Visitors: a Blessing of Fall

If there is any word to describe the month of October, I would choose community. As the farm slows a bit, more events are possible to invite guests to experience the farm, and conferences and workshops are again possible with greater intention. Colors on the farm change from greens to golds, the oaks on the perimeter of our fields turn reddish brown and begin dropping acorns which feed the wildlife and also our four naturally-raised pigs. We prepare for the coming cold weather.

A few highlights are worth mentioning. One was the Rooted and Grounded Conference held at Anabaptist Biblical Mennonite Seminary in Elkhart, IN, which Merry Lea co-sponsored. Guests came to the farm as one of the offered field trips, and it was an honor to have folks wander the gardens and our newly planted Woody Perennial Polyculture project as pictured. The embodied conversation about land and faith was profound, touching many of us who attended. Consider attending next year!

A new addition to our fall program offerings was a potluck and hymn sing, now with the possibility of singing in the loft of our barn. While we offered live music in the barn loft back in April, never before have we had a hymn sing in the same building as our chickens and pigs! Kate Friesen and I were surprised and reassured to find the animals actually rested and seemed to be calmed by the sound of the dozen or so of us singing one floor above them late that Wednesday night. Visitors came from Goshen and from nearby, one family being a homeschool family whose kids had enjoyed our PreK-12 program offerings in the past. What a blessing to sing with folks of all ages and backgrounds, sitting on straw bales! The moment will never be forgotten.

After this hymn sing we convened, perhaps now there is all the more reason to name the barn the Hess Barn, as Dale (our former director who passed on March 1st) longed for us to have a functioning barn complete with animals and space to house our farm’s equipment. That night, the barn was blessed in ways I can only begin to comprehend. May the walls retain the echoes of those voices, celebrating the ending of a rich season of teaching, learning, growing, and sharing.

-Jon Zirkle, interim director of agroecology