The Earth-Friendly Pioneer: A Life Beyond Norms

This blog post tells the story of a man whose life journey defies social norms. From his early realizations about the importance of what and how we consume to his involvement in the Biodynamic connections of nature and the cosmos, this narrative portrays the life of an Earth-Friendly Pioneer. Learn about his environmental naturopath endeavors, his journey to Santa Barbara, and his role in leading the resurgence of local agriculture and the long-forgotten wine industry in Fair Play.

Let me share with you here a little background before the book’s story even starts, before I even venture far from home to California. I wrote the following years ago…

What does Brian want to be when he grows up? A question whose answer most of us want to postpone until we explore some possibilities first, myself included. Explore is the perfect word for me as that is exactly what I wanted to do.

The ocean has always attracted me –swimming, surfing, snorkeling, diving, sailing and fishing, and after reading Kon Tiki in the fifth grade, reaching out to faraway lands.

Thoughts of a spiritual nature possessed my interest also as a young boy. My years as an altar boy and the intrigue of mystical Christianity arose my sense of duty and devotion to self and others. In the seventh grade, I explored the possibilities of joining the Maryknoll missionaries and becoming a priest serving in foreign lands.

 As time passed my watery passions grew as did my missionary visions but not as a priest. Girls in skirts blossomed all around me and started affecting my visions of the future. My mission in life was evolving.

Although chubby, I always participated in athletics. Loved sports, just not star material. After cutting my summer short to do Freshman football, I started thinking I could still be surfing instead of being hot and sweaty banging heads and tackling other sweaty and smelly guys. That was it.

Surfing brought out the best in me. Surfing was so fun, I wouldn’t stop – just one more wave, then another and then another. The sensation of a ‘good ride’ was so satisfying that I just wanted more. And the result was great workouts, always pushing oneself to the limit.

Surfing was more than a sport; it was a culture. Add to that the burgeoning Hippie movement, things were looking ‘far out’ but coming together for me. The evolution of a growing boy into a young man in the ‘60s had a number of influences awaiting him, a pendulum of possibilities.

The exploration of oneself, higher or lower, was like an apple hanging on the tree, ready to pick. Which apple would it be?

The influences of change were close enough to touch, even though the mainstream still held their course including the War in Vietnam. I was ready to Rev up my personal evolution to Revolution status.  Status Quo was about to go up in smoke.

My head was full of questions, I sought answers and that took work. Smoking marijuana got us all laughing and talking too. A group of teenagers, stoned, can cover a lot of topics, some meaningful, some not. And what separated the brave new minds from the rest was LSD. LSD would scare the shit out of some so much so that one time was one time too many. I found my trips enlightening in so many ways.

Trippin’ with friends was comfortable. Trippin’ with others, especially older folks, was unpredictable. The setting, the stage, was so important to the beneficial outcome of the trip. There was much to learn about one’s self and more about other things.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Many Ahh-Ha moments happen high, lost afterwards to most. Not me, I retained most everything along with the feeling of responsibility to remember. I felt compelled to act, like Atlas carrying the World on his shoulders. And I did.

As one might have experienced themselves growing up in the 60s, something was blowin’ in the wind and I caught a good wiff of it. Smoking pot was a fun and adventurous thing. The mystery of where the stuff came from, the intrigue and paranoia associated with the unlawful act, the good vibes that surrounded the experience made for both shear fun and pure smoked-filled mental stimuli. Some people could just get high and crazy the night before and claim to remember next to nothing about the experience the next morning much like when they’d get drunk. To me my mind soared to new heights, my personal discovery accelerated, and my eyes became wide open. My problem was that by the next morning I still vividly remembered my mind travels and wanted more.

Let’s get it straight, we were good kids, committed; committed to getting as high as we could and experiencing life without limits. LSD was our rocket ship and we were the space cadets. We didn’t have the internet then, but we certainly had our virtual realities. I never met anyone named Google, but we had many Yahoo moments. Price of admission was cheap, and supplies were plentiful most of the time. Surfing was the real thing. But our searches took on new directions with every new hit. Our rocket ships had names like Orange Sunshine, Purple Haze, Windowpane, Purple Ousley, Blotter, Acid and of course the generic LSD and its natural source called Woodrose. We didn’t have a prejudicial bone in our bodies; we were happy to do Peyote or Psilocybin mushrooms too. Trippin’ was a test of one’s mental stability while exploring the innermost limits of what was hopefully pure fun, but not always.

We were harmless to anyone except maybe ourselves. We were explorers – explorers of mankind, looking, listening, talking, questioning, sharing and discussing for hours on end. ‘The times they are a changing’. They were; I felt it. Looking at the American population at large, very few participated in the changes. They simply saw an occasional news bite on the tube (aka the TV today). To me the revelations of change kept coming and the cumulative effects were changing me forever.

In all fairness I wasn’t being changed, not by LSD. I was developing and change was sought after and driven by me for my benefit and growth. My interests lie in self-empowerment in every way. LSD was a tool, a vehicle to fast-forward thoughts, interaction and introspection. Reading, something I rarely did for entertainment then, special books in areas of my interests of growth gave me the deep thoughts of others, respected individuals in their fields and in time. Gurus, clairvoyants, mystics and leaders of great convictions put forth their messages.

The ones that most resonated with me wove their spirituality with everyday health of body and soul. It made way more sense to me when good health was not only the results of good thoughts but of a diet of natural foods, unprocessed, mainly fruits and vegetables, grown without the use of toxic chemicals, etc. And vice a versa, some books warned regardless of the quality of what you eat, your maligned thoughts, stress and lifestyle could ruin a good meal and turn it to poison.

Keep in mind I was 16, 17 and 18 and I was not amongst friends or adults with similar thoughts or lifestyles, thus my mind’s door opened wide looking for real live mentors in these various areas. It was dangerous for me to read powerful books because I didn’t take the new-found knowledge lightly. I also did not take everything I read as a definite truth. I did, however, have a soft spot for a well-woven pattern of thoughts that demonstrated the inter-connectedness of life, its processes, causes and effects and even the more esoteric – the unseen life forces.

When Dr. Walker wove together spirituality and his admiration of the teachings of Parmahansa Yogananda (Autobiography of a Yogi) with his critique of conventional concepts of health and disease based on his perspective as a doctor, chemist and centurion (lived to be 108), I listened. These teachings were regarded by many (especially those that he critiqued) as unnecessary quackery; but they resonated with me. And I had no problem, very comfortable intuitively, standing alone with my thoughts and taking actions therein based.

Did I want to be odd? No way, I’m a very social being and always wondered how much more comfortable it would be amongst my peers if I just ignored that which challenged the accepted mass of misinformation. I couldn’t ignore the tidal wave of knowledge flooding over me. Yes, I opened the door initially, but the flood flowed forth with an energy of origins beyond me.

The foundation of knowledge on which I was building (alternative methods and lifestyles of good health) became the launch pad to other studies, directions and pursuits, all inter-connected, all laying a foundation to a lifetime of action. The call to action in the 60s with lyrics like “Got to Revolution” with Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane’s “Volunteers of America” subconsciously fueled and validated my desire to act on my new knowledge. And so much of this knowledge challenged the status quo of the AMA, pharmaceuticals and the industrial complex of agribusiness that I felt I found my revolution. My revolution wasn’t interested in killing anybody. I didn’t have to bear arms nor travel to foreign lands. Nevertheless, I had to be strong. I felt quite patriotic. I had to learn more, train and get into shape to take on my new duties and assignments. First step, I became a vegetarian at 16 and began an insatiable quest to learn all about the world of fruit and vegetables, where they come from and how to eat them.

Back to school at summer’s end 1970, by January of my senior year at River Dell Regional High (Oradell, NJ), my interests were so not at school. I had a hard time even showing up. I flew cross-country to California over Christmas break to check out Santa Barbara, a surfing mecca whose stories I heard each summer by older surfers became irresistible. Surfing and taking in the fabulous weather while hitchhiking all over, my California dreaming manifested and turned into a commitment to make California my home in the future. Not long after my return from sunny California and just before winter gave way to spring, I was off to the orchards of Bucks County, Pennsylvania to further my Back to the Earth knowledge learning how to prune apple and pear trees.

Shortly after my return to my classes, the VP and Disciplinarian Mr. Snediker who knew me well pulled me into his office to deliver some strong threats nearing expulsion. I asked if I could use the phone on his desk. He pointed me to the phone booth in the hall. I somehow, through directory information, got the phone number of the new Richard Stockton State College to which I had already been accepted and asked the admissions office there if I needed a high school diploma to attend next fall. Admissions said no since I’ve already been accepted. I walked back into Mr. Snediker’s office and told him the good news and that he could shove his threats up his ass. We had a very different relationship after that – better I’d say.

My extra-curricular interests were intense but way out of the ordinary for the time and place I was in. I had discovered a philosophy of health that put me in the driver’s seat and totally responsible for my own health and well-being, physically and spiritually. I was all over that sense of self-empowerment even though it came with responsibility and commitment. My mission however was evolving in a more self-leadership role to change the world by example. First by making change and commitment to my own path.

By April that year I transferred to Southern Regional HS in Ocean County, so I could spend all my time  retro-fitting the front two rooms of a house amongst the commercial buildings on the causeway in Shipbottom my brother Michael purchased into the first natural food store on LBI (Long Beach Island). Named Earth, Air, Fire & Water I stocked my hand-built rustic wood shelves with bulk basics (nuts, seeds, dried fruits, grains, beans, oils, honey, etc.) complete with a smoothie bar at the back of the room. Out front I built a little covered stand to display Sam Davidson’s organic produce grown in Barnegat just across the causeway. In the other room was the reincarnation of Fitz’s Surf Shop, started in our garage in North Beach Haven with my two brothers Michael and Billy…

That story carries on, but I just wanted to share a little personal background that primed my future with ambition and direction.

I know you will enjoy my book – Confessions of a Winemaker.