More photos of OTEPIC's beautiful garden

The Garden as Revolution

Have you ever thought of how you can feed an ever-increasing population from a small piece of land without destroying the environment? Small farms are where agricultural advances are nurtured and new ideas conceived by people solving nature's puzzles.
When GROW BIOINTENSIVE components such as double digging, close spacing, composting, carbon farming, crop diversification, whole farming systems, and calorie farming are adopted, gardening is transformed from task to craft.
If GROW BIOINTENSIVE practices and principals are adopted, backyard and back-forty farmers can tune the existing balances of the natural system and easily grow crops that they have dreamed off. This type of agriculture is not complicated. It is a straightforward way of raising more food to feed people while feeding the soil. Difficulty only arises when you misunderstand how its magic works.
Lucky the OTEPIC Organization has adopted these amazing technologies. Lucky for me, I have learned from a number of excellent teachers over the years. I owe a debt to all of them for the knowledge I gained. Their intention to teach and help was turned into the real action. I have become a revolution artist who grows irresistible food so that our world will be whole and powerful again. See the photos of the OTEPIC garden.

Training and Enabling Villagers about Animal Rights

On Monday OTEPIC members and their friends organized a free vaccination for sheep and goats and other domestic animals. We vaccinated many animals from morning until noon. It was a great adventure.

OTEPIC believes that animals are an intrinsic part of the environment. As such, they have rights that must be respected. Animals have the right to

• live in a clean and safe environment
• express normal behavior and
• be protected from pest and diseases

OTEPIC is training farmers about animal rights. In our village, it is not uncommon for people to mistreat animals. For example, donkeys are not fitted with proper equipment for work and sustain injuries to their bodies. Commonly used methods of handling and transporting animals result in injuries to the animals, and animals are slaughtered in inhumane ways.

OTEPIC's position is that plants and animals can be combined to form an inner harmony, a symbiosis from which productivity will arise naturally while inputs are reduced. In this system ecology and economics eventually meet. Farms can become self sustaining when the manure necessary for sufficient plant growth comes from the farm and when its animals are fed exclusively from the farm's own crop production.

Animals are cool! Keep animals with dignity.

Growing plants from collected seeds

OTEPIC members are now propagating seeds in the nursery. From these plants, we will grow our gardens. The plants are healthy and growing well.

We had a "work party" and managed to build a big pile of compost today. We really enjoyed it. I wish you blessings in all of your undertakings.

Visitors from the USA Help Us Grow our Community Garden

We were recently visited by a group of students from University of Wyoming who helped in our gardens. Professor Rick Smith helped organize the visit. Students and local residents worked together planting black nightshade and other plants in our garden. We collected material to make more compost and built a new compost pile. We enjoyed our visitors and appreciate their assistance!

Communities Make Liquid Manure in Kenya's Northern Rift Valley to Avoid Using Synthetic Fertilizer

Most of our crops are doing well. But for those few that are not doing well because they were planted with less compost, we are applying Liquid Manure. So far we have trained many farmers on how to make Liquid Manure by using the Tithonium diversifolia (false sunflower) shrub and how to apply it to their crops.

Even farmers who used to buy expensive and chemical-laden synthetic fertilizer (C.A.N) for top dressing are now using Liquid Manure. It is purely organic and contains a lot of nitrogen and phosphorous nutrients and is better than synthetic for the growth of the plants.

To make Liquid Manure from Tithonium diversifolia, chop it into pieces and soak it a container of water in the shade for 7-14 days. Then mix it thoroughly and filter it through a sieve made with a gunny bag. The resulting Liquid Manure is then applied to the plants. It is full of nutrients that enrich and encourage plant growth.

Some people think the Tithonium plant is a weed but to us, it is very useful. If it is a weed, long live weeds!!!!

Weeding and Harvesting Song: Our Garden Grows

Simple Rules

Super felicitous birds, appreciative flowers,
Thick green leaves where sunlight can't reach,
Green vegetation of all comfort,
Where birds of the same feather flock together.

Every morning the queen of the garden,
Every morning the prince of the garden,
Command weeds to be wild flowers, hence no burden,
Because they are the pullers of the weeds and the planters of the seeds.

Think smart, Work smart,
Be determined, Avoid compaction violation,
Use biointensive agriculture components,
And your diet will contain all its riches.

Better to be a BIOINTENSIVE farmer,
Better to be and to train other farmers,
Digging done so well, kind of a dance,
Model so simple anyone can do it.