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Ira Hearnes Selected To Grow Ancient Seeds


Stayed Too Long
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I don't know more about this.  I tried to find something, but that name is coming up empty in 2 different search engines.   For the benefit of those of us who don't know, can you fill in a little bit?    Who is/was Ira Hearnes?   Where was this " ancient tomb" ?    Where did you hear this?

 

Example 1:

"When I was in twi, there was some buzzing on-grounds around the BRC that some ancient tomb in Jerusalem was found to have seeds.  There was this Christian farmer who was among those chosen to try to grow them.  His name was ira Hearnes." 

 

Example 2:

"While at the water-cooler at work, I'd heard a news story about an ancient tomb opened near Cairo.  Supposedly some guy names Ira Hearnes was one of the people selected to try to grow them." 

 

Example 3:

"I heard through the grapevine that Ira Hearnes was picked by a Senate subcommittee to go to some farm to try to grow some seeds found in some ancient tomb." 

 

There's huge differences between those, but all fit what little you said.  If I had more, I might be able to do better searches.  Can we get what little information you have?

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1 hour ago, WordWolf said:

I don't know more about this.  I tried to find something, but that name is coming up empty in 2 different search engines.   For the benefit of those of us who don't know, can you fill in a little bit?    Who is/was Ira Hearnes?   Where was this " ancient tomb" ?    Where did you hear this?

 

Example 1:

"When I was in twi, there was some buzzing on-grounds around the BRC that some ancient tomb in Jerusalem was found to have seeds.  There was this Christian farmer who was among those chosen to try to grow them.  His name was ira Hearnes." 

 

Example 2:

"While at the water-cooler at work, I'd heard a news story about an ancient tomb opened near Cairo.  Supposedly some guy names Ira Hearnes was one of the people selected to try to grow them." 

 

Example 3:

"I heard through the grapevine that Ira Hearnes was picked by a Senate subcommittee to go to some farm to try to grow some seeds found in some ancient tomb." 

 

There's huge differences between those, but all fit what little you said.  If I had more, I might be able to do better searches.  Can we get what little information you have?

Not sure that's the correct spelling of the gentleman's last name. It might be Hearne or Herne.

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Wow: from Waysider's post:  "Contributor: Way International. Organic Gardening Department" - whatever was that!!

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2 hours ago, Twinky said:

Wow: from Waysider's post:  "Contributor: Way International. Organic Gardening Department" - whatever was that!!

Further, the publisher... American Christian Press. 

I'd love to get people who were around HQ in those days to share any potential insight on the Organic Gardening Department.

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1 hour ago, Rocky said:

Further, the publisher... American Christian Press. 

I'd love to get people who were around HQ in those days to share any potential insight on the Organic Gardening Department.

Now that we have the correct spelling....

There's a few references to that book, with nothing new to add.  There's also this:

http://dlfarms.com/seasonal-garden-vegetables/

" In 1977, I began working with one of the foremost organic gardening experts in America, Ira Hearne. Ira lived in Ohio and managed the small farms department for a Christian ministry. Through his tutelage, I learned about growing food by “serving the soil.” On that six acre garden, we grew everything from asparagus to zucchini squash. We had an herb garden, 30 bee hives, a new orchard of fruit trees, chickens, goats, and beef cattle. We truly believed what we were doing was God’s intention on how to take care of his Creation."

https://www.greasespotcafe.com/ipb/topic/16874-i-am-a-3-dr-pepper-drinker-a-day/?tab=comments#comment-403766

"My first year in-rez, betty bowen ran the kitchen at hq, and, a "rank unbeliever", eileen hitchen, was the chief cook.

We ate great food, every day, with plenty of it available!.......except for the 3 times we endured the full three week long, grace bliss administered colon-cleanse torture..er, 'skuse me, program,....we ate quite well.

.We also enjoyed organically grown meats and vegetables and fruits from the kipp farm, which was run by a tremendous fellow named ira hearne.

.We butchered and cleaned pigs, cattle, chicken, and sheep, and we ate good meat at least once-a-day, 7 days a week.   We also had fish several times a month.   We had our fair share of granola, figpep, and other healthy grains and veggies, which i called "rabbit" or "bird" food.

There were plenty of burgers, pizza and sometimes even beer!!.     All the trustees and all the staff ate at least lunch together with the in-rez corps every day, and many times joined us for supper too, .....Always in the brc basement, in which we all fit comfortably back then.

There were often bacon, homefries, and scrambled egg breakfasts, with real coffee and apple cider, etc.,......sometimes pancakes and syrup with fresh berries..

And there were actually several meals we all looked forward to, like eileen's homemade enchiladas, dripping with cheese and stuffed to the hilt with chicken, or pork, or ground beef with terrific refried beans and sour cream!........and there were usually abundant seconds and thirds available..........the food was the same during our second year too, again all in the basement of the brc.........

however, the food at emporia was horrendous from day one, when it opened for in-rez corps training in august, 1975.....people were literally made sick by that garbage they served.........it seemed the food never improved there during the entire time it was open!........initially, the food at both indiana campus and gunnison was comparable to what was served at hq when we ate in the brc.............once the osc dining room and kitchen opened for "business", the quality and volume of food served at hq depreciated noticably!..."

If it's the same guy, he either lives or lived in Wapakoneta. OH.

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When I was at Emporia (13th Corps), the chef was Bob Gassman.  The food was good, with few exceptions.  I have read online that one reason the food was so bad there in the early years is that Craig, who was in charge of the campus, was trying to save money.  Another issue is that it is comparably a very small kitchen.  When it was the College of Emporia, it most likely was not used to cook food from scratch, bake homemade "Benny's Wheat" bread, etc, Most likely, it was used to heat up industrial-sized cans of vegetables and the like.

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1 hour ago, outandabout said:

When I was at Emporia in the 8th corps, the food was pretty good.  (except liver)

And the 9th corpse. The food was good. Not everyone appreciated the borscht, but it was good quality food.

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In 1993 we were FWC for a couple of months, at the Indiana campus. The food was atrocious! Chickens were raised and slaughtered, as well as pigs and beef. We seldom ate meat. Most got shipped to NK.The kids were always hungry. We made tons of "salsa" with no onion or tomato. The idiot in charge bitched me out for removing rotten portions of tomatoes. There was no cilantro, either. We were always hungry from working outside to the exercise program to 5 hours of sleep per night. I lost at least 15 pounds if not more the first six weeks. It was heck.

Edited by Watered Garden
Wrong date and added a sentence.
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No kidding, Waysider and Watered Garden !

And it’s not like we had a choice either or that there were menu options…and God forbid you complained about it…I wonder if there’s still some Rome City alumni who think it was great…like Dana Carvey’s old coot character on SNL – “that’s the way it was and we liked it!

That's the way it was - and we liked it

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36 minutes ago, Watered Garden said:

The worst part was only the Head Table got coffee!

tell me about it...I worked the head table for a block...they got coffee...steak...deserts.

we had a percolator coffee pot in our room...and occasionally got "care packages" from my parents loaded with snacks and other goodies.

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I did a bit of snooping around the internet to see if there was any information on this subject. I didn't put very much effort into it, but here is what I found:

 

Stories of this nature have been appearing periodically since the mid 1800's, when exploration of Egyptian tombs caught the attention of the public. There are a couple of fundamental problems with this concept of sprouting ancient seeds. 

 

The Egyptians did indeed include seeds as part of their funeral rituals. They symbolized burial and resurrection and were placed in the hands of the deceased. Some researchers also speculate the custom may have been a symbolic offering of food for the journey into the afterlife. 

 

It should be noted that some seeds, under optimal conditions, can remain viable for decades. The general consensus, though, is that vegetable seeds only remain viable for a few years, with about 30 years being a best case scenario, under ideal conditions. Any viable seeds that may have been discovered are thought to have been introduced by trespassing rodents and other pests.

 

Now, please understand, I'm not accusing Mr. Hearne of dishonesty. For all we know, if the incident even really happened, he, himself, may have been an unwitting victim of a cruel hoax.

 

If I ever write a book, I'm going to include a chapter labeled "snow covered gas pumps and magical seeds".

 

edit: I'm never going to write a book so feel free to use that title if you are ever in need of a clever name for a psychedelic cover band.

Edited by waysider
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On 6/10/2020 at 12:55 PM, Stayed Too Long said:

Way back when, I recall some long lost seeds were found in an ancient tomb, and Ira was one of the gardners selected to attempt to germinate them. Anyone know more about this? 

STL, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask you for a little more information about this.  So, again, I ask you.  In light of what we've learned recently (who he was, where he worked...)  my question is shorter and more specific.

 

WHERE did you hear this?  WHOM did you hear this from?    Did Ira Hearne HIMSELF say this?   Was this mentioned by someone official during a teaching?  Was this an offhand comment by someone at dinner? 

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Watered Garden, you brought back some memories !! I remember complaining once about the toddlers getting the seconds (left overs from the adults mains) we're talking toast that was burnt, stale and hard as a rock..I yelled that loud it got changed immediately...so they weren't ALL deaf ears...

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16 hours ago, DogLover said:

When I was at Emporia (13th Corps), the chef was Bob Gassman.  The food was good, with few exceptions.  I have read online that one reason the food was so bad there in the early years is that Craig, who was in charge of the campus, was trying to save money.  Another issue is that it is comparably a very small kitchen.  When it was the College of Emporia, it most likely was not used to cook food from scratch, bake homemade "Benny's Wheat" bread, etc, Most likely, it was used to heat up industrial-sized cans of vegetables and the like.

That sounds correct.  lcm HIMSELF documented something like that.  In his book "vp and me",  his book-long adoration of vpw,  he said that vpw told lcm off for sending some of the Lightbearers off in the morning with NO BREAKFAST.   lcm didn't think of himself as much of a breakfast person, but the reason WAS primarily to save money.  vpw told him off SPECIFICALLY for being foolish in cutting a corner there.   

When vpw tells you off for being stingy- and it's not about something he's going to use personally-  then you know you've REALLY gone too far.  Normally, vpw wanted top dollar spent on HIM, but wanted everything else done on the cheap.

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8 hours ago, WordWolf said:

STL, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask you for a little more information about this.  So, again, I ask you.  In light of what we've learned recently (who he was, where he worked...)  my question is shorter and more specific.

 

WHERE did you hear this?  WHOM did you hear this from?    Did Ira Hearne HIMSELF say this?   Was this mentioned by someone official during a teaching?  Was this an offhand comment by someone at dinner? 

I don’t recall how I knew about this. It just came to mind the other day and thought I would post to see if there was anything to it. 

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