yellow is the new green (and other things happening at the farm that should blow your mind).

1. anyone even remotely connected to the farm knows that we've recently converted to flush-free bliss. and the rest of the world is beginning to catch on . . . or at least mainstreamed liberal-biased propaganda called the new york times is picking up on such an under-utilized fertilizer resource: "yellow is the new green"


2. daily dallyings and dreamings into the realm of aquaculture - a passion shared by a lady overly consumed in the world of animals and another lady overly consumed in the world of vegetables.

3. growing mushrooms in coffee grounds. not on a stool.

4. finding inspiration from folks who live on a bus and do things like this:




5. accelerated on-farm usage of something that is not evangelized enough (to both women AND men) in this age of responsible environmental stewardship. viva la diva!

6. common meetings with men in straw hats, banjo/guitar/mandolin in hand ready to thumb a tune and sing a ditty in celebration of the day.

7. peak-knocking for waffles. and gluten-free blanchies for game night.

8. building community voluntarily at the end of a long day, a long week by sharing collard greens - or the ultimate farm blasphemy, a hot and ready - under the cottonwood in swing, on blanket - as the texas sun descends to tomorrow.

9. painting the dorm all seussical-musical-esque and having your mind literally blown every time you sit down and stare at the wall. literally. mind. blown. but hey, yellow is the new green.

Saying adieu...

It was Tuesday morning. We started the day off together. We ate together and we worshiped together. Then some of us left home. Those of us that went set out to explore great land beyond our small farm just north of Waco. Those that stayed behind valiantly continued with everyday tasks that farming entails.

Twelve of us made the trip down to the city of Austin for two days filled with farm tours and adventures. Tuesday was overcast and drizzly, but that did not dampen our spirits. We met the much needed rain with a smile as we met with a radical urban farmer intent on changing the ways of the world. Then we explored the wonders of Whole Foods and lost ourselves in a local book shop.

We spent the night at the house of a fellow farmer. Him and his three house mates, people whom we barely knew were more than willing to stretch out a hand in hospitality. A sure sign that the good in this world continues to out shine the bad.

On Wednesday we rose with the sun and started the day off with prayer. The sun had risen and with it came an unseasonable warm day. We visited another radical urban farmer whose enthusiasm and passion brought joy to our hearts. We then visited some more oases in the bustling city: community gardens.

It was time once again to share a meal together, so we took advantage of the sunshine with a picnic lunch in the park. After relaxing under the boughs of a large live oak eating a meal that had been lovingly prepared for the occasion, it was time to depart.


We set off to the airport to bid farewell to a sister, to a friend...

As I stood there watching my family, my friends, my community drive away, I was filled with sadness... Each one of them had become a part of me and yet their lives would go on without me. They would continue to work side-by-side, walk hand-in-hand, live day-by-day... I realize that our lives became intertwined for only a brief moment and that only by the grace of God will we all be together again...

And yet looking back, I have no regrets. The past twenty-one months of my life have been a blessing and an adventure: a blessing full of highs and lows and fasts and slows, an adventure that has taken me up and down and all around. I have learned more than I can even begin realize. I've learned about farming and living and loving and eating and breathing and praying and just being. My eyes have been opened and I have seen the glory of the Lord...

Each day I spent there was beautiful in and of itself. I have physically left that place, that place which I have come to call home, but I will ever be grateful for that time and that place and those people...AMEN!

on fairytale feasts and freak farmers.

we celebrate our fellow farm friends with feasts of donald duck pate and cinderella-esqe pumpkin - dancing and dining in a fairytale world with popeye, peter pan, and neil rowe miller. singing joyful joyful this little light of mine.

we name our livestock with a nod towards prestigious literary references - (aldous) huxley hamilton and donnie (of the big lebowski).

we garden gangsta-style with kids in the community, careful to avoid dirtying their new nike airs, quick to embrace growing enthusiasm in salad consumption and pickle fermentation.

we spend our afternoons mainlining caffeine and consuming large farmer words like mycorrhizal and saprophytic as applicable to soil biology a la wisdom of d.cole.

we roadtrip to gatherings of christian-libertarian-environmental-capitalist-lunatic-types, dressed in crocs and cowboy boots, carhatts and cardigans.

we eat up the words of a man in the business of mob-stocking herbivorous solar conversion lignified carbon sequestration fertilization.



we are encouraged by long, late-night talks with folks from places not here living out the dreams in our heads like we didn't think possible. knowing full well God is behind these mysteriously magical meetings.

we celebrate our sabbaths under the old tree, perched upon defunct yard-swing reading rilke aloud, rolling in the grass, racing old bicycles up and down the old farm lane.

we like banjos and prefer our guns unloaded (except when the skunks come after our chickens), and our knives dull (except when harvesting salad greens). regardless of the former, we are blessed to read about all things ted, white, and nug every sunday morning over pancakes.

we are not the only ones. "we are the new blood in the old body." we are part-time poets, merry music-makers, sabbatically-estranged students, theorizing theologians. patched together, we are that crazy ragtag body of christ.

"By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive." 1 Cor. 12:12-13

love, gretel (who, in her fairtytale mind, smells not of dirt but actinomycetes - with a hint of patchouli)

Alumni Returns to Waco

Here is a post from the Baylor Website about a WHRI alum.


Jeremy Everett Named To Direct Texas Hunger Initiative At Baylor School Of Social Work
Feb. 4, 2009

Contact: Vicki Kabat, Baylor University School of Social Work, (254) 710-4417

Jeremy Everett will join Baylor University's Center for Family and Community Ministries (CFCM) in February to direct the Texas Hunger Initiative, a new project to alleviate hunger in the state that is being sponsored jointly by CFCM and the Christian Life Commission.

"With some organization and creativity, hunger in Texas can be alleviated, and I think we'll be well on our way to that within six years," said Everett, who earned his undergraduate degree in religion and history from Samford University and his master's of divinity degree in 2001 from Baylor's George W. Truett Theological Seminary.

The THI project comes alongside hunger ministries related to the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger through the Baptist General Convention of Texas, which currently provides $475,000 for 95 Texas hunger ministries. The initiative will build capacity of existing ministries that are addressing hunger in the state. Initially, the project will identify regional leaders in the state and create networks, meeting the different needs of each region.

"I appreciate that this project begins by assessing strengths, and then allows us to build upon those strengths with a model that incorporates cultural and environmental sensitivity," Everett said. "We already have a lot of great efforts to alleviate hunger in place."

Suzii Paynter, director of the BGCT's Christian Life Commission, is excited about partnering with the Baylor School of Social Work. "It's like a new harvest to have the Baylor School of Social Work as a partner to boost and nourish the network of Texas Hunger Offering ministries," Paynter said. "Great people are doing God's work caring for the 'least of these,' and this project will give them tools, support and blessing for ever greater things, especially as we focus on Texas HOPE 2010."

Everett has spent the past five years in San Antonio's West Side, a historically low-income area where he lived with his wife, Amy (MDiv/MSW, 2004) and their two children, Lucas, 4, and Sam, 2. Employed by Baptist Children and Family Services, Everett helped start Guadalupe Street Coffee, a café with computers, wireless Internet service, murals painted by local artists and meeting spaces. As a community developer in West Side, Everett worked to bring together members of the City Council, business owners, and students and administrators from the area's Sidney Lanier High School.

The coffeehouse employs an average of seven people and sponsors a variety of youth and community programs, including college assistance, art events and business development meetings. Now, $2 million in city and federal grants are slated to further economic development in and around the coffeehouse, according to an article by Abe Levy in the Jan. 24 San Antonio Express-News.

The Texas Hunger Initiative will give Everett opportunities to use his community development skills on a broader scale. Initially THI will focus on El Paso, the Valley, and Bexar and McLennan counties, seeking to develop and implement strategies to alleviate hunger through policy, education, community organizing and community development.

"We have chosen to focus on these areas first because there are existing programs and relationships," Everett said. "We can build upon the trust that is already there and grow successful partnerships."

Everett will spend the first months in his new role getting to know dedicated people who address the needs of the hungry every day and involving social work graduate students in the initiative.

"The process we'll put together for the hunger initiative is the same one I used in San Antonio, and both use social work principles," he said. "Students interested in community development and community organizing will graduate from the Baylor School of Social Work with direct practice experience gained through this initiative."

Baylor's School of Social Work began a concentration in community development this past year, and students already have been effective in a specific community building effort to alleviate hunger. The fall 2008 practice class researched, organized, chartered and began a Campus Kitchen, based on the national program in Washington, D.C. Now a part of Baylor's Student Life Division, the kitchen will retrieve unused, quality food from campus dining providers, local restaurants and grocery stores, and feed nonprofit groups and to local service agencies this spring.

In addition, the CFCM has researched and written original curriculum titled "Understanding Poverty," that now is being tested in congregations before final publication.

"We have found that churches are nearly begging for resources to help them address community needs," said Dr. Jon Singletary, CFCM and assistant professor at Baylor's School of Social Work. "We will continue to develop a curriculum on poverty to present to churches and civic groups as a way to introduce and prepare them to engage impoverished families in their communities."

The initial three-year funding of $100,000 annually for the THI will come from grants, gifts and BGCT sources. Everett will be located at the CFCM in Baylor's School of Social Work.

"Feeding hungry people and developing communities so that families can afford to feed themselves - that's what Jesus called us to do," said Dr. Diana Garland, dean of the Baylor School of Social Work. "I am thrilled we will be working with the Christian Life Commission of the BGCT to help congregations bring an end to hunger and the poverty that creates hunger in their communities."