As the summer draws to a close here in Corbin, KY, participants of the Mustard Seed Garden are beginning to reflect on our 2017 growing season and are finding reason to celebrate a successful year of food and fellowship. Yes, we have just planted a few fall crops; and yes, we still have okra, tomatoes, lima beans, and sweet potatoes to harvest in the coming weeks—but the bulk of our 2017 harvest season is drawing to a close. And thus it is that we look back on the amount of food we’ve grown this year and the number of families we’ve helped feed, and we celebrate the fact that we’ve exceeded the mark on our projected yield of food, and have seen an increase in the number of families we have been able to help feed.

Eyeing the future, our garden team is keen on purchasing a high tunnel to extend our 2018 growing season. As our plans to partner with both a local transitional housing ministry as well as with a religion and environmental stewardship program at the University of the Cumberlands take shape, we see this further expansion of our garden as being not only helpful, but necessary. Thus, we are now entering an intentional planning phase, as we have begun casting a vision and discerning how best to move forward with it.

We are immensely grateful for the support of Grow Appalachia, without whom this year’s garden expansion would not have taken place, and without whom these exciting opportunities for next year would have never even been conceived.