Yesterday, our Agricultural Training Center received a special gift from a special missionary friend of ours, Corey Thede. Corey is a sustainable agricultural specialist who has been serving in Haiti with his wife, Dr. Kris Thede, for many years. Corey has been growing some Mulberry trees as part of his missionary work, and yesterday he gifted us some of his Red Mulberry trees. These excellent trees will serve as our “mother trees” that we can make cuttings from to propagate many, many more Mulberry trees to distribute in villages where we work. A mature Mulberry tree will provide good, nutritious fruit for the people, who eagerly harvest the mature fruit. Also, when any fruit falls to the ground, the seeds in the fruit are a great source of “free food” for foraging chicken flocks. These large and hardy trees don’t grow well from seeds, so they are usually propagated by cuttings, and that is why Corey has been growing these trees for us for a few years.

As more and more of these Mulberry trees get established throughout Haiti, it will provide sustainable food for Haitians and chickens, as well as other birds. This is an exciting part of our sustainability outreach – Helping Haitians to help themselves and provide food for life. We are very grateful to Corey for his work and his gift, and also to a nearby missionary, Mike Martin, who helped by delivering the Mulberry trees to our ATC. Thank you!