Teaching Ag at BNTC

It's 6:39pm on the clock. I've been banished from my garden by a feisty afternoon rainstorm. I'm not complaining - grow cucumbers!  Grow radish!  Grow squash!  Grow tomatoes!  Grow! And actually, it's a good moment to sit down and share some exciting and much-overdue thoughts about BNTC.

Absentee Bloglord. Part Three: Anything and everything you could desire to know about what I do in agriculture.

Installment Three: May

Eating by Season, Fruit, 'Prune'-Ups, and Planting. :)

It's a wonderful thing to live by seasons here. In November and December we are rolling in citrus: succulent key limes, big gnarly lemons, sometimes oranges and tangerines, even. Once they disappear from the market in January and February, the tamarind comes ready on trees and everyone is walking around sucking it or shaking bottles of it mixed with water and honey. The juice is AWESOME.

Absentee Bloglord. Part Three: Anything and everything you could desire to know about what I do in agriculture.

Installment Two: April

Mango Madness & Experiments in Dehydration, Fermentation, and Preservation.

The arrival of mango season is always a cause for major celebration. First off, it's hot as it comes, and second, there's hardly anything resembling fresh produce left in the market. Excitement about what to cook for dinner hits an all-year low. The entrance of mango at just such a time of year, combined with the fact that everything here is so confined to its season has gotten me thinking since I arrived: how can one save the bounty of different seasons for the rest of the year? Caleb and I put our heads together to come up with solution #1: a solar dehydrator. Ingenius and persevering one that he is, Caleb slapped this together and we were on our way.

Absentee Bloglord. Part Three: Anything and everything you could desire to know about what I do in agriculture, not including my work at the college - ha!

RAINS, DIGGING IN GARDENS, AND PLANTING.

Installment One: March

Towards the end of dry season (March), you wonder that anything could be different. The ground is hard as rock, baked into granite by the never-ending sun. All manner of vegetation is dead and desiccated. A few trees sport their green leaves for the long haul, but others stand bare, either having dropped their clothes, or having had them eaten off by Lulu caterpillars, grasshoppers, or some other ravenous thing. Shades of bleached brown, red, and yellow stretch out as far as the eye can see - and owing to the lack of vegetation, that's a long way.

Peeks into Past and Present: Drip Tape Gardening

November 15th, 2011 saw the debut of the bucket drip-tape system. I'd been wanting to try it out for some time. Part of my role in assisting with agriculture here is trying out new things to see if they'll be useful and/or sustainable for families in S. Sudan. Dry season (6 or more months of no rain and searing sunshine) puts a bit of a damper on eating in a place where refrigerators, freezers, and processed and canned goods are practically unheard of, or out of the average person's financial reach (saving for tomato paste, perhaps).

Cruising the Highways and Byways - Part Two: Kajo Keji

Not long after our trip to Garia, we set out on a longer hike out to Kajo Keji and Juba - going southeast from Mundri. Our purpose: to visit the Diocese of Kajo Keji and their Church Community Mobilization Project (CCMP); and to stop in Juba (current capital of South Sudan) for multiple errands, securing supplies, visiting Juba University, and checking out South Sudan's first Agricultural Trade Fair sponsored by USAID.

Cruising the Highways and Byways - Part One: To Garia

The Sun-Ripened Blog is Born

As all tomatoes eventually do...most things in life - including blogs - must ripen: take on flesh, flavor, and flush.  And so, I warmly welcome you to the metamorphosed "Musings," where I truly hope that the earthy happenings of life will s l o w l y, steadily...surely take on kingdom form.

P.S. If you still want to refer to or read posts on my old blog - you'll find the link to the right along with my teammates blogs - it's also called Musings.