Outpost History

The Last Organic Outpost started simply as the backyard garden of Joe Nelson Icet. In 1999, Joe, a refrigeration mechanic by trade, was living in Baytown, working in chemical plants by day, and getting up at 2:30am to meditate each morning. He was looking for direction and a sense of community, and so became involved with a start-up Permaculture group in Houston called SEED (Sustaining the Earth through Environmental Design). His son, Keldren, strongly encouraged him to pursue this path of sustainability and in January, 2000 he took his son’s advice and moved to a new house where he started his backyard garden in February.

Soon this backyard garden expanded onto several adjacent, abandoned lots which at the time were being used as an unsightly dumping ground. Joe began putting all of his free time and money into transforming the piles of stones, concrete, tires, and other waste into an urban agriculture oasis. He bought a tractor, his dad bought a trailer, and his brother loaned him $5,000. “If the garden ever needed anything, I just did it,” says Joe.

He dubbed his style of gardening/urban farming “regenerative agriculture” and spent $1,000 on building a shed and nearly $17,000 over a six year period to bring in dirt to build raised beds. Joe’s friend John built a demonstration solar composting toilet on the land, and in April, 2002 Dr. Floyd Atkins began his involvement with the garden and started sharing his passion for sound nutrition as a path to health. Nancy Sorenson, a live foods chef and yoga teacher, came on board in November of the same year, as did Pat Greer, who began teaching live foods preparation classes in the garden.

A community of friends and volunteers grew up around these live foods classes, and in 2003 The Last Organic Outpost officially became a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting health through urban agriculture. Keldren, who had been involved since the beginning, designed the original logo, which he updated in 2006. The original Board of Directors consisted of Dr. Floyd Atkins, Joe Nelson Icet, Nancy Sorenson, Kim Saltzmann, Doug Riddle, Linda Bartz, and Carlisle Vandervoort.

“It’s been a process of following and working good ideas,” says Joe, “Now there’s enough people involved to make things happen, to make it a movement, to get good things done.” In the summer of 2006, Joe personally moved to a new location at the same time the lease on the original garden land expired, and the decision was made to relocate the garden. To continue to build community during this transition, Joe is hosting weekly live foods potlucks at his new home. The vision for the future of The Last Organic Outpost includes expanding new garden lands, providing sustainable agriculture classes, and offering volunteer, co-op, and market garden opportunities.

Joe Nelson Icet at The Last Organic Outpost