“I am here to change history.”
~ Sandra Bland
We believe that healing is possible and justice is necessary. We are appalled by the recent police killings of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Sean Reed and Breonna Taylor; the tragic murder of Ahmaud Arbery by a vigilante and former police officer; the lynchings of Robert Fuller and Malcolm Harsch; and the murder of Oluwatoyin Asojo. We extend deep condolences to the families for their profound irreparable loss, and share the grief and outrage many are experiencing about the continued legacy of anti-Black violence in our nation. We also applaud the innumerable ways that people are coming together to push for systemic change and offer support, protection, and mutual aid with one another in their wake.
As farmers, every seed we put into the ground we plant with hope – hope that this seed will find the nourishment it needs from the land and from us, the stewards that support this seed along its journey of growth. Just as we seed hope into the ground every season, the global mobilization around ending violence against Black people instills hope in us. This is a time that calls all of us to come together to decompose structural racism and white supremacy to fertilize our soils conducive to life, that we may cultivate a world where all of us can breathe. Let us channel our grief, rage, hope and magic into meaningful action. Read our declaration in defense of Black life and check out the resources and opportunities we compiled to get engaged.
Announcements:
- Read about our decision to cancel all on-farm programming and in-person speaking events in 2020 in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as Soul Fire Farms’s COVID-19 Response and our COVID-19 Press Release. We also want to remind folks that we are currently closed to the public so please do not visit the farm. Thank you for your understanding!
- Check out this Food & Land Sovereignty Resource List for COVID-19 compiled by Soul Fire Farm, Black Farmer Fund, and Northeast Farmers of Color with hundreds of resources to support BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) Farmers in navigating the pandemic.
- Many people in our community have been asking for “how to” farming and gardening resources, including videos and online tutorials. We want to share this ever-growing list of BIPOC-led “how to” videos, gardening projects, and online learning resources.
- Ask a Sista Farmer! Are you ready to grow your own food and medicine for self-reliance and community resilience? Every Friday experienced Black womxn farmers answer your call-in questions about gardening, livestock, agroforestry, plant medicine, and food preservation. Check out tomorrow’s JUNETEENTH edition with sisters Leah and Naima Penniman on the “Plants of Black Freedom” as part of the The Hunger for Justice Series. This event is FREE! And, if you have capacity, please donate to the farms of the presenters or a Black farmer near you. Linked here are recordings of episodes one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven.
- 2019 was teeming with inspiration! Read our 2019 Annual Report, beautifully put together by Damaris Miller.
Farming While Black is available for purchase on Powell Books, an independent bookstore in Portland, and Indie Bound, a website that connects consumers to local, independent bookstores in their area. - Learn more about our work by checking out our features in Food and Wine, Epicurious, the Mother Jones’ Bite podcast, Times Union, The Cornucopia Institute, the Grist newsletter, Southeastern Geographer journal, Best Advice Show, Re.sourced show, Springer Nature, A Network for Grateful Living, Grow Magazine, and this shout out from a NYT staff writer.
Just as there are multiple ways a farmer can fertilize their soil – be it with chicken manure, bone meal, or fish emulsion – and that often employing multiple strategies is best, decomposing racism and white supremacy requires engagement on multiple levels. Building Movement Project has a wonderful infographic that illustrates the different roles we can play in the pursuit of liberation and justice. Engagement looks like direct action and alternative institution building; it also looks like voting, growing food, and reparations work. At Soul Fire Farm we engage with ending racism and injustice through local and national organizing, education programming, and growing food for BIPOC folks experiencing food apartheid. Starting this week, we are providing weekly doorstep delivery of vegetables, fruits, preserves, herbs, eggs, and pastured meat to 20 households and 3 community organizations in Albany and Troy through our Solidarity Shares program at no-cost.
In our last newsletter we wrote of snow covering the ground in the middle of May. We are happy to say we are slowly shifting into warm summer days and refreshing pond swims after work. Our terraced “jaden lakou,” or “courtyard garden” in Haitian Kreyòl (an agroforestry system where vegetables, herbs, and fruit trees grow together), is thriving with flowers, herbs, and pollinators thanks to the love of Leah, Brooke, Neshima, and Emet who have been weeding, mulching, and caring for the orchard. The trees surrounding us are bright green with foliage and our fields are teeming with crops bearing the fruits of our labor of the last few months. Our livestock also continues to grow. At the beginning of the month, Justin had one sow with six piglets and another with three; now there are a total of 30 pigs! Last week we added 60 Cornish Cross broilers (increasing our flock of meat chickens to 210), 30 Muscovy ducks, 20 Guinea hens, and seven geese. The week before we added three rabbits, and we are also raising 60 egg laying chickens. Justin has been busy adding finishing touches to the plans for the Katahdin sheep coming in mid-July and we are anticipating our first honey harvest by the end of July!
All these chicks, ducklings, and guinea hens have to go somewhere, right? Luckily, thanks to Jonah, Kai, Neshima, Emet, our contractors, and the participants of our Building Immersion last year we now have an equipment shed that can house our young poultry in addition to acting as a storage place, woodshed, and hub for equipment fueling. Our duplex cabin complete with private bathrooms and washer and dryer is officially complete and is ready for our employees to move into. This structure, with cellulose insulation and rough sawn lumber, was built to be high performing to minimize climate impact during construction and life of this building. And in 2021, when we are hosting our immersion programs again, we are excited that now program participants will have their own bathhouse to utilize.
We believe that “to free ourselves we must feed ourselves” and that advancing food sovereignty is a component of alternative institution building for a more just world. Through Soul Fire in the City we have established over 30 gardens in the Capital District so far and are building more! Meadow Braun, a recipient of a garden from us, says that “[b]efore ever having harvested a single bean, we are nourished by the sight of green sprouts erupting from the ground, the feeling of dirt under our nails, and the smell of the soil. Each leaf brings hope and promise. Each blossom whispers that the earth is our first mother. The garden is a true gift to our mental health.” Thank you Kiani and Naima for continuing to hold this project down!
While we are saddened not to gather together on the farm, we are excited for the new opportunities presented with this challenge, with a deep commitment to keep our communities safe and build increased collective sovereignty and resilience for the long term. Cheryl has been our skillful link to our communities, collaborators, and program participants as we navigate pivoting our programming in the wake of the pandemic and our decision to cancel all 2020 on-farm programs. Part of our pivot has included expanding our virtual offerings to meet the needs of our communities, such as our weekly Ask a Sista Farmer series, urban gardening webinars, and the upcoming 3D On Farm Skill Share series for BIPOC to deepen skills in specific farming and homesteading practices in a culturally relevant, supportive, and joyful environment. Larisa is currently producing the Liberation on Land Skillshare Video Series in collaboration with Naima, Emet, and our friends Taina and Gaetano. These 15-minute YouTube videos in Spanish and English will feature an experienced BIPOC land steward sharing hands-on skills. And we just completed the 10th and final workshop in our BIPOC Farmers Skillshare on COVID-19, during which BIPOC farmers and food sovereignty activists across the country met to share skills, ideas, and mutual support during the pandemic. Some of these episodes can be found on the Facebook pages of NEFOC and HEAL Food Alliance.
Through our organizing work and collaborations with other organizations, we seek to redistribute resources to BIPOC farmers to redress systemic barriers that have barred farmers of color from accessing them. Last month Larisa acted on the advisory and application review committees for $5,000 grants from the Chipotle Foundation & National Young Farmers Coalition. 39 out of 50 grants went to BIPOC farmers (of these, 14 identifying as Black; 19 as Afro-Latinx, Latinx, and/or Chicanx; and 10 as Indigenous), 10 to farmers in our extended networks, and 6 of those to alumni of our programs. Geographical distribution was an important factor in the selection process and we are happy to share that a significant number of farmers in the South and Southwest received grants. We are also thrilled to see that several former farm workers who are starting their own farms received grants and we extend our congratulations to the grantees! We also continue to collaborate with the Black Farmer Fund, the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust (NEFOC), Black Farmers United NYS, Corbin Hill Food Project, and Farm School NYC to grow an ecosystem of support – land access, financial resources, technical assistance, learning opportunities, mentorship, connection, and mutual exchange – for Black Farmers in New York and the Northeast.
We have been humbled by the number of people reaching out to us for ways to plug into this movement and we have so much gratitude to Cheryl, who has been instrumental in directing folks to these our action steps and declaration. In the spirit of encouraging the redistribution of wealth and resources, we also want to share the Reparations Map for Black-Indigenous Farmers. Oppression underwrites our food system – a system built on the stolen land and labor of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and other people of color – and this understanding prompted the creation of this map to take reparations into our own hands rather than wait for the government to acknowledge that stolen wealth and land must be returned. Some farmers have already received funding through this project, and we want to provide that opportunity to other Black and Brown 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.