Noonday Notes

Issue No. 15

September 12th, 2025

This past week reminded me (again) that Noonday Farms is not meant to be a solo endeavor. Last Friday evening a group of us came together to transplant broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and cabbage. The work itself mattered, but the real beauty was doing it side by side. Often in silence, with the steady rhythm of hands settling plants into the earth, and the solidarity of being there together, tending the land.

Then on Sunday evening, after two and a half inches of rain, a few of us gathered again. I felt so much joy watching a four-year-old join in the work of planting seeds, as three servant-hearted men guided and encouraged him—mentoring, fathering, and giving him something meaningful to do. It was a picture of what I’ve been envisioning at Noonday Farms: a place where purpose is shared, where even the smallest among us are drawn in to be part of the work.

In a recent sermon at Grace, we were reminded that children need something to do—that every person needs to be drawn into the life of the body and given a part to play. That truth is coming alive at Noonday Farms. Our young farmer seeded beans, beets, and carrots, and already the beets are pushing through the soil. His father seeded turnips, radishes, and arugula, filling the garden with new beginnings.

This is the foundation of Noonday Farms: cultivating connections with each other, with the land, with our Creator, and with our neighbors who will be nourished by this food. 

As Paul writes in Ephesians,

“...from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:16).

And this is where you come in. The garden flourishes when each part does its work—when each of us joins in, whether planting seeds, pulling weeds, delivering produce, or simply showing up in solidarity with one another. Together, joined and held in love, we become the whole body.

Read the rest of Noonday Notes here.