Sprouting Surprise!

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Darwin's checking out samples in El Naranjo
We have our first samples of bean in the ground! Since July we have been promoting who we are and speaking to farmers about our certified red bean seed. Finally, planting season came in late September and October. We have about 27 people who have planted our beans! All of the samples have been a kilo's worth of seeds, with the exception being four farmers in the community of El Naranjo. We gave out five pound samples there because we gave an intro workshop and four men were very interested and showed commitment to plant the seeds. 

It has been a very, very rainy season in Nicaragua and even more in Jinotega. Six of these sample plots were washed away by the rains, one sample was eaten by a horse! Hurricane Julia passed in October and washed away a lot of crops. Four farmers have decided to wait until December to plant their samples. This is when the dry season starts and they can have better success in their planting. 

We have learned a lot about our region's agricultural practices and will continue to learn! Beans are often looked at as a fill in crop, something that is just planted at the end of the growing season and not taken to seriously. Hearing the stories of farmers experiences with beans, it is understandable why they do not see beans as a viable crop in their areas. They have been given and bought seeds that do not germinate, they plant four or five beans to a hole, hoping one seed will germinate! 

Four plants in one hole! 100% germination

We instructed the farmers to only plant two seeds per hole with our seeds, but they didn't believe us and now they have four plants growing out of one hole! All of the farmers are shocked, and happily surprised! We are approaching 50 days old on some of the samples and the bean pods are growing healthy. Another delightful surprise for the farmers, they see 10-12 pods per plant, when before they were only used to getting two or three! 

Leafy and healthy red beans in San Marcos, Jinotega



10 - 12 bean pods per plant at 50 days

This is the beginning of our long term relationships with these farmers. They learn about us, our seeds and how we work with integrity. We do our best to model reliability in what we say and how we work. All the while showing these men, God is the reason to celebrate this growth, and through adversity in surviving the elements we press on and rejoice in the Lord Jesus! We have around ten men who have committed to using our seed at the first planting season in May 2023. We ask you to continue to pray with us for deeply rooted relationships, and beans too!

Location: Jinotega, Nicaragua

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