July 5, 2023
Reflecting on Saturday, July 1st at the Pantry and our upcoming week as we celebrate(d) the 4th of July, reminded me of the patriotic song, America the Beautiful. The lyrics include such phrases as spacious skies, amber waves, of grain, and purple mountains majesties.....from sea to shining sea. Have you noticed our glorious sunsets in the evening, our garden rows of flourishing greens, and the Pantry facing our Blue Ridge Mountains? America is the Beautiful! Reaching out the hand of friendship to our neighbors near and far, thank you volunteers and our area churches, civic groups, local merchants, and families for all you do to feed our community helping to reduce food insecurity.
On Saturday morning, we welcomed two new volunteers: Ken, who assisted with carry-out, and Geerte, who is bi-lingual and helped with shopping and our new neighbors from the eastern European nations. We greeted 125 families representing 449 individuals and registered six new neighbors. Other volunteers assisted at the garden weeding, mulching, and harvesting squash and beets. TLD Logistics contacted us this week about donating 240 pounds of bacon. That will be a treat for the neighbors on Saturday.
City Bakery donated loaves of bread. Other donated items were Flavor-First-tomatoes & peppers, Ingles-bread, Bimbos-snacks and bread, Wal-Mart and Big Lots-misc items and food, Project Dignity-feminine products, Humane Society- dog/cat food and MilkCo-milk. Nativity Lutheran, Fletcher Methodist, Calvary Episcopal, Tabernacle of Praise, and other anonymous donors contributed food and misc. items for distribution on Saturday.
From The Lord’s Acre, Fletcher
Work Session Thursday at 6:30
Join us in the relative cool of the day for a time of fellowship and weeding in the garden. Crops are doing very well. You encourage them by eliminating weeds competing for sun and nutrients.
Thanks to summer youth groups from Asheville Youth Mission and Lutheridge, we will NOT need our regular Thursday session on July 13th.
On the Verge of Summer Abundance
We've had a harvest lull since we finished picking collards a month or so ago. Below is a photo collage taken yesterday in the LAF garden. As you can see, harvest time is around the corner!
Compost Happens!
Our initial bin of compost with kitchen scraps, garden waste and some soil, has decomposed into a rich loamy compost for use in the garden. Bin two, which we have been using for fresh contributions, is now full and is cooking and resting until ready. It is covered with a tarp and has a not-so-subtle caution tape in front to remind folks that no new compost ingredients should be put here.
The current active bin is the third from the road. If you have new contributions, move the tarp away, place your contribution as far back as is comfortable, and replace the tarp, in that bin only. WE CAN NO LONGER TAKE LARGE AMOUNTS OF WHOLE SWEET OR WHITE POTATOES. They do not decompose quickly enough for our purposes. (Peels and plate scrapings are fine.)
40% of food grown in the U.S. is wasted and ends up in landfills. Composted food scraps aren't wasted. They ultimately build up the soil from which they came, helping humans live more lightly on the land.
God Keeps Working When We're Done for the Day
Last Thursday's LAF workers ended up hot, sweaty and dirty after an evening of weeding in the heat and humidity. After such a time, we remember that God is still at work in the land when we have showered and gone to bed. Wendell Berry, Kentucky farmer, philosopher, and poet, knows:
Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.
And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we’re asleep.
When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.