Social Justice – gregoryjoel.com

Activism, Choices, Citizenship, Community, Courage, Culture, Environment, Faith, Food Justice, Grace, Persistence, Quotes, Service to Others, Social Justice, The Future

“We don’t have the right to demand perfection from each other. But we do have the right to expect progress. To demand evolution. So, let’s make some new mistakes.” – Naomi Klein

September 10, 2020 gregoryjoel

Activism, Belief, Choices, Christian Mysticism, Christianity, Community, Courage, Culture, Faith, God's Economics, Grace, Jesus, Politics, Practice, Prayer, Quotes, Racism, Relationships, Revival, Social Justice, Spirituality, Truth, What Can I Do

“People of faith, in this moment, must decide: Shall we follow a dark-skinned Palestinian Jew, who cast his lot with those who had their backs against the wall, or will we march with the advisers of Herod, hoping our presence is enough to keep an arrogant Herod from harming all the Hebrew children?” – Otis Moses III, Senior Pastor Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago

August 1, 2020 gregoryjoel

Community, Creation, Donations, Down On the Farm, Environment, Faith, Fighting Poverty, Food Deserts, Food Equality, Food Insecurity, Food Justice, Gardening, Gratitude, Neighbors, Non-Profits, Nutrition, Opal's Farm, Prayer, Regeneration, Service Organizations, Service to Others, Simplicity, Social Justice, Spirituality, Summer, Tarrant Regional Water District, Trinity River, Uncategorized, Unity Unlimited, Inc., Urban Farming, Volunteers, What Can I Do

It’s Getting Hot!

July 12, 2020 gregoryjoel

The “feels like” (heat index) reached 116 degrees yesterday. July has definitely arrived in North Texas. Daily irrigation is a must at Opal’s Farm, so I’ll be heading down there shortly. Before I do though, I needed to give a shout out to our volunteers who have braved last week’s heat. We had an amazing amount of vegetables to bring to market, both for Cowtown Farmers Market and the neighborhood market, and donate to food banks this week.

A huge shout out to Stacey Harwood, our Volunteer Coordinator, Ethan, for leading the way for all our volunteers this week. We’re still harvesting tomatoes, peppers (several varieties), cucumbers, spaghetti squash, and the okra (both the heirloom and the spineless varieties), summer squash and purple hull peas are coming in strong. Texas 1015 sweet onions are still available but going fast. We’ll be taking the first cantaloupes of the season this week and little watermelons are appearing all over the watermelon patch.

Just a reminder that we’ll be at 4409 Sycamore School Rd on this Thursday between 9 AM and 11 AM with the Cowtown Neighborhood Market. Please come by and see us!

We’ve also had several people make requests for bushel amounts of produce, especially purple hull peas and tomatoes. If you have a special request or simply can’t be at any of our farmers markets, please feel free to stop by the farm or call us at 817.333.8367. You can also reach us through our Facebook page, opalsfarm, or our website at www.unityunlimited.org.

Activism, Bad Weather, Community, Culture, Donations, Down On the Farm, Environment, Faith, Fighting Poverty, Food Deserts, Food Equality, Food Insecurity, Food Justice, Freedom, Grace, Gratitude, Heroes, Hope, Juneteenth, Neighbors, Non-Profits, Opal's Farm, Persistence, Racism, Regeneration, Service Organizations, Service to Others, Social Justice, Spirituality, Spring, Uncategorized, Unity Unlimited, Inc., Urban Farming, Volunteers, What Can I Do

Growing and Going…

June 23, 2020 gregoryjoel

Down at the Farm – Our social media pages have been somewhat neglected over the last three weeks. Many of you know my son passed on May 29^th. Thank you to the many friends of Opal’s Farm and our great volunteers for keeping the farm going during my absences and your words of condolences. The wonderful (and sometimes not so wonderful) thing about the farm is that it grows and goes despite life showing up in ways I’d prefer it not to. I’ve been so busy playing catch up that I’ve failed to update everyone. Believe me, there’s a lot happening!

First, we rode in the Juneteenth celebration and caravan on Friday. It was incredible to see the love and support for Juneteenth and for making it a Federal holiday. It was even more incredible to see the diversity of the crowd in both the caravan and along Lancaster Avenue as we followed Ms. Opal to Will Rogers Auditorium. The time for unity is now. Ms. Opal is right. Juneteenth is a unifier!

I would love to thank each of our volunteers who participated in the caravan as well. Thanks Mike and Alexis for riding your bikes alongside Ms. Opal and those walking with her. Thanks to Stacey, Ethan, and Averie for making a lot of noise and helping hold the Opal’s Farm banner for all to see. A huge thank you to Blue Zones Project Fort Worth for making the banner possible! It now proudly hangs in our booth at each of our markets!

To make Juneteenth even better, Ms. Opal’s petition to make Juneteenth a Federal holiday has passed ONE MILLION signatures. We all well on our way to 1.5 million! Ms. Opal started out with the goal of 100,000 signees. I think we’ve passed it. It’s not to late to sign the petition. Please go to www.opalswalk2DC.com today!

Finally, it was announced that Senator John Cornyn of Texas will introduce a Senate Bill declaring Juneteenth a Federal holiday. NPR also reported the Representative Sheila Jackson Lee has a House Bill with over 200 co-sponsors for Juneteenth. Things are happening folks so let’s celebrate and keep pressing forward.

The farm has been coming right along this Spring. Last Saturday was Tomato-palooza at Cowtown Farmers Market (www.cowtownmarket.com) and we had some serious tomato action happening. We have produced over three hundred pounds of tomatoes so far! We didn’t have only tomatoes, of course. We had cucumbers, green beans, peppers of all kinds, squash (several varieties), onions, potatoes, carrots, and best of all, purple hull peas (and they are really coming in…).

Thanks to all our volunteers. We’ve had several new folks who signed up this last week to come work at the farm. Unfortunately (at least for them), the weather hasn’t been conducive to volunteering. We love the rain, though. Hang in there and come out when the sun comes out!

You all can find us at www.unityunlimited.org/opalsfarm to sign up or donate today. We make each donation count as we move forward into the Fall planting season! See you soon…