Gleaning 2007

Gleaning in the (Home Sweet Farm) gloaming-- Youngsters harvest greens, radishes to give charity

Monday, December 24, 2007

Brenham Banner Press by Bud Chambers

WESLEY — Though in contrast to the near countless kids-by-the-dozen John Barnard’s March 2008 skateboarding camp will likely attract, the First Baptist Church student minister and his wife, Mandi, sallied forth last week on a far different kind of endeavor — at least equal, and perhaps beyond, in terms of “direct” positive benefits.

Just an hour before sunset on the last official day of fall, the Barnards brought some eight youngsters out to this neck of the woods on a charitable quest — seeking “to glean” a noteworthy supply of late winter greens and other vegetables to donate to a worthy Faith Mission activity, i.e. the feeding of hungry faces in coming weeks.

In January 2008, Brad and Jennifer Stufflebeam will be celebrating a third anniversary of their arrival here to a place that today is literally a 12-acre “garden spot.”

Indeed, “Home Sweet Farm” is the name that Brad and Jennifer — along with their two daughters (Carina, 10, and Brooke, 8) — have lovingly christened their new homeplace on FM 2502 in the Wesley vicinity.

With Brad’s background in landscaping and greenhouse plant businesses in McKinney, plus Jennifer‘s strong interest in nutrition education, both were moved some half dozen years ago to affiliate and train with World Hunger Relief.

Then as the time neared to consider an international assignment, the Stufflebeams jointly reached a rather dramatic conclusion: America, perhaps as much as any Third World country, needed “an agricultural-oriented rebirth” to move more people back in the direction that defined a majority of Americans several generations ago.”

Then from a first year beginning harvesting perhaps just more than an acre of vegetables, many of them qualifying along the lines of antique varieties, the Stufflebeams enlisted an initial couple of dozen clients “who pre-purchased a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share” in a 22-week spring-summer and 10-week fall program.

Proudly pointing out that all 12 acres on Home Sweet Farm are now “primed“ for a spot in a rotation in what once-upon-a-time-in-America might be called a truck farming operation, Brad notes that 2007’s two seasonal crop rotation have expanded to four-acre farming plots — the rows of some popular vegetables are right at 600-feet in length — and the Stufflebeam family farm just completed a 10-week fall season providing 100 pre-paid crop shares.

“It doesn’t exactly fit the Biblical definition of a gleaning,” said Brad.

Yet Brad happily adds there were enough good quality vegetables left over — such as radishes, plus mustard, collard and turnip greens — to invite the First Baptist youth group out to Home Sweet Farm.

In roughly an hour — a classic poet might well refer to that last sunlight hour as “in the gloaming” — just 10 or so total “pickers” gathered what turned to be nearly 10 cases of produce.

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