Vegetable Matter(s)

From Mary Jane+:

On Tuesday morning members of the Companion Dioceses and partnership groups, including USPG Ireland, Hope Africa, and the Swazi Schools Project (with connections to London) along with the diocesan leadership attended a meeting called by Bishop Ellinah Wamukoya.  We had a morning of fruitful listening first to the Bishop with time for reporting and conversation among all of us.

After lunch, we were invited by the folks from USPG Ireland to drive out to Luyengo Farm with them.  When David and I were here last year, Rosemary and Andrew+ Symonds were working hard on the paper work and the property was still scrub land.  They have hired a knowledgeable farm manager.  He along with a hard working staff have transformed the land for growing vegetables.  They are feeding the army and selling to some grocery stores.  Right now they are harvesting tomatoes and lots of cabbage.  They are continuing to plant cabbage to meet their production targets week by week, as well as, carrots, and butternut squash.  The folks at USPG Ireland have really moved this farm project into productivity and with rent being paid to the Diocese and as the farm generates more profit, some of that will be used for HIV/AIDS work.

Luyengo Farm Cabbages

 They harvest a lot of cabbage every week.  The cabbages that are not quite perfect, are not sent to market, but are taken to neighborhood care points and other feeding stations.  Some of this distribution is being done by our friend Mandla who is working for USPG Ireland at present.  Adding cabbage to the children's diet is a very good thing, as cabbage would be a source of Vitamin C, soluble fiber, and a range of other important and interesting phytochemicals.  Cabbage is one of the cruciferous family of vegetables (along with broccoli, Brussel sprouts, bok choy, etc.).  They were given their name because of the four petal cruciform formation of their flowers.  Even the lowly cabbage reminds us of the call to live a cruciform life - including the feeding of those with much less.

New tractor from USPG Ireland