3 Laps to Save Whiskey Hill Farms: To Victory!

Hello, I’m David Blume, founder of Whiskey Hill Farms and

Science Center here in Santa Cruz County, California. The active farm is also an education center open to the public and schools to learn about Regenerative Agriculture and energy. I've been educating the public since I was a young man, leading the charge for regenerative food and fuel systems.

As a farming and energy expert, I have been asked by NASA to consult about growing food on Mars for astronauts, and am also the author of the Amazon Bestseller "Alcohol Can Be A Gas!", which is the definitive print and digital book instructing people to brew and distill alcohol and use it to power your automobile, generator, or oil fired home furnace all for less than a dollar per gallon. We teach people how to do this at Whiskey Hill Farms. We also feature a tropical exotic fruit forest, among many hands-on demonstration exhibits you can visit.

Our entire facility and mission has almost been entirely funded by the profit made on the crops we grow, and nature threw a curve ball this year.

They say no farm is ever more than one crop failure away from

being forced out of business. I never thought it could happen to me, which is one reason I'm making a documentary about the efforts to save this life long project I have dedicated my existence to. Your support makes you part of a life long journey to save America, and the world, with real solutions that work.

We grow many kinds of rare or unusual crops at Whiskey Hill

Farms, both for food and for medicine. Our main cash crop, which pays our mortgage and salaries, is the popular health-producing tropical food, turmeric.

We grow it organically and sell it fresh. I believe we’re the

largest grower of organic turmeric in North America. Just about every pound we grow is sold to top-quality supermarkets around the country. It’s a specialty crop, and we generally get $7 a pound for it. Although I like carrots I don’t grow them since they only earn a farmer 75 cents a pound.

So how did we get into this predicament? This past winter,

California was hit with around 20 “atmospheric rivers,” and we

received 300% of our normal rainfall, a 100+ year record. The

weather was abnormally cold and then followed by an abnormally sharp heat wave. This tricked the turmeric roots, the part we harvest, into thinking it was spring — which caused them to sprout, which made them unattractive to consumers.

So we lost the sales of the whole year’s crop — but we didn’t

actually lose the crop. In the same way that you can make a lot of potatoes by planting a single sprouting potato, we harvested and replanted the 14 tons of very healthy, and a-bit-too-willing-to-grow, turmeric roots in early 2023.

To survive this past year without the income from our

turmeric sales, we had to tighten our belts, put on our thinking

caps, scrimp, salvage, save and patch with chewing gum or repair things with baling wire — inventing all sorts of ways to get through the year. My main goal was to honor my commitment to be a responsible employer to the very experienced farm workers of Whiskey Hill Farms, and not lay them off. So far I have been able to do this.

My dilemma is that even with our heroic efforts to be thrifty, we are about about three months short of the funds needed to harvest our crop, deliver it to our broker, and receive payment from the buyers.

So let me tell you how I feel. It’s like I’m roaring around the

track, at the Indianapolis 500 in my alcohol-powered race car and I’m in first place so far, at mile 497.

But suddenly I’m running out of fuel 3 laps before winning

the race. Before the race, the pit crew at the farm has maintained all our processing equipment, tuned up our tractors, and greased the harvester bearings, and the farm workers are ready to drive the crop across the finish line.

I need your financial help us make these last three laps to

the end to win this race.

When the race is over, we can pour champagne all over each other in the winner’s circle for being the team that saved the farm. And when we get paid for our first ton of delivered turmeric in the spring, you’ll be all invited to the party — the best kind of party, a hoedown, where farmers put down their weeding tools and kick up their heels and dance.

My experience is that people are better than we tend to think

they are. I have rarely been disappointed by the response to my

own generosity. It seems that I’m always eventually repaid for it, often in mysterious ways I could never have anticipated. But you know what they say, you have to ask to receive. You have to let the universe — and people — know what you need. So I am humbly asking for your help to make this upcoming spring here at Whiskey Hill Farms a time for celebrating at a hoedown and not sitting vigil at a foreclosure.

Your donation is tax deductible! I am so honored to be

sponsored by the prestigious non-profit the Buckminster Fuller

Institute. Bucky is the inventor of the geodesic dome and so

much more. He wrote the foreword to my book, Alcohol Can Be A Gas! And anchored the press conference announcing the airing of my 10 part PBS television series in 1982.

Let me leave you with a couple of thoughts about how you

can help even if you don’t have the ability to donate yourself. In

this brave new social media world, the challenge is to be seen.

I would appreciate your spreading the word about our project

to your friends, and there is one more important way to help.

I’ve been interviewed on radio over 1000 times in my life.

If you’re a radio talk show listener, or have a show you think I might be an educational guest on, please request

that they have me on as a guest, booking details are at www.whiskeyhillfarms.com.

Once again I thank you from my heart!

Farmer Dave