Maize is the staple crop in Kenya and in every community a large percentage of small farmers depend on it for an income and also to feed their families.
So understanding how to cultivate this key crop is essential to every young person - and at Happy House it is no different.
Our kids prepare the land and plant the maize seed in readiness for the approaching rains, and once the rains come and the seedlings shoots up they keep the maize plots free from weeds.
Last week, our maize was ready to harvest so the kids were out in the garden eager to bring it home to the our kitchen.
No sooner than had they delivered the precious crop to our cooks, they were back out on the plots clearing the land, tilling the soil and getting ready to sow a second crop.
Harvest of hope...
It's six years since I first wrote these words for a Blackpool harvest festival which was supporting Happy House, writes Elizabeth Gomm.
They are relevant now as they were then.
At the Happy House our harvest is about much more than producing crops to feed our family ... it is also about growing our children.
These vulnerable little souls who come to us with so little; hungry, frightened, fragile and poorly, with few expectations or aspirations.
They are our seedlings, plucked from poorer soil, which we plant in our fertile garden of hope.
We nurse their ills, nourish their bodies, feed their minds and nurture them , each as an individual, with love, honesty and respect.
We see them grow and flourish.
Slowly at first, as if shy to break through the hard earth and then, with strength restored and confidence growing, they spring into life, a vibrant force eager to soak up every opportunity given to them and learning, enthusiastically, every lesson taught.
We watch them blossom, t
heir smiles brighter than the Kenyan sun.
As our Happy House grows, with YOUR help, YOUR love and YOUR support, we can add more classes to our school, grow more crops, and make room for ever more children in our home and school family.
Only then will we start to gather in our true harvest ... over many, many, years to come.
Our harvest will come from the hope we sow, and which will remain, forever, in our children's hearts.
