Afterthoughts from Idaho

Last Sunday, we had our report day for Idaho. This is a time of sharing with supporters and others interested in the organization, Create Common Good. We presented a slideshow on Bhutanese refugees and highlighted one of the men we met in Idaho, defined "refugees," then all shared special moments or afterthoughts. Lastly, we served the food that we prepared the night before -- food we had learned to make after harvesting and what we ate in Idaho.

Here is what I shared that impacted me the most during/after the trip:

One of the activities I enjoyed most was harvesting the vegetables that would go toward crop sales and preparing food for the harvest festival. 

When you stepped into the garden, there were so many types of plants with herbs and vegetables—each beautiful in its own way, each containing a different purpose or unique flavor to enhance a dish. One had to look through and choose carefully because some weren’t mature enough yet to be picked. It was fun to watch the vegetables/herbs come straight from the garden and then watch them go through the process of being cleaned, having the invaluable parts cut away, shaped, and then transformed into a masterpiece along with other ingredients. 

As I sat back and watched, I thought “this must be how God feels as he looks upon his garden of people (all types and at all stages, each with his or her own uniqueness).” We all know Matthew 9:37 where Jesus says “The harvest is plenty but the workers are few.” I looked at the “harvest” a little differently. I knew that like people, some needed a little more time to grow and just be “loved on” before being “picked or uprooted”. The gardener, like God with his careful and all-knowing eye, knows which ones are ready to be yielded, which ones need some painful clipping or pruning to clear the bad parts, which ones just needed to be in the soil a few more days with extra sunlight, and which ones may need to be uprooted and transplanted elsewhere in order to reach their full growth potential.

This made me look at my own life and spiritual growth process after seeing this tangible representation. It also reminded to give grace to others that are at a different place in their growth process. While it’s hard to go through the pruning and waiting, I was able to see how beautiful and delicious the end result is and how proud our Father, our gardener, must be as he stands aside and sees his handiwork.

A verse that came to mind as I was organizing my thoughts was this from James 1:21:

In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life. 

Here are a few of the dishes we prepared:


penne with homemade arugula pesto

farfalle with homemade arugula pesto and sausage

fresh tomatoes and cucumbers

Idaho, Day 5, Saturday

Can I use "What a day!" again?

We started out at the farm doing all the "last minute" to do items before the big harvest festival happening today (Sunday). We had a few other teams of volunteers helping which made ticking off the list go quickly. That never ending wood chip pile we worked on the other day is now gone as is many other daunting tasks. It felt good to see these things happen as CCG is always so busy and this would have been overwhelming for them to get done alone.

I love seeing the kids in action. We learn so much from them seeing the world through their eyes--the "fun" in chores and the beauty of the farm. Sammy, age 6, sometimes speaks with the wisdom of a man. He is an old soul. I heard him in a store that sells fair trade items and sustainable goods say, "There are so many beautiful things here. It's so hard to pick." I love hearing what comes from him. While it is simple, it can take an adult on a path of profound thinking and realization.

After the farm work, we had lunch and had an easy afternoon off. Well, a little easy. We went to a street fair. We just felt a feeling of repression and darkness throughout and said a prayer for the people. We ended the night with pizza and a good night's rest to prep for the long day prepping for and working at the festival today.

Here are some highlights from the day:

R & R


Sammy helping replant the sunflowers


carrying brush and weeds to the compost pile


raking up weeds and brush (we did this for hours)


Ian in action


Ian and Sammy vs. the wood chips pile

Idaho, Day 2, Wednesday (9/14/11)

What. A. Day!

I have gone back to my Southern roots and have loved it!! I am indeed a country mouse.

For the sake of time (my bedtime that is), I'll describe what we did then post pictures at the bottom (and they will probably be backwards/out of chronological order).

Today, we started out at the farm harvesting vegetables (for you city people, that basically means "picking" the vegetables from the garden and putting them in the wheelbarrow). The fresh veggies were beautiful! We tasted many right from the plant including raspberries, tomatoes, basil, and mustard greens. We picked mustard greens, tomatoes, and basil for use and sale. We washed the vegetables and packaged them to take with us to the kitchen.

The kitchen was a whirlwind! We were prepping for a Wednesday night dinner called Wonderful Wednesday. On these nights, the community is invited to come have dinner prepared by the refugees who are in the culinary training for a small cost. It also provides an opportunity to share about CCG (Create Common Good). We also prepped food to sell at the farm stand and for the harvest festival on Sunday.

In the kitchen, we:

• chopped vegetables
• made mustard green pesto
• canned salsa to sell

We got there in time to see Brent (chef) teaching some of the refugees to prepare food. It was beautiful to watch how patient he is and and depth of his love, dedication, and giftedness for teaching.

For lunch, we had some of the mustard green pesto we made with pasta, fresh vegetables from the garden (red tomatoes and yellow zebra tomatoes) as well as this to-die-for potato bread that Brent makes. It was so fun to eat what we saw growing and harvested earlier the same morning!! No Ralph's or Albertsons needed!

We stayed for Wonderful Wednesday dinner. Several of the refugees were there to assist in serving. The taste was simply unbelievable. The pictures won't do it justice.


The meringue....soooooooooooooo delish!


our dinner for Wonderful Wednesday: vegetables, pork (apricot and fig, braised) + the "to die for" potato bread topped with onion con fit


Christy & Angie (who picked us up from the airport)


the church set-up for Wonderful Wednesday


staff with the just-finished meringues


finished mustard green pesto


canned salsa verde (before the canning process) to sale


canning


the potato bread


fresh tomatoes


pasta with fresh mustard greens pesto (made by us!)


making meringues


chopped mustard greens before going into the blender for processing/pesto


the tomatoes we picked.
Aren't they beautiful?!


freshly picked basil




staff bundling herbs


tomatillos


nerd.


Sammy washed vegetables from the garden




harvesting...