October ’24 Love Notes

I know that the foundation is that I love us. I want us to win, and I want us to have all the things that we deserve in the world. And that’s driven by love.

Tarana Burke

Beloved Community

The full moon on Oct. 17th was known as the Travel Moon, the Dying Grass Moon, or the Sanguine or Blood Moon to Algonquin tribes. The moon appeared full for about three days, from Tuesday evening through Friday morning. There was something ominous and majestic about seeing the striking roundness so everpresent, even in broad daylight against a Robin’s egg blue sky. It was the third of four consecutive supermoons and the brightest. 

This supermoon was a symbol for the turning over of plants and the ruby flushing of leaves. As we move into November we’re welcoming in the last Work and Learn Volunteer Days on November 11 and November 19. These last days of programming on the land for 2024 are all the sweeter. 

The next full moon in November is on Friday the 15th, it’s the fourth and final supermoon of 2024. We hope it wraps you in a glow that feels like a grandmother’s forehead kiss.

May your breath be your anchor.

With love and solidarity,

Briana, Brooke, Cheryl, Christina, Clara, Crysta, Danielle, Hana’, Hillary, Jonah, Leah, Maya, Naima, O’den, Ria, Shay, and Susuyu

It was a truly magical day as we exchanged our vows on this sacred land, surrounded by our beloved friends and family. We feel incredibly blessed to be part of such a supportive community, and having you all there to witness our union made the day even more special. Your love and encouragement mean the world to us, and we look forward to building our lives together with you by our side. Thank you for being a part of our journey! 

Love and gratitude,
Maya (Farm Assistant) and O’den (Site Coordinator)

This season stood out in spectacular ways – record breaking harvests, strong distributed leadership among the farm team, stellar soil test results, and improved pest and disease management. The NEFOC “On the Way” Black Farmer Bus Tour made their final stop of the 2-week journey at Soul Fire Farm this month. Together, we harvested the last of the sweet potatoes and threshed the skunk beans – bringing the year-to-date total harvest to ~13,750 lbs. We closed our time together with a ritual of gratitude to Orisa Oko and Kouzen Azaka – traditional W. African spirits of the farm – who saw fit to bless us with abundance this year. We were able to share this abundance with 767 community members receiving solidarity shares and 1,425 folks seated at our table during farm programs.

For the site team, the cool weather also allowed for a brief moment of reflection amidst the bustle of campus construction. Staff from New Frameworks, a queer-led design-build cooperative, visited to appreciate the complete Program Center and nearly complete Abode – the two buildings that they designed and provided straw bale panels for. We have been under construction since 2007 and it’s incredible to think that next year – 2025 – might mark the end of major building projects on the farm. We cheer Jonah on as he takes his much overdue Sabbatical this winter and spring. We are so grateful for the beautiful, dignified, and ecological habitats that he and the team have built for our community all these years.

We all have a significant and intrinsic role to play in uprooting racism in the food system, and the good news is that there are many right answers to the questions, “What can I do to help?” We’ve been deep diving into this question and sharing solidarity strategies far and wide.

We’re facilitating powerful Uprooting Racism workshops this Fall/Winter. Individual and Group tickets are on sale. Click on the links below for more information and to register.

November 13 1:30pm – 4:30pm EST
November 21 2:30pm – 5:30pm EST

You can also check out our Actions Steps to uproot racism in the food system here.

As the seasons transition, so too does our growing season on the farm. Join us for the last two Community Work & Learns of the year. These day-long on-farm engagements are opportunities to learn more about our growing practices and contribute to our purpose! Click on the dates below to register. 

November 11
November 19 

We hosted two wonderful 3D skill shares the past month! In Cultivando Resiliencia con Microorganismos y Cempasúchil we welcomed the shift to fall, listening to the wisdom of the land to nourish the soils that feed us and our bodies. Ceci Pineda led us in making a Mountain Microorganisms (MM) preparation, bringing the abundant life from the forest to our cultivated field for resilience and vitality. Diana Arellano helped us to build our relationship with beloved protector cempasúchi (marigold) and together we made tea, tincture, and oil. 

Our Mushroom 3D skill share brought us together to celebrate mycological magic with our staff mushroom experts, Naima and Clara. After a morning of show and tell, marveling at the ecological, spiritual and regenerative gifts of fungi, we inoculated maple logs with shiitake mushrooms, and straw with blue oysters. Everyone took home their own “mushroom baby” to take care of for the incubation and fruiting stage!

We hosted a celebration dinner and workshop in Troy for Soul Fire in the City gardeners. We enjoyed a meal featuring the harvests from our gardens while sharing lessons and joys from the growing season. For dessert, we learned how to make strawberry jam! Everyone took home a jar of preserved sunshine, and strawberry plants to add to their gardens. Thank you to the Fish Market for providing space for the heart-warming event.

We wrapped up our Building Skills Series with a Hands on Introduction to Carpentry Workshop. Participants learned about lumber and fasteners, how to safely operate tools, and practiced different joining techniques. We’re so grateful to be able to skill up with community.

We had a couple of jam-packed days brimming with adventures with some of the New York based fellows. Sarah Sohn was able to catch up with IV Castellanos and Emily Johnson, founders of Build and Reworld Now Farm, and Lauren Peters, founder of Corn Sister Circle, and all of their next generation mini-me farms at the Kinstillatory Fire. It was a beautiful art based event of community. Sarah was also gifted corn from Lauren’s land which she hopes to plant in future.

Nellie Barcomb (she/her) is a heavy equipment operator for MPR Excavation that has worked on jobs at Soul Fire Farm since 2016. She got her start with machinery growing up on a farm, then joined the Air Force continuing to work with heavy equipment. She has been instrumental in the excavation work for the Soul Fire Farm campus build – building septic, roadways, foundations, utilities, and more.

Sean Chamberlain (they/them) is a conceptual artist, furniture-maker, and practitioner of conductive architecture, building spaces that heal rather than harm. Born and raised in the Bronx, they have been a carpentry instructor at Soul Fire Farm since 2019, co-facilitating builders workshops for beginners in the trades.

Shelly Pottorf (she/her) is an architect with New Frameworks, a queer-led design-build cooperative specializing in natural building and construction justice. She is the lead architect for the new commercial buildings in the latest phase of campus construction at Soul Fire Farm, starting with us in 2021.

What do these three amazing humans have in common? They are leaders in the trades and they are not men! Currently, 96% of tradespeople in the US are men. These women and nonbinary tradespeople are claiming space in a male-dominated professional and providing an inspiration and model for others.

The Praxis series reflects on how our community can best put our values into action, sharing resources, ideas, and practice toward collective liberation. These will be shared each month in Love Notes and also on social media. 

O.A. Cole (Themme/She)  is a Black, Queer, Afro-Caribbean immigrant, artist and emerging QTBIPoC earth justice warrior. An inter/multi/anti-disciplinary performance artist; Cole joyfully palpates the fun, squishy spaces between land justice, skill building in the work trades, low-to-no-social media and her time traveling, tool making avatar, Pirate Jenny. Cole’s decision to integrate earth justice within their performance practice as Pirate Jenny emerged in 2021 during  an artist residency at Three Phase Center, shortly after attending a FIRE immersion.  Land justice continues to serve as a breakthrough medium for Cole’s artistry – accelerating her capacity to process toxic roots and patterns of domestic, narcissistic and institutional abuse, thus deepening her creative approach. Cole is conjuring bodies of work that center growing food on her black queer femme body via PJ’s time travel tools for community harvest (‘Till This Othered BAWDY); and mobile design interventions at the meeting point of art, fiber crops, QTBIPoC earth and farmer community care (A Vanderful Life).  

Using their growth in the trades and earth justice, mainly welding and Agro-ecology – Cole is also preparing for union apprentice life focusing in welding/fabrication amidst envisioning land centered work that conduits her experiences and understanding of CPSTD, ADHD and Severe Burnout. Additional praxes engage self care/rest as resistance, Black queer joy and honored rage within resilience.  Cole is a proud,life long learner and reformed anti-disciplinarian having navigated countless capitalist systems while completing their Bachelors of General Studies(UConn) and their MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies at Mount Royal School of Art (MICA).  She is a 2024-2025 Franklin Furnace FUND Winner for Performance Art and an alum of BAX’s EmergeNYC Virtual and Flagship Performance Art & Politics intensives.  Cole has humbly rooted their art practice through Farm School NYC, Artlife Kingston, Three Phase Center and Soul Fire Farm; gleefully tracking dirt into their studio from Rock Steady, Ayni Herb, Down Bottom and Catalyst Collaborative Farms. www.piratehaterjenny.com

HEAL School of Political Leadership trains teams of leaders to champion food and farm systems that work for all of us. SoPL applications are now open! Deadline to apply is Nov 11th. This fellowship is team based, and there are mini grants available to SoPL fellows. Click the link above to learn more, and connect with marlene@healfoodalliance.org for any questions

HEAL Food Alliance Voter Guides: utilize your ability to vote as an avenue through which we can HEAL our food system! Click the link above to learn more and download the guides, available in both english and spanish!

On Wednesday, October 16th, Soul Fire Farm hosted community members from our NEFOC farmily on their last stop of the inaugural On The Way Tour! The On the Way Tour was “…an initiative designed to support and uplift Black-owned farms and Black-led growing spaces in the Northeast.” This tour brought together farmers to collaboratively undertake meaningful projects with the goals of enhancing farm operations and promoting sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices. Together, we dug up sweet potato bounty and set them to cure in the greenhouse. We also shelled and winnowed skunk beans grown for seed, and separated seed garlic stock for planting, while honoring the land through ritual, music, dance, and fellowship. It was a beautiful embodiment of direct action and mutual support, reminiscent of the Booker T. Washington Agricultural School on Wheels, traveling to various black led farms to offer expertise and support. 3 bows in reverence and celebration for this generative and love-fueled endeavor. 

Black Farmer Commons Survey:Since Fall 2023, Corbin Hill Food Project -in partnership with Food for the Spirit, Black Farmer Ecosystem organizations Farm School NYC and Soul Fire Farm, and with the support of Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SARE)- has been working on a research project to identify what a commons for Black farmers across New York State could look like, guided by our research question:

Can an ecosystem of organizations led by Black, Indigenous and peoples of the global majority providing educational, financial, social and operational support create new ownership and economic pathways for Black farmers’ collective success?

We encourage our community of New York State farmers, Food for the Spirit & the Black Farmer Ecosystem comrades, and sibling organizations serving NYS Black farmers to join and build a Black Farmer Commons with us by completing this survey with your input.

Farming While Black Instagram Live  Welcomes Samaria Marley and Gail Taylor of Black Dirt Farm Collective, D.C. on Thursday, November 7, 2024  4:00 pm – 4:45 pm Tune in via Instagram @soulfirefarm | Every month, experienced Black farmers and food systems experts share their knowledge about agriculture, land tenure, markets, food policy, coops, cultural foods, and more.

Community Work & Learn November 11, 2024  10:00 am – 3:30 pm November 19, 2024  10:00 am – 3:30 pm Soul Fire Farm, 1972 NY-2, Petersburgh, NY 12138, USA Registration is required. Registration  Each One, Teach One. Many Hands Make Light Work.  Volunteer at Soul Fire Farm to learn about some of our farming practices while supporting our work and getting your hands on the land.

Uprooting Racism in the Food System November 13, 2024  1:30 pm – 4:30 pm November 21, 2024  2:30 pm – 5:30 pm  Eventbrite registration is required: Registration Link The Uprooting Racism training is a theory and action workshop for environmental and food justice leaders to uproot systemic racism in our organizations and society. We delve deep into the history and structural realities of racial injustice and develop an understanding of the movement strategies of frontlines communities struggling for food sovereignty.

Black Earth Wisdom – meditation and lecture November 13, 2024  9:00 pm – 10:30 pm | Register Leah Penniman will lead a guided meditation and share a lecture on BLACK EARTH WISDOM: Afro-Indigenous Ecological Thought and Practice.

Farming While Black screening in Baltimore @ Parkway Theater | November 15, 2024  6:00 pm – 9:00 pm 5 W North Ave, Baltimore, MD 21201 Register The event begins with a pre-screening reception, followed by screenings of two powerful films, Farming While Black and The Aunties. These films highlight the significant impact and legacy of Black women in agriculture.

American Studies Association Conference (Leah presenting) | November 16, 2024  10:00 am – 5:00 pm Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor 401 W Pratt St. Baltimore, MD 21201 Register

Afro-Indigenous Earth-Listening Skills @ The Rewilding Summit (Leah Penniman) November 22, 2024  11:00 am – 4:00 pm Kripalu Center For Yoga & Health, 57 Interlaken Rd, Stockbridge, MA 01262, USA Reserve your tickets here  We will immerse in the cosmological framework of ecological humility from a Black diasporic perspective. Participants will practice techniques to guide their management of and interaction with land in their daily lives – including making offerings, seeking permission, and designating refuges.

Fierce Vulnerability: Healing and Change in a Time of Collapse w/ Kazu Haga | December 3, 2024  6:00 pm – 7:30 pm REGISTER HERE Join us as we explore the critical questions of our times. What does it mean to commit to nonviolence in a world filled with violence? How do we use nonviolent action as a modality of collective trauma healing? How do we remember to breathe in the midst of such urgency? How do we continue to advocate for justice, affirm life, create beauty and strengthen community in the midst of collapse?

EFAO Conference Keynote (Leah Penniman) | December 5, 2024 | Ramada by Wyndham Belleville Harbourview Conference Centre, 11 Bay Bridge Rd, Belleville, ON K8P 3P6, Canada Register here EFAO’s annual conference draws farmers, growers, and food producers from across the food system for two days of intensive learning, idea-sharing, networking and celebration with good food and friends.

FOOD FOR THE PEOPLE! – Solidarity Shares: Strategies for Farmers to De-commodify Food Distribution (WEBINAR) | December 10, 2024  5:30 pm – 7:00 pm | Register Join experienced farmers at Soul Fire Farm, Sweet Freedom, Rock Steady Farm, and Schenectady Green Market for an informative webinar on strategies for farmers to de-commodify food distribution and get food to those who need it most.

• A Future Where We Might ‘Get Climate Right’: A Conversation with Ayana Elizabeth Johnson Mongabay Newscast Podcast | Good Men Project 
• Leah Penniman Nourishes Land and Community at Soul Fire Farm Cuisine Noir 
• Days of Attunement: immerse in liberatory devotion From The Deep 
• Albany Global Climate Strike Urges Hochul To Speed Up Climate Action  The Sanctuary for Independent Media 
• Opinion: How farming can turn carbon from a climate threat into an asset  LA Times 
• The Legacy of Seeds: An Interview with Leah Penniman Terrain Magazine

The food system was built on the stolen land and stolen labor of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and people of color. Our ecosystem partners, Northeast Farmers of Color Network and National Black Food and Justice Alliance are claiming our sovereignty and calling for reparations of land and resources so that we can grow nourishing food and distribute it in our communities. The specific projects and resource needs of BIPOC land-based projects are listed on Northeast Farmers of Color Network and National Black Food and Justice Alliance’s respective maps linked above. We are so excited about these powerful opportunities for people to people solidarity.

I was silent and nothing came of it.
I spoke and nothing came of it.
I cursed, I apologized, and nothing came of it.
I was busy, I pretended to be busy…and nothing.
I sat, I walked, I ran.
I shivered and I warmed up. Nothing.
I was parched until I cracked. I drank until I drowned, and nothing came of it.
I crumbled like a fetus, like the father, the siblings, and the mother.
I was then gathered in a shroud made of old curtains,
and nothing came of it.
I stumbled more than I could stand but then I stood up,
and nothing came of it.
I prayed until, like a prophet, I became a verse in a holy book,
I rowed until I reached hell,
I beseeched and begged …and nothing.
I raged, I calmed, I remembered what was once distant,
and I forgot what was always close.
I befriended a monster, and I fought a monster.
I died young and sometimes survived.
In both times, I grew old from all that I had seen,
but nothing came of it.
I charged, I withdrew,
I fought the wind when it blew,
And reconciled with the waves when I rose and raged.
Among the horses my heart was a horse,
in the night my heart was a night,
and nothing came of it.
I ate, I hungered, I vomited, and nothing came of it.
I embraced my shadow, and I chastised it and then I chastised myself.
I greeted a woman lost in the streets.
I fought with a man and his smile nearby,
and with a bird that sang briefly in the garden,
and nothing came of it.

I closed all the windows in my house and opened them.
I wrote words on death when it is merciful,
death when it is futile,
death when it is hell,
death when it is the only way…at last,
death when it is gentle and light,
death when it is heavy and dark,
and nothing came of it.
I wrote about the river and the sea, about tomorrow and the sun,
and nothing came of it.
I wrote about oppression and depravity – purity too.
I slept without a bite of bread.

I dreamt without dreams.
I woke up not missing my hands or feet or reflection in the mirror
or the thing I call my soul.
I died and lived. I lit myself on fire. I put myself out with my own ashes,
and nothing came of it.

I am all these elements, O God: fire, earth, wind, and water.
Their fifth is a pain that blind songs can’t see, their sixth is this immense
loneliness, and their seventh, since my slaughter, is blood.
When I burned, I inhabited the letters of my free name like a butterfly:
P         A         L         E          S        T        I         N         E
When my roof was suddenly blown off into the sky and with it a wall, a window,
and the youngest of my children,
I gathered myself in the G and the A and the Z and the A.
I became GAZA.
A thousand warplanes circled and hit me. I collapsed and collapsed again,
and then rose in a scream. I called out, but nothing came of it.
Nothing came of it.
Nothing came of it.
I lost faith and believed, lost faith and believed again,
and lost faith and believed and…
nothing came of it,
nothing came of it.

And the filthy world asks me:
All this…what of it?

Palestinian

Ibrahim Nasrallah (trans. Huda Fakhreddine)