Post by macmex on Jan 27, 2009 16:49:09 GMT -5
Hi folks, Blue Flint invited me to Homegrown Goodness. I think I've been on the site for about a week now. It's been a pleasure to meet such a fine group of gardeners. Thanks for having me!
Someone mentioned that it would be good for me to write and introduction. So, here goes. I grew up in central New Jersey. When we moved to our home in Colts Neck, in 1966 (or was it 65?) the town was pretty rural. Our neighborhood was a development of one acre lots, set in a former nursery and orchard. It took years for the development(s) to cover the nursery and orchard. So, for much of my childhood I had the benefit, not only of having horticulturally active parents, but also, we benefited both from knowing the fellow who used to own the orchard, and from looking up all the interesting plants in the nursery.
My dad started us kids gardening when we were very small. I can remember him reading us stories about Jack and the Beanstalk, and then coming home with scarlet runner beans and helping us to plant them . I remember when Mom served me watermelon in my sandbox and how excited I was, about a week later, when I had a watermelon come up in the sandbox. Mom and Dad helped me to nurture that watermelon, and it made fruit before frost!
Garden chores were not optional in our family. We grew 24 kinds of fruit and most of our vegetables on our one acre lot. We also had honey bees and a small fish pond. We had a family hobby of foraging for wild foods, and when I was 13 I met Mr. Mauser, a man in his 70s who mentored me with hunting, fishing and trapping.
Jerreth and I met while in college, in Chicago. We shared much the same interests, right down to having constructed canoes when we were both 15. She mainly grew up in Worthington, OH. We were married in 1981 and passed our first year in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. When first came to Arkansas I felt I'd come home. The Ozarks, and their culture were so wonderful!
Yet we were convinced that the Lord would have us to serve overseas and continued our preparation, studying further in Indiana and Texas. By 1988 we were in the Sierra north of Puebla, in a town called Tlatlauquitepec (7500 feet elevation/ cold rain forest climate). During our time in Tlatlauqui I traveled quite a bit in fairly remote mountain villages in several Mexican states. Besides a Bible teaching ministry, we also tried to help some of the rural and indigenous to better provide for their physical needs. We worked with bees, seed saving, basic vegetable gardening and rabbitry.
In 1993 we were asked to relocate to the Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo area and work with a small Bible institute. From then until 2001 that's what we did. Ixmiquilpan is at 5500 feet elevation and is much warmer. It is desert, yet with irrigation. We helped the school raise rabbits in quantity along with a pretty good garden program. I even got to give classes to the students on gardening and seed saving. During our time here (for that's where I'm at today, while I write this) my son and I got into racing pigeons and we started a poultry program at the school using some heritage breed chickens donated by Sandhill Preservation Center.
In 2001 we were asked by my home church, in New Jersey, to come back and help out on staff. Our children, by this time, were mainly high school age, and among other things we thought it good to help them acclimate to the U.S.A. before heading off to college. I dare say that returning to the USA, to live, was the hardest thing we've ever done. It was so hard!
After nearly four years in New Jersey we concluded that our contribution there was complete and that it was time to move on. But where too? It definitely wasn't good timing to return to Mexico. Someone asked me, "If you could go anywhere at all, where would you go?" I replied, "Oklahoma." I was thinking of Northeastern Oklahoma, near Siloam Springs, where Jer and I started out. And that's where we have ended up!
Jerreth and I love to grow many things in our gardens. We save and grow most of our own seed. We are big on sweet potatoes! And, we also raise two breeds of heritage chicken, ducks, heritage turkeys, milk goats, have a couple of horses, and Shetland sheep. (And a partridge in a pear tree...) There is more. But I'm tired of writing.
One last thing. We have a passion for mentoring new people in gardening and homesteading. It's so very important to help those interested to get off the ground! Without help it's a long uphill battle and many won't make it. So, about every year we make it a point to help a couple people start their first garden and/or raise some kind of animal.
We've been members of the Seed Savers Exchange since 1984 and of the Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities since 2002.
Whew! 'nuff said!
George
Someone mentioned that it would be good for me to write and introduction. So, here goes. I grew up in central New Jersey. When we moved to our home in Colts Neck, in 1966 (or was it 65?) the town was pretty rural. Our neighborhood was a development of one acre lots, set in a former nursery and orchard. It took years for the development(s) to cover the nursery and orchard. So, for much of my childhood I had the benefit, not only of having horticulturally active parents, but also, we benefited both from knowing the fellow who used to own the orchard, and from looking up all the interesting plants in the nursery.
My dad started us kids gardening when we were very small. I can remember him reading us stories about Jack and the Beanstalk, and then coming home with scarlet runner beans and helping us to plant them . I remember when Mom served me watermelon in my sandbox and how excited I was, about a week later, when I had a watermelon come up in the sandbox. Mom and Dad helped me to nurture that watermelon, and it made fruit before frost!
Garden chores were not optional in our family. We grew 24 kinds of fruit and most of our vegetables on our one acre lot. We also had honey bees and a small fish pond. We had a family hobby of foraging for wild foods, and when I was 13 I met Mr. Mauser, a man in his 70s who mentored me with hunting, fishing and trapping.
Jerreth and I met while in college, in Chicago. We shared much the same interests, right down to having constructed canoes when we were both 15. She mainly grew up in Worthington, OH. We were married in 1981 and passed our first year in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. When first came to Arkansas I felt I'd come home. The Ozarks, and their culture were so wonderful!
Yet we were convinced that the Lord would have us to serve overseas and continued our preparation, studying further in Indiana and Texas. By 1988 we were in the Sierra north of Puebla, in a town called Tlatlauquitepec (7500 feet elevation/ cold rain forest climate). During our time in Tlatlauqui I traveled quite a bit in fairly remote mountain villages in several Mexican states. Besides a Bible teaching ministry, we also tried to help some of the rural and indigenous to better provide for their physical needs. We worked with bees, seed saving, basic vegetable gardening and rabbitry.
In 1993 we were asked to relocate to the Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo area and work with a small Bible institute. From then until 2001 that's what we did. Ixmiquilpan is at 5500 feet elevation and is much warmer. It is desert, yet with irrigation. We helped the school raise rabbits in quantity along with a pretty good garden program. I even got to give classes to the students on gardening and seed saving. During our time here (for that's where I'm at today, while I write this) my son and I got into racing pigeons and we started a poultry program at the school using some heritage breed chickens donated by Sandhill Preservation Center.
In 2001 we were asked by my home church, in New Jersey, to come back and help out on staff. Our children, by this time, were mainly high school age, and among other things we thought it good to help them acclimate to the U.S.A. before heading off to college. I dare say that returning to the USA, to live, was the hardest thing we've ever done. It was so hard!
After nearly four years in New Jersey we concluded that our contribution there was complete and that it was time to move on. But where too? It definitely wasn't good timing to return to Mexico. Someone asked me, "If you could go anywhere at all, where would you go?" I replied, "Oklahoma." I was thinking of Northeastern Oklahoma, near Siloam Springs, where Jer and I started out. And that's where we have ended up!
Jerreth and I love to grow many things in our gardens. We save and grow most of our own seed. We are big on sweet potatoes! And, we also raise two breeds of heritage chicken, ducks, heritage turkeys, milk goats, have a couple of horses, and Shetland sheep. (And a partridge in a pear tree...) There is more. But I'm tired of writing.
One last thing. We have a passion for mentoring new people in gardening and homesteading. It's so very important to help those interested to get off the ground! Without help it's a long uphill battle and many won't make it. So, about every year we make it a point to help a couple people start their first garden and/or raise some kind of animal.
We've been members of the Seed Savers Exchange since 1984 and of the Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities since 2002.
Whew! 'nuff said!
George