We are a small Episcopal religious order with two houses, one in New York City and one in Brewster, NY. At Brewster we have established what we call Bluestone Farm—our beginning effort to reconnect with and celebrate the sacredness of Earth, to live in harmony with the land, to move more deeply into sustainable living, and to educate for the future, focusing on Earth literacy.

We have several gardens here, out of which we feed ourselves almost entirely. But we wanted to share the riches of that bounty, too. The entire house spends at least a half hour a day harvesting, and then we split up to do other chores, such as preserving the fresh food. But Sunday is a day on which we don't preserve, and we needed to figure out what to do with the harvest that day. We could probably leave it in the ground, of course, but somehow that didn't seem quite right.

It was a perfect opportunity for us to rethink the concept of tithing. We decided that Sunday's harvest would be given to a local church to provide a small addition to someone's family stores. As it turns out, we've been able to stuff two large grocery sacks each week: potatoes, onions, garlic, greens, squash, cucumbers, carrots, duck eggs, herbs ... even a bit of catnip for one of the family's cats. From what we hear, both families are finding this little offering a big help.  And we know that we are providing organic, healthy, locally-grown, tasty food.

Best of all, everyone benefits.