July Newsletter

Berea Gardens Agriculture Ministries

July Newsletter The mid-summer heat and humidity is upon us and it is apparent that the tomatoes, melons, beans and the dozens of other crops we have growing enjoy it more than we do.  The plants are flourishing and we have been busy keeping up with the harvest for our Farmer's Markets.  In June a second market opened in our county seat, Grantsville, so we are now participating in two markets, Wednesdays and Fridays. Lynnita and Jodyn have recently recieved certification to market baked goods and have had wonderful success selling Lynnita's amazing  eleven-grain/seed loaves to very appreciative customers.  Her specialty muffins made from our squash, pumpkins and sweet potatoes are also well received. Our tomatoes are just beginning to ripen and I want to share some information about a wonderful variety that I haven't grown before.  The tomato is Cour de Bue, an oxheart shaped paste tomato I got from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  This tomato is incredibly productive, dense and flavorful.  More important to me (as the grower) is the disease resistance and durability of the fruit.  We are anxious to do some canning with this one.  The dense fruit should make for an excellent sauce. Our early plantings of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, beets, chard and carrots were wonderful this year with good quality and excellent yields.  The cool, moist weather we had through the end of last month really favored these crops.  We are now transitioning to our summer harvest and laying plans for our Fall plantings that will be going in at the end of this month.   Some of our field space will provide us with three crop cycles this year and we are learning to understand our climate here to make the most of its potential.  I always look forward to the Fall garden.  It is usually the most productive and easiest to grow. Hope you are finding blessings in your gardens too. Bob, Lynnita and Jordyn

Monthly Training Sessions Reaching Many Our comprehensive agriculture training sessions are now scheduled for each month through the end of the year, and word is getting out to many folks around the country about our program.  In April, the Meisner family of Mountain Media Ministries  in Idaho attended our session while finishing an East Coast trip.  They shared their experience with others on the way home and provided us with a number of referrals.  In May we held the largest class to date with a group of wonderful folks from Michigan.  One of the men from the May session was pleased enough to schedule with us for a repeat session this month so he can bring his wife and son. We still have space in the remaining sessions scheduled for this year and encourage you to get this training which is so important for these times.  You can find more information about our program and schedule here. Camp Meeting Recordings I was blessed with an opportunity last month to spend a week at the Mountain View Conference Camp Meeting where I had the opportunity to share about agricuture and our ministry through six presentations.  I was richly blessed by many of the other speakers and particularly appreciated the chance to talk with Stephen Bohr, a man that well understood the theme of "Revive Us Again, O Lord." The fine folks at Mountain View have recorded all of the meetings and posted every one of them as an audio presentation on their web site.  If you would like to hear what I had to say (albeit without the PowerPoint slides) you will find all six presentations here.  Coming Up In August, Dave Westbrook of Back to Enoch Ministries has invited me to participate in a webinar that he will be hosting as part of his Country Living University program.  I look forward to helping with his effort to prepare people for a simpler, agrarian lifestyle. Later this year we will also be hosting Bob Jorgensen of Medical Missionary Press and the True Education Seminar Series, again in conjunction with a following Agriculture Conference.  I will be sending out more information about this as the dates and details develop Food Safety I am still unable to provide much detail about the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act.  The Republican Congress is holding up funding for the FDA to fully implement the new laws, and there is still some conflicting information about how the new regulations will impact small growers.  For up to date information about this topic and other issues pertaining to agriculture and food, you may visit the blog I maintain where new information is posted as it develops. There are many useful and informative articles available in the archive there.