Friday Afternoon in the Neighbors' Field

Sabrina at the Neighbor's Field.  This was taken on Sunday, not Friday when I (Nate) was working.

Friday afternoon my work assignment took me to the Neighbors' Field.  The Neighbors' Field is a fairly new part of Jubilee, which was brought about by the presence of former refugee neighbors within close proximity to Jubilee.

Prior to about six years ago, refugees that finished their 2 months at Jubilee moved into Atlanta, found jobs, began renting an apartment, and generally stayed somewhere in the greater Atlanta area.  Their first apartment was in Atlanta because the refugee resettlement organization's office was in Atlanta, and that's where their social worker was based.  After fulfilling the 1 year lease on their first apartment, they were free to move anywhere in the US, but since they'd already lived in Atlanta and likely had a job and connections, they generally stuck around.  The one exception would be if they had extended family that were resettled somewhere else in the US, they might try to move closer to them (if finances allowed).

Well, six years ago that established pattern changed.  That was about the time that the refugees from Burma started to come to Jubilee.  These people were generally used to living in very remote parts of Burma, often in the jungle, and subsistence farming and living off the land was their established way of life (before the refugee camps).  They generally didn't like the urban feel of Atlanta, and preferred the rural location of Jubilee.  About that time the housing crisis hit, meaning that houses in Comer (the town where Jubilee is located) suddenly became "affordable" for some of these people from Burma.  Fast forward six years, and there is now a fairly sizable community of Karen and Karenni (two ethnic groups from Burma), living in Comer, near Jubilee. 

Since many of these people either rent or own houses without much land, Jubilee decided to create a Neighbors' Field, where refugees who passed through Jubilee and were now living near by could have a plot of land to grow whatever they liked.  They could also have a caged area to raise some animals for meat.  At this point these plots are free, but in the future Jubilee might charge a minor fee to promote a sense of ownership.

On Friday I was helping Zac (the Jubilee staff person in charge of the neighbors' field) till the soil and plant some crops in the Jubilee model plot (a plot that Jubilee maintains to demonstrate how different crops can be grown and maintained).  Here's a shot looking into the model plot:

First we cleared away mulch and the remains of some summer crops from a large section and planted some cover crops.  Cover crops are planted instead of letting the ground stay empty over the Winter to put some nutrients back into the ground.  Here is the finished product (nothing growing yet):

Finally, we removed some mulch and other plants and planted some White Egg Turnips and another plant whose name I forget in another section of the plot.  Here's the finished product for that section (the stuff we planted isn't growing yet, we just added onto the two partial rows):

And finally, here's a picture of one of the piglets in one of the Neighbors' Field animal pens (added at Sabrina's request):

Even though farming isn't my favorite thing, spending a few hours in the hot Sun raking up mulch and breaking up dirt clods renewed my appreciation for having easy access to healthy food.  Also, doing everything by hand is a lot of work.  It's probably good I don't know too much about farming technology, so I don't actually know how much easier it could have been.

-- Nate