World Hunger Relief, Inc.

School Gardening Video

2010-08-24T16:44:00.003-05:00

Check out the video put together by one of our partner schools showcasing our partnership with them in reviving their green classroom. Special thanks to the Meadows Foundation and Communities in Schools-Heart of Texas for providing the funding.

Technology for the Poor Building at World Hunger Relief, Inc.

2010-08-24T16:04:00.006-05:00

We have recently finished the building you helped us start last year. It has been named the Technology for the Poor Building at World Hunger Relief, Inc., in honor of our partnership with Job Ebenezer and his ministry, Technology for the Poor.

The picture below is of Jonathan Bruce, one of our AmeriCorps members, grinding flour on the dual purpose bicycle Job has designed. The building houses this bicycle as well as a food storage demonstration area that includes: a cool storage room, freezers, canning, dehydrating, fermenting and an evaporative cooler called a Zeer Pot. We also plan to add an observation beehive in the near future.

The building also has a four station hand washing sink/drinking fountain that has allowed us to get our school groups cleaned up and hydrated in very quick fashion. Off the back of the building is the Heart of Texas -Master Composter Learning Center which has demonstrations of composting appropriate for homes, schools and small businesses.

Thank you everyone who contributed to this project. We hope to partner with you again soon.

Especially First Methodist Tulsa , Dana and Betty Sark, Don and Elaine Stover, and Linda and Delbert

New piece on our Internship

2010-08-09T09:21:00.001-05:00

New 8 Austin was out a couple weeks ago, check out the spot they put together on our internship.

http://www.news8austin.com/content/273002/interns-learn-agricultural-skills-to-fight-hunger

Farmer Brad in Ft. Worth,

2010-08-06T08:04:00.002-05:00

World Hunger Relief, Inc.'s former Farm Manager:

Special Speaker: Brad Stufflebeam
"Organic Farming in Texas"

Hosted by: Organic Gardening Club of Ft. Worth

DATE: August 24th, 2010

TIME: 7pm

LOCATION: Ft. Worth Botanic Garden Auditorium, CLICK HERE FOR DIRECTIONS>>

MORE: The Organic Garden Club of Fort Worth is delighted to announce that Brad Stufflebeam of Home Sweet Farm will be speaking to our club on August 24th. Brad has excellent experience and credentials in organics. He and his wife Jenny operate a successful CSA farm in Brenham Texas west of Houston. As former TOFGA President, he understands the needs and benefits of organic practices. His knowledge of food production and marketing is vast and this is an incredible opportunity to learn from him. The club meets at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, in the auditorium with the meeting starting promptly at 7 p.m. We hope you will join us and learn from this valued speaker. Visit the OGCFW website for more info, CLICK HERE >>

Texas at the Table: Part Four.

2010-08-04T09:19:00.001-05:00

Preservative Pickles, Cardboard Apples, and the Theology of Disposable Dishware

at the Table in San Antonio, TX

While surveying the sights in San Antonio, we – the lovely ladies of the Texas at the Table: Project Go Road Trip – experienced the full spectrum of emotion – from shock and awe, disillusionment and hope. We discovered new insights into everyday theology – through eating red delicious apples and washing mismatched dishes. San Antonio was the fourth stop on the Texas at the Table Road Trip to explore how people across Texas creatively address hunger in their communities – or more simply, exploring where food comes from, who gets it, and who doesn’t.

Day Ten: After basking in the sun for an afternoon and unwinding in a cabin in the hill country, we dove back into summer feeding frenzy in San Antonio. Our first stop was Baptist Temple Church to meet with Pastor Jorge Zayasbazan. Baptist Temple was one of the first churches in San Antonio to initiate a summer lunch program for neighborhood children. In their second summer, Baptist Temple now hosts summer camp five days a week, providing programming for kids all morning long and ending with a lunch. In San Antonio, the summer lunch program is sponsored by the San Antonio Food Bank to coordinate the food distributed to the various lunch sites across the city. Pastor Jorge led us through the kitchen to show us a bagged lunch prepared by the Food Bank – a hot dog wiener, pickle-in-a-pouch, fruit cocktail, and fruit cereal bar. If enough time and hands are available, the hot dogs will be heated up in the microwave before served to the children in a white bun. My fellow Road Trippers – already having their fill of hot dogs – were aghast at the nutritional deficiency of said meal. And yet such meals meet the US Department of Agriculture’s nutritional standards of a healthy meal.

the beautiful San Antonio Food Bank.

From Baptist Temple, we jumped in the cars, stuffed some carrots, cucumbers and hummus in our mouths and headed towards the San Antonio Food Bank to meet with Paco Velez, Director of Services – to take a tour of the city programs with which the Food Bank partners. First stop, a neighborhood center summer program for teens. This program was co-sponsored with HEB and Radio Disney. When we walked through the doors, we were hit with the smell of sweaty adolescence, or should I say, teen spirit. Radio Disney led dancing-jazzercise wonderful-ness with the teens. The HEB mascot handed out apples. The overall focus of the program is health and fitness. I spoiled the good vibes by politely declining the offer of an apple, because personally, I think red delicious apples taste like cardboard – and out of all the hundreds varieties of apples, I have no idea why we as a culture have adapted the red delicious apple as the apple of choice. If I were a teacher and a student of mine handed me a red delicious apple, I would promptly compost it. Perhaps this is a bit harsh, but food grown for artificial appearances preserved to have a shelf-life of 6 months should not be considered edible. Chemicals are used to keep the food-product looking fresh, while the sugar content (ie flavor) begins to deteriorate the moment it is plucked from the branch. This is not food. And this is why our children do not eat their vegetables. Or red delicious apples. Or fruit infused-in-high-fructose-corn-syrup cocktail. And also a contributing factor to the increasing rate of adult-onset diabetes and obesity amongst our children. Excuse my rant.

Teen Center partnering with San Antonio Food Bank.

After the youth center, Paco took us to a senior center distributing senior food boxes in addition to what the social worker side of me chooses to refer to as the diabetes line – donations from HEB of all the day-old pastries, cakes, cookies, breads. Don’t get me wrong – I truly appreciate attempts to salvage food from waste (and am an avid dumpster diver of groceries and used to rescue hundreds of $$$ worth of fresh produce from my local Trader Joe’s) – however, as a former case manager for low-income and homeless families, it pains me to see people who have lost their sight, toes, or whole legs to diabetes reaching for that free cake donated by HEB. Let them eat cake, indeed! If we want to adequately fix our broken health care system while attempting to end hunger in our communities, we must understand and emphasize the importance of good nutritious food. A shift must occur socially and culturally. Those of us from higher economic brackets who prefer fresh organic food – be it from HEB, Central Market or Whole Foods – musn’t reach for the can of creamed corn and bag of ramen noodles that we wouldn’t feed ourselves or our children when the next food drive for the church food pantry hits us in the face. If we have respect for our own bodies and own health – as well as that of our children – then as Christians (if we claim to believe in God and the words Jesus said to love our neighbors as ourselves) we must also respect the health and well-being of our brothers and sisters we serve at food pantries, on the street, at work, next door. Excuse my rant.

Filling a food box at a senior center.

Next stop: one of the Food Bank’s drive-thru food box distribution sites. Typically the Food Bank requires that a parking lot can accommodate 500 cars in order to qualify as a site. The site is complete with canopies covering everything from potatoes to beverages to rice and more is hand-loaded by Food Bank employees into the trunks and backseats of those willing to sit idling in the parking lot. Qualifications: folks must have a child under 18, call ahead to the Food Bank to reserve a box, and be willing to take the time in the morning or afternoon to wait in line. Such a food distribution presupposes transportation and gas money.

Drive-thru food box distribution.

Our last stop before heading back to the Food Bank was the infamous Haven for Hope, a multi-million dollar response to homelessness in San Angelo. As our friend Steven from Austin explained, Haven for Hope is the Walmart of the social service world: one stop shopping for the homelessness community, providing a multitude of programs and gated community setting – and slowing putting smaller homeless assistance programs out of business with the consolidation of funding and services focused on Haven for Hope. The Food Bank’s role at Haven for Hope is food, of course, as well as a Culinary Arts Training Program – allowing residents to participate in a job-readiness program. We benefited from some of the program’s red velvet cake.

Looking at aspargus at the Food Bank Garden.

Finally, the Food Bank operates a garden on the site of the main headquarters. I led the gals for a plant identification tour – testing their increased knowledge of various vegetables and herbs. Upon asking Paco about the Food Bank’s sourcing of fresh produce, he told me they work with one of the largest produce warehouses in the state of Texas – which donates millions of pounds of vegetables and fruit each year. The Food Bank also encourages community partners to start their own gardens, providing seeds and tools to help get their gardens started.

the Lovely Ladies with Paco.

That evening we had a terrifying experience had an HEB-plus on the south side of the city. I would also like to comment that any and all of my rants are not against the San Antonio Food Bank specifically. The SAFB is one of the best food banks in the nation, distributing large amounts of food to those in their community who need that extra support. They do good work. However, I am continually frustrated when efforts to address hunger in the community are haphazardly bandaged through quick fixes of food-products devoid of nutritional value – while the plight of the family farmer is furthered by our societal reliance upon agri-business and corporate conglomeration of our food system. Seems like there should be a solution in there some where to connect the idea of growing food with the issue of ending hunger, while economically benefiting small growers and the local community at the same time . . . Excuse my rant.

Day Eleven: Friday morning our view of San Antonio – and the entire trip – shifted. Rather than continuing to see refined programs tailored to look good in funding pamphlets, we saw down and dirty service to community. We metwith Dee Sanchez, volunteer at the San Antonio Catholic Worker House – who, first things first, led us in a devotion centered on Matthew 25, integrating Jesus’ message into the work of the Catholic Worker house – feeding the hunger, providing shelter to the homeless, doing laundry, sharing conversation, sharing coffee, etc. The Catholic Worker Movement started many moons ago when a fiesty young woman – Dorothy Day – and simple agrarian-minded man – Peter Maurin – frustrated by the Church, decided to become the hands and feet of Christ through inner-city and agricultural hospitality. Today many Catholic Worker Houses are scattered across the country, continuing in the fiesty agrarian spirit of Dorothy and Peter. We Road Trippers truly felt that all who entered this old house were truly welcome. We spent the morning in the crowded kitchen of the house preparing lunch for whomever might show up. Potatoes were chopped, boiled and mashed. Donations of meat from a local rib joint were brought in. Herbs gathered from the garden. Vegetables chopped for salad. Peaches prepped for peach cobbler. Men wandered in and out, grabbing a hot cup of coffee on this 100-plus degree day. Folks came in to sign up for the laundry list. Some wanted to look through the clothing closet. Others volunteered to wash dishes. All was chaos – clanging of plates, swapping of stories – 50 at one time, sweaty bodies huddled over the chopping block. And yet through the chaos of it all – we loved it. Rather than receive food and donations from the San Antonio Food Bank or applying for government funding, the Catholic Worker House relies on donations from charitable folks in the community, praying God will provide day by day.

the San Antonio Catholic Worker House.

While preparing the meal, we heard stories of people on the streets. Some struggling to get into Haven for Hope and expressing their frustration with the lack of transparency of the program. Neither of the two claimed to do drugs, struggle with alcohol or have a history of abuse – which are key issues for getting a bed quickly at Haven for Hope. Rather they are the in-betweens, sleeping outside huddled against the building. They are allowed to take showers – but the stalls are only half-height and the toilets have no doors. Lunch is a cold sandwich in a brown bag. This couple has fallen through the cracks, like many other folks we meet – and this is where the Catholic Worker House opens its doors. For those who fall through the cracks. A hot meal is provided – with mashed potatoes, made from real potatoes, not off-brand flakes. And the dishes are real, not disposable. Another pet peeve of mine – disposable dishes. And not for the eco-elite reason of not being environmentally sustainable – but because of dignity. You would wash dishes for your family . . . If we serve people disposable food on disposable dishes, soon people begin to understand themselves as disposable people.

We served over 100 people for lunch that day – without air conditioning, without a dishwashing machine, without the Food Bank, without the government. As Dee said, “Love in Reality is a harsh and dreadful thing as compared to the Love in Dreams.” After cleaning up, we were plumb tuckered out and went back to our apartment at Baptist University of the Americas – and order a pizza from our local Pizza Hut . . .

Pearl Brewery Farmers Market.

Day Twelve: A more relaxed day. Drove to the Farmers Market at Pearl Brewery, where we bought some vegetables, sniffed some lavender, and browsed some books. Then we traipsed through Whole Foods – a first for the gals. So I gave them my Whole Foods plan of action – walk the perimeter and look for free food samples; walk the interior for free food samples; and walk the perimeter once more for free food samples. I also pointed out the Diva Cup – which I won’t get into here – but I had already given my 2-cents worth about being more sustainable during that time of the month. We ate lunch at Whole Foods before the gals scampered off to play sand volleyball in the scorching hot sun, with the two German Brethren volunteers we met at the Catholic worker house the day prior. Then we met up for dinner at Casa Rio and perused the River Walk, on the prowl for adventure. Finding none, we went home for a good night’s sleep before our drive to the Valley.

the San Antonio Riverwalk.

End Day Twelve. End Part Four.

Texas at the Table: Part Three.

2010-08-02T16:03:00.001-05:00

From the Garden of Eden to Utopia

at the Table in San Angelo, TX

When in San Angelo, we – the lovely ladies of the Texas at the Table: Project Go Road Trip – saw the service of many churches and community folks coming together to meet the needs of their neighbors. San Angelo was the third stop on the Texas at the Table Road Trip to explore how people across Texas creatively address hunger in their communities – or more simply, exploring where food comes from, who gets it, and who doesn’t.

WIC accepted at the Concho Valley Farmers Market.

Day Six (the evening): Arrival in San Angelo. Jumping in head-first, our first stop on Sunday evening was Southland Baptist Church, home-base for much of the San Angelo’s work with the Texas Hunger Initiative. In fact, San Angelo was targeted for our road trip largely due to the good work of Carol Rigby Hiebert and Mary Herbert with the Texas Hunger Initiative in San Angelo. Tonight’s visit entailed clean-up crew for Southland’s VBS program, after a hearty meal of hot dogs and potato chips. I, Bethel, tried discreetly to sneak in some carrots from the Downtown Art Market in Lubbock to munch on for dinner – which satisfied my initial hunger until we settled into our new home for the next couple of days at the Baptist Memorial Retirement Home. Yes, we basked in the glorious accommodations of a retirement home while in San Angelo. God and his hospitality can be quite charming.

Cowboy Bob, a real West Texan cowboy.

Day Seven: Monday morning we head to Rust Street Ministries and meet Cowboy Bob, a true West Texan cowboy. His real name is Bob Knox, also the director of Rust Street Ministries. Cowboy Bob tells us that RSM is a social service agency run out of a converted warehouse, distributing food (including fresh produce from the Garden of Eden), clothing, furniture and good cheer to all who come through the doors. First things first, our time starts with a devotion and sharing of fresh peaches, brought in by a neighbor. Next, a tour and then to work. A few of the gals stayed up front meeting with folks who came in for assistance, while the rest of us sorted clothing in the free store collection area. We were also able to scour the racks for some farm-work clothes while in McAllen – which inevitably led to much plaid and pearl-snaps as well as tattered jeans.

Lunch line at Fort Concho Kids Eat site.

Around lunchtime, we headed to historic Fort Concho for Kids Eat, a summer feeding site in San Angelo. In San Angelo, the summer lunch program is coordinated by churches in the community, not through the school district or a food bank. Volunteers from various churches join together to make sure food is freely available to all in the community – especially kids – who need it. Cowboy Bob emphasizes the necessity of an ecumenical approach towards serving community – no church can be the body of Christ alone. Rather than helping service lunch, we are free to greet and eat with kids and their families. Much to the chagrin of the Road Trippers, lunch consisted of a hot dog and beans. Two consecutive days of hot dog meals conjured up images from Food, Inc., and our time at the Farm in Waco – and more questions about the state of our food system.

at the Garden of Eden with Cowboy Bob.

After lunch, we visited the Garden of Eden, a community garden coordinated by Cowboy Bob. In its first season, the Garden of Eden was established by a plea to a local church from Cowboy Bob to start a garden – and $15,000 was raised to sow and reap. Of all the okra and melons and more grown, 50% of the produce is donated to the Rust Street Ministries to distribute to community folks. A number of folks from the neighboring low-income senior housing units help provide a good amount of labor to keep the garden growing even in the midst of the West Texas dry heat. Additional support is provided by area Master Gardeners on Monday nights, when the gardeners gather together.

Sunrise at the Conch Valley Farmers Market.

Day Eight: Another early morning. Local wisdom informed us that the Concho Valley Farmers Market sells out fast – so we had to the market opening at 7am to find fresh produce for our meal later that evening. Carol Hiebert guides us through the market, where we acquire fresh figs, peaches, red onions, sweet corn, elephant garlic, beets, bell peppers, and summer squash. I made a side purchase of amaranth seed from a lovely lady saving and selling seeds from her own garden.

at the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen.

From the Farmers Market we made our way to serve at the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen at Wesley United Methodist Church. Little did we know that we were to be the sole staff preparing the meal this noonday’s lunch. Starting with leftovers, we reheated enchiladas, greens, and rolls, then set to the task of making salad, spaghetti, and sweet tea. Daily Bread also has a relationship with the local Olive Garden, which donates extra soup. Today’s soup du jour: minestrone. No one is refused food. Seconds are freely given. Under the tutelage of hard workin’, tough lovin’ Pam, we managed to feed all who walked through the door, while pausing for a devotion and hymn-sing led by a neighbor in the midst of the lunch-feedin’ fury. Before leaving, a donation of fresh summer squash arrived from Rust Street Ministries, and we began to prep for tomorrow’s meal.

Dutch oven cookin' with Cowboy Bob.

As a brief interlude, we went back to Fort Concho to meet with Cowboy Bob for a tour – and some down-home cookin’. Dutch oven peach cobbler, made in under the sweltering heat of the West Texas sun. (Interesting fact: many of the African-Americans in San Angelo are descendents of Buffalo Soldiers who defended Fort Concho).

the Finished Product: peach cobbler.

Mildly exhausted, we traveled back to the retirement home to meet with fellow residents (of the young variety), Sarah and Jeremy Boucher – former Go Now missionaries now working with Kathy Waller and her husband, Terry, who started the organization Water for All. Sarah, Jeremy and Kathy shared their stories – travels and travails – of doing the work of the Lord in many places around the world – now for Water for All, which hand-digs and installs wells for increasing access to water in small communities. When they are not in the mission field, their home-base is San Angelo, where they attempt to live simply in order to avoid debt and other pitfalls that would chain them down to comfortable American lifestyles. Instead, they hope to be free to the possibilities to serve whenever and wherever they feel God calling.

Local dinner at Carol and Tommy's.

Our final event for the day was hosted in the home of Tommy and Carol Rigby-Hiebert, gracious hosts of our time in San Angelo and members of Southland Baptist Church. The gals gathered and crafted our meal from the local fixins we picked up from the farmers market that morning, supplemented by local Mikulik sausage. Along with an education of what real food looks and tastes like, the gals were increasing in their capacity to prepare a wonderfully delicious dinner: corn on the cob, beet and beet green salad tossed in peanut sauce, onion-pepper-squash sautee, local sausage, and fresh fruit dessert of cantaloupe and yellow watermelon.

A slice of Utopia: chocolate pie at Lost Maples Cafe.

Day Nine: A good nights rest, and then we packed up for our official day-off: a trip to the hill country en route to San Antonio. We stopped for lunch in Utopia, TX, at the Lost Maples Cafe where we enjoyed slices of home-baked pies (chocolate, cherry and buttermilk), before an afternoon floating down the Frio River in Concan and an evening in a cabin at Neal’s Lodges.

End Day Nine. End Part Three.

Texas at the Table: Part Two.

2010-07-29T09:35:00.002-05:00

the Birds, the Bees and the Apple Trees

at the Table in Lubbock, TX

Having an initial crash course in Waco about the complexity of our food system, we – the lovely ladies of the Texas at the Table: Project Go Road Trip – made a bee-line for Lubbock to learn about (food) banks, bees, and Baptists. Lubbock was the second stop on the Texas at the Table Road Trip to explore how people across Texas creatively address hunger in their communities – or more simply, exploring where food comes from, who gets it, and who doesn’t.

Outside Steve's Market and Deli. Brownwood, TX.

Day Three: Beginning our trek from the World Hunger Relief Farm in Waco, TX, we head to our second destination on the Texas at the Table Road Trip – Lubbock – and the “road” part of our trip commences. Happily loaded into our Ford Fusions, we start our journey for lunch in Brownwood, TX – home of Howard Payne University, college of one of our fine young ladies, as well as Steve’s Market and Deli. Steve’s is an unusual little nook for small town Texas – more akin to Austin eateries – and we happily welcome Dr. Bronner‘s soap and vegetarian fare wherever we go. Or at least I do – the gals were probably just weirded out. But here at Steve’s we also meet a wonderful woman who works with Keep Brownwood Beautiful and oversees the Brownwood Community Garden. The garden is funded through economic stimulus money, complete with in-ground irrigation and rainwater catchment, and sits on the back property of Salvation Army.

Inside Steve's.

After lunch, we take to the road once again to arrive in Lubbock and meet our hostesses – Vangela and Tish and the wee little Connor. Over dinner, we co-mingle with folks from the South Plains Food Bank – where Vangela works. Then one final stop before heading home to Vanela’s – the library. The library is a notorious sleeping spot for many of the homeless in Lubbock. We drop off extra food from our dinner to the men sleeping under the overhang. I met a recovering hippie named Woodstock who sleeps at the library when he can’t find a ride home. We part ways as it begins to rain.

the beautiful front facade of the South Plains Food Bank.

Day Four: Another bright and early morning. Heading to Kitchen of Hope, a project of the South Plains Food Bank, where many of the meals are prepared for the various Kid’s Cafe sites – an after-school snack and meal program for low-income kids sponsored through Feeding America, the national network of food banks. Kid’s Cafe in Lubbock also sponsors the summer lunch program. Next, we visit the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Lubbock, as they are hosting a youth summer camp for LDS teenagers in the area. We watch a film about the commitment to service in the church in response to the Gospel. Then Vangela shares her story, being a single-parent of a special needs child, losing her job, and needing the support of the Food Bank in tough times. Now she is able to give back. And so can these kids. They are spending their morning going door-to-door to collect canned goods for the Food Bank. Originally the kids were going to volunteer at the Food Bank, but due to a shortage, there isn’t enough food for volunteers to organize.

Looking at flood damage at the GRUB farm.

From the LDS church we head to the GRUB Farm, another project of the South Plains Food Bank, where we did some flood-damage control, after the recent hurricane rains. GRUB stands for Growing Recruits in Urban Business – a youth entrepreneurial agriculture program to train young folks how to grow fresh fruit and vegetables – 50% of which is distributed through the Food Bank, while the remainder is sold through a CSA. Local students who participate in the GRUB program also sell produce at local farmers markets. After the GRUB Farm had been in operation for a few years, a survey was conducted to assess whether the program was benefiting the lives of the youth who participated. Much to the amazement of those in charge, the youth knew how to grow vegetables but had no idea how to eat them. Thus started another important component of the GRUB program – cooking lessons as well as other value-added programs. The kids also sell GRUB Scrub, loofah soap that they have grown and made themselves. The GRUB Farm receives agricultural and technical support from Texas Tech – professors and students conduct experiments with season extension and vegetable varieties, which are then integrated into the GRUB program. Because so many youth work at the Farm, the site also participates in the summer meal program.

GRUB mobile market trailer - built by Texas Tech students.

For lunch, we head to the main location of the South Plains Food Bank. Kitchen staff have prepared us a gourmet meal from food bank food – and we dine in elegance along many higher ups of the food bank – including the executive director David Weaver, who shares many stories of the people he encounters visiting the food bank. Meagan, who oversees volunteers, leads us on a tour of the Food Bank warehouse – showing us typical food boxes of dry goods, refrigerated goods, and fresh produce. The South Plains Food Bank is unique in that rather than distributing food to various social service agencies (which in turn distribute the food through direct social service) throughout the city, food is directly dispersed through the main food bank location. This poses problems in transportation – because the warehouse is located outside of town and bus access is severely limited.

Apple Country Orchards, Idalou, TX.

With hearts heavy and bellies full, we head out towards Idalou, TX, to fulfill a life-long dream of Mallory’s – picking apples. We drop in announced to visit Cal at Apple Country Orchards, for an afternoon of apple-pickin’. City girls picking apples. Cal is patient and polite with us. Even entertaining us afterwards with some German Apple Cake as well as some of his cotton honey – and stories of bees and children. He tells us of his struggles to educate children about where their food comes from – a project made tougher by the presence of parents, who are quick to nay-say the yumminess of an Early Blaze apple or Armenian cucumber (a new found favorite amongst Road Trippers). In order to subvert the minds of little ones, he separates the little ones from their parents and has them eat. And the taste tells the rest of the story. That and Cal’s demonstrations of bee pollination, buzzing merrily amongst fruiting flowers. He charmed us too with his tales of bee life and raw honey.

: Mallory, living the dream.

Thanks to the overabundant hospitality of Vangela and Tish, we went back to their home for a dinner (at this point I should say that the majority of our meals were prepared and provided by the Food Bank kitchen staff). Then an evening on the town at a local coffee shop called Sugar Brown’s Coffee, where we made a new friend who happened to be a magician.

the Downtown Art Market - or DAM for short.

Day Five: A Saturday. Finally a weekend and some time for rest. Although, my – Bethel’s idea of rest seems to be vastly different than the rest of the gal’s. I prefer to sleep in until 8am. On a Saturday. Especially when there’s a farmers market to be gotten to. And so I rallied the ladies – much to their chagrin – and all headed to the Downtown Art Market. Random fact: Buddy Holly was from Lubbock. At the Downtown Art Market, we found vendors of all varieties, including: a lady named Emma who makes salsa (which we bought), many a jewelry maker, GRUB farm kids, Apple Country Orchard folks

(also bought some Armenian cucumbers and red raspberry preserves), and two lovely ladies making soap with wonderfully creative “flavors” like Ziegenbock.

Spanky's - 'nuf said.

Lunch was paradoxically taken at a local favorite, Spanky’s. Our meal consisted of fried mushrooms, fried okra, fried cheese, and French fries. Hey, some times you gotta keep it real. We ended our evening in style swimming in a gated community and dessert in a hot tub. At the home of the Food Bank’s executive director. There was also a deeply stimulating conversation concerning which ice cream flavors best embody the spirit of each Road Tripper. Example: Mallory – Blue Bell’s Birth Day Cake; Bethel – a mash-up of Homestead Heritage‘s Sorghum Pecan with homemade goat’s milk ice cream. Much sleep needed.

at Second Baptist, with Pastor Ryon and Pastor Ben.

Day Six: Egg breakfast, complements of the Food Bank. Love infused into the eggs, complements of Tish. Worship at Second Baptist – church of Vangela and David. Us gals split up into two groups to speak at the college and Boomers Sunday school classes. Then we worship with Harry Potter – actual name Ryon Price, a graduate of Duke Divinity School and new pastor at 2^nd B. Sermon entitled “Like A Good Neighbor” – not referring to State Farm Insurance, but rather reflections on the story of the Good Samaritan. Pondering the question who is my neighbor, but on a deeper level, for the question asked to Jesus implies that certainly they are people who are not considered to be my neighbor. There are people that we need not be concerned for. There are people who are not considered to be my brother or my sister. But Jesus answers the tax collectors question with a parable-infused question – in typical Jesus-fashion. A good teaching as we take to the road again – and attempt to understand on this trip, deemed a mission trip, that ministry is not just confined to the few moments we haughtily choose to deem as missional.

End Day Five 1/2. End Part Two.

Final Post

2010-07-28T10:16:00.007-05:00

Blogger has treated us well but the time has come to move on.
We have moved our blog to our website: www.worldhungerrelief.org
so click on over there and see what is going on.

Texas at the Table: Part One.

2010-07-27T11:35:00.001-05:00

And So it Begins, with Five Fearless Feather-Pluckin’ Females:

at the Table in Waco, TX

Whilst in Waco, we – the lovely ladies of the Texas at the Table: Project Go Road Trip – harvested and gleaned both vegetables and stories with dirty-fingernail-ed farm-hands and business-suited theological-thinkers. Waco is the first stop on the Texas at the Table Road Trip to explore how people across Texas creatively address hunger in their communities – or more simply, exploring where food comes from, who gets it, and who doesn’t.

the World Hunger Relief Farm.

Day 0.5 (the evening of our first gathering – thus not the legitimate Day One in my play-book): The much arrival happens. Five fearless ladies convene – with parental units – on the World Hunger Relief Farm in Waco, TX. The parents step out of their comfortably AC-ed vehicles to be hit brazenly in the face by the Farm – the heat, the smell. Welcome. The gals are starting to question what they’ve gotten themselves into. And perhaps, so are their leaders. All meet and greet each other awkwardly. A short tour of the Farm is given – complete with instructions that this is a flush-free farm (only composting toilets) and the home they will be staying in does not have running water or electricity. Parents leave reluctantly – they have left their daughters to the care of a lady with a lip-loop and nose-ring and the other one has tattoos . . . Introductory awkwardness subsides and its dinnertime. Except that dinner must first be harvested. Kale. Swiss chard. Onions. Peppers. (Supplemented with Bethel’s peanut sauce and rice). This dinner is a strange experience (in addition to the heat and composting toilets) because: 1. These gals never really cook; and 2. They don’t ever really eat vegetables. Whataburger seems to be a staple dinner. Bethel (the leader with tattoos and braids – and also the leader with tattoos) begins to worry . . .

Sunflowers for CSA harvest at the World Hunger Relief Farm.

Day One: No rest for the weary – or the farmer. Devotions at the Farm start at 7am. Lucas Land -Truett grad and former Farm intern – leads a discussion of personal heresies and the Bible. Work chores are handed out. Most farm folks are working the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) harvest – the Farm supplies 60 families in the Waco-area with a week’s worth of fresh vegetables for 8 months a year, on a subscription basis. CSA is just one model of direct-to-consumer farm marketing allowing farmers to know that what is planted has a home once out of the field, creating a relationship between farmers and those who eat the food the farmer grows. All that to say, the Go Now-ers jumped into harvesting bouquets of basil, counting cucumbers and eventually bundling sunflowers for shares. After moving the chickens in their portable coop-mobiles, designed to rotate the chickens to fresh pasture – which leads to eggs richer in beta-carotene and omega 3 and 6 fats, all part of a healthy, balanced diet. After a farm-family lunch, Farmer Jes talked with the gals about raw milk as the gals washed eggs freshly collected from our clucking lady-friends. The Farm manages a Grade A Raw Goat Milk dairy – containing the healthy bacteria that aids in digestion for even those who are lactose-intolerant.

the Lorena stove over which our meal was cooked.

Without a siesta, the real work for the day begins. Making dinner. From scratch. Over a wood-burning Lorena stove. Without running water. With meat that must be caught and killed before eaten. This is no simple task for five young ladies not used to cooking, let alone with modern day appliances – and in the heat of the day. Two roosters were caught by Dani and Chelsea, who were brave enough to volunteer for the slaughter.

An education in chicken butchering with farmers Lucas and Bethel.

Necks were slit (albeit with a dull knife) and the birds were bled out and plucked, while the rest of the gals gathered garden vegetables and pumped water from a well. Four hours later, a simple meal of chicken and rice with greens was prepared and placed on the table for all to eat. Delicious to all except those still smelling chicken feathers beneath their nails. With bellies brimming with fresh eats and tasty meats, the gals ended their evening with a showing of Food, Inc. – posing even more questions in already wearied and worried minds.

Our made-from-scratch meal at the Farm.

Day Two: Rising with the sun in time for devotions at the Farm, all are a bit slower than Day One. Yet the gals are able to drag themselves to a meeting with Beth Kilpatrick and Jeremy Everett of the Texas Hunger Initiative – aiming to end hunger in Texas by 2015 through collaborative community organizing. Jeremy shared about the role of grassroots organizing hand-in-hand with political advocacy in ending hunger in communities – while highlighting Gospel passages to inform the work we do. Beth also shared a clip from Rush Limbaugh and his comments about the federal Summer Feeding Program which provides a free meal to youth ages 18 and under, covering the gap in the free and reduced lunch program that continues throughout the school year. Please listen to the clip – and share your own comments.

Summer meal site in East Waco.

After those parting words from Rush, Jeremy and Beth, we ventured to Wesley United Methodist Church in East Waco to experience a summer feeding site firsthand. We met with Reverend Valda Jean Combs and a representative from the Waco ISD Nutrition Program. Waco is a unique place when it comes to summer feeding – Waco ISD writes the program into the budget, ensuring that a number of trained cafeteria workers are employed throughout summer to deliver hot meals to the summer feeding sites throughout the city. Host sites need only open their doors. Wesley UMC is unique in that Reverend Valda has organized a summer day camp in addition to providing transportation to the church. In an effort to encourage families to eat together, the McLennan County Hunger Coalition subsidizes adults to eat with their children.

Hot lunch provided by Waco ISD at Summer Feeding Site.

From Wesley UMC, we met with Phylixcia Moore and her uncle Vernon Clark to discuss the role of urban agriculture in providing healthy, nutritious food in communities experiencing supermarket redlining as well as increased rates of diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. Phylixcia is now a sophomore at Prairie View A&M studying agriculture. While in high school, she headed the garden at Carver Park Baptist Church in East Waco, selling produce to the church for community meals as well as donating to food pantries. After Phylixcia had shared her story, her uncle Vernon asked a large question of the Go Now gals: How is the work you are doing and seeing maintaining poverty or attempting to resolve it? This question helped frame a number of the projects we were to encounter on the road.

From East Waco, we trekked to a variety of gardens throughout Waco – at churches and at schools – as I, Bethel, shared about my work as an agrarian social worker with the Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition. We stopped at Homestead Heritage, another Christian farm in the area, for ice cream (my favorite being sorghum pecan) before heading back to the Farm to make pizza with farm fresh ingredients and resting before hitting the road to Lubbock.

Making pesto for pizza with fresh-gathered basil.

End Day Two. End Part One.

Update on Rice Production in Ferrier, Haiti

2010-07-21T08:20:00.000-05:00

Read the final version of my recent Haiti trip report.

Greetings,

Since I wrote this I've had weekly conversations with the rice technicians we've hired. They're very enthusiastic about the SRI plot we planted last month, and expect another half dozen or more farmers to plant SRI plots in the coming month. Last Saturday one of them reported that the neighbors have been watching, and theyr'e so impressed with how good the plot looks (with no fertilizer or pesticides to date) that they want to start trying SRI.

The first-season rice crop in Ferrier was huge due to expanded production and reasonably good weather. The biggest complaint I'm hearing right now is that the Dominican border has shut out Haitian rice (fearing they'll drive prices down) and so there's a glut in Ferrier.

Please pray with us that we'll be able to respond to the needs and opportunities that are coming our way. I'm particularly excited about our new partnership with the Haitian organization, GRADES, but the challenges are still huge.

Blessings,

Neil Rowe Miller
World Hunger Relief, Inc.

Oh Pickles

2010-07-20T13:55:00.003-05:00

To celebrate the time we got to spend with James, Jes, Hannah, Brad and Rachel. We had a great party last night. The plan was to have three competitions Badminton, Starcraft and Pickle Eating. Justin Bullock won the Badminton tournament with a final victory in a close match with Sarah Hess. The Starcraft tourney is still unresolved. And due to full stomachs from the street style tacos the Pickle competition was held at lunch today. This photo depicts Jonathan Bruce narrowly defeating Hannah Breckbill with Jessica Nuanez coming in a distant third. Rachel West is in the background watching in disgust.

young farmer cherry pie mixer.

2010-07-16T17:28:00.004-05:00

here is a video of a gathering of young farmers in detroit - hosted by the greenhorns and the michigan young farmers coalition - featuring three former farm-ies: patrick, darren and bethel - and some of our other young farmer friends.

Fair Trade Critique

2010-07-16T08:20:00.002-05:00

The following entry is taken from the blog of one of our partners in the Fair Trade movement. We have been thinking more about the direction of the movement in the last year. This article does a good job of lining out some of the struggles that will need to be dealt with if Fair Trade will live up to some of the promises that have been made.

http://www.handmadeexpressions.net/blogs/fair-trade/1747592-challenges-to-fair-trade

Challenges to Fair Trade

posted 2010 Jul by Catherine Vouvray

by Alison Hanson

Since I began working with Handmade Expressions, I have become more conscious of the happenings within the Fair Trade movement – both its accomplishments and short-comings. While I am impressed with the recent expansion of Fair Trade, its actual reach and effect seem to be limited. Before Fair Trade can really continue to progress, it’s important for those within the movement to pause for a bit of self-reflection. Certain challenges to the Fair Trade movement exist in each level of the chain from production to consumption. Below are several that should be addressed:

Overall Structure of Fair Trade: The system of Fair Trade itself was founded on contradictory principles. It was created to be an alternative market structure that would bring greater equity in trading relationships; however, it intends to do so within the very system that created such trade inequities. In essence, Fair Trade is in opposition to yet operates within a capitalist market system. It still promotes a consumerist mentality, though aims to alter the values of consumption – namely, the fixation on price. There is also a distinct division amongst those working within Fair Trade, taking either a faith-based or activist approach. Those working in Fair Trade need to reconcile their differences to establish the shape and direction of Fair Trade going forward.
Producers: Despite the advancements in Fair Trade, producers have not shared equally in its progress. Fair Trade was created to bring benefits to the producers – market access and empowerment – yet, as of now, they are still at the mercy of Western markets and businesses. Though Fair Trade does indeed bring social and economic benefits to producers and their communities, those benefits are limited and not enough to truly bring marginalized producers out of poverty. Rarely are cooperatives able to compete and sell their goods on their own; rather, artisans and farmers constantly rely on employment and purchases from importing companies. This reinforces a paternalistic approach to trade and development, keeping producers under the control of businesses and labeling organizations in the US and Europe. If producers are to truly benefit, the focus of Fair Trade needs to shift towards empowerment and changing the system of trade.
FT Labeling Organizations: The bureaucracy of the Fair Trade labeling and membership organizations causes skepticism from both those within and outside of the Fair Trade movement. There exist major discrepancies in certification on a product or company level. While producer organizations have to prove their commitment to sustainable practices, such a requirement becomes a barrier to participation in Fair Trade for many marginalized producers. Large businesses, on the other hand, don't have to show anything. Standards for Fair Trade certification and membership need to be established, clarified, and enforced periodically, and should be homogeneous, regardless of whether the group is a small cooperative of producers or a large business.
Businesses: A greater emphasis on education and a commitment to sustainability need to be implemented by all levels of business, from importers to retailers and large corporations. There are differences in the ways Fair Trade companies operate – following profit- or movement-driven strategies – which may or may not be compatible. The incorporation of Fair Trade products by large corporations has become a particular point of conflict. The enormity of these corporations has the potential to massively grow Fair Trade, both in regards to awareness-raising and fair employment. However, this has proven to be a double-edged sword, as corporations often instead use their voice to tout the company's social commitment, regardless of the fraction of the product that actually is Fair Trade. Large and small companies alike need to have more than a short-term commitment to sustainable practices and use the resources they have to raise awareness about the impact purchasing Fair Trade products can have.
Consumers: Consumer consciousness needs to be raised to complete the Fair Trade system. Though most people are aware of environmentally- and socially-sustainable materials and practices, these aspects usually don’t take priority in purchasing decisions. People must learn to shop responsibly. This requires a change in the values of consumption, placing those of sustainability over prices. Individuals must also demand accountability and support of fair practices by businesses and regulatory bodies. If Fair Trade is to operate within the current market system, consumers need to realize the impact of their purchasing power beyond that of monetary value.

A holistic approach to Fair Trade needs to be taken by those within the movement – empowering producers, defining standards within labeling and membership organizations, ensuring sustainable practices and transparency by intermediary companies, and educating and engaging consumers. An obvious issue that has been left out of the above is the potential impact of governmental regulations on fair labor practices and environmental standards. This is because we have yet to see what effect governments and regulations could really have on Fair Trade. Those within the movement need to take the first step in encouraging progress for Fair Trade.

Texas at the Table Road Trip.

2010-07-10T14:05:00.001-05:00

Texas at the Table: Project Go!
Partnership of Texas Hunger Initiative, Go Now Missions and World Hunger Relief, Inc.

Do you care about your fellow Texans in need? Do you care about social injustice? Do you want to see hunger in Texas put to an end by 2015? Do you want to help others know how they can make a difference? Do you like adventure?

These are the questions 5 young ladies from 5 universities in TX said ‘YES’ to when they signed up for this trip and began to raise their funds!

What?

We will begin at the World Hunger Farm, where we will be immersed into learning more about our food system – including working on a farm, living in a house without electricity or running water, and cooking a meal from garden to plate over a wood-fired stove. While in Waco, we will begin our discussion of the food system and hunger in the land of overabundance – as well as start thinking about larger questions to ask projects we encounter along the road.
As we travel across the state we will be exposed to work in urban gardening, summer feeding programs, sustainable agriculture efforts, farming, food pantries, food rescue operations, and more.
We may also have the chance to meet with representatives in our capital to address the needs of the hungry in Texas.
Some of the team’s work and reactions will be filmed.

Who?

5 students through Go Now Missions!
Bethel Erickson, VISTA @ World Hunger Relief Farm
Mallory Homeyer, Lead Organizer @ Texas Hunger Initiative (graduate of Truett Seminary and Baylor School of Social Work).

Where exactly will we be going?

The Trip starts in Waco at the World Hunger Relief Farm www.worldhungerrelief.org
We will travel to Lubbock, San Angelo, San Antonio, McAllen and Austin
We will make stops along the way as well!

Dates: July 5th - 25th

Housing and Meals

Friends from all over the state: Food Bank staff, friends of BGCT, churches, Baptist University of the Americas, Valley Baptist Mission Center and others have offered their homes and dorms to help cut costs for this team that had been raising their own funds and preparing all semester for this trip!
Thank you! This would not be possible without you all!

Support
Please keep us in your prayers from July 5th-25th:

Pray for safety on the road and on site
pray that we remain healthy
pray for our sponsors in each city
pray for all of us on the team as we will be challenged emotionally, physically and spiritually by what we see and learn
pray for the ripple effect of learning, awareness and action that will come for this trip to affect change in TX

Each of us will take turn reflecting on what we experience each day .... follow along and learn through our eyes, ears and hearts about the concern of hunger in our very own state, what others are doing to help and what YOU can do.

Calling All Classic WHRI Recipes!

2010-07-08T07:49:00.002-05:00

We are putting together a World Hunger Relief Kitchen Guide and hope to be finished with it by the end of the month.

Please email me your favorite Farm recipe – either one from your own collection, or one from a cookbook/online resource. If possible, send it with ingredients quantities and directions for cooking for 30 people (as we do here for our Monday-Friday community lunches).

Email: localeducation@worldhungerrelief.org

Priority will be given to recipes that are typed and emailed.

If from a cookbook, please retype recipe (or find online), or you can put a photocopy in my box.

Deadline: July 19, 2010

Thanks,

Jes

localeducation@worldhungerrelief.org

Agrarian RoadTrip: Part Six.

2010-07-05T12:08:00.002-05:00

Sharing Our Stories over Cherry Pie, Blueberries and Beer:

the Agrarian Tour at the 2010 US Social Forum

In this our final leg of the journey, we – Agrarian Road Trippers – shared many a story with many an agrarian minded folk in Detroit – locals as well as way-faring strangers flocking to the US Social Forum – to prove “Another World is Possible, Another US is Necessary, and Another Detroit is Happening.”

Day Ten:

Headed towards our workshop.

“Faith Communities in the Local Food Movement: Sustainable and Just!” – this is the culmination of our wayward travelings on the road. A workshop at the US Social Forum, by us. One of thousands. And close to a hundred other workshops happening at the same time as ours, including: “The Coalition of Imokalee Workers: Fighting for Fair Food” and “Re-Purposing Auto Factories to Manufacture Renewable Energy Infrastructure” and “How to Start a Raging Grannies Group.” With over 17,000 people expected to be in attendance, how were we to compete against Raging Grannies? We set our expectations low – maybe four people will show. If we’re lucky, the crowd will outnumber us presenters (15). Thankfully, the good Lord provided, and we hosted a crowd near 60.

Recruiting participants for our workshop.

Andrew (organizer for the Presbyterian Hunger Program – and our fearless leader) introduced our tour with the aid of Blain, morphing into a tale of our trip across eight states led by Kate. Three gals (Amy, Laura, and yours truly) shared a testimony of the work we are doing at home, connecting the realms of faith and food justice. Then we split into small groups to learn about the good work of those so politely listening to our journeys. To emphasize the faith component of our time on the road, Talitha expounded upon our beloved passage from Exodus 16, first shared with us by Ellen Davis back in Louisville, before we calmed our minds for a sacred eating reflection. Jud passed around blueberries, asking us to think of all the people who came into contact with this blueberry before it finally reached us. The farmworker, truck driver, grocery store employee, cashier, Monsanto madman, etc. Then we closed our eyes, thinking about the life of just one of those people, while savoring all the flavors of that one blueberry. We opened our eyes to share our experiences and continue our fellowship, sharing how we want to be involved in our food systems back home – and help our faith communities with our food systems.

Not everyone was a Christian. Not everyone was connected to their food systems. But that was the beauty of our communion together. We just set aside a little time to share a sacred meal. Together.

By Any Greens Necessary: Food as a Tool of Colonization and Joining the Resistance

This is the first workshop I attended. Intense. Hosted by Jade Walker, farmer from Mill Creek Urban Farm, and Chris Bolden-Newsome, farm educator at King High, both in West Philadelphia. Led our discussion about the struggles and movements of indigenous people throughout history for food sovereignty. We split into groups to discuss: Black Panther free breakfast program (before the USDA), Native American fry bread as example of dominate culture becoming sacred, Cochabamba Water War over the privatization of water in Bolivia, Landless Farmworkers Movement in Brazil to reclaim the commons for the benefit of all, and so many more. My group discussed the Zapatistas as reaction to the NAFTA signing in 1994 – and its impact on Mexico. A man from Mexico was in my group – and shared from personal experience how the trade agreement affected his family, farming and flight to the US.

Farmers fighting back, the MST - Landless Workers Movement - in Brazil.

We discussed organizing tactics – and the basic fact that WE ARE ONLY LIMITED BY OUR IMAGINATIONS! That the struggle for food sovereignty is still happening. As Jade said, “Colonization is not over. Sometimes it looks like gentrification. Sometimes it looks like limited access to resources.” As we continued to delve deep into these struggles, we were faced with our own stories – the stories of our people, the stories of our connection to the land. Our stories are our resistance to a culture that wants us to accept French fries as food, television as community. Our stories must be shared.

Re-Localization and the Role of the Rustbelt.

Next, hanging out with the Michigan Young Farmers Coalition to hear about some of their young farmer stuff. Gardens. Farms. Animals. Hoop Houses. Hoorah! One particular project – the Haven Garden Project - was started by a Michigan State Ag student with a womens shelter in Pontiac, MI, using permaculture methods and the resources of MSU’s greenhouses and other resources. The shelter serves 15,000 women each year. Limited access to fresh food in the community. Growing food for the shelter on 1/5 acre – improving the soil with compost to build raised beds. Surplus goes to a food pantry. Starting a relationship with a local chef to teach the women what to do with the food they grow.

After another day of food and farming, I was burnout. So my new Agrarian friends and an old farm buddy met up for a taste of the local culture at Motor City Brewing Works, a local microbrewing specializing in handcrafted ales and o-so delicious pizza. (Darren’s favorite: Mary-Had-A-Little, topped with roasted lamb!) Then to rest for another full day.

Day Eleven:

Ending Mountaintop Removal

My first workshop was canceled – with two very large, armed men standing outside the entrance. So I made my way to another workshop, led by the Rainforest Action Network. Because of our visit to Mullens, WV, communities living in coal country have now caught my attention. So I thought I would attend and not start trouble with the large, armed men. Activists convened to hear the story of one woman who has lived life, not in coal country, but in a community where the coal industry has decided to mine: “We don’t live where they mine coal; they mine coal where we live.” Her husband worked for the coal industry for 35 years, before dying of Black Lung. Now she feels she has no choice but to speak against the industry that has made her home Ground Zero for coal excavation. She expounded on the millions of pounds of ammonium nitrate used everyday to blow the tops off mountains – the same ingredients Timothy McVeigh used for the Oklahoma City Bombing. “When it happened in Oklahoma City, it was a tragedy. When it happens in Appalachia, it’s called progress.”

Coal: the tension between activism and the economy.

Of course, the solution to mountaintop removal is not clean cut. Communities may be 100% against mountaintop removal while being 100% dependent on coal for energy. Another tension arises between activists wanting an end to the use of coal vs. communities that are dependent on coal for employment – an issue that became apparent at the workshop.

Regarding health and environmental quality, the people of Appalachia have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. But their story needs to reach beyond the hills and the hollers, into a larger forum. Only 8% of the coal that the US uses for energy is sourced from the Appalachian Mountain region, with the rest strip-mined from western plains regions. Yet, Appalachia has the most dense population of all regions where coal is sourced – thus making mountaintop removal the low-hanging fruit in our nation’s transition away from dependence on coal.

After almost ending mountaintop removal, I headed to a wonderful little street a few blocks away from Wayne State University, where many a local business thrived. Lunch was supplied by the wonderful hands of workers at Avalon International Breads and Goodwells. Then I bought the latest book by Gayla Trail, called Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces at an independent bookstore, part of the Spiral Collective.

Reclaimed house (one of many) at the Heidelberg Project.

After lunch, I joined a few friends to visit some Detroit hot-spots. First, the Heidelberg Project. An avant-garde art project, reclaiming a few blocks in Detroit – houses and all – into a massive waste-infused piece of art. Reflecting on themes such as stories told in taxis, created in God’s image, and many more subtle-ly overt political messages – a pink hummer buried in the ground, sprouting flowers.

Code Pink Hummer at Heidelberg Project.

Next stop, Earthworks Farm. Started by Capuchin monks to provide food for a neighborhood soup kitchen. Also providing seeds and plants for community gardens throughout the city, as coordinated by the Greening of Detroit. My favorite part: the Compost Monster, resembling the Loch Ness monster atop a huge heap o’ compost.

Flyer for the Cherry Pie Mixer.

Not completely garden-ed out for the day, we headed to the Young Farmer Cherry Pie Mixer organized by the Greenhorns at the Woodbridge Community Garden. And boy, was there cherry pie! So we mixed and mingled, pie in hand, with other young farmers and farm supporters, from Michigan and Missouri and Maine and California. I talked with one man who was in the mead-making business and thus decided to start harvesting his own honey, setting up hives across the city of Detroit. Before long, we were gathered together via bullhorn and given an introduction by Severine von Tscharner Fleming, documentarian and Greenhorn. Then Reverend Billy from the Church of Stop Shopping shouted us some proclamations about the revival of small agriculture in the face of overwhelming empire. Shortly thereafter, a keg of Motor City Brewing Works finest Ghettoblaster ale was tapped inside the up-and-coming art project of the Beehive Project, a “large-scale installation by an interdisciplinary community of artists and thinkers in Detroit” – not to be confused with the Beehive Collective, also awesome.

Reverend Billy preaching in front of the Beehive.

Tired and to bed.

Day Twelve:

BikeIt: Pedal to the USSF – Testimonials and Exploration of the Bicycle as a Tool for Social and Environmental Justice.

Welcome to the last day of thinking – for a while. Being a promoter of pedal-powered transit (even while in a skirt, transporting garden tools), I decided to buckle down with some bike riders. Two main bike contingencies shared their stories about biking to the US Social Forum. One from Ithaca, NY – covering 500 miles in 8 days. The other from Madison, WI – covering 300 miles in 8 days. Coordinated through the Bike-It Project, organized to promote biking alternatives and push both physical and mental limits. Each of the groups were followed by support vehicles – including the Permaculture Bus from Montana. Each made stops in communities to volunteer and build community within the collective through skill shares. Ages of bikers ranged from 9 to mid-70s. Bike collectives represented: Spoke ‘N Heart Collective (Atlanta), the Garlic Derailleurs (Chicago), the Grassroots Caravan (Madison) and the Petrol-free Gypsy Carnival Tour.

Saddle bag for bike made from refashioned kitty litter boxes - workshops lead by Petrol-free Gypsies.

Beyond sharing stories, we collectively identified issues and inhibitors of bicycles as the main form of transportation – as well as populations typically marginalized from biking communities. And brainstormed ways of making biking accessible to all, while building community and sharing skills while delving into the deeper topics of race and privilege. This is the beauty of the bike. To pass through new places and ponder the people and their stories.

We Agrarians gathered together for the rest of the afternoon to process yet we had learned – and what to do with all that stuff once we got back to our places of origin. This was also our farewell. Might I add that a number of our Road Trippers will be returning home to plant gardens and wear more plaid.

Road Tripper group photo on our last evening together.

Day Thirteen:

Already some of our group had disbanded before breakfast. The rest of us headed to Detroit’s famed Eastern Market for some good eats before hitting the road (watch the video of our trek through the Market). The Eastern Market has been in existence since 1891 – and currently is a common source for groceries for a number of residents in Detroit. While there are a fair share of resellers (all those “farmers” who sell produce with stickers on them), there were a plethora of local bakers, urban farmers, and cheese makers. Even a few Amish farmers who start their trek to Detroit at 2am every Saturday. I also located my honey man and bought a jar of his Wild Detroit Honey.

Getting a wee bit road weary at the Eastern Market.

Then we started on our road home. Or at least to Louisville. And that’s where my story ends.

Ready to hit the road for home.

End Day Thirteen. End Part Six.

Agrarian Road Trip: Part Five.

2010-07-02T18:26:00.002-05:00

Joe Louis welcomes the Agrarian Road Trippers to Detroit.

No Jobs, Bad Transit, Good Gardens:

the Agrarian Tour through Detroit

Finally arriving in our destination, we – Agrarian Road Trippers – jumped head first into Detroit’s urban agriculture scene to hob-knob with some agrarian minded folks in Detroit – the folks who will remain to keep on fightin’ the good fight, even after the Social Forum vacates the city.

Day Nine:

Upon arriving in Detroit, we ate lunch with folks engaged in the US Working Group on the Food Crisis, a collection of people assembled to reinvigorate local food systems, craft new policy, monitor faulty policies, and represent the voices of growers across the country. Then we settled into our living accommodations at Fort Street Presbyterian in downtown Detroit before heading out for a tour with Lindsay Turpin from the Greening of Detroit.

Lindsday from Greening of Detroit leading us on a garden tour.

Lindsay works for the Greening of Detroit’s Garden Resource Program, helping start and support neighborhood and community gardens across Detroit. Detroit is sectioned into eight clusters, with each cluster containing one garden leader who communicates the resource and technical needs of each of the gardens inside that particular cluster. Right now, the Garden Resource Program oversees over 1200 gardens in Detroit.

Lovely lettuce.

Detroit’s had her fair share of bad news: high crime, high poverty, no jobs, bad transportation. However, a growing movement in the city is drawing the attention of outsiders. Urban agriculture in the city of Detroit is thriving. No the flip side, access to fresh food is a great concern – as there are no retail food chains inside the Detroit city limits. Large chains refuse to move into the city, stating that the demographics of consumers in city limits are not economically viable. Not to mention Detroit’s population is on the decline.

Such an environment has left Detroit residents no choice but to leave – or take up a shovel. With the help of the Greening of Detroit, folks are now gardening in full force, as well as learning how to keep bees and can and preserve their harvest. Greening has also started a youth employment program, called the Green Corps, to train youth in urban agriculture and urban forestry as well as teaching valuable job skills. Since 1998, over 500 youth have been employed through the Green Corps program.

Grown in Detroit - the documentary about Catherine Ferguson Academy.

One of the sites that we visited on our tour with Lindsay was Catherine Ferguson Academy – a high school for pregnant teens and teenage gals with children. The school has horses, chickens, bees, a mature fruit tree orchard, and over two acres in vegetable production. In addition to managing the livestock and tending the vegetables, the girls oversee a nursery and hoop house production to distribute plants to gardens throughout the city. Right now there are approximately 300 girls attending Catherine Ferguson – and all are allowed to bring their children to school for daycare services. Recently a documentary called Grown in Detroit was released, telling the story of Catherine Ferguson Academy.

I should also mention that it is against city code to keep livestock in the city of Detroit.

However, policies do not keep the Greening of Detroit from help more and more people grow and tend their own food sources. Partnerships are the background of the organization. The city helps with access to land – providing one year permits – while other land trust organizations with help community members buy the land over time. Greening is also fortunate to partner with Michigan State University’s Agriculture Department, so that a number of students complete their Ag Practicum in Detroit. Strong, diverse partnerships help Greening obtain funding from a number of sources: Kellogg and Kresge Foundations, MI AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps*VISTA, and Workforce Development.

As far as the problem with keeping livestock, Lindsay says that you need to make sure you have good relations with your neighbors. Give them some vegetables. Agrarians in Detroit aren’t just farmers – they are organizers. Recently Greening has received some requests to help with marijuana – but that’s an area Greening chooses not to go.

Recycled tire art at D-Town Farms.

Our next stop was D-Town Farms, a garden operated by the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. D-town is a 2-acre plot, growing vegetables as well as operating a city tree nursery, bees, berries and mushrooms. In addition to in-ground growing, D-town has a number of tire container planters. Farmers at D-Town sell at the Eastern Market on Saturdays, as well as help facilitate a market cooperative called Grown in Detroit (not to be confused with the documentary), helping small growers into market growing.

Broadmoor Community Gardens.

Brightmoor Community Gardens was our final garden stop for the day. Brightmoor is the exemplifies urban plight in Detroit: a crazy cycle of high rent without security deposit keeps renters on their seats until they lose their jobs and evicted. As soon as the house is vacated, the house is stripped – of plumbing and wiring – left an abandoned shell, useless as a habitation. The costs to fix up the house now outweigh its overall value. So the house sits vacant. Unless a nearby gang is hosting an initiation – which frequently results in the burning down of vacant houses. In the midst of the craziness, there grows garden – or two or three or four.

Riet's backyard garden/farm and greenhouse.

Brightmoor Community Gardens are headed by Riet Schumack, cluster leader for the area. She supervises the 22 kids who maintain the gardens, mow the grounds, paint garden murals, and plant fruit trees in the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit. The kids are under the understanding that working in the gardens is not a job – it is a profit-sharing venture, the more work each kid puts into the garden, the more money s/he will take home from market. Riet works with kids ages 9-18, increasing her ranks from 12 kids in 2007 up to the 22 she has now. Last year they produced 1,300 pounds of food from their collective gardens – which is distributed to the neighborhood families, as well as sold at Eastern Market and to a variety of area restaurants. In addition to helping neighborhood youth, Riet oversees her own backyard farm-stead, tending a garden and greenhouse and keeping bees for honey, chickens for eggs, and rabbits for meat.

Riet's rabbits.

With a crash course on urban agriculture in Detroit under our belts, we head back downtown for the March to the US Social Forum and Opening Ceremony. Then an evening of preparing for our workshop the next morning.

End Day Nine. End Part Five.

Agrarian Road Trip: Part Four.

2010-07-02T18:21:00.002-05:00

At Gather Round Gardens. Note: Billboard - from radioactivity to peace.

Changing Diapers – or the Politics of Urban Agriculture:

the Agrarian Tour through Ohio

In the Ohio chapter of our travels, we – Agrarian Road Trippers – transitioned from the rural to the urban visiting and trading stories with many agrarian minded folks growing goodness in Ohio.

Day Seven:

From the winding roads of West Virginia we traveled to northeast Ohio. We pulled our caravan into a greenhouse nursery and mail-order seed distributor turned church, called Common Ground Church Community located in North Lima, OH. We unpacked our belongings then settled into the sanctuary for an evening of agrarian theology and sing-a-long song sharing.

Three Sisters Garden.

First things first. Greg Bowman, formerly of the Rodale Institute, shared with us what I will call the Theology of the Three Sisters. The Three Sisters growing method (milpa) originated in the Andes and in scattered indigenous communities throughout the Americas. The Three Sisters are corn, beans and squash – related because of their beneficial interactions providing a natural habitat for little critters and a complementary nutrient give-and-take with the soil. Corn provides a trellis for vining beans to climb, as well as protection from the sun for smaller plants and animals. Beans fix nitrogen from the air (complementing the heavy nitrogen-feeder corn). Squash sprawls the ground acting as a living mulch for water retention and weed suppression. Now compare this to a mono-cropped field of corn – exposed soil, neat rows, minimal water retention, nutrient depletion.

How does this all relate to theology? Just like the Three Sisters, we work/live/pray better together than as individual people. The mouth needs a hand to eat, like the corn needs the nitrogen fixed by the beans. As we grow food and appreciate the complex relationship between soil and sun, fruit and flower, a spirit of gratitude is cultivated within us. In our fast-paced, fast food society, we are a people in search of gratification, often lacking in gratitude for the complexity and beauty of life and food.

Where have all the flowers gone? To Cleveland.

After a complex discussion about agriculture and theology, we needed a good sing-a-long. Guitars were plucked up from their cases. Congos and djembes pulled out from their nooks and crannies. And so commenced our own versions of “Country Roads” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” Our music leader specialized in James Taylor – so, as you may well be able to tell, our song list was confined to hippie-era music.

Day Eight:

Aerial view of the Goodness Grows Farm.

The next morning – a Sunday – we woke to wonderful hospitality and a continental breakfast provided by the folks of Common Ground Church Community, followed by a tour of their partner program, Goodness Grows. Pastor Steve Fortenberry stressed his strong belief in the church as a multi-purpose site, to partner with other community groups and people. Seeing as CGCC is located in an old seed shop and greenhouse, these folks saw it fit to start growing gardens – now expanded to 1-acre in vegetable production. The week of our visit Goodness Grows was starting its own Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) for 15 families. Goodness Grows has only one staff member and a rotating schedule of college interns to maintain the gardens. Volunteers are another main source of labor, coming from the church, as well as a special needs class and GED program in the community. Another special resource for the farm is access to all the horse bedding and manure from the county fair – the largest in the state of Ohio. Future plans include refurbishing the many greenhouses on site for extended season growing as well as aquaculture for heat and fish production, similar to Growing Power in Milwaukee, WI.

Greenhouse seedlings at Goodness Grows.

After worship, we had another round table discussion with Pastor Steve, politically-connected Greg Harget from OH Governor Ted Strickland’s office, and prophetic farmer Maurice Small. Greg Harget Ohio Department of Agriculture but now works with Governor Strickland’s Faith-based and Community Initiatives Program in Ohio, which facilitates the state’s summer feeding programs as well as re-entry programs to strengthen the family. Maurice Small, on the other hand, works outside of the conventional systems of institutional agriculture and government. Maurice Small started a Cleveland-based organization called City Fresh, expanding access to food through urban agriculture. Because of the success of City Fresh in Cleveland, Maurice was invited to Youngstown, OH to help invigorate new growing initiatives.

Itching to get outside, Maurice sped up our conversation and we caravan-ed into Youngstown. We jump out of the van and are greeted with Maurice’s first question: “What is the murder rate of the place you live? This is important. You don’t know it, you don’t know your people.”

Maurice - telling it like it is.

Background on Youngstown: Former steel town. 80,000 people. 20,000 vacant lots. Worst school system in Ohio. Enter Maurice Small, urban gardening pioneer. Maurice’s mission is to reclaim vacant lots – lots where abandoned houses have been torn down or are still standing – and using reclaimed windows and boards from those houses and buildings, build raised garden beds. The first block Maurice walks us through has 10 houses – only two of which have residents. This is a ghost town. Maurice shows us the foundation of a house, crumbling and exposed – left vacant for 20-some years. Beyond repair. “They left [this city, these houses] . . . to my imagination.” Let me repeat that one more time: “They left this city . . . to my imagination.” Awesome.

Maurice explaining what he'll reclaim from this house to build a garden.

And his imagination envisions life and food, bountiful as the Garden of Eden. In addition to using reclaimed materials, Maurice builds raised beds from straw bales, with composted horse manure as his soil The straw bales are great for two reasons: 1. As the straw bales break down, they become organic matter to enrich the soil, and 2. Straw bales provide a sitting area directly in the garden. Maurice purchases the bales from a local farmer for $2.75, has horse manure donated from the county fair, and receives woodchip mulch and water from the city for free. He plants perennials and fruit trees and envisions the neighborhood children grabbing an apple on the way to school. He envisions neighborhood farm markets on garden property, where eater and grower get to know one another.

Straw bale beds - with composted horse manure soil.

Besides building gardens, Maurice is all about building community. While Maurice’s visions are beautiful and inviting, he is adamant that people do not flock to the places romanticized for their poverty or their potential. No gentrification. White people stay out. Help where you are from. This must be an indigenous revolution. The community must do for themselves. Then integrate slowly. Although Maurice is from Cleveland, he has been invited into Youngstown to help. Maurice has $400,000 over the next three years to jump start the gardens. He hopes to be out as soon as possible and let neighbors take the initiative to keep growing. Pointing to his toddling son, “I’m just here to change their diapers – then get out. Set ‘em on their way.”

Maurice Small - the prophet of Youngstown, aka the Jamacain Farmer.

With heads still whirling from the wisdom of prophet and poet Maurice, we jumped in the vans and headed towards Cleveland to dine with and tour the gardens of some folks involved in an entrepreneurial market garden program in and around Cleveland’s EcoVillage.

Market Gardens in Cleveland's Eco-Village.

Day Nine:

After a much needed deep sleep, we took to the road again to explore the urban agriculture scene in Cleveland – as led by Maurice. We Road Trippers continually made comments about Maurice’s incredible ability to identify every pocket garden and food project around the city – indicating some extremely detailed mental map of urban agriculture craziness inside his head.

Garden craziness at Gather Round Garden.

Our first stop, Gather Round Garden. Planted on top of a parking lot of an old convenience/liquor store transformed into a childcare center. Lots of amoeba-shaped raised garden beds in every shape and form. Bantam chickens and roosters cluck out of their coop refashioned from old windows and boards. Food goes to a store-front shelter and soup kitchen organized by a Catholic Worker House – as well as being distributed throughout the neighborhood. Worked out a lease with the landowner for $1. Been growing for 4 ½ years.

Gate to Kentucky Gardens, Cleveland, OH.

Second stop: the Kentucky Gardens. Been around for over 50 years. Less than one acre. 200 families. Community greenhouse. Plots are rented out by the summer growing season – $10/large bed, $5/small plot. Each gardener is required to contribute so many hours of service to the maintenance and upkeep of the property each year. Has a fruit orchard and beehives. Here we met Maurice’s mother.

Back alley garden for chef of Marigold Catering.

Third stop(s): two chefs. Chef one – growing in an alleyway betwixt two very large buildings. Marigold Catering. Herbs, edible flowers, vegetables, and mushroom logs. Chef Two – Chef Karen Small of the Flying Fig. With the help of youth recruited and trained by Maurice, built raised beds in her backyard. Grows herbs, vegetables, and watercress (in a simple outdoor aquaculture system) for use in her restaurant based around local foods. Here our fingers – and lips – became stained with the purple blood of mulberries, as we avidly harvested backyard berries at Karen’s invitation.

Road Trippers picking mulberries in Chef Karen's backyard.

Fourth stop: Vel’s Purple Oasis. Started in 2008 by a grandmother and her granddaughter Kayla. Bought land 20 years ago with the dream of someday having a garden. Named after Vel’s love of the color purple – which represents majestic royalty. The garden is an oasis in the midst of Cleveland’s death and drought. Rebuilding the soil by solarizing the weeds, laying down cardboard and sickle-cutting hay to build lasagna garden beds. Built a strawbale greenhouse with the help of Brad Massey at the New Agrarian Center in Oberlin. Recently bought some nearby house to open as a community kitchen and place of holistic healing.

Farmer Kayla tours us through the herb spiral at Vel's Purple Oasis.

We were unable to visit the New Agrarian Center in Oberlin, OH, due to the craziness of our schedule and the wealth of information already clogging our noggins. So we went to the West Side Market (Cleveland’s year-round indoor market) or falafels. That evening we enjoy a sunset – and the Summer Solstice – on Lake Erie.

the Summer Solistice on Lake Erie.

My closing thoughts:

“To everything, there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill and a time to be healed.”

- Ecclesiastes 3:1-3

End Day Nine. End Part Four.

Agrarian Road Trip: Part Three.

2010-07-02T18:18:00.001-05:00

Coal Country, West Virginia.

Take Me Home, (Coal) Country Roads:

the Agrarian Tour through West Virginia

One of the unofficial theme songs for us – Agrarian Road Trippers – has been John Denver’s “Country Roads” – mainly because of the line “West Virginia. Mountain Mama. Take me home. Country Roads.” And West Virginia – or at least the southwest region – has her fair share of country roads. It is in the midst of these country roads that we have visited and shared stories – as well as a few bluegrass tunes, picked out on banjo and guitar – with fellow agrarian minded folks in Coal Country, West Virginia.

Day Six and Day Seven:

Mullens Community Garden at RAIL.

Our main contact in Mullens, West Virginia, is the organization Rural Appalachian Improvement League (RAIL), where we hook up with fellow young agrarians Jack and Becky. Jack has been working with RAIL since 2008. Originally from West Virginia, Jack was hired to start a farmers market in Mullens – only problem being there were no farmers. This is coal country. No one farms here. In order to tell his story of the work he has done with RAIL, Jack first had to share the story of coal in Mullens and her surrounding coal camps.

the Locals.

First off, there aren’t towns. There are coal camps – little “villages” created by the coal companies to house miners. These houses were built precariously upon steep mountain hillsides, with little space betwixt neighboring houses – seldom a yard or septic tank. Today, 65% of all sewage in Wyoming county is directly pumped into the river running through the camps. This is not to mention the additional run-off dumped by the coal industry. This is the water – should agriculture gain momentum – that will be used to irrigate gardens and livestock. In 2001, Mullens suffered a drastic flood, water climbing to ceilings on the first floor story of buildings and homes throughout the town. Although a flood to this magnitude is not common, seasonal flooding happens on a regular basis. For the beginning agrarian, having your garden washed away at least once per season is quite the discouraging start.

Farmer Jack at the Mullens Community Gardens.

However, Jack sees gardening as one step towards self-sufficiency for the people living in communities historically tied to the coal industry. In former times, the coal companies outlawed gardening in coal camps – thus making coal miners and their families dependent on purchasing food from the mercantile stores operated by the coal companies. Although growing gardens is no longer illegal, the coal companies still own 85% of the land in Wyoming county where Mullens is seated. Another 5% of the land is owned by state and federal government – leaving a mere 10% of land available to the people for housing, parks, gardens and businesses.

Visting a neighboring gardener and his horse Hank.

“Coal is in the blood of the people,” one local woman from the organization, Friends of Milam Creek, told us. Out of the 20,000 people in Wyoming County, only 800 are employed in the coal industry. Employment in coal has drastically decrease with the rise in mechanization of the industry. Although most people living in coal country know at least one person who has died of black lung, jobs in the coal industry are the most sought-after. A coal miner with a high school education can make more money in a year than a college professor with a PhD. The balance of health-versus-wealth is a thin line to walk in the coal industry. Jobs for the remaining individuals span mechanical labor, food service and retail. Many area youth drift away from their communities when – and if – the opportunity arises.

Note: bumper sticker.

With all these thoughts muddling up my mind, we head out to the RAIL Community Garden – to mull over thoughts and pull some weeds. In addition to locating spaces for community residents to “farm” – there is a stigma attached to the lesser work of gardening – RAIL provides workshops on growing food, canning and preserving, and hosts a farmers market on RAIL’s property. Fresh food is grown for sale at market, for donation to food pantries, and for family consumption of those who grow it. We visited a few more gardens before harvesting some vegetables for our own dinner. At our last stop I noticed two bumper stickers both at the same house: “Nader/Gonzalez” and “I ‘heart’ Coal” – an interesting combination rarely replicated in any other community.

Note: political sign.

It doesn’t take an agrarian-minded person to connect the story of coal country economics in Appalachia to mechanized, mono-cropped agriculture in the Midwest. (The average age of a farmer in America today is 57.) Disillusioned youth are encouraged to seek educational opportunities elsewhere due to the lack of vocational attachment to the industry of the area. To leave is to succeed. Rarely applauded or honored are those who choose to stay. To mine. To farm. Outside do-gooders with liberal arts educations grounded in service to community are heralded by their own communities as heroes. But those who choose to stay are seen as having missed their golden opportunity.

West Virginia, Mountain Mama. Country roads, take me home.

End Day Seven. End Part Three.

Agrarian Road Trip: Part Two.

2010-06-30T08:43:00.001-05:00

View of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Brevard, North Carolina.

Rural Revival:

the Agrarian Tour through North Carolina, with a nod to rural Virginia

On our venture into the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, we – Agrarian Road Trippers – encountered the ugly effects of war, tobacco, and child labor juxtaposed with and transformed into community-supporting small-scale agriculture

Day Four:

Lunchtime at the Bahnson Homestead.

Naked children running through a front yard sprinkler. The time is mid-day, lunchtime. We share a garden fresh meal of salad with o-so ripe tomatoes and water melon, as well as some hard boiled eggs from some hard-working chickens. Blue Ridge Mountains surrounding us in the valley. One of the biggest inhibitors for young folks – all folks – to start farming is land. Farming is one of the most capital-intensive careers – inhibitory during a time of economic crisis and in a society where agricultural life is dwindling in the shadow of Big Ag. However, we are in the Blue Ridge Mountains. In the midst of wilderness happening. Here we meet Fred and Elizabeth Bahnson – and their two little boys running through the sprinkler. Here outside Brevard, North Carolina, we are in the midst of this New Agrarian Movement. A revival of the rural. The Bahnsons may as well be the poster children for what the small family farm can be. Fred is a writer and student of the ways of permaculture. Elizabeth is a bluegrass fiddler with an interest in livestock. And they have been blessed with family land in the midst of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

the Bahnson Homestead in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

[Here is just a snippet of articles written by Fred: Compost for the Kingdom; A Garden Becomes a Protest; Monks, Mushrooms, and the Sacramental Nature of Everyday Eating; Good Soil.]

Trellised beans at the Bahnson's.

Where the Bahnsons live is actually a microclimate in the midst of the mountains – a tropical rainforest, receiving nearly 80 inches of rain each year – as much as Seattle. As they build their new house, the Bahnsons have planned to harvest the rainwater, situating their catchment system on top of a hill – to gravity-feed to their biointesive growing beds. In addition to rainwater catchment, Fred has designed swales on the contour of the land to irrigate native fruit trees and prevent erosion on the steep slope on which their farm is southerly-facing. Other highlights of their farm-to-be are living mulches that fix nitrogen (lupine) and accumulate other deep nutrients (comfrey), as well as growing their own grains (Hopi blue corn for grinding). Elizabeth is currently dreaming of a goat dairy.

Veterans Victory Garden.

After leaving the Bahson’s, we head towards Asheville to the Asheville Veterans Restoration Quarters – a converted Super 8 that now houses around 225 homeless veterans every night. Men who have served in all wars from Vietnam to Iraq are housed here – with an average of 51. By request of the men – and with incredible support of a visionary directory, one acre of land was converted into an organic garden to provide therapeutic activity as well as fresh food to the residents of the shelter. The Veterans Victory Garden was started in 2008 and now operates its own Tailgate Farmers Market two days a week. The men have also been able to take courses in gardening and greenhouse production to hone their expertise – as well as working with Master Gardeners to earn the art of canning and preserving. Money earned through sales to the community is supplemented with funding from Tobacco Settlements in North Carolina to sustain the financial success of the garden. Currently the two men maintaining the garden are seeking to become Certified Organic through the USDA. The social worker in me is encouraged to see projects that integrate the rebuilding of soil with the rebuilding of lives.

Edible flower salad with monarda and day lilies.

Our next stop takes us back into the mountains outside Asheville, to Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina. We begin our stay with a lesson in ethno-botany with Chef Marc Williams. Chef Marc guides us through the culinary uses of commonly found wild – and not so wild – edibles. Together we craft our dinner: herbal tea of monarda (bee balm), spearmint, sassafras leaves; pesto of lamb’s quarter and basil; garden salad with more lamb’s quarter and lettuce, garnished with day lilies and monarda; and for dessert, juneberry-blackberry cobbler.

The remainder of the evening is spend in conversation with folks from the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project and Association of Farmworker Opportunity Program. The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) started in the mid-1990s with Tobacco Settlement money to help transition farmers in the tobacco fields to organic vegetable production – as well as to build demand for local food. Currently, ASAP works on organizing and supporting farmers markets in the northwest region of North Carolina and working on farm-to-institution projects – such as connecting local farmers to the food services of schools, hospitals and colleges.

The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Program (AFOP) is focused on two main agricultural issues: pesticide outreach to farmworker and children in the fields. Our conversation focused on child labor in the fields. In North Carolina alone, over 150,000 migrants come to work the agricultural season – helping make agriculture the number one industry in North Carolina. However, an often overlooked issue of migrant labor is child labor out in the fields. The Child Labor Law in 1938 does not include limitations on child labor in agricultural fields. Many children are found in the fields helping their parents meet harvest quotas in order to earn enough to live on. As is the case, many students start the school year late and are pulled out before the school year ends – and often drop out before graduating. Beyond educational structure, children out in the field are exposed to pesticides, dangerous machinery and at-risk for muscular-skeletal injuries. Penalties for corporations and large farms caught with children in the field are little more than a slap on the wrist. Just one of many of the ugly truth behind our large-scale agriculture.

Day Five:

the Farms of Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina.

Warren Wilson College (WWC) is another crazy liberal arts colleges with a high emphasis on sustainablity. With just over 900 students – and growing, WWC receives increased interest each year in its Sustainable Agriculture and Sustainable Forestry Programs. WWC started in 1894 as a farm school for farm boys – but has expanded much beyond farming, and boys. When asked about the College’s rapport with the Swannanoa community, Sustainable Ag Professor Laura Lingenck tells us she finds locals frequently cruising through the campus, admiring the sight of young buff women not afraid to run a tiller or back hoe.

Students in the Ag Department operate both the Market Garden Farm and Grain and Livestock Production – a total of 150 acres in production. In the Market Garden Farm, garden beds are double-dug according to French intensive methods. Produce is grown for local markets (2/week) as well as a CSA in the summer months for faculty and staff of WWC. Much of the produce is also sold to WWC Dining Services, contracted with Sodexho. (WWC purchases 18% of its fruit and vegetables from its Market Garden and 50% of its red meat from the Livestock Program). Both cover crops and rotational planting are incorporated into the planting schedules, as well as hoop houses for season extension. Throughout the season, chickens in movable tractors are run through the garden beds, to fertilizer and control pests. The Sustainable Ag Program chooses not to certify its vegetables organic.

Little piggy: cute when little, food when big.

As for livestock management, the Sustainable Ag Program grows the majority of its own grains for animal feed – typically a profit-eating cost in livestock production. Stock-piling is another way the College conserves money, by allowing its cattle to graze grain still standing in the field even after the first frost. Approximately 175 cattle graze on a 25-paddock rotation – on perennial pastures of corn, alfalfa, oats, barley, and wheat. In addition to cattle, WWC also raises pigs, chickens (which follow the cattle in rotational pasturing) and horses for draft farming, mainly in the Agroforestry Department. Other department tractors (as well as maintenance vehicles on campus) run on locally brewed biodiesel, Blue Ridge Biodiesel.

Student building a cob structure for compost storage.

As if the Sustainable Ag Program at WWC weren’t great enough, the Recycling Department at WWC also features student-constructed industrial compost tumblers, a soon-to-be-built cob house structure, and Free Store to recycle unwanted clothing, furniture, and all other sorts of odds and ends with just a wee bit more life in them – or that can be refurbished at WWC’s woodworking and bike shops. We rough agrarians rummaged for a spare notebook, extra shampoo and souvenir t-shirt.

Before leaving North Carolina, we continued our rebelliously delicious and ridiculously fresh forays into food at Rosetta’s Kitchen in downtown Asheville. Rosetta’s features a number of vegetables and ingredients sourced from the Swannanoa Valley. I ordered the special of the day – pickled maroon and golden beets atop a bed of fresh greens atop fry bread, dressed with a cilantro-cashew sauce. Yum.

Blain enjoys his dinner at the Harvest Table Restaurant.

We hit the road for one more stop before our final destination in West Virginia. The Harvest Table Restaurant in Meadowview, VA, renowned for its connection to the author and sometimes agrarian essayist Barbara Kingsolver. Kingsolver’s husband, Steven Hopp, owns the Harvest Table Restaurant – and has crafted its menu to include food mainly sourced within 100 miles of the restaurant. Vegetables are a given, but the Harvest Table also sources meat, cheese, eggs and rice (grown in South Carolina) from the region. I ordered a caramelized red onion and beet green frittata and was greeted by the happiest, orangiest of eggs on my plate – a rarity in the dining-out world. Once again our minds – and taste buds – have been blown by the exhausting epicurean delights on which we dine. Oh the glories of local food!

the Agrarian Road Trippers at the Harvest Table Restaurant.

We are passively witnessing the reawakening of rural life. Her pastoral hillsides. Her setting sun to the lowing of cows. Her stars in the pure black night. We now have the responsibility to share the romance we see. To bring sexy back. Not only to rural living and lifestyles – but to agricultural vocation.

We are agrarians.

End Day Five. End Part Two.

A wild pack of family dogs

2010-06-26T10:51:00.006-05:00

Many of you have heard of the tragedy that befell the World Hunger Relief farm 2 weeks ago, when someone or something attacked, maimed, and left for dead nearly 30 chickens. It was a tragic loss, and our egg production has really suffered.

Be happy to know that this was not the fault of someone's negligence caring for our friendly chickens, no one forgot about them or left them out all night, NO! It was actually between 6 and 8:30 PM when the strike occurred, not even getting dark yet. Our chickens, unaware that they were in danger, were still happily free ranging, enjoying the evening warmth, and would not head into the coop for the night for at least a couple hours when, from nowhere, there was a massacre that befell them.

Coyotes don't kill for sport. Coyotes don't leave 30 uneaten dying chickens on the ground. This was a sad and pointless kill, a waste of the life, energy, and food that could have sustained many. This was a stupid and foolish act.
We surmise that this was the work of wild dogs. Dogs, reared outside the confines and bounds of the domesticated homes their preceding generations have known, they now have began a re-wilding process which has given them back the desire to kill but without the instinct and natural understanding to kill only what is needed, respecting the balance of what the earth provides. They do not kill to sustain themselves, they kill for the fun of it and it is terribly sad.

Yesterday I learned that a pack of dogs, similar to those pictured here, is the responsible party for this killing spree. And at about 6pm, after all my afternoon chores I spotted them. Prancing across the pasture headed straight for the fence surrounding our chickens were four HUGE dogs!! They looked so happy and free, excited about the wretched game they were about to play with our hens. I was hopping mad and so, with adrenaline pumping, hands waving and lots of hollering, I chased them in my skirt and flip flops through 8 acres of pasture, tailing them all the way to the end of the farm before they wriggled through the back fence and were free. The chickens were saved for another night! But so were the dogs.

Tonight me and my husband will be ready with the farm shotgun, hiding in the tall sorgum sudan grass. Is it worth the death of a wild dog to save our 80 remaining hens? I don't know. We're just planning to scare them off with the shots and deter them from coming back, but we'll see what happens.

Wish us luck,
Jessica Bullock, Livestock Intern

Agrarian Road Trip: Part One.

2010-06-21T15:41:00.004-05:00

background: this is a report from the road - about the Heaven on Earth Agrarian Road Trip - by a former WHRI intern. reasons to read on: the Agrarian Revolution is alive and well - like a handful of wriggling earthworms in fertile soil - and we need to share the stories of our brothers and sisters living the New Agrarian Dream. here is just a smattering of the projects happening elsewhere in the country. enjoy.

Garlic Pickin’, Potluckin’ and Llamas:

the Agrarian Tour through Kentucky and Tennessee

We – Agrarian Road Trippers – have been visiting and trading stories with many a farmer across Kentucky and Tennessee. Learning the tales of the trade and dreaming of the day when I will be a little old gray hair – well preserved, with her chickens and 12 varieties of tomatoes.

Day One: In Louisville, KY, we visited with the Refugee Agricultural Partnership Program - ½ acre in vegetable production, scattered across 30-some odd plots. Plots are sectioned by nationality – Burundi, Burma/Myanmar, Congo . . . and on and on, all finding a common language in compost and corn.

Day Two: Still in Louisville, we trek to Garden Summer Camp at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church – a one-week summer camp with 15 kids, ages 8-14. All kids share morning chores harvesting vegetables for lunch, grinding corn for tortillas, tending chickens for eggs, and prepping beds for fall harvest. Each day of camp starts with a telling of a story about Father Coyote. In today’s lesson, Father Coyote studies a farmer sowing seeds – and then sows his own garden in order to harvest his own crop of happy little rabbits, lured to the garden by the fresh carrots and cabbage. The story touches upon irrigation techniques in the arid southwest, companion planting for bountiful harvest and the benefits of increased biodiversity in the garden. After the kids are tuckered out from their garden work and fresh lunch, they head to the pool for an afternoon swim.

Discussion with Ellen Davis – Old Testament Scholar from Duke Divinity School – who has recently written a book called Scripture, Culture and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible. Professor Davis focused on Exodus 16 as the basis for her research in understanding the cultural context of the Israelites exiled from the Egyptian Empire, for understanding the Modern Agricultural Empire. In a nutshell, the Israelites who have been freed from their slave masters take to complaining about lack of food. “At least when we were slaves of the Empire we have food enough to eat.” God has provided our daily sustenance (in the form of manna from heaven) – but instead the people grovel. Modern parables highlight our society’s dependence on – and enslavement to – genetically-modified, mono-cultured food-product that travels 1500 miles to our dinner plate. Rather than learning how to grow or can or cook our own food, we rely on a food system that is ever-increasing out of our hands and beyond our control.

Professor Davis takes our lesson one set further in analyzing the Greek roots of the closely related words adama and adam. Adama is Greek for “fertile soil.” Adam is Greek for “human.” The term adama is used in the Biblical context to refer to the land as ancestor of human – before Abraham there was adama. To create Man, God breathed His breath into adama. Now, I am no Biblical scholar, nor am I an Agrarian scholar – but that’s all pretty crazy amazing. We are dirt. Or rather, we are biologically breathing, o-so fertile soil.

Lunchtime: Lunch provided by Soup By-cycle, soups made using local, organic ingredients – delivered by bicycle to the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) Headquarters in downtown Louisville for a wee little potluck with like-minded folks doing the work of the Church in the world. Some shared stories of recently travels to Haiti to protest against a recent Monsanto donation of genetically modified seeds to the region’s farmers. Instead of gladly accepting, the people of Haiti rebelled, by marching and burning the seeds. The introduction of GMO and hybrid seeds into cultures with a rich tradition of seed-saving poses a jungle of legal repercussions – linked also to increased suicides of peasant farmers in many countries.

Next stop – also in Louisville – Oxmoor Farms. The Field Day Farm at Oxmoor Farms partners with the Food Literacy Project to grow food for market and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) as well as provide school-age education about local food systems. Situated on 8 acres tucked betwixt the interstate, golf course and a suburban subdivision, Farmer Seamus says golfer and farmer frequently meet eyes in questioning gazes. Ironic because there is a current trend where farms across the country are bought out by large residential developers due to a higher monetary value attached to land for its developmental potential rather than its agricultural productivity.

barn at oxmoor farms.

All that to say, we Agrarians harvested garlic and weeded kale while swapping stories about soil amendments and growing seasons. The garlic harvested was put into shares for Field Day Farm CSA – which supplies 60 families with produce each week. In addition to its CSA, extra produce is sold at 2 farmers markets each week and contributed towards Grasshopper, a cooperative multi-farm CSA supplying meat, cheese, milk, eggs, mushrooms to local families – in addition to regular shares of vegetables.

The beauty of a multi-farm (or multi-yard – reference fellow Wacoan Lucas Land’s Edible Yard Project) CSA is that it buffets the problems of pest invasion or crop failure, as well as taking advantage of the soil varieties and farmer specialization. Such a model also allows small gardeners who may not have enough to sell at market may contribute their produce and reap the benefits.

tilapia aquaculture at berea eco-village.

Day Three: We hit the road for Berea College in eastern KY to explore Berea’s Eco-Village and Farm Gardens. Professor Richard Olson expounded on his theories of the most-of-us speeding towards hell in a hand-basket – due to the rate we use electricity, water, petroleum, etc. (Sometimes doomsday global warming pessimism is not my cup of tea – it’s more like a cup of gas station coffee). After stepping off his soapbox, he showed us around Berea’s Eco-Village – ever-evolving with aquacultured tilapia, biointensive growing, photovoltaic (PV) panels, greywater treatment system – as well as demonstrations in natural building, including: cob, cord wood with cob mortar, earth bag, earthen plaster, and straw bale. Berea’s Eco-Village is open exclusively for 4 interns in the Sustainability and Environmental Studies program – as well as students of Berea who are single parents.

garden and pv panels at berea’s eco-village.

From the Eco-Village, we journeyed to the other side of Berea College to the farm, gardens and greenhouse – a total area of 500 acres. In addition to vegetable production, Berea operates an apiary (honey flavored by blueberries and buckwheat), hoop houses for season extension, mushroom spore-infused-logs, and a cord wood root cellar. We were not able to see their livestock production – but Berea does that, too. All produce is sold at local farmers markets for a flat rate of $8/lb. The school also purchases produce for use in its cafeteria, at a rate of $6.50/lb. These prices are extremely high, for the majority of crops – but the people of Berea are willing to pay. The farm and gardens are maintained by students in the College’s Agriculture Department. All students at Berea are required to work for tuition (10-15 hours/week) – no other costs are associated with tuition. Another similar college is School of the Ozarks in Missouri.

cord wood structure.

Vegetables grown at Berea College are Certified Organic – meeting the USDA’s standards and definitions of organic practices. Organic certification is a highly contentious topic amongst small scale agrarians. Both Field Day Farm at Oxmoor Farms in Louisville and World Hunger Relief Farm in Waco choose not to certify their produce – although each farm meets, and exceeds, the USDA’s standards. Farmer Igor at Field Day Farm choose not to certify due to moral convictions – both that the standards are too loose, while being relatively expensive. He also notes that small scale farming is about relationship with the consumer – and if a strong relationship is in place, all farming practices are transparent – and thus certification is unnecessary.

llama lovin’ at liles organic acres.

After Berea, we traveled to Maryville, TN – to visit Liles Organic Acres, a small family farm operated by Sheri and Russell Liles. Here we met the llamas. Sheri – a self-proclaimed back-to-the-land hippie – showed us around the farm. She grows vegetables in 25 raised beds – that have been double-dug and enriched each year with layer upon layer of compost. She and Russell keep seven compost piles around the farm – enriched by rabbit, llama and chicken poop – as well as leaves, food scraps and red wigglers. Her vegetables are sold at market – and chooses not to certify organic. In addition to vegetables, Sheri also keep llamas and angora rabbits from which she can spin the wool – as well as growing cotton and flax, to be spun by her mother-in-law for linen. Both Sheri and Russell work part-time off the farm – she as a nurse practitioner, he as a picture-framer. Russell is also a crafted wood-worker and quite engineer-ed-ly minded, installing PV panels that supply 25% of their energy use and building the llama barn, chicken coops and beehives.

chickens at liles organic acres.

Once we departed the Liles farm, we met up with locals from the Highland Presbyterian Church in Maryville – to share stories and recipes over a potluck of locally produced grub.

End Day Three. End Part One.

- bethel, agrarian road tripper.

Building Enthusiasm in Haiti- Report from Ferrier

2010-06-16T07:56:00.002-05:00

We started the SRI (System of Rice Intensification) training on Tuesday with what was undoubtedly the first Powerpoint presentation ever attempted in Ferrier. Unfortunately, Jackson had planned the workshop under a white vinyl tent that caught and transmitted the sunlight pretty much everywhere, so the projector image was pretty tough to see. Lesson to self:
when planning to use LCD projectors in rural Haiti, make sure you fully inform the host as to what kind of room will be needed. Oh for the days when we used crappy, hand-drawn images that could go anywhere without generators.

Regardless of the technology challenges, Joeli Barison (a Malagasy SRI extension specialist) and Erika Styger (a Swiss consultant currently at Cornell) seemed to get their stories across as well as the six essential principles of SRI, namely:

1. Transplanting seedlings at a young age (8-10 days instead of the traditional 4 weeks)
2. Transplanting single seedlings instead of a clump of 3 or more
3. Transplanting in rows 25 cm apart instead of denser spacing
4. Flooding lightly & intermittently alternated with dry periods rather than maintaining
5. Using rotary weeders
6. Maximizing use of organic amendments

It was a lot for people to take in, but I was impressed that several of the participants fairly quickly related this new system to their own experiences & observations, especially with wider plant spacing and use of organic inputs. That afternoon, we started an experiment pre-germinating rice seed that was later planted in a seedling bed to produce plants for a trial we’ll transplant on the 21st.

The next three days were spent repeating the principles, discussing current practices in the area, carrying out practical demonstrations & showing more pictures & films. We found a
darkened classroom that served the latter purpose, and I have to say that showing pictures and films of people actually carrying out all the steps and then the results it produced at harvest was
quite effective. Technology is a powerful tool when it works…

The various sessions were pretty chaotic and to a large extent ad hoc. The field in which we planned to do the practical exercises was under 2 ft of flood water the day we intended to start. The next day it was above water, but the river we had to cross to get there was still neck deep and our principal trainer didn’t know how to swim, so we switched to an alternate location. Most
sessions started an hour or more late, but the 20+ participants kept coming back, and their enthusiasm built visibly through the four days.

By the end, virtually everyone said they were convinced enough to try the system out on a small portion of their land. They seem motivated by the fact that they’re pioneers of an approach that may not only help their own situation, but could become an example for other regions of Haiti. A camaraderie also developed among the group, and they asked about forming a committee to keep in touch with each other, and to enable communication between the members and those of us who intend to serve as resources.

My role in the coming weeks is to organize a system for support and follow-up. It’s a pretty daunting task given the lack of infrastructure or experience of WHR-Haiti in such endeavors.
Most of our history in the area has involved creation of demonstration sites in a central location, rather than outreach on individual farms. This, however, is probably a major reason
why, after 30 years, we haven’t had more impact on the agriculture of the area. On the 21st we will reassemble to transplant our demonstration seedlings. By then, I hope to have decided, together with Jackson, on several “technicians” we can hire to visit farmers as they try SRI on their own land. I’ll plan to be in regular phone contact with these technicians to help with advice and encouragement. Both Erika and Joeli have agreed to help with trouble-shooting and will likely make a follow-up visit during the upcoming season.

I particularly enjoyed watching Joeli interact with the Haitian farmers who came for the training. He not only has a wealth of practical experience from having worked with Malagasy farmers for the past 20 years, but he also has an outgoing, personable approach that clearly appeals to Haitians. Prior to coming to Ferrier, he spent five weeks training farmers in the central and SW rice-growing areas. Each day he fielded numerous phone calls from participants in these training sessions asking questions about production or just calling to say “hello.” His Creole comprehension was impressive, and his enjoyment of the people, culture, food, etc. makes it hard to imagine a better fit for this role.

In Memoriam

2010-06-13T17:28:00.001-05:00

This little lady made a nest in our hay bale stacks. Very clever. And no, this hen did not pass away. She's doin' just fine. But I post this picture to honor all of the 25 chickens killed Saturday night by wild dogs. We will miss you.

News From Neil's Trip to Haiti

2010-06-10T14:44:00.001-05:00

Managed to grab a quick internet connection.

My trip down went well except for having to sleep on the floor in the Ft. Lauderdale airport...

We're two days into the SRI workshop, and have about 20 farmers attending. It's been raining nearly every day and one of the biggest challenges is that everything is under water. Rice is supposed to be flooded, but not under several feet of water! The trainers are working well, especially the one from Madagascar. He seems to connect well with Haitians, and really knows his stuff.

Hope to write more before long...

Neil

Waco's hunger farm addressing rice farming in Haiti

2010-06-06T15:27:00.002-05:00

Waco Tribune had a story today on our Executive Director, Neil Miller's, current trip to Haiti until the end of June.

The executive director of World Hunger Relief Inc. is partnering with a Cornell University program and a rice specialist from Madagascar in an international effort to improve rice farming in Haiti.

Neil Miller, who lived in Haiti for six years, leaves today to take part in a four-day training program in northeast Haiti that will teach farmers about a growing method known as System of Rice Intensification designed to increase rice production.

World Hunger Relief is a sustainable agriculture training farm in Elm Mott.

After visiting Haiti in February, Miller said he knew something needed to be done to help the nation devastated by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12 that left roughly 3 million people in need of emergency aid.

Feeling discouraged by the seemingly insurmountable barriers to help rice production in Haiti, he found others who shared his idea upon returning to Waco.

Read the rest at Wacotrib.com

Some Updates From Ferrier, Haiti

2010-05-28T15:21:00.002-05:00

May 28, 2010 – Jackson Nelson returned to Leogane to complete the work WHR-Haiti began in March. They are in conversation with several other non-governmental organizations who need help with water wells. We are pleased that they have been able to respond in this way, and that they are becoming a resource for other communities around the country. May 12, 2010 – Addressing needs in rural communities like Ferrier is being promoted both as a way to support internally- displaced Haitians and as a solution to a long-term, chronic problem. By the time of the earthquake, chaotic urban migration had turned the capital of Port-au-Prince from a modest-sized city to a crowded, messy habitation for over three million people. Experts involved in the reconstruction effort are increasingly encouraging the one million Haitians who have left Port-au-Prince to stay put in the countryside. The January 29 Christian Science Monitor reported: “As Haitian officials and international development experts start to envision Haiti’s reconstruction, ‘decentralization’ has become an ubiquitous rallying cry.”

These thoughts guided my visit in February. Ferrier is one of the few areas of Haiti with under-utilized land resources. It includes the third largest flood-irrigated area in the country, and as such holds the potential to produce significant quantities of rice, the staple food of many Haitians. Rice production creates additional jobs as the crop is processed, transported, and marketed to consumers. I spent much of my visit slogging through rice fields, discussing these ideas with local farmers.

Upon returning to Waco, I began making phone calls. Much to my astonishment, Cornell University's Norman Uphoff, one of the world’s leading proponents of SRI, was looking for partners to help introduce this approach to Haitian farmers. Dick Roosenberg, an internationally-recognized specialist in ox traction, was looking for ways for Tillers International to respond to the needs in Haiti and quickly agreed to visit Ferrier to provide advice on oxen and improved implements for rice production.

A Haitian organization, GRADES-Nord, agreed to manufacture the tools needed for SRI and asked us to partner with them in a large grant proposal to finance a revolving fund enabling Ferrier farmers to purchase ox teams. Finally, a retired scientist from the International Rice Research Institute agreed to provide consulting services in Ferrier and connect us with other international resources.

There are few times in my life that I have felt prayer answered so directly as in the events of these past three months. Rebuilding Haiti remains a monumental undertaking. Nonetheless, we step forward in the confidence that God is calling us to participate in this task. Pray with WHRI as we nurture these tender shoots of hope growing up through the tragedy and rubble.

March 15, 2010 - The World Hunger Relief – Haiti well drilling team has completed three wells in the Leogane area at the request of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC). They encountered lots of problems due to the rocky soils they had to drill through. At 50-60 ft depth they lost their best drill bit. Due to other commitments in northeastern Haiti, they will return to complete their work with CRWRC in a month or two.

February 22, 2010 - I traveled to Ferrier through the Dominican Republic partly because of the post-earthquake travel difficulties in Haiti, and partly in hopes of making contacts with resources on the Dominican side of the border. This trip had two main purposes. First, I hoped to assess the WHR-Haiti response to the crisis experienced in southern regions of the country. Secondly, I wanted to further our efforts to promote long-term economic advancement through improved rice production.

Some 2-300 families (roughly 1000 people) have relocated in Ferrier following the Jan. 13 earthquake in Port-au-Prince and southern areas of the country. Most of these are relatives of Ferrier residents and/or former Ferrier residents who migrated to the city. WHR-Haiti responded to this influx by distributing food and cash to returnees. The process appears to have been orderly and well documented. Mission Waco and WHRI both contributed funds toward this effort, and WHR-Haiti President, Jackson Nelson does not feel the on-going need is significant enough to continue the program.

A portion of our support was used to repair the Beraka Mission internet connection. In the days following the earthquake, this was their only functioning means of communication with the outside world.

The WHR-Haiti well-drilling team is preparing to travel to Leogane, a small town west of the capital which was devastated in the January earthquake. Christian is overseeing relief efforts in the area, and their water specialist requested that WHR-Haiti dig four wells to provide drinking water for affected communities. Because their equipment is dated, they have been repairing worn parts and collecting materials with financial support from WHRI and Mission Waco. They plan to mobilize after hosting a Mission Waco mission group the 2nd week of March. I was pleased to see they have implemented several of my recommendations from last September, including replacing the Beraka Mission well and chlorinating a new well they are developing for a Catholic project in Ouanaminthe.

Although the Ferrier area was not directly affected by the January earthquake, and prices of most goods have returned to near-normal levels, the repercussions of the devastation are evident in the overall mood of the area. Virtually everyone continues to grieve the loss of friends and family. An unspoken shadow of discouragement is evident in small ways. Attendance at all the local schools has declined significantly. At the WHR-Haiti school, parents have objected to having their children attend classes in an older poured-concrete building. Jackson Nelson called a parents meeting while I was there in order to motivate parents to send their children and not succumb to discouragement.

I am pleased and impressed with the response of WHR-Haiti to the crisis, and feel that we did well to work through them rather than to mobilize independently. Having responded to immediate needs, our focus should now turn to supporting long-term economic development efforts in order to enable the community to support their returned population, and minimize the forces which might lead them back to a city whose once-meager opportunities have been diminished drastically.

Executive Director
Neil Miller

Don't explode your brain

2010-05-11T22:48:00.004-05:00

This post was originally published at Yellow Inkling.

I had a great discussion with our current Service Learning group about what can practically be done – by you and I - about poverty in this world. But wait – what’s a Service Learning group?

At World Hunger Relief, we host several Service Learning groups a year. Part of the mission of the Farm is to “educate those with an economic abundance on methods of conserving and sharing resources.” Our Service Learning program, along with our fun-filled (and rabbit poop, worm, goat, chicken, garden-filled) Farm tours, and sending farmers off the Farm to speak, are ways we do this in our community. And...surprise! One of my main jobs here on the Farm is to manage all three of these education programs.

Our Service Learning groups come from schools, churches, families, and universities. They stay for varying lengths, from 8 hours up to two weeks. During Spring Break time (March-April) we are super busy with several Alternative Spring Break groups from colleges around the country.

Right now we have a National Summer Service Team from University of Michigan on the Farm. They’re one of our longer- staying groups just a day shy of two weeks. They’ve been an ideal group and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them.

Last night I hosted one of my favorite Service Learning activities for them – Hunger Meal. The activity includes a meal, a presentation, and a discussion at the end. At the beginning, each participant chooses a life situation card. The card includes a name, country of residence, income bracket, and a short description of daily life – struggles, work, family, etc. Each participant is then fed according to the card they randomly picked.

I try to schedule this activity after a hard day’s work and the groups are asked not to snack between lunch and the activity which typically takes place during the evening. The “high-income” people are seated at the table with a ridiculous amount of food, usually including a balanced meal with meat, several beverage selections, and dessert. “Middle-income” participants are seated in a chair and are given beans and rice in a bowl with a spoon and a glass of water. “Low-income” participants are seated on the ground and given a large pot of rice to share amongst themselves, along with glasses of “dirty water” (water colored light brown with a splash of coffee or tea). It usually breaks down to about 15% of the group being high-income, 25% middle-income, and 60% low-income.

While the participants eat, they share their cards and I present current statistics and issues regarding world hunger and poverty.

In all honesty, although this is my favorite Service Learning activity to lead, it’s a difficult one. It’s difficult to talk about hunger and poverty in regards to statistics and generalities. In fact, in the past, I’ve often avoided talking about these problems because I didn’t know of a good way without mentioning the often sterile and meaningless statistics. But after first learning how to lead this activity I realized something – some people have never heard these statistics; they might know that there are hungry people in the world, but they don’t realize that it’s a sixth of earth’s population. I’ve learned that it’s okay to start with: currently, there are 1.6 billion people living on less than $2 a day – 900 million people in this world go hungry every day.

I say this to people who, at this point in the day, are very hungry themselves, given a handful of rice after a many hours of hard work. Then, I move closer to home – Texas is the second hungriest state in the Union – 15% of people living in Texas go hungry every day. After presenting the dry facts (that may be less dry with rumbling stomachs), I share what the Farm is doing and what they can do themselves. Last night we had a great discussion about this.

The issue was this: what can we practically do about poverty in the world? The problem is a big one and if we were to think about all the complexities at the same time and worry about and try to solve all of them, our heads would explode our pink brains everywhere. Instead, we discussed a few important steps. If you are wondering about what you can do, read on. This is what we came up with.

Education – educate yourself about what’s going on. Familiarize yourself with some statistics. I told the group last night that they were in fact doing something about poverty and hunger by taking that first step: coming to the farm and learning about what’s going on in Waco, Texas, our country, and the world. You can start with our links. Quick intros like 12 Myths About World Hunger are also a good start.
People – surround yourself with like-minded people, people who care about these issues and want to learn more, too. They don’t have to have the same ideas as you – in fact, the purpose of finding like-minded people is to learn from them and share perspectives, while also being encouraged. This was one of the reasons why I wanted to come to the Farm. These people are everywhere – your school, your church, maybe your family, your friends (exhibit A: the lovely specimens pictured above.) There may be groups near you that are already meeting and doing something (think Texas Hunger Initiative, McLennan County Hunger Coalition, Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition, etc).
Resources and Your One Thing – As people that live in America, we have to start looking at where we are putting our resources. This is often the hardest step. Even those who don’t consider themselves “rich” have enormous amounts of resources (money, time, influences). As we talked about this last step, we decided that the best way to handle this is to start small. Pick one part of your life to examine. A few years ago, when James and I first started looking specifically at the issue of hunger and how it relates to the food system, we decided to pick one thing to change.

I started with my eggs. We eat a lot of eggs and I knew that most of the eggs sold in grocery stores were produced by chickens that were abused, pumped full of grain (which could be used elsewhere) and antibiotics, and cared for by people who are often abused themselves by employers. And so we concentrated on eggs: just finding a supplier for eggs that I knew, either through friends or the farmer’s market, or even getting a few of my own chickens. After we did that, we went on to milk, then meat. But we took it one thing at a time. And yes, sometimes that one thing took six months to solve, find, or incorporate into our lives. But since we did gradually, it didn’t make our brains go ka-boom-splat.

Maybe you drink an insane amount of coffee – maybe that could be your “one thing.” Take time and find out where your coffee comes from. With coffee being one of the biggest reasons why modern slavery exists, you could take some time and find a Fair Trade supplier or talk to your local coffee shop owner about serving Fair Trade coffee.

So, go! I release you from this ridiculously long blog post. Go learn and educate – go find those like-minded people (come to the Farm!) – and find and start with your one thing.

Oh, and if you get stuck, drop us a line at the Farm.

(Maybe your thing is Vodka? Solved. Ha.)

May 22 Block Walk to promote summer food program

2010-05-10T17:07:00.004-05:00

The McLennan County Hunger Coalition, of which World Hunger Relief is a member, is having a community block walk to help promote the summer food program for children in Waco.

This is an opportunity to partner with the farm in a larger community event. People from the farm will be present and we hope some of you might like to participate as well. Here is the original message:

The McLennan County Hunger Coalition would like to invite you to participate in a first step for this summer by promoting awareness of the summer food program for 2010. Over 28,000 kids receive nutritious meals during the school year. The Summer Food Program fills the hunger gap with meals and snacks when school’s out. Every child can receive free meals during the summer, yet in 2009, only 6.7% of eligible children participated. We need your help to participate with us in getting the word out.

Join the McLennan County Hunger Coalition on May 22 from 9am to 12noon for a community block walk to promote the summer food program. We will focus on specific sites in three areas of our community- North, South, and East Waco. Congregations, school groups, and committed individuals are encouraged to show up for a few hours and help us spread the word about the program.

If you plan to participate, please RSVP to Alexis Weaver: aweaver@wacochamber.com by May 17, and indicate the area of Waco that you would like to be involved in. We will send information prior to May 22 with the meeting location, block captain, and any other pertinent details.

We appreciate all of your support to end hunger in McLennan County.

Sincerely,

The McLennan County Hunger Coalition

Alexis Weaver
Director of Community Affairs
Community Development
aweaver@wacochamber.com

Battling Hunger

2010-05-04T10:56:00.001-05:00

Here is a video from the Texas Farm Bureau about World Hunger Relief, Inc.

Goats make the best movie stars

2010-05-03T10:00:00.023-05:00

If you are living in the Waco area you have probably already heard the buzz of the movie filmed here in town. Friend of the farm, not to mention extremely talented musician, Wes Cunningham has recently embarked on a film project with some other local, and near local folks. The story is based on the journey Wes took, along with his wife and young son, away from the fast paced music scene in LA to small town Sironia (Waco) in search of meaning. The story brings Wes to the farm where he believes for a moment that he has found the meaning or purpose that he is after, but I am sorry to tell you that the farm was not the answer.

We reenacted farm day for the shoot complete with vendors, milking demonstrations, a petting zoo and a few extras like ribbon dancing and bubbles. The day was hectic and somewhat silly but also a lot of fun and a nice step out of the routine. I milked Frosty, as I have done many times before, but this time there was a widescreen camera lens and a wardrobe director. Ryan drove the tractor, as he has done countless times, but this time it followed the call “action” and showed up on monitors.

In addition to our efforts to represent the farm well the film crew and actors did their best to look farmy, including rubbing their farm shirts in the dirt before wearing them...

The day was a step out of the ordinary for sure. The bright likes shown on goats and farmers alike and each did their best to act "normal." Fortunately the day rounded out with some good hard farm work before the attention got to our heads. The movie will hopefully be making its way through the independent circles so keep an eye out for Sironia and let us know what you think!

The chickens aren't in Kansas anymore

2010-04-26T00:05:00.005-05:00

Well, they're still in Texas on the Farm - but take a look at what the 60 mph winds did to one of the coops early Saturday morning:

Indeed, your eyes do not deceive you. The coop on the left is sitting on its roof. It blew off of its axle (our coops are on wheels so that we can move them around on pasture) and landed upside-down. The axle was upside-down, too.

As far as we know, no chickens were harmed during the storm. Phew.

Well, farming goes on.

Welcome to the Planet!

2010-04-21T14:53:00.000-05:00

I’ve already spouted off about Earth Day before. So, you know how I feel. Here’s my rousing speech for the masses celebrating the planet we live on this Thursday. (Warning: Satire ahead! Please put your tongue in your cheek before reading.)

Hello everyone! Welcome to the third planet from the sun. Some of you have traveled a long way to be here for this celebration. I understand that Mercury was experiencing some especially hot weather and Venus just doesn’t have seasons the way we do here. Some of you may have come from Mars, but we’re not really sure if there’s life there yet. From what I can tell, it seems like a rough place to raise kids at least. So, welcome to the planet we like to call Earth.

From what I can gather, many of you don’t actually live here for most of the year. So, we are especially privileged to host you for Earth Day, where we remember and honor the planet that gives us cool stuff like iPods and the Nintendo Wii. We would be very bored without the ability to exploit the resources of Earth.

Some of you come from planets like the United States where there are abundant and infinite resources. I don’t know how you do it, but I’m glad you don’t live on this planet, because we couldn’t do it. It’s wonderful to have places with infinite resources to show us what is possible. Someday, perhaps, we will be able to leave Earth and move to this paradise, but for now we can dream.

Many of you create food out of thin air in your world. Your science makes it possible to create all that you need to live in the lab. At one point in history you were confined by the limitations of the Earth. Thanks to the exploitation of this world you are now able to live however you want where you live. The Earth has sacrificed to further the progress of our people. That is why we have this day to honor and remember what Earth has given in order to make us happy and rich.

We also remember all the dinosaurs and coal miners that have given their lives for a greater purpose. Their deaths were not in vain. Whether millions of years ago or this year, dinosaurs and coal miners alike have sacrificed their lives because they believed in something bigger than themselves. Their contribution to freeing the human race from the limitations of nature and this planet will always live on in our memory.

So, this Earth Day be sure to honor our planet and those who have come before us by flushing as often as possible. Leave the lights on! Go ahead, it’s what the dinosaurs wanted. Take a long trip with the family! Celebrate Earth Day in a way that says that reminds you that the other 364 days of the year you have freed yourself from this God-forsaken rock and achieved the purpose of the human race. Thank you and God bless the United States of our solar system.

Life As Art

2010-04-17T14:11:00.006-05:00

Manifesto:
The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
by Wendell Berry
Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay.
Want more of everything readymade.
Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery any more.
Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something they will call you.
When they want you to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something that won't compute.
Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace the flag.
Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot understand.
Praise ignorance, for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years.
Listen to carrion –
Put your ear close, and hear the faint chattering of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world.
Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable.
Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head in her lap.
Swear allegiance to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn't go.
Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Bike Out Hunger

2010-04-13T14:48:00.003-05:00

The Bike Out Hunger ride will be at the farm April 21.

The ride is a way to raise money and awareness to fight hunger in Texas and beyond. The ride will be from Ballinger to San Antonio over six days and about 445 miles. The dates are April 19-24.

There are 1.3 million Texans who are unsure of when they will get their next meal. You can help change that. The money raised supports existing feeding and empowering efforts that end the cycle of hunger and poverty.

To sponsor a specific rider and donate to the cause click here.

Let’s give Texas something to say grace over.

Specifics

Route: San Angelo area to San Antonio (approximately 450 miles) Check out a map of the route.

Dates: April 19-24. Come and go riders are welcome.

What it is: A way to raise awareness and money to fight hunger in Texas. This is in partnership with the Texas Hunger Initiative, Baylor University School of Social Work, the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger, Texas Baptists and the USDA.

Who’s invited: Anyone who wants to ride to raise awareness and money for the cause.

Bike Out Hunger, day 3, 4/21
Find more Bike Rides in Waco, Texas

Farm Day Tomorrow!

2010-04-09T08:56:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is our 2010 Spring Farm Day. If you don't know about Farm Day, it's an open house for the community to come check out the farm and see what we're all about. So come visit! The event goes from 9am - 4pm, so stop by any time!

Gardening Talk on KWTX

2010-03-16T10:13:00.003-05:00

Norman Borlaug

2010-03-12T14:35:00.002-06:00

There have been many differing views on the life and accomplishments of Norman Borlaug. With an upcoming class on sustainable and organic agriculture this Monday we thought it would be interesting to read both the accolades and criticisms of Norman Borlaug.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/business/energy-environment/14borlaug.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/15/norman-borlaug-legacy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/13/norman-borlaug-dead_n_284886.html

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/borlaug/index.html

A Warm Safe Place

2010-02-24T16:13:00.001-06:00

Plants are not that different from people. They live outdoors in all kinds of weather, but in order to flourish they need a warm safe place away from the cold and wind. Our urban gardening program has a shelter called the BUGI (Bethel's Urban Gardening Institute) Barn where we keep plants, tools and seeds (along with bikes and miscellaneous junk that piles up). It's not really built to be a greenhouse. Occasionally the temperature has been colder inside than outside. Our poor plants struggled to stay alive through an unseasonably cold winter in Texas this year, much less thrive. What to do?

Greenhouses in some form have existed since the Roman Empire. Modern greenhouses started in Italy in the 13th century to house exotic plants and animals that explorers brought back from the tropics (source). It's interesting that in both cases greenhouses were built to benefit the wealthy, not in order to improve agriculture for the masses. From the beginning greenhouses were a resource intensive endeavor. It takes a lot of fuel (wood, propane, electricity, etc.) in order to keep a greenhouse heated through the winter.

I'd heard snippets here and there about unheated greenhouses. Eliot Coleman is the guru of greenhouses and year-round farming. He does this, not in the temperate climate of Texas, but the harsh winters of northern Maine. I was particularly intrigued by rabbit-heated greenhouses. According to one site, rabbits produce about 8 BTUs of heat per hour. Their feces is composted with worms underneath the cages which adds additional heat. When someone who used to work at the farm dropped off four rabbits that had been 4-H projects, I had found my project.

We sectioned off a 10 foot section at the end of the BUGI Barn with a double layered plastic curtain. We lined the inside of the barn with plastic as well to create a layer of air that will insulate while the plastic helps trap the heat. We set the rabbit cages up on cinderblocks about two feet off the ground. There is a table for plants above the rabbit cages with some aluminum roofing nailed to it to keep water from hitting the rabbits. Then a small square table and one more long one for more plants.

There's a fan in the corner blowing across the rabbit cages. This, supposedly, causes the rabbits to produce more heat by cooling their ears, which are temperature sensors for their bodies (though I'm no biologist so correct me if I'm wrong). So rabbits provide heat and compost. If you get them to reproduce like, well, rabbits, then you also have a meat source.

There are lots of other techniques for unheated greenhouses. Five gallon buckets painted black on one side and filled with water act as solar heaters. The idea behind unheated greenhouses is to think about the inputs required to grow our food and reduce or do away with our dependence on outside inputs as much as possible. If my little experiment works we'll have a greenhouse that doesn't require outside inputs or a fuel source and produces meat and compost.

Here's some pictures of the finished greenhouse. Pardon the mess. We live on a farm.

The BUGI Barn from the outside. It's about 40 feet long.

The greenhouse from the outside. There are two layers of plastic with slits that are offset for entrance.

Inside the greenhouse. Lots of room for all our plants.

Our little biological heaters. They are way cuter than a propane or electric heater, tastier too.

Up close and personal with one of our bunnies. Notice the fan on the left to circulate the air and encourage our bio-heaters.

Envisioning A New Haiti

2010-02-19T11:37:00.003-06:00

Hundreds of individuals have now settled in Ferrier, Haiti following the January earthquake which struck Port-au-Prince some 8 hours to the south. The World Hunger Relief - Haiti team has responded by providing temporary assistance thanks to the generous giving of many folks reading this post. We continue to feel that our assistance is best delivered through our Haitian brothers and sisters, and are seeking ways to do this most effectively.

Addressing needs in outlying areas, like Ferrier, seems to be gaining wider attention, not just as a short-term response to internally displaced Haitians, but also as a solution to a long-term, chronic problem. By the time of the earthquake, chaotic urban migration had turned Port-au-Prince from a modest-sized city to a crowded, messy habitation for over 3 million people. Experts involved in the reconstruction effort, are increasingly asking how to encourage the 1 million Haitians who have left Port-au-Prince to stay put for the long haul.

The Jan. 29 Christian Science Monitor reported “As Haitian officials and international development experts start to envision Haiti's reconstruction, 'decentralization' has become an ubiquitous rallying cry. Port-au-Prince should never again be the congested and almost anarchic city it was before Jan. 12, these experts say: Those who have left the capital should be encouraged to stay out.”

Economic development in outlying towns, like Ferrier, serves both the short and long-term best interest of the country. After hundreds of phone calls and e-mails, we are more and more convinced that our response to the earthquake should be shaped by this understanding. We intend to redouble our efforts at encouraging agricultural improvement and food production in one of the few areas of the country with under-utilized, potentially productive farmland.

To this end, WHRI Executive Director, Neil Rowe Miller, will travel to Haiti on Monday, Feb. 22 to discuss potential strategies with WHR-Haiti President, Jackson Nelson. We will likely focus on rice production since the area around Ferrier includes the third largest flood-irrigated area in the country. Rice production creates additional jobs as the crop is processed, transported, and marketed to consumers.

Meanwhile, WHR-Haiti has been asked to help in the rural town of Léogâne, an hour west of Port-au-Prince. This area, which was also devastated by the earthquake, is the focus of the relief efforts of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee. Their water resource specialist, Jos Josse has asked for assistance in drilling four wells to provide drinking water for their traditional population as well as those displaced from the city. This need also seems in keeping with our overall approach, and we will do all we can to help Jackson and his crew respond.

Snow Day at the Farm

2010-02-12T14:23:00.009-06:00

The Waco area got 1-3 inches of snow late Thursday and overnight. Here's some pictures complete with witty captions for you.

Nothing witty, just the ed building with snow... cool.

One of the chickens was trying to throw us off the trail... we still found him. We are still smarter than chickens.

"I'd like to see this thing solar dehydrate anything now!" -Mother Nature

The farm accepts all kinds of snowmen, although some should still learn to pluck their eyebrows.

My son is proud of the snowman he built with his dad. Unfortunately...

our development director has a sick sense of humor.

My farm blog - Chase Estrin

2010-02-12T13:50:00.002-06:00

Hodwy! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Chase and I'm a new live-in volunteer here on the farm. I came out here last May with a group from the University of Michigan and enjoyed my experience so much I decided to come out for 5 months to learn everything I can about agrarian life. Nature is really a wonderful thing. You find out very quickly that everything that happens in nature has evolved and adapted to what it is now. Even being here for a few days you will learn a plethora of new information dealing with gardening, sustainable practices, and everything in between.

My blog is for my friends and family and covers what I've learned here on the farm as well as what I've been up to. It covers information from our classes and the information that I've learned that, should be, second nature to everyone but has managed to drop out of society. I hope that you enjoy it. Feel free to comment.

Chase Estrin's blog

2010-02-10T20:54:00.000-06:00

I am sitting in a hotel room in New Mexico watching C-SPAN waiting for dinner at a training so I can officially become a VISTA Supervisor. Michelle Obama is on giving a speech about how to keep kids from giving getting and staying fat. She is giving a shout out to community gardens and Will Allen. She committed to eliminate food deserts within 7 years. This will include bringing grocery stores to neighborhoods that currently do not have them (read North Waco and East Waco) or help convenience stores include more fruits and veggies. She promised that funding would be available to encourage better nutrition and more physical activity through The Partnership for a Healthier America.

Her initiative is called Let’s Move.

Check out the USDA Food Atlas to see where the governments perspective on how Americans are eating.

She is talking about making food healthier in schools but she is not talking about why the U.S. subsidize foods that make people fat but we have only done a little to encourage farmers in the U.S. to begin to grown more fruits and veggies.

MLK Day 2010 on Quinn Campus

2010-02-09T13:44:00.002-06:00

There's a nice page with pictures from Rapoport Academy about MLK Day of Service 2010.

Ending Hunger in Texas

2010-02-07T08:15:00.003-06:00

KWTX had a report last night on the Texas Hunger Initiative and interviewed our urban gardening intern about WHRI's work with the initiative.

Battling Hunger

2010-02-05T16:41:00.002-06:00

Texas Farm Bureau has a story about World Hunger Relief on their website:

Waco nonprofit works worldwide to promote food production and economic development...

Americans live in a land of plenty. Luscious greens, hearty meats, endless aisles of canned and boxed foods line the aisles of supermarkets. And most folks don’t give a second thought to how it gets there.

"People are definitely more and more detached from where their food comes from," says Matt Hess, education director for Waco-based World Hunger Relief, Inc. (WHRI). "Whether you’re a kid and your dad is a commodity farmer, or whether your dad is working on Wall Street, the food system is way more complicated than most of us understand."

Read the rest...

tales of small gardeners

2010-02-03T09:32:00.012-06:00

The WHRI school garden clubs have been full of life and activity this year. I work primarily with the elementary schools, other farmers work with our 3 middle schools, and have had the pleasure of observing the young gardeners antics. Here are a few of my favorite tales of small gardeners....

The Garden Club at Sul Ross Elemenary consists of some of our most enthusiastic gardeners. At this school we work with 2 groups, one of 2nd and 3rd graders and one of 4th and 5th graders. All of our Garden Club students have been involved in a number of enviable activities from petting goats and rabbits to pulling bright orange carrots out of the ground and snacking on a variety of fresh treats. One day the often overlooked joy of weeding was enough to lure a group of kindergarteners away from recess and over to the garden fence. One small girl, nicknamed Flaca, sweetly asked if she could "stick her little hand through the fence and pull some weeds."

We have kept a few things growing in the school gardens through the winter, primarily lettuces, carrots and onions, but mostly we are planning for the spring. One cold day at Doris Miller we took a seed catalogue so that the students could select which plants they wanted for their garden. We are trying to emphasize student ownership of the gardens and saw this as another way to include them in an important decision process. Students took turns gathering around the catalogue and coming to a consensus on seed varieties. Some students made their selections based on pictures while others insisted that I read through the descriptions of each variety. The greatest debate came in the melon section when a group of boys could not decide between the largest watermelon variety and one that boasted sweetness. The argument was settled when J proclaimed "bigger doesn't mean it tastes good."

The West Ave. Elementary Garden Club also been doing a lot of planning and dreaming about the spring. On the last day of the fall semester before Christmas we took the kids a pecan pie, made of course from WHRI pecans, and fair trade hot chocolate from the Village Store. We all enjoyed this treat together over a conversation about what they wanted to plant this spring. Many of the suggestions came from fruits and things that the students liked to eat, which was great. However we were even more excited when individual students made suggestions from things that they had experience planting. One student, E, told the group about how she had planted sunflowers at her home and had even harvested and either eaten or replanted the seeds. I asked E if she would lead Garden Club in planting and harvesting sunflowers and she enthusiatically agreed. We see gardening as an avenue for empowerment and leadership in our students and you could see on E's face that she felt these effects.

Resettlement and news from Ferrier

2010-01-29T11:19:00.000-06:00

Jackson Nelson and the WHR-Haiti well crew will travel to the Dominican Republic tomorrow to purchase parts and supplies for the well-drilling rig. I have been in discussion with various organizations regarding using WHR-Haiti's services in the earthquake-affected zone. At this point it appears there's not an urgent need for water wells. In a month or so, there will likely be more need, especially in some of the outlying communities where former Port-au-Prince residents have relocated.

The Ferrier community has welcomed its share of returnees. Some 160 individuals have resettled in the area, and Pastor Zenas Pierre is traveling to Port-au-Prince at the time of this writing in order to facilitate the return of more people. WHR-Haiti is providing financial support to those who have resettled in Ferrier, and we have wired funds to help with this effort.

Introducing Billy Jack

2010-01-28T14:58:00.005-06:00

Frosty, one of our does, gave birth Sunday morning to a little buck named Billy Jack. We were unaware that she was pregnant - and so it was definitely a surprise! We weren't expecting the baby goats for another 6 weeks.

Here are a few pictures. I waited until this afternoon to take pictures with my camera, so the sunset and shadows are a little distracting. I'll try to post better ones next week.

Hope For Haiti

2010-01-26T11:29:00.001-06:00

News from Ferrier, Haiti

2010-01-25T17:38:00.003-06:00

Phone contact with Haiti is slowly improving. I was able to talk at length with my World Hunger Relief - Haiti counterpart, Jackson Nelson today. He is working to ready their well-drilling rig to travel to the Port-au-Prince area to help develop water supplies where needed. Our strategy is now to help them accomplish this.

In addition to the challenges of traveling and drilling wells, smaller organizations like WHR-Haiti lack the connections to coordinate their efforts with the larger relief effort in the earthquake-affected zone. Jackson asked me to use our communication channels to put them in contact with the organizations who need their help. Pray with us that these connections can be made.

Meanwhile, the WHR-Haiti staff are busy preparing for the trip. Jackson reports that they need new drill bits, cable and bearings from the Dominican Republic before they can head south. We're sending funds to help with these purchases. Once appropriate locations have been identified for them to serve, we will continue to support WHR-H in this endeavor.

A second pressing need stems from earthquake victims who are resettling in other areas of Haiti. The Mayor of Ferrier organized transportation to bring back Port-au-Prince relatives of Ferrier residents. Several orphanages have relocated children in Cap Haitien (near Ferrier) and need help with transportation and supplies. We will support WHR-Haiti in responding to these needs as well.

Thanks again for praying for our tireless counterparts in Haiti and for contributing financially in these efforts.

World Hunger Relief – Haiti technicians help villagers repair
a well.

The well-drilling rig will needs supplies and parts before it’s
ready for the eight-hour trip.

Spring Gardening Workshops

2010-01-22T15:14:00.004-06:00

Spring Gardening Workshop: Vegetable Gardening Naturally

Location:
World Hunger Relief, Inc.
356 Spring Lake Rd.
Waco, TX

Date: Saturday, February 13, 2010
Time: 8:00am - 12:00pm
Download the flyer
Facebook event page

Beyond the Backyard

2010-01-22T14:46:00.002-06:00

The first in our community garden training series is coming up Saturday January 30, 2010 from 9am-12pm at Lakeshore Baptist Church. Workshop Topics: Garden Basics (planting schedule, site selection, garden design). Mission and Purpose (why plant a garden?!).

Here's a link to our Facebook event page. And here's a the lowdon from the HOT Urban Gardening Coalition website:

In order to meet the demand for gardens in Waco, UGC will host a garden training series designed for those interested in expanding beyond the backyard garden and in building community through growing, harvesting and sharing garden goodness. This training will involve various UGC partners to facilitate discussion and instruction on growing, budgeting, outreach, and beyond.

Goal: To train garden leaders involved in organizations, churches, schools to start gardens in the community.

Time period: Series of 6 workshops – spread out over 6 months – one Saturday of each month. The 2010 Training Timeline starts in January and runs through June. Such spacing allows UGC to provide on-going support and garden assistance, as well as avoiding learning burnout.

Workshop Structure: 9:00am – 12:00pm. Each workshop includes an in-class component and hands-on activity, followed by an opportunity to troubleshoot and dig deeper with fellow gardeners. This is your chance to ask questions and work in the garden to try out your new garden skills.

Planting Urban Gardens Unites Community Members

2010-01-20T15:27:00.001-06:00

In 2008,the Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition began their projects in Waco, recruiting and uniting community members to create gardens around town. This is year three, and today the coalition is planting vegetables at 9 locations in Waco, and taking time to reflect on Martin Luther King's message of community and brotherhood.

Bethel Erickson heads up the project. Shes the Americorps Vista for the Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition.

The planting that occurs today at Carver Baptist Church will be maintained by church members and community members. In June it's time for harvest, and the hope is everyone will reconvene to celebrate their hard work. Bethel said she likes how people are working together to create this garden.

Listen to full audio at kwbu.org

Baptist students gain a taste of global poverty

2010-01-20T14:13:00.003-06:00

Spartan living accommodations—a 10-foot by 10-foot room without electricity or running water with only a little heat from a wood-burning stove—didn’t deter the student workers.

Seven college students from Baptist Student Ministries around Texas rose early each morning to work hard in community gardens and learn about global hunger issues as they spent a week at the World Hunger Farm, near Waco.

The group was one of several Go Now Missions student teams who served in Texas, Nicaragua, the Middle East, East Asia, Eastern Europe and North Africa during Christ-mas break to share the love of Jesus and to expand their worldviews.

The World Hunger Farm trip was designed for students to experience what it is like to live in poverty conditions, while learning the responsibility Christians have to help the poor and hungry.

Read the entire article at the Baptist Standard.

Watch a video made by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Love and Solidarity in Haiti

2010-01-19T14:01:00.000-06:00

This morning I had a long phone conversation with Pastor Zenas Pierre, who is working with World Hunger Relief, Haiti to develop a response to the earthquake. The Mayor in Ferrier is organizing a bus to travel to Port-au-Prince to pick up Ferrier relatives who have been left homeless by the earthquake. There were several incidents on the roads leading to Port-au-Prince, but with added security, passage has been safe for the past few days. Security is still a problem in some areas of the Capital, but they are hopeful that with the arrival of a larger contingent of U.S. Marines this will improve as well.

More information from Daryl Yoder-Bontrager, Mennonite Central Committee area director for Latin America and the Caribbean:
“MCC workers have complained over and over about the images shown on the news shows – dramatic scenes where people get angry and fight for scarce resources. MCCers say that these things are happening, but it's such a small part of the story. The real story, the one that always seems so much harder for television cameras to capture, is the selfless sharing of so many thousands of people, helping each other to survive. This is so much more prevalent than the violence. Still security is a constant concern, especially as food, water and fuel remain scarce and people get more desperate. Thanks for your support and prayers.”

MCC staff person Ben Depp of Waxhaw, N.C., said this on the blog he posts with spouse and MCC staff person Alexis Depp:
“The violence has been isolated and if you have a big distribution that is not done right it's going to go badly, so far that's been blown out of proportion by the media. There is a lot of solidarity among everyone here that is not been captured by the news. Most of the rescues that have happened have been by Haitians pulling their neighbors out of the rubble, the outside emergency is helping in factories and big places that had a lot of people.”

Alexis Depp added:
“…we all need to make sure that we're not criminalizing or demonizing the victims of this tragedy. People will do what it takes to be able to feed their families and when they're truly desperate, those actions might become violent. However, that doesn't make them any less human or any less deserving of our sympathy and aid. Ben is right that we've seen an astounding amount of love and solidarity in the aftermath of the earthquake.”

Update on the News from Haiti

2010-01-18T17:03:00.001-06:00

The past few days feel like we've been operating in excruciatingly slow motion. We have managed to communicate sporadically with World Hunger Relief, Haiti staff and they are eager to pitch in and help wherever they can, but making that happen in a way that contributes to the larger effort in Port-au-Prince without putting WHR-Haiti personnel at significant risk is a serious challenge. With the national offices of Fonkoze destroyed (the credit union we normally use to transfer funds) we have been trying alternative routes in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Yesterday we succeeded in transferring funds to Dajabon, D.R., opening the possibility of purchasing Dominican goods for transport to the earthquake site.

On the other end of the equation, we are communicating with MCC personnel to find out first what goods are most needed, and second, whether it is possible to deliver them safely to a location where they are needed. Reports of hijacking are not rampant, but they're common enough that we want to move cautiously and not put our well-meaning Haitian brothers and sisters in danger.

Meanwhile, those amidst the devastation continue to work tirelessly. As of late last week, many neighborhoods were still digging on their own with picks and shovels, including MCC volunteers Ben and Alexis Depp: http://mcc.org/stories/podcasts/world-shaken

A Haitian physician friend e-mailed this morning:

"I live five minutes from a 75 bed hospital, an I just spent the last five day working there...It is difficult to work because many people in the decision process of the organization are either dead, or hurt, or have no home.
At the hospital we had about 1000 people calling for help with terrible wound. The second in the (hospital) administration is dead with her family. The administrator with a nephew is under rumble and one of the orthopedic surgeons was dragged out of his house 30 hours later. Phones were not working. We worked day and night to help

Now that we had help that come we are assessing, but the help some time is a problem because there is no place to house them since we already have friends over, there is no market open and no gas delivery. More and more the us army is taking control. From there you may decide in what area you can help."

Join us in praying that tireless workers like this will receive some respite.

this is what happens when they let two people who don't watch tv perform a news interview.

2010-01-18T17:02:00.002-06:00

5:45am interview. in honor of the MLK Day of Service, sponsored by the Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition. featured on KWTX’s Morning Buzz. featuring PNG’s own Melody Kakunim (former World Hunger Relief CSA intern) and some random girl in overalls and braids. full of painfully awkward, deer-caught-in-the-headlight moments. enjoy.

the Buzz – part 1.

the Buzz – part 2.

the Buzz – the story.

(sorry Dr. King . . .)

Response to the Haiti Earthquake Disaster

2010-01-15T09:34:00.009-06:00

We are thankful for the many prayers and offers of support following the Jan. 13 earthquake in Port-au-Prince. Jackson Nelson, and our World Hunger Relief – Haiti counterparts in Ferrier are shook up, but far enough away from the epicenter that they have not been greatly affected. Pastor Zenas Pierre wrote today, “We are OK in Ferrier but worry a lot about our family and friends in Port-au-Prince. We are very sad also about the people there... Pray , pray , pray please!” Virtually everyone has family and friends in the capital whom they have not heard from.

Although it is difficult to respond from a distance, we are working to enable WHR-Haiti to respond to their compatriots by transporting medical supplies from northern Haiti to the affected area around Port-au-Prince. WHRI Executive Director, Neil Rowe Miller, will travel to Haiti in early February, but in the short run we feel it is most appropriate, and more cost effective, to focus on empowering our Haitian brothers and sisters to respond quickly to the needs in their own country. If you would like to help in this effort, earmark your support for Haiti Earthquake Response.

Rebuilding Port-au-Prince will take an enormous effort by many parties. Other organizations whose efforts we endorse include:

Mennonite Central Committee (www.mcc.org) with over 50 years in Haiti will be providing relief through multiple Haitian partners. 100% of your donation goes directly to efforts in Haiti.

Habitat for Humanity (www.habitat.org) with 27 years in Haiti will be providing temporary shelter for those left homeless.

International Committee of the Red Cross (www.ICRC.org) providing emergency assistance and reconnecting families who have been separated by the disaster.

This crisis is a huge setback for a country where, in recent years, progress seemed to be emerging from a history of political and ecological crisis. The present disaster will not just demand resources to rebuild the Capital, but also will draw resources that could otherwise have been used for long-term development in the countryside. We will continue to partner with World Hunger Relief - Haiti, as we have for 30 years, working toward long-term development, especially in agriculture, and we thank you for your continued participation with us in those efforts.

If events proceed like most major disasters, six months from now the charity will wane, but the need for reconstruction will remain. In Gonaives, 110 km north of the capital, residents continue to rebuild a year and a half after the last major hurricane in Haiti. Join us in praying for the deliverance of those trapped under collapsed buildings, but also that today’s outpouring of compassion will extend to the needs of those digging out from the hopelessness of long-term, systemic poverty in Haiti.

Earthquake in Haiti

2010-01-13T14:42:00.000-06:00

My mind, heart, and prayers are on Haiti today. All day, while tending chickens, fixing their coops, and thinning carrots, I couldn't stop thinking about the tragedy Haiti is now going through. I don't understand it, but I pray to God that His spirit and mercy might be upon all of them. I hope all at World Hunger Relief Haiti are okay and if so, that they might be able to help those in need.

MLK Day of Service

2009-12-16T14:43:00.005-06:00

MLK Day of Service 2010

A Project of the Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition

The Martin Luther King Day of Service 2010 will promote Dr. King’s vision of building broad and diverse coalitions, breaking down barriers, and making our community the best it can be. Last year, the Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition (HOT UGC) had great success in recruiting almost 1000 volunteers that served at 12 different sites throughout the city of Waco. This year the Coalition has decided to work more closely with a smaller number of sites and increase the amount of educational activities provided at each site. On January 18, 2010, the HOT UGC will coordinate gardening projects at nine different sites throughout Waco as a part of the Day of Service.

HOT UGC was formed five years ago to encourage: sustainable community development, cooperation between organizations and community members, and production and consumption of healthy vegetables – all through gardening in the city of Waco. The MLK Day of Service is a day when volunteers are mobilized to support these goals. Gardening activities will include preparing and planting vegetable beds, cleaning up and beautifying surrounding areas, and other projects specific to the gardening site. Each garden will be provided seed potatoes, greens transplants, onion sets, flower transplants, tools, gloves, trash bags, and other supplies needed for gardening.

In addition to gardening activities, an educational fair with booths from community organizations, providing opportunities for participants to learn more about healthy cooking, gardening, composting, and food budgeting. The hope is to have some healthy cooking demonstrations to provide volunteers a taste of the bounty that is to come from the garden. A healthy lunch using fresh vegetables will be prepared and served by Baylor University Campus Kitchens for participants at each gardening site.

The HOT UGC is excited about your participation in serving our community. As Dr. King said, “Everyone can be great because everyone can serve.”

For more information, please contact: Bethel Erickson – Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition

vista@worldhungerrelief.org or 254-799-5611

The Solution To All Your Pecan Problems

2009-11-21T10:22:00.020-06:00

Alright, folks. You know what time it is. That's right, I'm talking 'bout Fall. Autumn. Thanksgiving. And along with this season comes weather change, naked trees, eating Turkey, increased fireplace activity, and so on. This post is concerning the "and so on". Today, I am bringing you a knowledge nugget so rich you'll need to dilute it with water or at least bite it off in small chunks at a time. We're talking about how you can get pecans off the tree and into your mouth. Anyone can do it and everyone should. In case you don't know how to do this, I'm going to tell you...coming straight at you in two dimensions! So sit back in your swivel office chair, keep your finger on the scroll button, and turn up or down your internet radio to an appropriate level.

Ok. First thing you need to do is find a native pecan grove or plant an orchard. After you plant, wait 15-20 years until the trees are old enough to start producing. You'll have a lot of free time in between, so you might want to find a way to pass the time...like a part-time job or build a canoe or something. Next, you'll need to go out on a crisp fall day when it's dry and a little windy. Take a hearty work crew with you that is excited about life and can't wait to strain their bodies for cheap/free.

It wouldn't hurt to do some pecan yoga beforehand. This is good for even the limberest of the limber. It doesn't do much for the body. It's mostly a good way to procrastinate from having to get to work.

Spread out your vinyl tarps around the base of the tree. Make sure you get the real thick kind that are heavy and awkward to carry. Watch out for fire ant hills, armadillo holes, and irrigation pipes.

So you've got your tree, you've got your tarps in place, now you're ready to shake.

So go ahead and jump on the tractor and...oh wait. You're tractor is missing a bolt, the hydrolics aren't working, or just won't start for some reason. You better figure out how to fix this.

Ok, you've jimmy-rigged some solution to the tractor, now you're ready to shake! Back up the tractor with the shaker implement up to the tree.

You've locked on with the jaws of the shaker...now rev up the RPM's, engage the PTO, and let 'er rip!

Whew! what a shake! The wind will hopefully have blown most of the leaves off into the wild blue yonder and your precious pecans should have fallen into the open arms of your tarp....along with hordes of sticks and twigs and caterpillars. Now, pull the tarps to the next tree in the row and repeat the process.

The tarps will get progressively heavier as you go. This is OK. This means you're bringing home the bacon. It might ruin your knees and back, but just think of all those pecans you'll be swimming in later!

After the load gets too heavy, and the crew is starting to lose moral, call for a "tarp dump". This is a technical term in the pecan production industry which means you take the tarps and dump the contents in the back of the trailer. (Take note, this by far the worst part of the job. If you can get past this, consider yourself a trooper, and don't feel guilty about the next slice of greasy pizza you eat.) After the tarp dump, stand back and say to yourself, "oh yeah".

Now, some of you might be thinking: "Cool. I've got pecans out of the tree. Let's eat!" Hold your horses, just one minute. You've only done half the job! You've got pecans, but you've also got leaves and sticks and twigs and caterpillars. If you want to eat those, then go ahead and call it a day. But if your stomach can't handle all that stuff, read on. Take your load up to the barn and unload it on a tarp and start shoveling it into the sorting machine.

Have one person pull the big sticks and twigs out of the hopper so they don't clog up the machine because this makes you really frustrated when this happens.

As the trash gets blown away, the good pecans will pass through and fall onto the conveyor belt. Now you feel like Lucille Ball as you sort the good and bad pecans. Throw out all the bad ones and let the good ones fall into the bucket at the end of the belt. Don't put any in your mouth because the shell tastes gross.
When you've sorted through the whole load, check out all those glorious pecans! Whoa mamma!

Now take the pecans that you've sorted out that still have the green husks on them and stomp on them. It helps if you have some sort of traditional folk music that sounds like a march...or maybe some salsa music...or maybe swing. I don't know. I've never actually done it to music, but it seems like it would be a good idea while you stomp and twist the husk off of the pecans.

Once the green ones have been sufficiently stomped, sort through them again, and then bag 'em up!
Now take your thousands of pounds to a sheller, wait a week, pick them up, and enjoy! It's really that simple! However, if some of you out there are just too busy to spend 8 hours a day for 2-3 months harvesting pecans, I do have a much simpler solution for you. I have actually already done all of this and have plenty of pecans ready and waiting for human consumption! All you have to do is call up World Hunger Relief, and we'll gladly share our bounty with you for a great price! Our pecans are Organic, taste better than anything you'll find at the store, and are usually a little cheaper. I know it's hard to believe. Check out our website (worldhungerrelief.org) and click on "Organic Pecans" on the right side for all the information you'll need to get your hands on these taste-tastic treats.

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