Monday afternoon as Paul and I were cooling off in the air conditioning, we were feeling overwhelmed. With all the rain and the hot sunshine we’ve been getting, the weeds were growing faster than the two of us could possibly keep up with. Between the weeds and the bugs we were worried that we would loose a lot of plants.
Then, ten minutes later the phone rang. It was one of the guys from the job (we work construction) At first we thought he was calling because he needed food but then he said, “No, I want to come to your farm and Help you.” He said that he would be out on Saturday.
Then we were at a friend’s house picking up some food that was being given to us for the church grocery group that was coming to pick up veggies and eggs on Wednesday for their food drive. She had seen me ask Baker Creek Seeds about squash bugs on Facebook and she had made up an organic spray for me to try. (It’s working pretty awesome on the test plants BTW) She had also seen that we needed bags to put veggies in and had a few bags of bags waiting for us.
The man upstairs answer prayers and worries so fast sometimes.
Wednesday one of my High School teachers came by. Her Church Grocery Club collects food the third Wednesday of every month and gives food to people in need. She drove from about an hour away and we were able to give her 7 dozen eggs (split into half dozen cartons so more people could have eggs), 40 bags of fresh cut kale and a whole bunch of fresh yellow squash and zucchini. She messaged me later on Facebook saying: “Everyone loved their fresh vegetables! And the eggs were a big hit! We’ve never given eggs before.”
Paul and I were so happy that what we have to give makes people happy!
On Friday afternoon, we made our first purchase using some of the donated money from people who believe in our dream. At the Seaford, Delaware, Lowes they had some small tillers out front, used and marked down. We talked to a manager about the price and he literally gave us half off!
We have a larger, walk behind tiller on the farm that we use between the rows, but getting between the plants has always been done by hand. With the new little tiller we can get between tight rows and even around plants. It’s awesome and it’s a back and time saver, instead of hand weeding one row a day, we can do many rows and keep up with the weeds much more efficiently.
On Saturday morning help arrived. The guy from the job had brought his cousin and his son and they worked in the garden with us from 7:30 to 11:00. We worked together weeding out all the watermelon and half of the cantaloupes. It’s amazing how much can be done with help, the four of us worked the row and his son took all the weeds to the chickens (so they could have some fresh greens and eat all the bugs LOL)
When they were leaving they didn’t want anything, but we insisted that they take some food home with them for their party on Sunday celebrating the baptism of his youngest son and Fathers Day.
I can’t wait for the day to come when we can grow the whole farm in fresh food and feed so many more people. Thank you to those that have believed in our calling, let no man go hungry, feeding everyone, One Row at a Time!
–Trina
