I’ll explain.

The Backyard Harvest Project (ByHP) is a idea that has been bouncing around in my mind for at least eight years now. The idea first manifested itself when I was in the construction field and my friend James Ray and I were siding a house together.  Over the years I have done almost everything in the trades.  We were in a home owners backyard and it was about mid September.  In that backyard were a few fruit trees that, from the looks of it, hadn’t been harvested for years.  Right there we saw ripe beautiful peaches falling to the ground.  I commented that it was very sad to see, and James responded that if I could figure out a way to harvest all the food that went to waste in peoples backyard I would control the biggest orchard in the world.

Now it has never been my intention to corner the market in peaches or any other commodity, but maybe I could help stop some of the waste.

As I said, the idea bounced around, but everyone that I talked to told me that it was too big of an idea or that I needed the “perfect” business plan in place before I did anything.  Well this last spring it was really eating at me that I hadn’t done anything with this idea, when out of the blue a gentleman saw a powerpoint that I had made.  While visiting with me and walking through my families garden, he asked what, if anything, I would do differently in my own garden. Without thinking I said “nothing, I just need more space”.  He invited me to immediately follow me to his home where he showed me three building lots that he owned next to the property he lived on. He asked me “is that enough land?”.   I was speechless.

He donated the land, irrigation, fencing, and the use of his Kubota tractor. A few days later, another gentleman donated 7000 heirloom vegetable plants.

Poof!  The ByHP had grew its own legs.

The next few month were a whirlwind.  The first call I made yielded 1500 lbs. of Bing Cherries and the next one yielded 6500 lbs. of Pie Cherries.  Things happened so fast and without to much effort, put into finding the food or volunteers or families that needed the food.  Over 50,000 lbs. of food had been donated or grown from donated plants, on donated land, watered with donated irrigation.

I have never been so blessed as I have been in these last few months. I  am closer to my children, wife and friends than I ever thought possible.  Yes, financially I have done better in other ventures but I have learned that keeping up with the Jones’ isn’t all it cracked up to be.  Putting others needs first has truly blessed my life and the lives of my family.