Mountain Jewel Goes to Baker Creek

This past weekend was the annual Baker Creek spring planting festival and it happened to be our first outreach/vending event. We put a lot into it and wanted to share a little of our experience.

Baker Creek is a large heirloom seed company that began as a Jere Gettle’s passion for gardening and has since grown into a well-known company that ships rare and heirloom seeds worldwide.

Every year 10 000 people attend the festival in Mansfield MO (an hour away from us) to connect around all things gardening and Earth based. We were honored to have a booth as part of the Rural Renaissance tent, a group focused on local community and permaculture.

We both knew this was going to be a big event, and we did all we could to prepare for it.

Everything from preparing plants for sale, designing and printing business cards, making signs and informational material and getting ready for sales. We formed a of lot of new paths and our next event wont be quite so much ground work. This was the first time we’d show up in public sphere in a big way and we wanted to represent what we’re all about; a perennial Earth based lifestyle.

Plant rack of berries, lavender and goldenseal for sale.

More than selling items, this event was all about outreach.

We made some great connections and gained insights into where people’s interests lie and what direction to head. We were offering a number of Rubus species, goldenseal plants, tinctures, books, worm kits and germinated paw paw seeds. There was A LOT of talking and it took us a few days to recover.

Mountain Jewel has been waiting to be born in both of us for quite a while.

The past few years we have been focused on establishing our homestead infrastructure, but now another layer is unfolding. This represents a phase where we touch the lives of others through connection, inspiration and empowerment.

We believe in what we’re doing and we want to share that with others. The vision for a bioregional permaculture nursery is in the nascent stages and we are starting to gather interest for educational and community involvement opportunities for this year’s straw bale house build.

Ini giving a talk on Sprouting

What this event shows us is the importance of showing up. We were unsure weather we were prepared enough, but soon realized that we had been preparing for this for years. Every work exchange opportunity, workshop, book, experiment and curiosity led us to this place. We have a true passion and desire to share the benefits of permaculture and living in connection with the earth.

Rural Renaissance Community members placing their locations within the Ozark Bioregion map

We were well received and had some very supportive responses.

Overall the event was a success and after recovering we are looking forward to future events including workshops and work parties on our land! We're all in it together and it's at events like this where we can come together and really feel that. We extend our gratitude to all of the organizers who made this event possible :)

David Haenke talking about putting the eco back in economics.

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://www.ozarkmountainjewel.com/2019/05/11/mountain-jewel-goes-to-baker-creek/

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