any. Jason discussed some of their plans for the farm, and his wisdom and passion inspired me. He is always ready to try new things, take on challenges, and get his hands in the dirt. In the middle of our tour, I remember being shocked when he dug his hands into the worm compost, scooped out a mound of dirt, and held it like it was a pile of gold. I swear I thought he was going to eat it. As we walked, he would pick off cherry tomatoes or berries for me to try. Every project excites him, and his excitement sends sparks wherever he goes, igniting others to be lit with a passion for learning and practicing creation care.
The farm was very young then, and it is still very young now, but I have watched this campus flourish with new life. The greenhouse is always lush with seedlings and young plants, waiting to be transplanted into either the beds just outside or into the off-campus garden that is the main source of the farm's produce. The greenhouse used to be surrounded by lawn. Now, there are fruit trees and garden beds of lettuces, potatoes, flowering herbs, strawberries, and other edible plants thriving around it. We once made healing salve from the calendula in the garden and the beeswax from the hives. My favorite part of the greenhouse, however, is the hydroponics system, a structure that sustainably grows plants and raises fish simultaneously.
After that first day, I knew I had to get my hands in the dirt. I have always enjoyed gardening and taking care of animals. I was looking forward to learning more about these things at school. While classwork makes it difficult for me to volunteer as often as I would like, I was able to work during the past two summers. During harvest, I brought home lettuce, tomatoes, and bottles of honey. It was two semesters ago when the farm really started to grow. The farm was given goats, pigs, and two Great Pyrenees dogs. Working with them last summer was a blast. I was able to watch the birth of goat triplets, and I milked a goat for the first time. The goats have given birth the past two school years while students were on campus, and these were very exciting times for us. Many of my friends would stay updated on how many babies had been born, and we would go to the barn to visit them and the dogs. This was especially therapeutic during exam weeks. They also have a few angora goats, which have wool like a sheep. Because I learned several years ago how to spin wool into yarn on a spinning wheel, this was thrilling to me, and I was able to teach some of the farmers and summer camp attendees how to make their own yarn. 
I never knew what the day would hold when I came to volunteer last summer. Some days I would be washing eggs, and other days I would get in the back of the Trevecca Urban Farm pick-up truck and hitch a ride to Perk Garden, where we would spread manure, pull weeds, or--my favorite--harvest vegetables. One day I got to use a scythe. (Yes, that is the menacing-looking thing that the Grim Reaper carries). Some days, I would help move the goats' fence around so that they could eat fresh grass. While moving the fence was not my favorite job, it is one of my favorite projects that we have on the farm, because the goats do more than just graze. The farmers have been moving them around campus in order to clear out and fertilize some areas that will be used to grow food forests. We already have young fruit trees all around campus, but some areas will be forest gardens, designed to produce as much food as possible in a sustainable way. I am envious of the future Trevecca students who get to enjoy the Eden that the campus will become. Some of my favorite times at the farm were the times when we would be working together, whether we were pulling weeds or transplanting lettuce, and we would talk about our passion for agriculture and creation-care. I was able to learn from Jason and other volunteers about permaculture practices, environmental injustices, and countless other topics that came up in conversation. I always had questions, and Jason always had answers. Sometimes we would just discuss things we had read by Wendell Berry or how we could help the community. What I learned from these times, from taking a class with Jason, and from various workshops and film forums, has been priceless. While I am not an environmental justice major, I have been blessed by that little farm just outside my apartment window. I have learned that sometimes your plans don't end up looking exactly the way you want them to, so you try again. I have learned the beauty of planting a seed and giving it up to the earth, not knowing what it will yield. I have learned from watching the hard work of the Adkins family and the volunteers what it looks like to give yourself to something you believe in, even when it means taking care of animals during a rainstorm or bottle feeding baby goats who were neglected by their mothers. I have learned things about the world that must be changed, and I have learned things about the world--practices that have been shared from generation to generation--that must be preserved. I am grateful to Trevecca, and to Jason Adkins especially, for transforming our campus into a creation-loving community and for sharing that blessing with the neighborhood.
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