CLASSICAL AGRICULTURE
LIRA BLOG
The Power of a Seed
By Bethany Maronde When I hold it in my hand, it is so tiny, yet so powerful. Thousands of years of intelligence are stored in the genetic code. A tiny seed has known times of drought, poor soil, harsh conditions. It also knows exactly what to do when it is in times...
Sacred Space and Local Community at Ave Maria Farm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPpGCwtWomU&t=287s Rev. Maronde speaks with Father Peter Kavanaugh of Ave Maria Farm, located in Iowa Park, Texas (https://the-ave-maria-farm.orthodoxwe...) about Christian community centered on agriculture.
The Unique Partnership between Luther Classical College and LIRA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH7OM_mgJ6Q Watch to the end for BIG NEWS regarding the future of the LIRA, and stay tuned for the next few days as we roll out more details!!
Our Webinar series begins again!
Major updates! Summer 2023 Newsletter!
JUNE-2023-Vol.1-Issue-4-LIRA-NewsletterDownload
Disaster or Success? How did our Overwinter Garden do?
https://youtu.be/mtVBTKQDIME
Homesteading as Christians: Interview with the Catholic Land Movement Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfLwUFws1S0
Talking about the future of Agriculture with Kimberly Clark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11OdRH-gDu4 In part two of this webinar interview with Kimberly Clark, associate professor of Ag Science at Concordia University Nebraska, we discuss the future challenges and opportunities in agriculture, and how CUNE seeks to prepare...
Raising up a new generation of Christian farmers at Concordia Nebraska
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCTJi2RJIYw Kimberly Clark, associate professor of Ag Science at Concordia University Nebraska, discusses CUNE's new Ag program, comparing and contrasting it with more 'secular' models at big state schools....
The Hope of Zion’s Harvest
This is a guest post from LIRA partners Rev. Timm & Hannah Heath, whose humble homestead grows in New York State’s Southern Tier. ...let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us...
Sneaky Square Foot Gardening With Succession Planting!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmtXqtVDU4E If you have a small amount of space for gardening, square foot gardening with succession plantings is a wonderful way to keep fresh food coming all season long! See what we are sneaking into the garden plan for later season...
Limitations, Faustian Economics, and a Goose Egg
If the idea of appropriate limitation seems unacceptable to us, that may be because, like Marlowe's Faust and Milton's Satan, we confuse limits with confinement. But that, as I think Marlow and Milton and others were trying to tell us, is a great and potentially a...
Spring Planting on the Hugelkultur!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkP2EUr1t5E We set out to use Permaculture techniques to increase productivity and nutrition. Check out how we have started using this "raised bed"! In this video we discuss cold tolerant vegetables to plant, perennial onions, drip...
Joel Salatin on Being a Christian Farmer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlpPvGKe3ro Rev. Maronde chats with Joel Salatin, founder of Polyface Farms in Swope, Virginia, and best-selling author of books such as 'You Can Farm!' and 'Pastured Poultry Profits,' about stewarding God's creation as a Christian....
Why This Nebraska Farmer is Excited to be Regenerative AND Lutheran! Joel Grosbach (Part1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5k7K2XmOFM Joel Grosbach, a farmer and church organist in southwest Nebraska, discusses how he approaches stewardship of the land from a Christian perspective, leaving a legacy for the generations to come and building stronger...
Pastor Maronde to speak at Concordia Nebraska Ag Week
ag-missions-speaker-23Download The public is invited to the 7pm presentation.
My $4 Self-Sustainability Experiment is a Success!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmL3yhTAo_A We are teaching ourselves how to grow these cute little plants that will save us $$ growing from seed THEN that will feed us for 20+ years!!
YES! Sweet Potato Time! How We Are Planning To Save Over $500!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr4d28PgWIg In this video we share with you two EASY methods to sprout and grow your own sweet potato slips.
Del Ficke: You Can Have Nature AND Profitability; Nuts and Bolts of Responsible Agriculture (Part 2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gd6tI_rKh8 Del Ficke, a farmer near Pleasant Dale, Nebraska and the founder of the GrazeMaster Group (https://www.grazemastergroup.com/), a collection of consultants who help farmers, ranchers, and landowners build healthy soil without...
How Del Ficke Helps Farmers Take The Leap of Faith To Building Soil AND Profits (PART 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKUMxCBip5w Del Ficke is a farmer near Pleasant Dale, Nebraska and the co-founder of the GrazeMaster Group (https://www.grazemastergroup.com/), which provides consulting services to farmers, ranchers, and landowners who wish to heal...
A Special Message for you: The Future of LIRA!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-GN0WmXszk Lutheran Institute of Regenerative Agriculture BookletDownload
The Stores Don’t Have it Year-Round, But With these Simple Supplies, I DO!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksDE9WpCTRE When our seed starting needs changed and we were going through Pre-Mixed Seed Starting Mix so fast and beyond the seasonal store supply, we found a way to expand our garden AND the savings to our budget. We save at least $50...
Saving Money with Our Own Little Greenhouse….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTW3zol33es Little Investments in Equipment Equals Years and Years of Production and Savings! Here we share our set-up and how much we invest in starting our own seeds.
Spring in February and a $4 Experiment into Self-Sustainability!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTW3zol33es Starting seeds indoors means Spring comes Already!! Here is what we are up to in February....and see what new challenge we are taking on!
Rory Left His Successful Computer Software Job for this…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT8WxZixOR8&t=7s When Rory Groves saw jobs in his work field turning over every 3-5 years and positions becoming obsolete, he sought after meaningful work that was longer lasting, durable, and family centered. Today he lives the...
Have you paid a plumber lately? These occupations are in high demand!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3DHt2gos-A Author and farmer Rory Groves discusses with Pastor Maronde the 'durable trades,' those occupations that have stood the test of time, providing resiliency for the family. To order the book:...
February 2023 Newsletter–Webinars Begin!!
Feb-2023-Vol.1-Issue-2-LIRA-NewsletterDownload
Opportunities Abound….We’re in the Grain Grinding Business!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45KZamn2Eto The opportunity has arisen for our family farm to become more sustainable, to offer greater skill set to student stewards, and to offer service to our community. Check out this short video to hear more!
Whoa! The amount of $$$ we are saving by starting these seeds is incredible!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkYo_hSKYRY Guess how much we are saving by starting these six plants VS buying from the nursery! January seed starting has begun and so has the sustainability and cost savings!!!
LIRA featured in Concordia Nebraska Alumni Newsletter!
https://www.cune.edu/news/rev-christopher-and-bethany-maronde-and-lutheran-institute-regenerative-agriculture
Three girls and a surprise! What are we doing in January?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlZTu2Sl8ug Helpers all ready, supplies are set up...now all we need are the.....
You Can’t Match the Nutritional Content of These Foods…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UTt7YXnvi8 LIRA Webinar Series: Chiropractor Brent Bultemeier lists off the Most Nutrient Dense Foods that you may want to try. Bacon Lovers Tune In!
Do you like Food? Really good for you food? Meat lovers welcome here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLInS9s0Rw0&t=15s LIRA webinar series: What are the nutritional advantages to growing your own food? Are Pasture Based Proteins actually superior? What is the Carnivore Diet? Chiropractor Brent Bultemeier shares over 25 years of...
January 2023 Newsletter
January2023NewsletterDownload
Top 3 Recommended Seed Catalogs! Best Value, Highest Quality, Best Gardener Success!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQqfvKRm5Sk
2023 Preview!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJFRLsEN6aI
Investing In Winter
In September, as our garden was in full production mode, my mind began to be pulled toward next year's garden. The garden is always about next year. This year we had 2 families subscribe to a 20 week CSA and I used every inch of my two tiny garden beds to fill the...
Dominion
(Above is a 15th century icon of Adam naming the animals) A guest post by Rev. Ian Kinney. God blessed them and said “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion” (Gen 1:28) This is the blessing of the Lord given to man both in and...
Fall is Garlic Planting Time!
Here at the Maronde homestead we finally got our garlic tucked into the ground for its winter rest. If you have a love of garlic like our family does, you probably already have it as a common staple in your own household. I wanted to take a moment to share...
Maronde Garlic Party!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj8wJF0jiIc
Helpers from near and far!
It has been an eventful couple of weeks at the farm! Arriving on the evening of October 2nd were three helpers from Texas. Matthew, Brent, and Angela spent the week with the Maronde's, hard at work cutting trees, cleaning up portions of the property, and putting in a...
Does she have the guts to do it?
It's been a quiet couple of weeks on the blog because its been a busy couple of weeks on the Maronde farm. Nearly 160 chickens have gone from the mobile shelters to the freezer, twenty-five or so at a time. Every member of the Maronde family pitched in, from catching...
Why we need LIRA
This is a guest post from LIRA partners Rev. Timm & Hannah Heath, whose humble homestead grows in New York State's Southern Tier. Before God formed the far-flung depths of the cosmos, He shaped the earth and called the first crop of life out of the ground (Genesis...
Who are the Heaths?
By Hannah Heath This is a guest post from LIRA partners Rev. Timm & Hannah Heath, whose humble homestead grows in New York State's southern tier. At any given moment of the day my husband can bellow a resounding "WHO ARE WE?” and from every room will come a...
Grandma would’ve liked to process chickens this way!
As the Maronde's get ready to process their first birds, Pastor Maronde gives a tour of the set-up, showing some newer technology that makes an old task a bit easier. The equipment pictured is from Featherman Equipment in Missouri...
Chicken Processing by Joel Salatin
As the Maronde's prepare to process their first broilers (perhaps in only a couple days!!), they've been watching a lot of YouTube videos. We'll share some of our favorites in the coming days, but we'll start with this relatively short one by Joel Salatin....
An Incredible Opportunity
What in the world am I doing? I am carrying Charlotte on one hip and dragging a 25 foot fallen tree on the other side. Sweat rolls down my face, rolls down my back, drenches my shirt. Put Charlotte down, lift tree onto brush pile, stop to take a breath, wipe the sweat...
Reclaiming the Land
From LIRA supporter John Rabe of Lincoln, Nebraska. Spending any time in farm country, as it exists today, one is struck with much to consider. Serene pastoral beauty? Good, hardy folk living as one with the land? Endless miles of lush and nutritious...
Every kid should have some chickens!
Eleven year old Samantha tells us all about the laying hens that she cares for on the Maronde farm. Caring for pets is great for kids (and we have a few of those as well!), but raising farm animals is another level of responsibility. Plus, its a lot of fun!...
A $5 Chicken Tractor
Interested in having a few chickens, but don't want to spend a lot of $$ on a shelter? Want to try out urban farming? Don't have a lot of space? Have space but want to start out small? In this video we pass along tried and true building ideas that may help you on your...
Raising your own food is as easy as Ready, Set, Go!
The Maronde family sets out to do their morning chores in record time. Will they make it? How long does it actually take to know where our food comes from? In this segment they care for the broiler (meat bird) chickens while explaining the set-up....
The Favorite Part of My Day
Happy animals make the best food, and it is the task and great joy of those humans who care for them to make them happy. The chicks that you see in this video are now much much bigger, and now they move to a new 'salad bar' each and every day, and you should see their...
Chores at Sunset
The beauty of this land is something that cameras can't quite capture, and the best time to experience the wonder of God's creation is during evening chores, as the sun is setting. Seeing the chicken shelters, ready to move (yes, we know they should be moved in the...
A Gosling Named Titania
January can be dangerous for the homesteader, especially for the dreamers who imagine what could be when faced with the blank canvas of a fresh snowfall. Some dream big, planning earthworks for a new pond, acres of food forest, a whole herd of livestock. I dream those...
The Depths of His Love
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My spade can reach, when digging in your sight For the ends of working at an ideal pace. I love thee to the level of every day’s Shovelful, from sun up to candle-light. I love...
Can the Home Economy be Restored?
Gleanings: The podcast of LIRAEpisode 2 https://youtu.be/JhQZX54NbIo What happened to the home economy? Can it be restored in the modern world? Host Rev. Martin Hill and LIRA director Rev. Christopher Maronde discuss those trades which have not only stood the test of...
Chicks arriving!
A couple of weeks ago, we received our second batch of broiler (meat bird) chicks. The little ones you see in this video are now out on grass, and loving it, eating bugs, grazing, and most importantly gaining weight! This fast-growing breed will be reading for...
Pastor Maronde Installed at Hastings and Oakland Iowa
On Saturday, August 30th, Pastor Christopher Maronde, director of the Lutheran Institute of Regenerative Agriculture, was installed as the sole pastor of Saint John Lutheran Church outside of Hastings, Iowa, and St. Paul Lutheran Church in Oakland, Iowa. He will serve...
First LIRA podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hB3LgmVTH8&t=1689s Rev. Martin Hill and LIRA director Rev. Christopher Maronde discuss Willa Cather's 'O Pioneers'