About two weeks ago a reporter, Jessica Sidman, from the Dallas Morning News came to the farm for two days to write a story about young adults who move to organic farms from cities. She went to school in Philadelphia, and many of her friends from college graduated and moved to organic farms around the area temporarily. The idea piqued her interest, so when she moved to Dallas a couple of months ago, she looked around for organic farms in Texas that take volunteers.
World Hunger Relief surpassed her story criteria.
Yesterday, the story made the front page of the DMN, and the website also featured the story along with video and photographs.
Check out the link and view your favorite farm and the current farmers.
New volunteer Chris Becker, a chef from New York, was the highlight, and we are proud to portray such a wide variety of backgrounds and ever-changing interests.
Click here to go to the article.
World Hunger Relief, Inc.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
The Weekenders
Saturday morning at the farm (I am hesitant to capitalize for copyright reasons-check The Farm) was ushered in with a bang on this 5th of July. A fellow-volunteer and I, the newest newbies coincidentally, are in charge of farm chores this weekend while interns are working, Lotos are eating, and volunteers are 4th traveling.
We awake at 6:15, grab some cold water, and head up to the dairy. Three hours later we finally are able to leave the hard-headed goats and their glassy-eyed ways. This is not typical of course. We are new, we are young, we are paraprofessional goat herders chasing 15 goats around lush pasture and plump garden space. Saving-face explanation: the pastures are divided by electrical fencing, and the new pasture's wiring has mysteriously become impotent. After D and I move into the kid barn for some mom milking, we look up to see dairy G running into the kid barn, a good 300 yards from her current pasture (with impotent wiring). G was just the leader; every dairy goat followed swiftly. The barn is swarming with Lotos volunteers already, most of whom are thinking this is a cute phenomenon to see goats rushing the feed bucket from all directions. They (goat not Lotos) escape a few times, D and I make chase a few times, the morning hours grow long.
Point of story? Sometimes goats are friends, sometimes goats are anti-friends (not quite enemies still), and sometimes a volunteer works for five hours without a breakfast (on three hours of sleep nonetheless-but thats a story for another blog).
INSPIRATIONAL INSERT
And for those of you who enjoy introspective, meaningful thought as opposed to stories about friends'/strangers' daily happenings...
M is a community service volunteer from the local community who has been coming out to the farm every day to work from nine until three. He is fifteen, going on sixteen, a high school powerlifter and football player, and talkative. For some incident at school or a practiced he was issued somewhere between seventy and one-hundred hours of community service at WHR, or the farm with a lower-case.
On Friday L, A, M, and myself were seeding fall squash and pumpkins for a couple of hours. We made jokes about his future in farming, to which he guffawed and said, "But hey.....ya know...it's cool this, like, stuff we're doing, I wouldn't say it's me or anything, but I'll probably come out'n visit you guys sometime....yeah, I like it."
While M and I were watering some tomato cuttings from the day before, he struck up the conversation about what he first noticed, and what has continually surprised him, at the farm.
paraphrase: M was strongly taken aback to see nobody arguing. Since he has been coming for about two weeks, anytime somebody has a request or a question, the responder drops what they are working on the give a hand or give full answers without frustration. The 'without frustration' is what caught M's eye. He has not seen any disagreements that he can classify because nobody is arguing. I noted that we do not all see eye to eye on issues or ideas here at the farm, but M made the point that he has never seen a large group of people or even a small group who live together resolve things without anger or frustration. We briefly talked about selfish love/ selfless love; M said it was good to see that people could get along somewhere because he has never seen it last.
end of paraphrase: I (also an M, but remaining the I for the post to relieve confusion) could not help but sit in awe that an outsider to the farm, a high school outsider at that, is noticing and leaving with the impression that we at the farm are different in our relations with people. For almost two weeks on and off we have been glossing over the idea of Christian love in devotions; and by no means are we all selfless, but I was encouraged that perhaps God's spirit of Love is within us individually and communally to enable us to be a community in the first place.
Cheers,
M with a y
We awake at 6:15, grab some cold water, and head up to the dairy. Three hours later we finally are able to leave the hard-headed goats and their glassy-eyed ways. This is not typical of course. We are new, we are young, we are paraprofessional goat herders chasing 15 goats around lush pasture and plump garden space. Saving-face explanation: the pastures are divided by electrical fencing, and the new pasture's wiring has mysteriously become impotent. After D and I move into the kid barn for some mom milking, we look up to see dairy G running into the kid barn, a good 300 yards from her current pasture (with impotent wiring). G was just the leader; every dairy goat followed swiftly. The barn is swarming with Lotos volunteers already, most of whom are thinking this is a cute phenomenon to see goats rushing the feed bucket from all directions. They (goat not Lotos) escape a few times, D and I make chase a few times, the morning hours grow long.
Point of story? Sometimes goats are friends, sometimes goats are anti-friends (not quite enemies still), and sometimes a volunteer works for five hours without a breakfast (on three hours of sleep nonetheless-but thats a story for another blog).
INSPIRATIONAL INSERT
And for those of you who enjoy introspective, meaningful thought as opposed to stories about friends'/strangers' daily happenings...
M is a community service volunteer from the local community who has been coming out to the farm every day to work from nine until three. He is fifteen, going on sixteen, a high school powerlifter and football player, and talkative. For some incident at school or a practiced he was issued somewhere between seventy and one-hundred hours of community service at WHR, or the farm with a lower-case.
On Friday L, A, M, and myself were seeding fall squash and pumpkins for a couple of hours. We made jokes about his future in farming, to which he guffawed and said, "But hey.....ya know...it's cool this, like, stuff we're doing, I wouldn't say it's me or anything, but I'll probably come out'n visit you guys sometime....yeah, I like it."
While M and I were watering some tomato cuttings from the day before, he struck up the conversation about what he first noticed, and what has continually surprised him, at the farm.
paraphrase: M was strongly taken aback to see nobody arguing. Since he has been coming for about two weeks, anytime somebody has a request or a question, the responder drops what they are working on the give a hand or give full answers without frustration. The 'without frustration' is what caught M's eye. He has not seen any disagreements that he can classify because nobody is arguing. I noted that we do not all see eye to eye on issues or ideas here at the farm, but M made the point that he has never seen a large group of people or even a small group who live together resolve things without anger or frustration. We briefly talked about selfish love/ selfless love; M said it was good to see that people could get along somewhere because he has never seen it last.
end of paraphrase: I (also an M, but remaining the I for the post to relieve confusion) could not help but sit in awe that an outsider to the farm, a high school outsider at that, is noticing and leaving with the impression that we at the farm are different in our relations with people. For almost two weeks on and off we have been glossing over the idea of Christian love in devotions; and by no means are we all selfless, but I was encouraged that perhaps God's spirit of Love is within us individually and communally to enable us to be a community in the first place.
Cheers,
M with a y
Thursday, June 19, 2008
this farm's got charm
hi! my name is scott....well ive been on this farm for about 4 weeks and what an amazing experience it is. the farm on its own has nothing to do with its awesomeness but rather the people and their ability to create an environment that is "the farm. " from the moment i walked off of the plane i knew i would be having an amazing experience. if i were to paint a picture of my time on the farm id probably run out of colors, or maybe i couldn't color in the lines , or maybe the paper wouldn't be big enough...either way its hard to sum up everything that makes this place special...sometime a few weeks ago a bunch of us went to this lake/pond area a few blocks a way. samson, whos an intern here from ghana came with us but he hadn't been in water for over 20 years. i watched him bravely climb to the edge of the dock and without a second thought he jumped right in. the next 30 seconds were prety hilarious and then scary as he kicked and flung his arms everywhere...chris was quick enough to come to his rescue and he was floating around like a champion minutes later. he had just asumed he would be able to touch the bottom, which caught him off guard pretty fast. i feel like ive laughed at this event multiple times since its joyous moment...some other sweet times include the week of indiana jones, smoothie night, the hat game, and the on going addition of a facial forest that is apparently a unofficial requirement for every man on the farm...
OH i almost forgot...the farm also has something called "trace minerals" it looks like salt, but its not. its "trace minerals" minerals of what? i don't know. but the rumor that ive been told is they come from a secert mine in utah...i tried to google trace minerals and all i came up with was this ...go figure...if you discover what these minerals are, please let me know...
from our smiles to yours...
all things grow with love,
scott
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Local Boy Makes Good
For those of you who may have missed it or live outside the Waco area, our very own David Cole, farm manager here at WHRI, made it on to the cover of the Waco-Trib today with an article highlighting the recent conversion of his diesel pickup to run on vegetable oil.
While we are very proud of David, the best dang farm manager around, we were a little surprised to see that the article made no mention of the real reason that he first became interested in using vegetable oil as an alternative fuel source - his frightening addiction to chicken fingers. Seriously. He needs help.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
YOU ARE WHO YOU ARE BECAUSE THERE IS A REASON
Have you ever asked yourself the question why am I who I am? Have you ever pondered over why you are not a citizen of any other country than your native country or even why you are from a particular location of your country of origin? One more thing you might not have ever considered is why you have met certain people in your life.
Whatever it is I just want to remind whoever has the opportunity to read this short article to rethink critical at the above questions and several other unasked questions about who we are in life and what is expected of us in our walk on this planet.
Certainly there is a reason why you came to this planet through certain particular parents and a location different from other people. Again there is certainly a reason why certain resources are made available to you in life. How conscious are you with regards to the resources around you considering countless number of people who might not be privilege to have such an opportunity. “To who much is given much is required”
This is my first time of blogging on the internet so I do not want to write much but you will certainly have the opportunity to read very interesting and thought provoking articles from me by the grace of God.
Before I sign off I believe that I will do you a lot of good if I give you a clue as to how you can get answers to the questions raised above. Jeremiah 1:5 (you may read the verse 5 to the end of chapter 1) gives us a good guidance by showing us where we actually come from and from where we can have the maps of our lives for our walk on this earth.
Just ask the Lord who fashioned you and has in hands every step you need to take and every relationship you need to make on this earth to fulfill why He made you. I assure you that He will be ever willing to answer and direct you.
You might not be convinced about what I am taking about if you are very conservative in life but I am not forcing you to go along with what I am convicted of but all that I trying to do is to remind you that life will be very frustrating to you if you make any attempt to reject why He made you and be struggling to fulfill some other person or persons reason for being.
Thanks for your patience and for making time to read this. I will catch you some other time.
Stay Blessed
Samson Abukari
Sunday, May 18, 2008
beauty
Hello again from Nicholas. I have heard that it is customary to "blog" on the weekends that you have "farm duty." And so, this weekend I drew the straw for weekend duty. Furthermore, because I am finding myself with a bit of free time, I thought I would share another meditation that may get lost in the shuffle:
The beauty on the WHRI farm is incredible. But, for me, the appreciation has been growing. When I first came here, I noticed un-mowed grass, clumps of weeds, a messy barn, and many other things that to the 21st century eye (addicted to plastic, artificial things) might seem a bit unkempt and "messy." But, it is in these things that I am finding more and more beauty. The farm acts as a boundary between nature and man, and everywhere the two meet, beauty flourishes...in the rusted farm equipment, in the compost piles, in the community kitchen and its myriad of nooks and crannies, in the garden and its furrows and beds, in the blooms, the farmcats, and the farm family(ie)s. Wherever labor is sown, order is grown from chaos, and creativity brings forth beauty.
I am just amazed and so grateful to be on this lovely farm. It has started to refine my "type A" personality and humble me in ways I didn't know needed it. Thank you God, and thank you farm for being so beyond my "control" that it is laughable.
The beauty on the WHRI farm is incredible. But, for me, the appreciation has been growing. When I first came here, I noticed un-mowed grass, clumps of weeds, a messy barn, and many other things that to the 21st century eye (addicted to plastic, artificial things) might seem a bit unkempt and "messy." But, it is in these things that I am finding more and more beauty. The farm acts as a boundary between nature and man, and everywhere the two meet, beauty flourishes...in the rusted farm equipment, in the compost piles, in the community kitchen and its myriad of nooks and crannies, in the garden and its furrows and beds, in the blooms, the farmcats, and the farm family(ie)s. Wherever labor is sown, order is grown from chaos, and creativity brings forth beauty.
I am just amazed and so grateful to be on this lovely farm. It has started to refine my "type A" personality and humble me in ways I didn't know needed it. Thank you God, and thank you farm for being so beyond my "control" that it is laughable.
the "pen-ultimate"
Hello all from one of the newest farm members!!! My name is Nicholas Waters, Idaho native, and grass fed; I come to Texas with my amazing wife Molly Scott Waters and am so excited to be on the farm...I am learning so much with each passing day. The ins-and-outs of bee-keeping details: queens, bee-space, drones, workers, broods, capped-honey, swarming; how to prune and side dress tomato vines; goat milking, and the differences between a larva and nymph, as they relate to complete and incomplete insect metamorphoses.
However, amidst all the newness (of schedule, surroundings, knowledge, responsibilities, friends, community, and cockroaches) there has been one meditation in my heart that has remained constant, and seems to be growing in my heart: that of the "penultimate." The penultimate refers to "that which comes right before the last." i.e. "the penultimate chapter of the book." So, in my estimation, it is a thing which is probably quite important (in that it is leading up to the ultimate, or conclusion), but it, in and of itself, is not the end.
And so, being on the farm and not only thinking about the importance of sustainable agriculture, organics, local-food production, but believing in it and being a part of it, I am even more resolved that these things are not the ultimate...they are "penultimate"...in a certain sense. Are we living, dying, and putting our ultimate hopes in these things? Do we entrust our very souls and spirits to them? May it never be so.
"For since the creation of the world His invisible attribute are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful , but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man...[they] exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen" -Romans 1:20-25
The ultimate is God, and our "worship" should be directed to Him alone (an object or being of worship is that which we profess to be of ultimate worth...and as God is of ultimate worth, He is the only thing of worth, for everything else of worth: goodness, truth, love, and purity, flow from Him) . So, Jesus may you direct our hearts, our minds, our lives toward things that bring you glory. May you lead our minds and efforts towards things that you are blessing. May Jesus have the glory, honor, fame, and praise that is due His name!!!
In Christ,
Nicholas
However, amidst all the newness (of schedule, surroundings, knowledge, responsibilities, friends, community, and cockroaches) there has been one meditation in my heart that has remained constant, and seems to be growing in my heart: that of the "penultimate." The penultimate refers to "that which comes right before the last." i.e. "the penultimate chapter of the book." So, in my estimation, it is a thing which is probably quite important (in that it is leading up to the ultimate, or conclusion), but it, in and of itself, is not the end.
And so, being on the farm and not only thinking about the importance of sustainable agriculture, organics, local-food production, but believing in it and being a part of it, I am even more resolved that these things are not the ultimate...they are "penultimate"...in a certain sense. Are we living, dying, and putting our ultimate hopes in these things? Do we entrust our very souls and spirits to them? May it never be so.
"For since the creation of the world His invisible attribute are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful , but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man...[they] exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen" -Romans 1:20-25
The ultimate is God, and our "worship" should be directed to Him alone (an object or being of worship is that which we profess to be of ultimate worth...and as God is of ultimate worth, He is the only thing of worth, for everything else of worth: goodness, truth, love, and purity, flow from Him) . So, Jesus may you direct our hearts, our minds, our lives toward things that bring you glory. May you lead our minds and efforts towards things that you are blessing. May Jesus have the glory, honor, fame, and praise that is due His name!!!
In Christ,
Nicholas
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