Summer is an off-season for most Merry Lea volunteers, but not for Doug Vendrely, a retired teacher from New Paris, Ind. The past two years, Doug has contributed a morning each week to the Merry Lea Sustainable Farm.
“I really enjoy gardening and I know they need the help,” Doug says. His first year, he spent Tuesday mornings planting, weeding and getting the ground ready for use. This year he comes on Fridays, so he is busy picking and processing food that will be sold at a Saturday farmer’s market.
Volunteering on the farm is an avenue for Doug to share knowledge gained through years as a home gardener.
“Not long ago I showed Kate tomato hornworms. She had not seen one before. We fed them to the chickens, and they loved them!” he grins.
The farm is also a great place to learn something new.
“Merry Lea gives me exposure to so many crops I would never grow at home—like ground cherries, tomatillos and lovage,” Doug says. The first is a squat plant in the tomato family that produces a tasty yellow berry that makes good pies. Tomatillos, also in the tomato family, are native to Mexico and a staple in Mexican cuisine. Lovage is an herb that looks and smells like celery.
Access to a greenhouse is intriguing for Doug. He enjoys being part of the early spring start that a greenhouse enables. Another new experience has been getting acquainted with heirloom varieties. He is now trying heirloom tomatoes at home.
When not at Merry Lea, Doug works part-time as an administrative assistant at College Mennonite Church, Goshen. In his spare time, he enjoys biking, quilt design and geocaching. Geocaching is a kind of high-tech treasure hunt similar to the current Pokemon-hunting craze, except that participants are using the Global Positioning System to find physical sites, not anime.
Since Doug combines geocaching with vacation travel, he has found caches in a wide variety of locations. For him, part of the appeal of this activity is the chance to get off the beaten path and learn local history. One year, he wandered the back roads of Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Another year, Doug went geocaching in Germany, France and Switzerland while getting acquainted with his ancestral roots in these countries. One memorable attempt to find a cache took place at the Tauferhoehle–or Anabaptist Cave–near Baeritswi, Switzerland. This cave was a worship site for early Anabaptists and hence is a favorite travel destination for people with Mennonite roots.
For now, Doug’s free time remains focused on plants, soil, weeds and freshly grown food. There is a geocache site on Merry Lea property, but it is not at the farm. Ω
