Good afternoon. Welcome to the Bloomington Rotary Club's weekly celebration of service. I'm Steve Wicks
and I'm honored to serve as your president for another three months. Please silence. I haven't calculated
hours, no. Please silence your electronic devices. On this day in history, March 31st, 1943, the musical
Oklahoma premiered on Broadway.
It would go on to set a Broadway record of 2,212 performances. And you can enjoy Oklahoma at our Mac
during two weekends in April. Will not be the same cast. Tim Jessen will deliver today's reflection.
Thank you, Steve. It's not yet April Fool's Day, but tomorrow is the Paschal
You should look up and see it. And Passover. And this is Holy Week for Christians. The last time I reflected
here was on Lent and Ramadan, the Islamic holiday. And so this week on Passover and Easter, you'll have
to wait till two more holidays come together before I'm here.
So I had ideas. I thought I'd invite the great baritone singer who sings in our choir at the First Christian
Church and invite him to sing something for Passover. After all, we do have singing here. His grandparents
emigrated here from Russia, and he has relatives in Israel. But then he told me, I have a class conflict.
I can't come that time. Next idea.
do a new thing. I thought I'd converse with Joy Harder from here and she would be on Zoom. Our president
likes to do new things. I thought that's a new thing. But Joy is not available today. She and I grew
up in neighboring counties at the foot of the Catskill Mountains in New York State. We didn't know each
other very well, partially because she was Jewish.
And I was an evangelical Christian. She was going to tell stories of Passover Seder's that she enjoyed.
And I was going to talk about Easter. Now I will say that we didn't have egg hunts in the Hudson River
Valley. It was too cold. And we didn't have sunrise services for the same reason. But our family had
great Easter baskets.
Our mother fixed as carefully as she fixed the Christmas stockings. We didn't have Easter ham out of
respect for our Jewish neighbors. But Joy couldn't be here. So that possibility is out. But what can
we learn about these two great holidays and seasons of reflection? Others like Aaron Davis could
tell you far more, and I hope that he will. Elma and I were interrupted in our trip to Israel by the
present war that is still going on, and so we stayed in Egypt where stories of Moses' rescue are still
told. Both the stories of the rescue of the children of Israel out of Egypt and the crucifixion are
stories of redemption. Think about it.
Yes, that brings the holidays together. How can we possibly redeem these awful days that we're living
through? The stories of war, anti-Semitism, intense polarization. My suggestion is this. Keep doing
the things that you're doing. Food bank, beacon.
Refugees, Meals on Wheels, Scholarship for the Young, and all the good things that you Rotarians do.
That is how we can best redeem this difficult time. Turn off the TV. Social networking. Think how glad
we are that we are together on these auspicious occasions.
So happy Passover, happy Easter, happy spring. I think it was St. Francis that said, if you knew the
world was going to end tomorrow, plant a tree today. Go and do likewise. Celebrate new life and redemption,
my friends. Thank you.
Tim, thank you, and also thank you for answering my plea last week for a reflection speaker today. Katie
Cerniak in the back of the room will deliver today's reflection. Oh, not reflection, sorry. Katie will
introduce our guest today. And then she will also do our drawing for the charity of the quarter for
the next quarter. Wow. That's exciting. OK, thank you.
Hello, everyone. We have three guests today in person and we have guests online as well, it sounds like.
So when I say your name, please stand so that we can properly welcome you. We have Suzanne Bexter Fleming,
guest of Liz Fiddle. We have Brad Meyer, guest of Steve Engel. And Becky Wan, also a guest of Steve Engel.
And you say we have good guests online? We do not have any guests online. Thank you. OK. Great. Thanks,
Lori. OK. OK, now for the charity of the quarter. Most of you know that each quarter, we draw a charity,
name of a charity, out of a hat. And for a long time, we've been giving that charity $100 for the quarter.
Here lately, we've been doing $200. The charity this quarter has been Amethyst South. So what Katie
is going to draw is
the charity for the next quarter. So hand in, just pull out. And the charity is Wheeler Mission. Okay,
birthdays. We have lots of birthdays to celebrate. Today, our club treasure, John Zote, is celebrating
a birthday.
Tomorrow, Steve Moberly and Sandy Keller. On the second, past club president Sarah Laughlin, Jeff Bradley,
Patrick Smith. On the third, Tina Peterson and Leanna Powell. And on the fourth, club director Lynn
Schwartzberg. Lots of anniversaries as well. Anniversaries include tomorrow, April 1st, Tina Swanson,
37 years, Monica Croner, 36 years,
Allen Boyd, two years. Don and Melinda Cedar, one year. Marcy Hibbard, Rebecca Thomas, one year. On
the second, Whitney Cordoba, two years. Also on the second, Sue Scambaleri, two stints with the club,
eight years total. So lots of birthdays and anniversaries. Announcements, please register for the Rotary
District Conference, May 8th and 9th, Galtz House in Louisville.
Lots of fun sessions Friday night. Lots of educational networking seminars on Saturday. Link will be
in the roundabout. You can register at rotaryallstars.com. Next Meals on Wheels service opportunity,
May 1st, 10 AM to noon. See Diana Hoffman if you'd like to volunteer or if you'd like more information.
Big upcoming club service project on April 18th.
10 AM to 1230. We'll be working with the Lake Monroe Water Fund to plant native trees near Stillwater
Marsh, which is east of Bloomington. We need 20 volunteers. Sign up link will be in the roundabout.
So please up. And Michelle is holding up. Is that a hard copy that you can sign up on your tables? OK.
So you can complete that and then hand it in when you're done.
Next quarter of volunteer assignments, lots of meeting roles that need to be filled. You should have
received an email from Mandy asking you to sign up. You can also find this link in the roundabout. Most
immediate need is a Zoom host for next week. Laurie Garrity stepped up this week. We need someone to
do the same next week. Community Service Committee will meet next week immediately after this week meeting.
Please plan to attend if you're a community service committee member or if you're interested in joining
the committee. Much of next week's meeting will concern the next iteration of the district grant. Both
Dave Meyer, Michelle Cohen, and Sarah Laughlin, all three of whom are very involved in this,
are here today. Feel free to ask them questions. Rotary Book Group gathering is April 15th, 7 p.m. at
the home of Judy Schroeder.
Book this time is Audrey McCluskey's Girl Child. See Sally Gaskell or Judy Schroeder if you have questions.
My Sister's Closet, hosting an evening with Maya Angelou Dinner Theater, April 10th and 11th. They planned
an elegant event at the Bloomington Country Club. Proceeds will benefit the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra
and My Sister's Closet Relocation Fund. More information, see Sandy Keller or Marcy Hibbard.
or go to the My Sister's Closet website. I'll have a very long detailed announcement about our April
14th meeting when I do my slides. And then also starting next week, as I did today, I'm going to start
at 12.02. We're trying to allow a little bit of extra time for our working members who are on a tighter
schedule to get in and get their meals, also members who are having a parking problem.
So just an extra couple of minutes before I start. And Tyler, let's go ahead and go with the PowerPoint.
So we'll start with a celebration of service. On Friday, a couple of us worked at Meals on Wheels. We
packed 100 meal kits for groceries to go.
Diana Hoffman was the brains of the operation, how she and I did the work. You can see a picture of
the three of us. And behind Diana is one of the refrigerator freezing units that our club, as part of
last year's district grant Meals on Wheels, purchased that. And it really has widened their ability
to meet community needs. OK.
So the membership quiz for today. One of these Rotarians did not grow up on the US East Coast. Your
choices are Gus Chakalas, Lynn Schwartzberg. I'm your third choice. Melinda Cedar is your fourth choice.
So when I call it out, raise your hands for the person you think is the person who did not grow up on
the US East Coast. Those of you on Zoom, please raise your hand electronically.
So how many votes do we have for Gus Chakalas? Raise your hand if you think that Gus grew up somewhere
other than the US East Coast. Oh. Boy, Gus, you didn't do very well. I'm sorry. All right, second choice,
Lynn Schwartzberg. Put up your hand if you think that Lynn grew up somewhere other than the US East
Coast. Oh.
Lynn and Gus, I hope you're doing better online than you're doing in the room. OK, your third choice.
If you think I am the person who did not grow up on the US East Coast, raise your hand. Aha. I finally
won something. But let's go all the way through. Your fourth choice, Melinda Cedar. Put up your hand.
Oh, Melinda, you're doing very well. OK. I'd say almost as many as I have.
So none of you voted for Gus. And boy, you were right on. Gus, born in Manhattan. He grew up in the
Bronx and Queens. He is as Big Apple as it gets. And here's a nice picture of Gus and Connie. Gus asked
me before the meeting, wanted to make sure that I picked an appropriate picture. And I think I did.
Those of you who voted for Lynn Schwartzberg, which is none of you,
Lynn was born in East Orange, New Jersey, grew up in Fairlawn, New Jersey. Here's a picture of Lynn
doing something with bar. I don't know what, but I imagine it's very difficult, and I can't do it. If
you voted for me, you're wrong. So I was born in Marstown, New Jersey. I grew up in Irony, New Jersey.
It's an area that supplied iron.
to the colonial army in the Revolutionary War, hence the name Ironia. And if you picked Melinda Cedar,
you were wrong. Terre Haute native, Melinda moved to California as a teenager. Oh, that's right, yeah.
OK, let me try this again. So Melinda moved to California. Luckily, with the case of all of us,
As is the case with many in the club, we have lots of members from somewhere else and they've all found
their way to Bloomington and hopefully all of us are making a difference. A reminder, Happy Dollar proceeds
in March and April will be given to the Bloomington Rotary Foundation. We don't have plans for Happy
Dollars today. Rotary's seven areas of focus, which I've shown before.
And we're finishing March, which has been water, sanitation, and hygiene month. Now, the involved
announcement. April 14th, two weeks from today, do not come to the union. Don't go here. Don't go to
the French Panier Room. Don't go to the Georgian Room. The union, our agreement with the union, they
have the right to ask us to not meet certain times during the year when they're especially busy. April
14th is one of those days.
OK. And so we're going to be meeting that day at the Heading Home Regional Housing Summit. Be at the
Monroe County Convention Center. It's an all-day affair. Gosh, this thing is just kind of going on its
own. All-day affair, 8.30 to 5 PM. There will not be a Zoom option that day, so I apologize for that.
So some specifics. You can go online to Heading Home.
dot org and register, which will cost you $25. Or for the great price of $15.11, you can sign up through
the club. And we'll have an old-fashioned sign-up sheet outside. We'll be emailing you a sign-up genius
electronic link if you want to do it electronically. Club option, once again, is $15.11, includes the
program and lunch. And then you'll be invoiced at the end of the quarter as if it were a regular meal.
Sign up deadline is next week, April 7th. And once you register and we register with the event, even
if you can't make it, you'll be billed. Here's the agenda. And this is probably very hard to read. Lots
of breakout sessions. If you want to come for the whole day, that's great. But if you want to get your
lunch, lunch is at 1145.
And then there's a panel afterwards, and then the keynote speaker is speaking at 1.30. Theme of the
day, exploring innovative approaches to housing that can be implemented in South Central Indiana, resulting
in stable places to live for all residents. I have one club member.
who is a housing advocate on behalf of Bloomington Rotary for the event. So thank you very much for
that. Same club member is paying the difference so that members pay $15.11 for lunch instead of $25
for lunch. To the best of my knowledge, parking should be free behind the convention center. So we hope
you can make it. Once again, unlike a regular weekly meeting when you can kind of show up and we don't
need to know in advance, this will be one where you need to sign up
so that we can give a head count with names to heading home so that when you arrive there on the 14th,
you'll be on a list and you'll be able to get in free of charge. OK. We had a Paul Harris ceremony planned
for today. That isn't going to happen. We had some technical issues. So I think we're ready, Wilson,
if you want to introduce our speakers for today.
Good afternoon, my fellow Rotarians. It's truly my pleasure to introduce to us today two remarkable
individuals, Robert Fu and Yuan Carlos. Since first connecting with Robert and Yuan in early 2022, they
have become not only dear friends, but also very valued mentors. When I learned they would be joining
us today, I asked if
they might bring along some fresh produce from some promissor farm. And they graciously arrived with
spinach. I have a whole bag of spinach over there. Please see me privately. I could share some of that.
So thank you. Thank you so much, Robert and Yuan. I really appreciate your generosity.
Now, something interesting that Robert and Yuan have shared with me is that their journey into farming
did not begin in agriculture, but in a shared belief that land can transform lives and strengthen
communities. And so I invite you to stay tuned to learn more. So Robert and Yuan, we are truly grateful
to have you here with us today.
And now I would like to invite us to give our guest a warm rotary welcome, but in a Kenyan style. Okay.
In Kenya, when we receive important guests, we show our appreciation through rhythmic clapping and gentle
stamping. So this is how it goes. We clap one, two, three, and one, two, three, and welcome. Welcome.
Yuan, we love you. We appreciate you. Thank you for coming. Welcome. Stop. Please, you're welcome, our
good friend.
Good morning. Good afternoon. I'm going to try my best to stay right here because I understand there's
a limitation with the camera and it's not going to be moving. So are we both in a good position to be
seen by the Zoom crowd? Yes. So I don't need to worry so much about speaking close to this mic here,
do I, since I have this on?
It's very nice to be here. And I sense there's a lot of kindred spirits and just some of the stories
and things that were set up here after we had sat down. So it's always important to be a part of a community
and to play a role in the community also.
In the year 2002, we met someone very special from Bloomington. We met Lucille Bertuccio. And it was
through Lucille that we really started our journey being a part of Bloomington. And we were living in
Brown County at the time, but we had really a strong desire to meet more people in Bloomington.
and in a community that had been very welcoming and open to people from many places and many different
kinds of backgrounds. And so Lucille was a dynamic personality and someone that we clung to and stayed
under her wing for many, many years. We learned a lot about the care of the environment
and about native species and plants. And we created a huge garden in Brown County, focused on that.
We also became a part of the program that Lucille was leading through the Center for Sustainable Living,
which was through the National Wildlife Federation, was the backyard habitat program. And we learned
to become backyard habitat stewards.
We did several classes where we trained others to be a part of that program. We installed backyard habitats
in people's yards, in churches, businesses, not-for-profits, and schools and hospitals. And through
those years, we developed good relationships and long-lasting relationships with the people who were
stewards along
with us and we continued to laugh at a lot of the adventures that Lucille got herself into with the
city of Bloomington and trying to stay under the radar with how yards were cared for and what it was
to raise natives within the city. So in a few years after getting involved in that program,
We helped Bloomington become a citywide habitat community. It was only the 25th in the nation. And it
was a big accomplishment for us and for those who were working with us. So when this was all done and
we got our recognition from the mayor of Bloomington at the time, we looked at each other and we said,
what's next? And so we had a desire to grow food.
and move a little bit beyond only growing natives, although we wanted to keep that a part of what we
were doing. And we decided that the way to do that was to create a farm, to create a 21st century farm
with a piece of land that really was not in the best condition. And we wanted to bring it back to life.
And so in 2012, we founded Sobera Mesa Farm,
And the idea of the farm was that we would not just have a farm that was raising food for us, but we
wanted to share that farm with the community around us. So we created a structure of bringing in schools
and senior citizen groups. What else was it we brought? Tours for the community. Tours for the community.
And so we had to
start from the ground up with just a piece of land that had cattle on it and nothing else, and it did
not have access to water, to municipal water. And in Monroe County and Brown County both, very difficult
to be able to drill for a well. And so this land was in Monroe County. It was really close to Unionville. And
So we decided that we would try our best to get municipal water, and in the end, we finally did. We
also brought a barn from Fort Wayne area, and we had the barn reconstructed by a group of Amish. It
was a barn from 1850, and it was an English threshing barn. It was not the type of barn you would find
in southern Indiana. And then we brought a hoop house,
for growing food through help with the NRCS Natural Resource Conservation Service. And we created a
structure for tools and another barn was built by the Amish for the goats and the chickens. And finally
in the end in 2018, we built a house.
So it was really a six year journey of trying to create a barn from the bottom up and trying to grow
orchards and perennials and annuals and try to improve the way the land was, the resources that were
falling on the land we wanted to capture and that required utilizing permaculture principles. And we
dove into that
head on and didn't even have our certificate in permaculture yet after we'd already started the farm.
But we knew that was really a concept that we agreed with because it included natives and it included
animals. And so from that, we finished creating the farm and then finally in around, I think,
Somewhere in there between 2014 and 2016, we had a visit from the Washington Mandela Fellows. They came
to Bloomington. It was a program that was created under the Obama administration in 2014. And they were
a group of young professional Africans who came from various nations. And there was a group of thousands
of them that came to the United States.
They visited different cities. They were divided into groups of about 20 or 30 people and they came
to Bloomington. When we learned they were coming, we really wanted to welcome them and come to our farm.
And we learned so much from them in that one day. And we learned that, you know, this was really something
that was an inspiration for us.
and that we needed to make sure that we included other cultures in the sort of in the movement and in
the advancement of the farm. We reached out to Exodus refugees in actually they were only in Indianapolis
at that time. We did not have a program set up yet in Bloomington. And so we tried to get people to
come to work with us at the farm.
We knew that there were people who were refugees that came to Indiana that had a lot of experience in
growing food and would certainly have different ideas and different skills than what we had. And we
wanted to learn from them and we wanted to teach them. And so we were successful eventually in bringing
refugees to the farm and we were able to train six of them
over the course of the last few years. And we worked closely with Exodus in providing what we felt was
really a form of employment for people who didn't have a lot of great options in Bloomington. And we
knew that there was healing in the land. Putting your fingers into the soil is a way to heal the spirit
and the soul. And so that's very emotional for me, excuse me.
will continue. So yes, through the process, we saw the transformation when they go after, you know,
living with trauma and all the experiences, how slowly they were changing and really being part of a
community that we need were farmers here. So we decided from there to start teaching.
them how to grow on a seasonal environment because a lot of them come from the tropics like myself.
So they knew or they know how to grow food, especially summer crops, but not the ones from the cold
season. So then we decided the best way would be let's create a foundation because we need the support,
funds especially, to really put a program that we will be able to teach them
create like internship, they would be paid well and after that they could stay at the farm or the location
farming and create a micro business. They could learn how to do a CSA or sell a farm stand. Anyway,
so we, yeah, be integrated in the community even with the limitations of English, they still would be
a very, very important thing for us here. So that's what we did.
we create a foundation. And one of our board members used to be the director of IU Campus Farm. And
he told us IU doesn't want to do or continue with the program. And we started a relationship with the,
what is the name of the place? Sorry, the- Inkle Garden. Yes, thank you. So from there, we,
we got a grant and we were able to lease the land. So now the training farm, let's say that way, is
going to be here in town, which is much easier for them. They could walk, bike, or take a bus to go
to the place. And the idea, so we are going to start like a community farm
which all of them will farm together, share responsibilities, and share the produce to the community.
So in the excess or the abundance, we will be sent to a bank or food bank. And we already have a relationship
with a penalty 279. And so that's what we're going to do, something else. Part of the seed money that
came to help us support the project, came through Farm Aid. Probably many of you have heard of that.
A group of musicians started that in the early 1980s, and it's gone on to be really a nationwide event
hosted in various states. In 2023, it was hosted in Fishers, Indiana, and they invite us to be one of
the featured farms at the event. So through that relationship,
Um, we sort of, uh, asked for support. We got it. And we have tried to work with a grant writer since
then also. And that has been very challenging because as you know, grants are very limited now and more
people are trying to get the same grant as everyone else is. So it's extremely competitive.
And we have had minimal success with the grants, but we were not, we were not giving up our passion
to do this project and to do yet something else for the community of Bloomington, for refugees, immigrants,
and for other people also who wish to become a part of an emerging farmer training. So that's really
where we are now.
We've been hitting the apartment complexes, the housing areas all around what is now we're calling the
Daisy Garden Community Farm. And we've already gotten several people very interested and we're excited
to see what they bring, the energy they bring and to create something that is unique in Bloomington.
It's very different than a community garden
where people have small plots. The idea behind this is really focused on trying to bring people together
to create a farm, to work together, to take care of everybody's crops, and everybody gets to share in
the abundance, and we get to give back. And we give back to pantries where many of the same people are
already going and trying to feed their families from those pantries.
So we're going to start now with the slides. So as you can see here in this picture, it's a group of
people who look like they're at a workshop. And the gentleman on the right is Jairo Restrepo. He lives
in Colombia and was born there.
He has traveled around the world and we were very lucky to have him here in Bloomington twice so far.
Three times. Three times so far. He does a workshop and intensive training for four days on specific
type of regenerative agriculture, creating amendments and learning how to bring to the land what you
are produced at the land, which you already have there. This picture here is a part of the area where
we're growing food. We use a lot of companion planting, because if you recall, I mentioned
about permaculture. And this is the same type of concept that we want to use at the Daisy Garten community farm.
The produce that we're going to be growing, again, it's to help many of the participants to feed their
families and also to grow, we're going to be growing in abundance so that they can find other people
in their community, whether it's their church community or their language community, their friend network
who would be interested in
supporting them through this venture by purchasing a community-supported ag share. And the idea is that
they're going to be earning while they learn. So there'll be growing food and selling food and we'll
be acting sort of as the arm that's the market manager for them.
That's our mission statement. This young gentleman here is from Syria. His name is Wael and he's been
at our farm for almost three years. This talks about the
the foundation and how the farm was working closely with the foundation to provide some of the support
and partial infrastructure. And this is our team on the board right now. We are looking for more board
members. That's it. I think that's all. So we would love to hear from you if you have questions.
We would be happy to answer them. Where is your farm located? So the farm is close to Unionville on
Mount Gilead Road. It's probably from here, 20 minutes at the most, depending on the traffic. Yeah,
I see some bikers here that pass by. I just saw them. So it's a really friendly road for bikers, too.
Hi, I was wondering if you're going to have a farm stand as well as the CSA. Yes, we are. Yes. There
is one question here.
Really upright. I saw James Farmer's name there. And if I recall correctly, he was doing the IU garden.
And I think that is no more. And that space, are you using that space there? Right there on, we all
know where it is there, on 10th and Fee Lane. Right. So this is where you have
some of the training going on. Yes. Yes. Okay. So that people don't have to get out to Mount Gilead
Road. No, no, but if you want, you're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. I just wanted to get that clarified.
Yeah. I get you exercising. We were at,
Sober Mesa Farm a few years ago with the fourth grade or third grade visits. Our Rotary Club, it was
our district grant for that year. Maybe some of, I don't know, were any of you, any other of you there?
Yeah, Sally was there. But I'm wondering if that's still going on. Can they still do the farm to school
program? They will do that again in the fall. I believe September, October probably, yeah. We got an email.
from Stephanie, who is the person in charge coordinating the program at the beginning of March.
So in May, she said we will exchange more emails to find the dates for the schools to come. What part
of this are you doing at the Henkel farmhouse area? So mostly the training. So we will teach them how to
work through the seasons and use high tunnels or hoop houses to extend the season. So they could go
farther close to December or overwinter the crops. That way we will have food or they will have food
all year round. Welcome.
Thank you so much, Robert and Yuan, for your presentation. Mine is not a question, but just a word of
appreciation. I know I worked with you on Sobromesa Farm. When I met Robert and Yuan, I had been requested
by Exodus Refugees Immigration to go to the Sobromesa Farm to help with the translation, because they
were working with immigrants from East Africa
who actually had zero skills of English communication skills. And so they could only speak Swahili and
so they needed a translator. So I went there and worked with Robert and Yuan and they were doing amazing
job because their activity was transformational. They were getting these immigrants who came here with
zero skills
with no employment opportunity and started them off by offering them employment, nurturing them. And
it was just amazing to see the growth of those immigrants. And I just want to appreciate you and thank
you so much for that amazing job.
We're going to get two for one here. How do you decide which animals? I mean, the goats and chickens
are an interesting combination. And then about the vegetation that you're planting, what are you planting
this year? That's a very good question and a tricky one. So animals are a very important part of the
cycle when you try to create an ecosystem.
Like in the woods, there are so many creatures contributing to the fertilization of the woods. So we
are trying to do the same here. So we bring animals to help with the manure, help to the pest control,
and also to the enjoyment when you see those dogs, guinea fowl, and the goats running around. So that's
also good for our soul.
Thank you very much for this. Would you explain one more time, where is the farmer's market going to
be, the farm stand going to be? So the Hinkle Garden Farmstead, which is there across from IU, some
of the IU buildings, and it's really, the whole property is on the corner, basically, at Pete Ellis Drive.
and 10th Street or 45. And so a portion of that farm has been rented out previously to create the IU
campus farm. That's about eight acres. And so that section there is where we're going to be farming.
There are hoop houses there. There's a fence that was constructed. There's orchards. There are some
other perennial crops there as well. And there are bees there.
So we're excited to manage that. And we're going to allow part of that decision about what is going
to be grown as far as annual crops to the participants. Some of them may have very specific ideas about
types of crops they want to grow. And we'll have to try to help adapt that idea maybe to things that
will be more successful in the Indiana climate.
But certainly vegetables around the world share a lot of things in common. And so I think we can find
something that will work. We've been very fortunate. We got a lot of donations from companies for seeds.
We've tried really hard to get donations for tools. We're still working on that. And yeah. I was into it.
You probably all know the post office on 10th Street. It's just across from the post office. Any questions?
So what's the backstory? How did you guys get together? How did you decide to embark on this? What's
the origin story? Well, we both met here at IU. Juan Carlos was taking classes in
English? English. And I was here interpreting. I was interpreting in the program for a young lady who
was from Puerto Rico. And I was a trilingual interpreter, so I knew Spanish, American Sign Language,
and English. And so I was using all those three languages with her to help her move through the program
to learn English.
And we met in the hallway one day and also at the, what was that house called? The International House.
Yeah. And so every Thursday they would have like a coffee hour and it was like United Nations. Everybody
was supposed to be there practicing English, but that was not happening. Everybody was practicing culture,
their culture. And so they would all form into groups and they were all
speaking in their own language. And I was able to sort of navigate the Spanish department and help bring
this young lady into that and help her communicate with them. So that's where we met. And that's how
it all got started. Yeah. And for me, it was, I mean, I didn't know English then, so it was a good way
to connect to the community in town. And that's why we started volunteering with Lucille at the CSL.
I saw there was another question. I'll say I'll throw in one real quick one, too. So the reason they're
here today is that Liz Irwin said, I know this thing called the some rest of some remains of foundation
is run by a guy named Robert fruit. And I'm like, what? I know, Robert, how this I don't understand
the connection here. So I've known Robert for 10 years as an ASL interpreter. He's been supplying ASL
interpreters to me in the community for various programs that I run it at the
at the city. And so I was like, Oh, yeah, I'd love to connect up with them. But Wilson probably knows
them a lot better. So let's have them introduce them. So how does that come into play? I mean, you're
doing that full time, right, Robert? And you're doing this farming. So really, you know, farmers have
to juggle a lot of different things in today, particularly when you're not doing traditional crops like
corn, bean and, and wheat.
So we have to have all farm jobs. And both of us work as interpreters. And I had an interpreting agency.
I still do. I'm still using that to help support the farm and to help with all facets of it, including
working with the foundation. So that interpreting agency provides interpreters in many different languages.
We do some of that for IU, do it for the state of Indiana, and for a lot of doctor's offices. That's
really the core in hospitals throughout sort of the central and south central part of Indiana. And so
that's how that is sort of woven into the farm. And we might have a question online. Laurie, was there
anybody? No?
Okay. The thing that fascinated me the most when we were there was the idea that of climate change,
you know, agriculture, ahead of climate change, and you were growing things that that were right on
the northern possible most possible moment, you know, part of the country thinking that
things were going to be moving north. Could you talk about that a little bit? Do you want to mention?
Okay. So, you know, one of the things that attracted us originally to doing the farming was number one,
natives, and they're very resilient. And there are a lot of natives that provide food and sometimes
superfoods and
We also relied upon permaculture to help us in the selection of different cultivars that were coming
from Kentucky and in the hopes that as climate was changing here, things were warming up, that we would
be able to grow things, which when I grew up in, I'm from Kokomo originally, we were in zone five at
that time.
went to 5A, 5B, and really now we're sort of 6A. And so that transition is really accommodated a lot
through permaculture. And so we chose those cultivars that could deal with some of that weather. You
try to purchase trees, fruiting trees that are dwarf and semi-dwarf, that are considered late blooming.
And sometimes that was not possible. We ended up with a few early blooming things. And that has been
a challenge every year. We have them there for the beauty, for the bees, which is important, very important.
But we don't often get fruit from them because we now have so many changes in weather patterns.
And this year, for example, we will have very few pairs. If any, we will have no plums. Uh,
we will not have, possibly not have peaches. We'll see. Um, and apples we don't know yet. So that's
really the state of the affairs of farmers.
in Indiana and through this whole belt that runs through the Midwest. And it's a difficult journey for
all of us. Yeah, and I want to say too, so since we don't use any chemicals, so it's always experimentation
and learning how we're going to work with nature that benefits us with the special fruits that we're growing.
But yeah, it's a huge challenge for not only for us, for all the farmers in all the places here in North
America, Europe too. It's going to be tough. Can I just mention, since I'm online, that you can go to
their website and sign up for their newsletter and also to get information on their CSA?
Robert and Juan Carlos, thank you very much for most interesting presentation. I think you have a room
full of future customers here. So hopefully, the weather will cooperate. I want to thank you for the
presentation. In honor of your talk, a donation we made this quarter to Amethyst House, I'd like to
thank today's volunteers, Ruth Boschkopf, Katie Cerniak, Wilson Cetandi, Laurie Garrity, Kim Jessen,
Ashley Wesley, Michael Shermas, Jeff Richardson, Mike Baker. Our next regular meeting will be April
7th, will be downstairs in the Georgian room. Club member Dr. Mark A. Winston will speak to us about
strong schools, strong community, strong future. Please join us. So Tyler, if you'd put up the graphic
for the four way test, please stand if you are able and join me
of the things we think, say, or do. First, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concern? Third,
will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all concern? And fifth,
is it fun?