Gardening in Glory
By Karli Friesen
I never imagined I would have anything to say about orchards and market gardening. I was born in Churchill, MB. We don’t grow anything up there, not even lawns. (Full disclosure, there was one woman who grew tomatoes in town when I was growing up, and I think my auntie once successfully grew potatoes in an old tire…) So, if you had told me ten years ago that I would someday know the difference between a saskatoon and apple tree borer, how to graft an apple scion and how much wind a hoop house can withstand, I would have laughed outright. But marriage does funny things to people, and in my case, it turned me into an orchardist.
My husband has the green thumb, and he inherited it from his mom, who inherited it from her dad – gardening runs in the family. When my husband decided to plant ‘a few fruit trees’ seven years ago, I didn’t know we’d end up with almost 300 fruiting trees and shrubs, and another 75+ varieties of garden crops elsewhere on the property. We grew quickly (our business, that is) because we received help from family; starting with 25 CSA subscribers and growing to 100 in just three years. CSA is farmer-code for ’Community Supported Agriculture’. It’s a subscription service where community members can sign up for a season-long weekly share of the farmer’s crops. Today, we serve 100 subscribers, four (and sometimes more) markets and four grocery locations, representing hundreds of families across southeast MB.
According to Matthew 13, raising crops and raising kids starts with the same thing: good soil. Our parents planted us in the church, and we’re doing the same with our kids; we’re part of a small congregation, known as the Kleefeld Christian Community. We meet in a rec center and have loud potlucks once a month. Our pastor is also a professor, and we have no kids’ programs (even though we once had five babies in one year in a congregation of 12 families). There’s a lot of love and a lot of faithfulness.
I guess faith has always been a part of our business practice. Both my husband and I grew up in the hospitality industry, and we watched our parents always go the extra mile for their customers. They truly served those who came to their door, even when the requests were inconvenient, untimely, or outrageous. They also modeled integrity in business, which looked as unglamorous as paying taxes, treating employees fairly, and dealing honestly with money. They worked very hard, and they took time for fun and family. There were failures, too, along the way—and we both watched our parents persevere with hope and faith when times were tough. They taught us how to work, and today they work alongside us, helping us achieve our own goals. It’s their firm foundation that we’re building on today.
In our orchard and gardens, there are a surprising number of ways to encounter God. Did you know there are over 2,500 species of beetle in Manitoba, and that many of them have glimmering dots or iridescent shells? Have you ever seen the jewel of the butterfly world, a monarch chrysalis, and marveled at the mind-bending change that a caterpillar must go through to become a butterfly? Did you know that leaves die in fall because new growth pushes them off the tree? And that those lifeless-looking trees in winter are already carrying the new life of spring? Have you thanked God in spring, because He kept His promise to Noah? Again! Does the sunrise take your breath away, knowing that God spoke that light into being and told it to shine – that every day it rises in obedience to its Creator?
Do you see the feeding of the five thousand in every plant that produces fruit? Yes, He took five loaves and two fish and fed a crowd, but have you ever marveled at how one seed produces a tree that produces blossoms that become hundreds of apples with seeds that produce more trees and more flowers and more apples? To garden is to live each day in the miraculous. It is breathtaking and humbling.
But still there is more. We build relationships with our subscribers that lead to hugs, and tears, and even prayer. Somehow, growing vegetables grows hope – it seems to spread from our dirt-covered, outstretched hands into the hearts of our customers. There is joy too, springing up in unlikely ways; friends and families connect over produce pickups; children look forward to the weekly markets. And our own children! What a privilege! To raise them alongside us in our work, on our knees side by side, putting tender seedlings in the ground and trusting God to make them grow.
Trust, yes, growing food is an act of faith that cannot be taken for granted. Why? Why do seeds grow to produce food? Because many, many years ago, God said, “Let the land…bear fruit….” Let the land bear fruit. All creatures look to Him to give them their food at the proper time. He opens His hand to us, and we are satisfied with good things. Praise the Lord.
The weather tests our faith. With all the modern technology we can afford – greenhouse plastic, automatic watering systems, frost irrigation, insect netting and more – still we are reminded, again and again, that we are not in control. We cannot make spring come sooner or hold back the wind or the flood. We cannot anticipate every pest and disease. And, even using the cleanest gardening and farming practices we know to use, we cannot keep ourselves free from disease either. We are in His hands. The whole world is. Our soil, our trees, our children, ourselves. “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water, that sends its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes, its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
There is more to say. When God is all around there is always more to say. But perhaps a little quiet contemplation is better now. Close your eyes and try to imagine with me – the day is breaking in the east – the sun’s rays are striking the treetops. The dew is cold on your feet, but the air is already warm, filled with a stirring breeze and the delicate, rich scent of plum trees in full bloom. A little person is holding your hand and the birds are singing. God is in His heaven, and the earth is His footstool. Praise the Lord.
To find out more about Prairie Wild, or to order a CSA share, click here.
(Scripture references taken from the NIV)
