AdAgrA 2021: Hidden Treasure

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Market Gardening

John Dysinger

The What & Why of Market Gardening

Mark Chuljian

Teriz Chuljian

Ricky Seiler

01 Meet the Farmer: Mark & Teriz Chuljian, Sonlit Meadows Farm

Pamela Dysinger

02 Meet the Farmer: John & Pam Dysinger, Bountiful Blessings Farm

Joshua Dysinger

03 Meet the Farmer: Joshua Dysinger, Bountiful Blessings Farm

Kelli Dysinger

Alan Seiler

Aubrey Seiler

Meet the Farmers— Market Gardening Panel Discussion

Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you for.

Lord, you're on your throne high and lifted up and.

So now, as we get into some nuts and bolts here, I just pray for your spirit.

I pray that you would help me to know what to say and what not to say.

There's a lot I'd like to cover, but just help me to do it in a way that would be encouraging and practical to those who are listening.

These things we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Before we dive in, I just want to point out to you that I assume by faith, I believe that I have 2 handouts on the Adagra website for this class.

Okay, so I don't like I say by faith they're there And they're really important ones in my opinion 1 is on resources for the market gardener and And I've actually put in quite a bit of time.

I updated every year You know with books with websites with Blah or what do you call them podcasts?

With Online courses There's there's actually an an incredible amount.

In fact, in my opinion, it's getting too much information out there.

You know, when I started, you had to, you were just information starved.

And now you're kind of, it's information overload.

And so you have to try to sift through it.

So I've done that in a way by just saying, these are our favorites.

Okay, Cavell says it's on there, so good.

And then the other 1 is, I don't remember what I called it, but tools and equipment.

And again, I've tried to be as detailed as possible, giving a lot of specific brands of scales and tools.

Again, not that we have all the knowledge and that this is the 1 right answer, but at least this is what we have found helpful.

So I would encourage you to take advantage of those resources.

Also, the other thing that I realized when, as I was looking at the program, was that I really didn't talk a lot about the why of market gardening.

And so I want to just take a few minutes.

I think in a way I'm preaching to the choir here.

I don't think you would be here at Agra or be in this session if you weren't convicted on the importance of it.

But, well, I'd like to read a quote and encourage you to get this book if You don't have it.

Councils on Agriculture, this is a compilation of Mrs.

There's a whole chapter entitled A Call for Christian Farmers.

So read that if you wanna know why we should be doing this.

But the clincher quote for me is from Ministry of Healing, page 183.

In God's plan for Israel, every family had a home on the land with sufficient ground for tilling.

Thus were provided both the means and the incentive for a useful, industrious, and self-supporting life." I love that.

Useful, industrious, and self-supporting life.

And no devising of men has ever improved upon that plan.

You know, what other reason do you need for going into market gardening?

No other, no devising of man has ever improved on God's plan.

I could spend an hour easy just telling you all the reasons why I think you should get into it.

It's incredible for so many reasons, incredible opportunity for outreach.

It's just such a natural bridge to people.

It's not something you have to check off every, check off your list every week.

It just happens as you meet with with your customers.

I would say I wrote it down because I thought this was kind of profound but I I really believe this I Believe market gardening is the world's greatest hope for the future That's a pretty broad statement Notice though that I said the world's greatest hope for the future.

Okay, we have a greater hope for the future.

But as far as those who aren't seeing that greater hope, I truly believe, and we don't have time to really dive into that, but I believe market gardening is the world's greatest hope for the future of this planet.

If not, you can talk to me afterwards and we can...

Well, let's start with what is a market garden?

You know, I don't think there's an official definition so this is what I define it as Less than 3 acres of cultivated land and most market gardens that I'm aware of are an acre and a half or less.

Characterized by intensive beds and multiple high-value crops per bed per year.

This is not planting your corn in the spring and harvesting it in the fall and sitting back all winter.

Takes advantage of season extension and often goes year round with Elliot Coleman's The Winter Harvest Handbook that kind of opened up the reality that for pretty much anywhere in the United States, almost anywhere in the world, you can grow year-round with very simple techniques.

And market gardens are usually very diverse.

You know, every year, I think we could ask any market gardener in here, every year they have crop failures.

But you've always got enough other things going that it's not like a major hit.

You know, when we started out, we had all our eggs in 1 basket.

And when we got hit with weeks of rain, which led to a major anthracnose outbreak, we were like down for the count.

You know, if it weren't for God's goodness, that would have been the end of our market gardening.

Now I do want to just say this, you know, I'm always sensitive because is this the only model for agriculture that is God approved I I don't think so there's no one-size-fits-all and you know, I don't know how the ad agra can bridge the gap between market gardening and big-scale agriculture because I know there's many Adventists or at least quite a few Adventists in big-scale agriculture and there's nothing wrong with that.

Now, of course, I have personal convictions about organic and those methods, but that can be done on a large scale.

I read an amazing book recently, From Dirt to Soil.

Have any of you read that book about Gabe Brown up in, I think he's in North Dakota.

It's, you know, it didn't, a lot of it didn't apply to me personally, but it was just kind of a neat overview and How he's turned his 5, 000 acre farm into this incredible incredible place of diversity and regenerative agriculture.

If you have access to lots of land and tractor availability, then go for it.

Most people trying to get into agriculture.

That's a huge barrier You know, I mean these big farm thousands of acres who could afford that in this day and age You know and and the the big equipment is just incredibly expensive, you know, hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars for for pieces of equipment.

But, if that's the way you want to go, I know most young men, you know, they love the tractor, the power, the noise, right Clayton?

But I think the market gardening model fits very nicely with the spirit of prophecy model.

So again, I'm not saying this is the only model, but I think it's a very good fit for Adventists and just, you know, families working together.

You don't have to hire a lot of outside help.

You know, to work with your kids every day and not have to just see them before you go to work and after you come home.

As we already mentioned, just the opportunities for agricultural evangelism.

White talks about the thousands and tens of thousands living in the cities that if they could just have a little piece of land in the country they could Make you know They could survive and that's what market gardening is all about and we want to be teaching that to others those thousands and tens of thousands of others.

So the advantages of the market gardening model as compared to other models of agriculture.

Series

Market Gardening

The What & Why of Market Gardening

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

Special Interests

The Sabbatical – Binding Burden or Bountiful Blessing?

56m

Financing Yourself

Financing Yourself- Part 3

1h 11m

Starting a Market Garden

Tips and Techniques for Farmer’s Market

1h 4m

5 Strategies to Increase you Ministry Sustainability

1h 31m

Stewardship Seminar

Keeping Track of the Things That Matter - Part 2

1h 12m

Breakout Session 2

2- From Seed to Harvest: Planning and Scheduling to Maximize Yield

1h 12m

The Pathway to True Prosperity

5. Meiste & Hall- Generosity is Great

56m

Stewarding God's Gifts: Faithful Planning for Life & Legacy

01 Sow to Grow

1h 3m

Special Interests

Microgreens the Next Level

57m

Institutional Farming

Interns, U-turns and Returns

1h 6m

Journeys in Agriculture

Journeys in Agriculture Testimony Part 1

52m

Financial Stewardship

Investing Where it Matters Eternally

1h 39m

Sound Doctrine