A look into the peanut plant

Here we have an expert in peanuts explain to us the way a peanut plant works.

A look into a peanut plant from Aaron Toombs on Vimeo.

Have you had your Hibiscus today?

Did you know that you can eat Hibiscus? Well, you can, but only a certain kind. It is a shrubby perennial from Indonesia. You can eat it as a lettuce, in soup or cooked alone. It produces easily and its grown solely for its leaves. Its high in nutritive value.
Interesting thing about this plant, you can't propagate from seed. It has to be propagated from cuttings.
Here's us in propagating action.

Need a snack? Grab a leaf. from Aaron Toombs on Vimeo.

Untitled from Aaron Toombs on Vimeo.

Farming God's Way

One of the coolest things I've learned about since I've been at ECHO is "Farming God's Way". This is a method of farming that produces crops that give God glory and provides sustainable profitability for this generation and generations to come. There are several key elements involved. 1) No-till farming method that is changing the way people look at farming. The traditional method of plowing is destroying good land across Africa. It is recommended that farmers mulch their field rather than plow. This produces rich soil over time. 2) As the farmer is faithful with mulching his annual crop yield increases. 3) The local church will begin to meet their needs as a result of the higher crop yields. 4) It brings people together to hear the transformational story of the Gospel. 5) It promotes community development by bringing the community together to work on the farm. If one person doesn't work then the whole community suffers.
This is just a brief idea of what "Farming God's Way" is all about. We hope to apply this method at the Beer-sheba project when we get back to Senegal.

My Turn

This last Tuesday it was my turn to share in our weekly chapel time. The audience is comprised of staff, interns and volunteers.
I knew I didn't have much time, but one of the things I really wanted to share was the new Beersheba Video. I'm not tech. savy...at all. I get in front of a computer and usually something weird happens. It freezes, or the mouse stops working, or I lose what I've been working on. You know, things like that.
So, this particular day, I got up early, checked the video on the website and it worked perfectly. I was relieved that I wouldn't have to bother with bringing my computer, because they had one set up already. All I head to do was type in the address.
When the time came, I strolled confidently to the front, expecting all to go well.
I typed in the web address. The webpage came up. Beautiful. Then I clicked on the Beersheba Video picture and nothing. Blank, white, screen. A few people shouted out advice. After 3 or 4 minutes I think everyone in the room had time to give some sort of advice about how to get it running. Then someone got up and said "you go ahead with your talk while I fiddle with it". Ten minutes into my talk, we all knew, there would be no video. Bummer, since this was going to be the main attraction of my talk.
Oh, well. These are the types of things that cause us and force us to trust in Jesus in every situation. I had a choice to get bitter and let it ruin my day and walk around in self pity or just bring it to God and move on. Turns out I had more time to share about the ministry we were involved in this last term and what we will be doing next term with the Beersheba Project.

Here's the video link. Hope it works. Its pretty cool, I think.

Beersheba Project from Austin Mann on Vimeo.

Greens and Browns

Here's a little clip of a composting method.

Composting Ideas from Aaron Toombs on Vimeo.

Milk Maid

Hi guys,
Sorry we've been out of commission for a few weeks. Last week we had a week long seminar called "Intro. to Tropical Agricultural Development" that I was involved in.
What was really cool about it was Joell Friesen, our friend and co-worker in Senegal, was able to come to Florida for the seminar. We were able to bounce ideas off each other and do some practical research for our upcoming project in Beersheba. Pretty exciting.
Here is just a short list of what was touched upon during the seminar:
1) Principals of Community Development
2) Mind frame of poverty stricken communities
3) Stewardship of land and soil
4) Appropriate technology in the area of water filtration
5) How to manage a nursery in tropical/semi-arid zones
6) Grafting techniques
7) Principals of roof top gardening
8) Different Dry land techniques for farming

There are bunches more, and tons of sub-category topics.
What I loved about this week, what reflected very well on ECHO and its vision, was that every instructor for each of these topics brought all things discussed back to the Bible. Everything was Biblically based. It was phenomenal the parallels.
The class was made up of all sorts of people. Missionaries, Peace Corps workers, new believers, surfers with a desire to grow better gardens, etc. Very diverse group.
It was a great week and I am so thankful to be able to be apart of this right now.

The clip I'm putting on is of Sara a few weeks ago. We (our family) all took turns milking. Its pretty hard. There is a very special technique. Sara was able to squeeze out more than me.

Little Goaty Milk Maid from Aaron Toombs on Vimeo.

We actually got to drink some of the milk. I loved it. The kids and Sara were not so keen.

A Little Tour

Here's a minuscule idea of what the Global Farm at ECHO looks like. Its really very complicated and intricate. It may look like a bunch of bushes and trees, but what makes it fascinating is that every tree, plant, shrub is placed where it is on purpose.
Andy, the farm manger, says that systems are important when you plant. You can't just think 'what is this plant going to give me', you need to ask 'what will it give me, but how else will it affect its environment'. It's a great concept, and when done properly, can make your garden richer and more purposeful than you can imagine.

Global Farm from Aaron Toombs on Vimeo.

I see an analogy of life in this. When the Bible talks about doing everything for the glory of God, it is this sort of 'systematic living' that will produce the best fruits to offer the Lord. Our lives are not segmented. They run together, each and every part. Just like in a garden, many weeds (unnecessary activities, habits, etc.) crop up in our life, and often spoil the abundant life that Christ wants to give us. It's a diligent farmer who looks at his purpose for his garden, then plants and weeds to fulfill its ultimate purpose. In the same way, it's a diligent and prayerful Christian who looks at their life and asks God 'what is the purpose of this life you've given me and how can I allow You to make the most of it'.

Bunny trouble? Try a spot of urine.

There are a lot of rabbits that live around here, as well as raccoons, snakes, alligators, etc.
Last week one of the guys I work with in the 'arid region' was complaining about rabbits eating his plants. The next day he showed me his solution. Be prepared to be shocked! He had placed urine in cups in various places around his garden. Apparently, one of the other interns tried it (after hearing about from another intern from a few years ago) and it worked like a charm.
The result for my co-worker's garden: Bunny free.
Now, I don't know how many people would be brave (is that the right adjective) enough to try such a bold move, but if your having bunny trouble, its worth a shot. Just make sure to bury the urine cups so they don't get knocked over.

Zero Graze Unit for Goats

Hey, did you ever think having your goats in one spot would produce happy, healthy, well adjusted and fat goats? Well, I didn't. In Senegal, the word is that goats love to roam and graze all over the country side. Makes sense, right? Or does it? ECHO has tried out a different approach and it appears to be a success. These goats are not miserable. They are quite socialized and very content.

Zero Graze from Aaron Toombs on Vimeo.

White Mold and Moringa Processing

When talking about composting, if you see white mold...shout for joy! Its a good thing. It helps with the decomposing of your compost pile. You don't want to see black or green. Now, as of this moment, I don't know why black and green are bad. Will surely find out as time marches on.

Moringa is an amazing tree. Its been called the tree of life. It grows great in climates like Senegal where there is very little rainfall.
Everything on this tree is useful. The leaves are super high in nutrition.
Here's a link talking about the miracle of moringa: www.naturalnews.com/022272.html

Here at ECHO they grow it and harvest it. Today, we cut the Moringa Trees down to a meter and harvested the leaves. We dried the leaves out by putting them in a DRYER of all things. Its still experimental at this point whether or not this is a good technique as we're not sure if when the temperature goes over 100F if the nutrients are effected.
I planted tons of Moringa at the Phare (www.lepharedelesperance.blogspot.com) It was fascinating to watch a tree like that grow so fast in such a harsh climate. The guys and gals I worked with got to hear me preach about the benefits of Moringa for many months. It started to rub off on them little by little. One of the ladies who was experiencing 'female problems' started drying it and turning it into powder. She started taking it in 'secret' and later on was advertising how much better she was feeling. Its really amazing to see how God created this tree, with all of its health benefits, has been placed in environments where its very difficult to grow what we in the West take for granted nutritionally.

I'm excited to learn more about this tree while I'm here to take back to the people of Senegal.