fell into the phototypogrphy
business where I designed and processed books for a living: all
sorts of books, academic books, trade books, my company even made
a garden book.
After seven years in the book trade I
no longer found the process of doing business interesting in and
of its own sake. I had also discovered that I was quite good at
running a business, and had already created much more income than
I knew what to do with. (Actually I'm really a simple guy with
simple tastes.) So I sold the typesetting business and homesteaded
in Oregon where I took to writing garden books and started a successful
mail order vegetable seed business. I'm skipping lightly over
quite a few years here, but after "bootstrapping", building
and then selling two innovative small businesses I had accumulated
a nice nest egg, no longer needing to create new income,
though I have still not completely overcome a need for working-as-play.
Thus has come about one of my better quips: "Considering
the alternatives, I prefer self-employment to employment. After
all, you usually make a lot more when you work for yourself and
have much more independence. But my real choice is comfortable
and creative unemployment."
I've been writing a collection of sayings
and observations since the mid 1970s; it is called, naturally,
"The Wisdom Of Solomon."
Most of these few bits of wisdom are my own creation or realisation;
the minority have been ruthlessly stolen. Despite all I've been
through this lifetime, my wisdom book is still only about four
pages long. I suspect "The Wisdom of Solomon" might
lengthen to five pages before this lifetime is over. Maybe six,
if I live long enough. But probably not six because as I age there
seems to be less and less really wise wisdom. Who knows, as I
age the book might start to shrink.
In 2006 I wrote the sixth edition (the best
one ever) of Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. I
wrote it after living in Tasmania for nearly ten years. That edition
will probably be my last book about food growing in the Cascadia
Bioregion because I have become a Tasmainan; I shudder when I
try to imagine myself in the current American milieu. In 2002
I wrote and self-published Growing Vegetables South of Australia.
This book has been quite successful when measured on a Tasmanian
scale; I have sold over 2,500 copies of it to a population of
less than half a million people. I will send a copy of this book
to anyone in Australia postpaid, for twenty-five Aussie dollars,
paid in advance.
I spend an hour or two every day growing
a 3,000 sq. ft (300 sq. metre) year-round backyard veggie garden
on the Island of Tasmania (Australia) that provides more than
half the total caloric intake of two adults in the form of fresh
vegetables. The work is done entirely with hand tools and helps
keep me fit. I share life with a local lady named Anne.
I was born in 1942. To fend off old age I
have taken up yoga, in addition to eating a lot of vegetables.
As I age I seem to become more hermitish, having experienced many
disappointments dealing with people. I prefer my garden to most
people; I prefer the company of writers (through reading their
books) and of Annie to that of most other social interactions.
We are very active patrons of the State Library of Tasmania. I
wish I did not know what is going on in the world—I mean
the sort of stuff that is usually called "news"—but
as remote as Tasmania is, to my sadness it is still part of the
American empire.
Finally, if you wish to communicate
with me via email go to the contact
page. And, if there is anything I can do to assist
you, please don't hesitate to ask. I really believe that a person
is only as valuable as they are of help to others.
Steve Solomon
PO Box 524
Exeter, Tasmania 7275
Australia
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