What is a "Yarden" Anyway?

The term "yarden" is derived from two words related to gardening - yard and garden - combined to create a new word  - which I call a "yarden".  In other words, yard + garden = yarden

A yarden is not a farm, as we know it. Rather, it has more in common with what is currently referred to as an "urban farm" - a residential plot in a town or city (it's your home and the small piece of land that goes with it). transformed and used to produce mostly fruits and vegetables and/or support smaller forms of livestock. Described in a simpler way, it is a small farm in a neighborhood.

And though a yarden is similar to an urban farm, it is also different than those that focus on growing food only. A yarden is both a garden, where produce is grown, and a yard, where beautiful flowers and foliage are displayed. It supports not only produce and livestock, but also flowers in abundance for their inherent beauty and also to attract necessary pollinators to the plants that produce the food.

God created this magnificent synergy between beauty and and fruitfulness. Not all urban farms are yardens. In fact, nearly all urban farms that I have seen are not (flowers are not considered important). But all yardens are urban farms in that they exist in the confines of a city or town and produce food.

Home, Beauty and Bounty

A yarden, in my thinking, also exists to recreate Eden, the original "yarden", a place that provided home, beauty and fruitfulness. God intended Adam and Eve to make their home in Eden, to cultivate beauty there via the myriad of ornamental shrubs, trees, vines, flowers and greenery that He had created for mankind's delight. Eden was also to be our first parent's onsite eatery, with it's diversity of foodstuff provided from the ground up.

Of course, Adam and Eve did not have to struggle with what we do on this side of Eden - thorns, thistles, weeds and aching backs as a result of the sin that took place in that original garden by the original stewards of that "yarden".

Nevertheless, all three provisions originally given by God still exist - home, beauty and bounty. That environment was a place that provided sanctuary (home), that was aesthetically pleasing (beauty) and magnificently productive in terms of food (bounty or fruitfulness), and everything else whereby man needed to live abundantly and in communion with his Creator.

All three are equally important in the big scheme and that's what this blog is all about - discovering what God provided for man from the very beginning in relation to his physical being. Food still grows out of the earth, animals continue to provide for mankind's sustenance, the exquisite colors, textures, fragrance and glorious eye appeal of beautiful plants have not ceased to delight us and, of course, the sweet sanctuary and comfort of home is something we all long and look for.

And as you can see from the title of this blog, we've named our little farm "The Yarden of Feedin'. It is a bit of Eden for us and, of course, it feeds many hungry mouths. In fact, it feeds both of us, it feeds neighbors, friends and loved ones, it feeds our animals and lastly, it feeds itself in the form of compost. 

The Yarden of Feedin'

So let us discover and revisit this Eden. It's not at all perfect by any means, but it remains the closest environment to heaven we can find on this side of glory.

Besides that, I started out my life on a farm and though my family had to give up that dream and move to the city, my heart remains on the farm. I've discovered that you can take the girl off the farm, but you cannot remove the farm from the girl. More than anything else, that's probably why I, though still off the farm and still in the city, have, along with my husband, transformed the small city plot we live on into a blend of home, farm and garden. It's a wonderful life that continually points us back to our Creator and Redeemer.

Come join us as we seek to bring God glory here on the Yarden of Feedin'.