“The Three Sisters offer us a new metaphor for an emerging relationship between indigenous knowledge and Western science, both of which are rooted in the earth. I think of the corn as traditional ecological knowledge, the physical and spiritual framework that can guide the curious bean of science, which twines like a double helix. The squash creates the ethical habitat for coexistence and mutual flourishing. I envision a time when the intellectual monoculture of science will be replaced with a polyculture of complementary knowledge. And so all may be fed.”
~ From Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Last week, during the first Black and Latinx Farmers Immersion (BLFI) program, a group of participants reenacted the Iroquois story of the Three Sisters. When Sky Woman fell from the sky towards the sea on earth, the animals on earth took soil from the bottom of the sea and spread it on the back of a giant turtle so she could land safely on Turtle Island – what is often referred to as North America. Sky Woman was pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, who died giving birth to her twin sons. Sky Woman buried her daughter in the earth, and from her body grew the sacred Three Sisters. The maize, which is planted first in this configuration, provides a stem for the beans to grow on. The beans fix nitrogen for the maize and squash, and the squash, which grows along the ground, shades weeds out. The Three Sisters is a reminder of the necessity of community and mutual support.
Announcements:
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Farming While Black is available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Indie Bound! Reserve your practical guide to liberation on land today!
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Additionally, this winter and spring we will be traversing the continent to discuss African Diasporic wisdom in farming and food sovereignty as part of our Farming While Black book tour! Invite us to your community by completely this booking form.
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Sign up to buy our delicious, pasture-raised chicken available this summer.
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WNYT interviewed us about our Solidarity Share program for refugee and immigrant families, which you can donate to here.
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Check out our first video in an ongoing series on the Afro-indigenous crops and practices we uplift at Soul Fire Farm, filmed by Sunangel Media. Here we highlight the cultural and historical stories and medicinal properties of fennel, basil, and amara (kale).
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Checkout NOFA/MASS’s most recent podcast, where they reference our work on the Reparations Map for Black-Indigenous Farmers; an interview Leah did with the Sustainability Sentinel; and an article Omega wrote about our Black and Latinx Farmers Immersion program.
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Here’s a recap and video of the workshop we hosted with Community Food Funders.
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Our next community farm day is July 22nd! We honor the Haitian cultural practice of Konbit through collective work, followed by a potluck. Please RSVP here.
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And for folks who plan on visiting the farm, please drive slowly on our road!
Summer is a time of abundance, sunshine, warmth, and, here at Soul Fire Farm, lots of vegetables. Our CSA started a few weeks ago, and the positive feedback we’ve received from our members has been so encouraging! It’s such a blessing be able to share the literal fruits of our labor with our community. Our apprentice Olivia has assumed her role as Water Whisperer on the team, where she oversees the irrigation needs of our plants, forming a triad of life supporting farm responsibilities with Guardian of the Greenhouse Damaris and Chicken Charmer Lytisha. Olivia’s role is so appreciated and integral to our operation! Summer can also be a time of (heat) stress for our crops and our chickens, but with the collective creative geniuses of our farm team we’ve managed to provide the support needed.
Summer at Soul Fire Farm also means we receive many visitors. In June we hosted a reunion for BLFI alumni, and it was magical. As Leah remarked, “It struck and moved me how we recreated the culture of BLFI so quickly, even across cohorts and new connections.” We drummed late into the evening, connecting with each other and our ancestors, made offerings of maize at the lake, and spent time together on the land and at meals, sharing what we’ve all been up to since BLFI. That same weekend, we held our annual SOULstice party, with DJ Trumastr, approximately 250 people in attendance, delicious catered food, lots of dancing until 5am, and a brunch the following morning with folks who camped out on the land. A community member commented that post-party the land seemed very happy. Thanks to all who attended and donated!
“I got married to truth this week,” shared a participant during our first BLFI of the season, and indeed we explored many truths together – hard, complicated, and beautiful truths. We demystified harmful myths we’ve been socialized to believe about our identities during our Gender Justice and Intersectionality lunch discussions and began reimagining a self-determined reality for ourselves. We started many important conversations about raising chickens, from the ethical and moral implications of livestock farming to debunking claims made on egg labels and meat packaging that confuse consumers. Our participants and Train the Trainers Jess and Vida brought so much knowledge with them as well, from breastfeeding and reproductive health to fermentation and gut health to plant medicine. And we uncovered truths about the many contributions our ancestors made to farming and agricultural knowledge – contributions that are often invisibilized and erased. We felt the tangible presence of our ancestors that week. As Larisa astutely pointed out, as the farm grows, our centers of community are moving eastward, in the direction of our ancestors – from where we eat communally to where we now relax by the pond Jonah beautifully restored to where we grow food. The program ended with Emet leading us with a chant with powerful words from Assata Shakur: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.” As the story of the Three Sisters teaches us, with love, community, and mutual support we can liberate ourselves and our people. Special shoutout to Gabriela, Ria, and Laura for providing us with the sustenance we needed to explore these truths and pursue this work, and Neshima for being our photographer!
In addition to BLFI, we welcomed many youth to our farm. The Justice League visited us and did an amazing job hoeing and hilling our potato beds while examining the historical relationship between black people in the United States and farming. Youth from Roots Rising introduced us to some catchy field songs and helped us mulch some of our beds. Mama Muhjah, Mama Marcia, and Baaba Surya visited us from Alabama to learn about our organizational structure and build networks among black farmers. They started a new project called Nature’s Garden for Victory & Peace, where their mission is to use the land as a healing tool and a cultural asset based on cooperative economics, and to deliver culturally relevant programs and businesses to members of the community. And Sachem Hawk Storm from the Schaghticoke nation also joined us for dinner, where we talked about hosting Schaghticoke youth for our programs, collaborating on the northeast regional land trust, and how to equitably share land with the Mohican community.
Several amazing off-farm events happened this past month. We hosted three more Lawn to Garden workdays in Albany and Troy (shoutout to Amani for bottom-lining these events!). At the Making Peace with the Earth conference at Omega, Leah was part of an amazing panel with Ken Greene, Rowen White, Raul Carreon, and Karen Washington. Leah shared a powerful story about our West African ancestors who braided seeds in their hair as “insurance for an uncertain future” during the transatlantic slave trade – a reminder of how our ancestors didn’t give up on us, their descendants. Leah also attended the Black Land and Power Summit in North Carolina. Important conversations were started about about creating networks of land trusts for black farmers, different ways to retain land, and ways to build stronger relationships, community, and mutual support with each other.
The need for community and mutual support comes up again and again in this freedom work we do. After all, all our liberation is tied up with one another’s. For that reason, and because we recognize the fact that the food system was built on the stolen land and stolen labor of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and other people of color we helped create the Reparations Map for Black-Indigenous Farmers. If you have resources you want to share contact a farmer directly to share them, or if you have a project you want to include on the map contact us!
This month’s Love Notes was written by Lytisha Wyatt.