Gearing UP! for 2013

I know it is hard to believe, but we're only two weeks away from starting to plant early varieties in the Community Garden. The picture above makes everything look fairly brown and cold--but if you get into the dirt you'll some lettuce and spinach growing and the blackberry canes are filling with sap.

We could use A LOT of mulch and a LOT of straw. If you have access to either one please let us know and we'll be glad to come and pick it up. We could also use some MANURE so--we'd love to have your poop!

Looking for a fun project? We'd like to fill the garden with bird houses this year. If you'd like to build a birdhouse for the garden--or have an old one laying about--please make or donate one to your Community Garden. The birds will love it, and so will we!

As always, your Community Gardeners use recycled materials as much as possible. If you have old lumber laying around, or cement blocks like the ones seen above, we can use them. AND: if you would like your very own, personal GROW BOX in the garden, let us know and we'll build one out of lumber you donate or buy. Grow boxes are great ways to get all the fresh vegetables a family of two needs.

The Community Garden is YOUR garden. Always feel free to come into the garden any time and pick whatever you need. Or, better yet, pick out one of our raised beds and grow your own--we'd love to have you join us.

Last, but by no means least, THANK YOU members for your generosity in allocating space and water for the Community Garden. We promise to be good stewards of what you have given us, and to always glorify the Lord for His generosity in giving us such abundance.

See you in the garden!

Why Not Visit Hillspeak?

We took a short trip out to Hillspeak, an Episcopalian slash Anglican retreat center located about 2 miles south of Eureka Springs on Highway 23. Hillspeak is comprised of about 40 acres on top of Grindstone Mountain, and has several buildings useful for meetings, study, and prayer. It is a beautiful place and we are lucky to have it.

Our good luck is compounded by a project called Operation Pass Along which is a book ministry focused on taking in--and giving away--books that are primarily of interest to general readers and scholars of Christian non-fiction. since 1972, when Operation Pass Aong was started, Hillspeak has taken in more than 340,000 books and has given away more than 220,000.

If anyone is interested in going out to visit Hillspeak talk to Dan or, call (479) 253-9701 for hours of operation and directions. Hillspeak is a tremendous resource for all of us--and it is free!

Annual Rake Off & Chili Lunch!

After services this Sunday we will:

1)Decorate the Church for Advent & Christmas!
2) Haul piles of leaves back to the Church Garden!
3) Eat Chili and have a good time!

The work should take less than an hour. Men, please bring your favorite Chili concoction, a rake, and a tarp. We want YOU to have a good time!

See you Sunday!

Produce: Go For It!

Hyacinth Bean Pod

There are green beans, sweet potatoes, a few ripe tomatoes, a lot of green tomatoes, watermelon, and some peppers in the Community Garden. Stop by and pick what you need.

Folks from the neighborhood have been invited to pick out of the garden (two families have taken us up on it), and kids who live around the church have done a good job of finding the watermelons (we're glad they did), but there are a few left. As Shakespeare wrote, "the race is to the swift."

For salsa fans there are plenty of Rutgers (sorry, Hogs fans) variety tomatoes available for salsa verde, for frying, or for that infamous green tomato pie that is really good. You may also find some eggplants. Again, help yourself.

The picture above is of a hyacinth bean pod. Feel free to pick these for inclusion in salads or Asian soups. Do not eat the dry beans but by all means collect the pods for replanting in your own gardens next Spring.

Our Fall clean-up is going well. We're about a day or two away from finishing up our work in the Community Garden and then, we'll move on to the Children's Garden. By Thanksgiving at the latest both gardens will look spectacular and be ready to rest over the winter.

If anyone has some composted chicken manure we will be very grateful to get it. Thanks to everyone for your terrific support of our Creation Care mission!

Outreach and Communications!

Drawing of Alexander Bell's first telephone

We're very excited about expanding our church's outreach efforts to bring as many people as we can to Christ. Some of these efforts will include updating our website, developing protocols for Facebook and Twitter, and consolidation of our various e-mailing lists into LISTServ formats.

When our Wednesday Night Contemporary service is fully back on the weekly schedule, we will promote it by placing videos of the services on YouTube, and showcasing the talents of our young people and visiting guest artists and preachers. We think these efforts, including podcast capabilities, will really enhance the visibility of and vitality of our programming for youth and their parents.

Although our initial focus is on electronic communication, we will also review, edit, and enhance our print communication, like brochures, etc. so that we have attractive and informative information to hand out to visitors and at civic events or fraternal organizations.

Included in our efforts will be acting on plans for a new church sign, and developing a strategy to consistently access free local media.

As Disciples, we have an exciting and deeply meaningful church experience to offer Berryville and the surrounding communities. If you would like to help shape and develop our new outreach and communication efforts, please stop by and talk with Pastor French about your ideas!

Preparing for Fall

A large pile of mulch ready for transfer to the garden's pathways.

The Community Garden is being prepared for fall. Basically, this involves three tasks: 1) weeding and cleaning rocks from beds; 2) Applying a deep application of mulch for water and weed containment, and; 3) planting a fall cover crop like oats or vetch. Be sure to stop by and check out our progress.

We have the Community Garden about 1/3 mulched and about 3/4 weeded. It is starting to look pretty good. The mulch pile pictured above has disappeared, and as soon as another pile shows up we'll continue. Once the Community garden is fully mulched and weeded we'll move on to the Little Sprouts' Garden.

Cardboard makes an excellent base for garden bed foundations.

Thank you, everyone, who donated their cardboard boxes to the garden. If you have more, bring them over to the church and just toss them over the fence. We'll take them from there.

Working in the garden is a real blessing and helps our gardeners structure their days along a commonly recommended Christian way of structuring a Christian lifestyle: reading and studying holy books, prayer and meditation and, manual labor. We are grateful that fellow Disciples have given us this wonderful opportunity.

Thank you, Lord, for the Delicious Rain!

Just when we decided to pull the plug on watering our church garden the Lord provided a good, strong, and life-giving rain during the night. How thankful we can be!

And, what a delicious outcome. Because of high night time temperatures and no rainfall plant blossoms were unable to set fruit, and what fruit we got was puny, squishy, and not very nice. But look at the ugly babies in the picture above (picked earlier in the year)and imagine them in the cooking pot or on our salads! Last night's rain will give us at least a couple more weeks harvest.

Yes, it has been a good year for tomatoes. We've supplied tomatoes for the Senior Center, invited the neighborhood in (they have taken up our offers to pick freely), and even had a few left over to provide on Sunday morning and once in a while at Loaves and Fishes. We feel blessed.

We also feel inspired to get going with our fall planting. It is going to be terrific and we're optimistic about supplying everyone with sweet potatoes for our Thanksgiving dinners. God is Good all the time!