Got Dirt?

It’s a simple question – Got Dirt?

No, not the scoop, or the latest gossip go’n round the pews, but YOU. Yours. Or somebody else's - Got any Dirt?

In 2011 The Potato Project finished the 13.2 Acre harvest just in time as the October Halloween snow came the very next weekend. During harvest season we had difficult times with rain and mud, and we forced our way through less then prime harvest conditions at times. Some 988 volunteers came out to help in harvest sessions, and the majority were new groups! We delivered excess of 80,000 pounds of potatoes and squash to Greater Berks Food Bank and pantries for local hungry neighbors in need. That's two tractor trailer loads - WOW!

First there was the wet Spring, and then the early Summer drought which started, followed by Colorado Potato Beetle infestation stress, and then the rains came. Many potato plots in the region experienced complete crop failure! At harvest, we had just enough volunteers ready to help serve and finish this harvest, but if we had not started with Walk-in Fridays every week since that July, we would not have finished this harvest. We were able to modernize again behind the kind donation of a new Kubota L3800HST 37HP Tractor from Dave and Naomi Owen of Trinity ELC Kutztown, and we made some post season equipment upgrades to enable us to do more with the L3800; a 3 point disc, 1 row cultivator, bigger sprayer, and slowly getting the donated McCormick PTO driven Potato Harvester rebuilt for reliable harvest service.

We were at our limit in that 2011 harvest in respect to our infrastructure and how we harvest potatoes. We streamlined and did mostly bulk harvest into bins now. These bins as supplied went mostly to The Greater Berks Food Bank whose volunteers bagged and distributed the potatoes in partnership. This was a good thing which enabled us to finish this larger harvest. With the new Kubota then, we thought we could do something more. We can serve more. We can help more. We can Walk more. We can put more on the table. We needed lots of things to do this. We need funding. We need more equipment. We need the same and additional help for seed cutting in the Spring, and especially the harvest sessions throughout the late summer and Fall seasons. We can do more acres if permitted, by planting additional acres outside of capable potato harvest, in field corn to be sold in self support, helping sustain the overall project. We needed a lot to be able to do more. But most of all, we still need more dirt! - Got Dirt?

We need more acres of land put into this program. Enough to help support The Potato Project through The Sustainability Project, enough to be able to rotate the potato plots and keep doing what we can, helping our local hungry neighbors in need, and walking in The Word. No, we cannot afford to buy or rent land, I wish we could. We are not that kind of funded Charity, it’s just us – we the people of The Church and local communities. But if you know of any sizeable land plots which might be available in our East Berks County Mission District out of the greater Kutztown and Hamburg Area, or of any additional equipment, or equipment for use, or have some and want to pitch in, please contact us as soon as possible! We’d be happy to receive almost anything workable you might like to provide - Got Dirt? At this point we are looking for up to 150 acres total under our management care, as we tend around 46 at this writing. It can be as little as one acre depending how close, and plots 3-5+ acres or more if we can work it OK. As of now we have 5+ acres committed for high density planting of potatoes this year. So, - Got Dirt?

If we are going to do continue this thing, we must commit to ordering seed potatoes, fertilizer, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides as soon as we can. So we need the dirt. We need the funds. And we need your commitments and comments - NOW. So ask around if you would. Ask the members of your congregations, clubs, and associations. Ask owners of any seen fallow land maybe to see if they - Got Dirt?

Contact: IHartHarvest, Inc. – The Potato Project http://IHartHarvest.org -`Come and see...'

> Walt Zawaski, & Linda Zawaski - Diaconal Minister, Ph: 484-648-0381, eMail: ihartharvest@gmail.com

Let us see what Walk might be done - Got Dirt? Visit: Land Share Agreement

! IMMEDIATE ACTION !

Bulletin and Newsletter Editors:

Please if you are willing, consider placing this call, in your newsletters, and spread the word:

YOUR NEWSLETTER and Sunday Bulletin INSERT;

Got Dirt?

IHartHarvest, Inc. - Potato Project would like to answer the call to provide more for more hungry neighbors in need. To do so we need many things, among the primary need is additional farmable ground put into our program to support sustainability, and food crops like potatoes, carrots, sweet corn and more. We need more funding, more help, and some more farm equipment, or live assistance commitments doing the tractor farming. If you can help please contact your Pastor, Walt Zawaski or Deacon Linda Zawaski - Diaconal Minister, Mr. Paul Lilienthal, Rev. Paul Hansen, Rev. Bob Machamer, Karen Pollock, or anyone who may know of what we're doing, as soon as you can.

Got Dirt? If you do... Contacts:

Google: IHartHarvest eMail: ihartharvest@gmail.com Ph: 484-648-0381 Hail: Walt Zawaski, & Linda Zawaski - Diaconal Minister

Thank you. – Walt Zawaski, Exec. Director.

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IHartHarvest, Inc. - The Potato Project C/O: 1892 Moselem Springs Rd., Hamburg, PA 19526 eMail: IHartHarvest@gmail.com Ph: 484-648-0381 Based from Berks County PA, USA ET

http://www.IHartHarvest.org | http://www.facebook.com/potatoproject or @potatoproject