Today marks just over two weeks that I’ve been getting to
know the needs of the Philadelphia community a bit more by learning and
teaching about farming. Not just any farming—urban farming. Learning from those
growing green things that bring fruit and vege to our tables where more
[un]naturally, rubbish and skyscrapers pile up. It is a great team to be part
of, Weavers Way Community Programs.
WWCP aims for nutritional education and urban agricultural
understanding for kids and their grown-ups in certain areas of Philly. And I
get to help in that work this summer, maybe longer. My heart is pretty full!
Some of the things I have started learning so far:
1.
how to transplant watermelon and cantaloupe
seedlings
 |
| Look! "there are seeds here and they are trying"** |
2.
how to keep a database running to keep a network
connecting people who give money to people who grow things and minds with it
3.
the importance of assessing and brainstorming
and communicating well in a nonprofit
4. how tough beets are to grow through weeds 5. how to make organic fertilizers & pesticide
(like the top half, here; the bottom I weeded)
(like the top half, here; the bottom I weeded)
 |
| One ingredient. |
6. seasonality and its beauty
7.
the colors of Swiss chard (or, as Kiwis say,
Silverbeet) as it grows
8.
the difference of Philly soil from Wheaton soil
from Kaikoura soil
9.
how social or antisocial farming can be; it just depends what you do it for
10. the
joy of receiving a share of vegetables weekly, knowing that I may have weeded
for them and watered them
11. what
good thinking and praying can happen when I garden
12. more
about the garden/farm/sower/seed/fruiting imagery in the Bible
13. how
silly it would be to call any space growing a food-bearing plant insignificant
14. how
hard it is to miss a group like my Creation Care Study Program whanau*
while I garden as we did in NZ
 |
| Joanna's work at the Old Convent - Kaikoura, NZ |
15. that
proximate justice—that is, getting things to be as wholesome and as right and
as peaceful as we are able—is not a cop
out, it might actually be God's grace to us
16. that
God was very wise, of course, to show us how we could live out his image by gardening.
Some of these lessons have photographs to accompany them,
and some just want to meet your imagination. Do you know how to sucker
tomatoes? Look it up, or ask your grandparents, or ask me the next time you see
me. I’d love to teach you. Do you know the alternatives to conventional
production-farm pesticides and genetic modifications? I know a few and I bet
I’ll learn lots more soon. Read up. Do you know where your recycling goes? I’m
trying to find out. Do you know where the nearest Community Supported
Agriculture farm is to you? or how much a share costs? or what a CSA is? That is worth googling. Seriously. Good
for the farmers, good for the food, good for the families.
My hope this summer is to retain 7 lessons from each day of
the internship and share them, along with some photos and anecdotes and other
blogs interspersed. Will you journey with me? It’s going to be dirty, clean, tasty, bitter, sweaty, refreshing, overwhelming, beautiful, stressful, relaxing, glorious, and boring all
at once.
There's room for all of us to learn and love to grow things.
There is room at the table.
There will always be room at the table when we make the room for each other.
There is room at the table.
There will always be room at the table when we make the room for each other.
shalom
* whanau: this
word [fah.noe] is te reo Maori for “family”
** quote from the children's book and then it's spring, a gift to the reading world from Julie Fogliano and Erin E. Stead.
** quote from the children's book and then it's spring, a gift to the reading world from Julie Fogliano and Erin E. Stead.
nota bene: look to this link for more
info about WWCP and what we’re up to.
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