Dangling Carrot Veganic Farm

I posted this to one of my listservs this morning, looking for a reason not to drop out of the church "for a season":

I've been in one of my "moods" lately, wondering how I'll spend my Sunday mornings in the weeks/months to come. (I'm home today, because I didn't set the alarm. I'll be there next week, because I'm scheduled, and because I hope to retrieve my DVD of the speakers at the unveiling of "A Religious Proclamation for Animal Compassion", whether previewed or not by then for some unlikely future event. I want my life back.)

So. What will it take to keep me going to church?
It would be easy to stay home if Sunday is only one of two days I have to work in the yard this Spring & Summer.

But I remembered my idea last September about starting a congregation-based locally-grown organic food exchange club .

My first thought was that I had zero responses to the article I put in our newsletter a few months ago -- that no one at my church has a "square foot" to spare. (Not surprising, although I know there are a handful of gardeners there.)

My second thought was that if I have a few extra strawberries or whatever paltry extras to put out during Coffee Hour, it won't be impressive enough to generate interest in a meaningful way. And the point of growing it is to raise my own food, not to impress other people with my whole harvest. I thought about putting out a sign of some sort, like "Free to food exchange club members; free-will offering for non-members" (knowing that there are no members, and thinking that any proceeds could go toward defraying the cost of General Convention).

My third thought was that potatoes might be a decent, substantial table-space using crop that recreational gardeners don't normally grow, but that most people eat, where a weekly harvest might be more than I'd need and look like a decent offering. (And potatoes are on the "Dirty Dozen" list of foods that people should buy organic or go without.)

My fourth idea was that I could start out with starting plants from seed in the house early (like any time now), and for the first week or two in early-mid May, offering those to anyone who would like to plant them, and recruit gardening club members from whoever they might be. I could also have hand-outs explaining the reasons why it is a good idea to grow free organic veggies, and especially being able to share the extra with people who don't want to (or can't) pay extra for organic in the stores. Giving away plants might create anticipation that something will happen a month or two later, so that a few extra strawberries won't seem so paltry. (I currently have only one strawberry plant that bears fruit. But it does have some runners. So I might get more than 12 berries this year if the birds don't eat them.)

Up to this morning, I have recalled the litany of dangling carrots that prevented me from dropping out of church over the years -- "carrots with empty calories." This is my own dangling carrot. It just might work. So I found a name for my future "farm". But I don't think I'll tell them why I named it that.

I'm not dead yet.