Covered in soil and sweat from an autumn morning of shared labor, we circled up to offer thanks before the midday meal. Eustacio Quino, Soul Fire bilingual immersion alum and local vegetable farmer, read us the prayer he had written, “Estoy muy agradecido con Dios y con la madre naturaleza…” He shared his gratitude for mother earth and reminded us that behind every bite of food there is a fertile field, fresh water, light wind, strong sun, the hard labor of farmers, and the land’s spiritual embrace. He concluded that we are not above nature, but part of her, and have a duty of care.
In 2021, the Soul Fire Farm team continued our sacred obligation to care for the earth and her peoples. As part of our goal to “grow farmers,” we welcomed over 800 people to the land for our weeklong FIRE (Farming in Relationship with Earth) immersions, intergenerational work-and-learn days, youth programs, and daylong carpentry and farming skills workshops. We celebrated with our alumni as they spread the seeds of food and land sovereignty across the continent, building projects like the Shelterwood Collective, Kibilio Community Farm, Fresher Together, and Sistah Seeds.
This year marked the launch of the much anticipated Braiding Seeds Fellowship, a collaboration that brings together farmers from the North and South and from the legacy and returning generations, to continue the Black-Indigenous agrarian tradition. In partnership with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, we provided a stipend, mentorship, land-linking, and cohort support to the inaugural class of 11 farmer fellows, whose projects include Susu Community Farm, VT and La Botanica, VA.
The groundswell of community yearning for earth wisdom deepened this season, and we welcomed over 12,000 registered participants to our online educational programs, including workshops on crop planning, soil health, mushrooms, food preservation, and uprooting racism in the food system. Additionally, over 150,000 people viewed our virtual keynotes, panels, and Ask a Sista Farmer. We were honored to have our writing published in the groundbreaking books – Black Food, We Are Each Other’s Harvest, and All We Can Save. In an effort to deepen transparency and promote dialogue, we also published our Praxis Series, sharing with the community how we think about democratizing our platform, sharing resources, and caring for our team.
These generous mountainside soils reflect back to us the care we have invested. Soil cores and carbon tests revealed that we had built over a foot of topsoil during our decade of stewardship, and that the soil biota in the cultivated fields matches that of the forests. We converted more of the land into carbon-sequestering perennial crops, such as 100+ new fruit trees and an acre of medicine herbs. Fifty families received weekly deliveries of no-cost, nutrient-dense, life-giving vegetables, pastured protein, and medicine through our oldest running program – Solidarity Shares. Our Soul Fire in the City urban gardening initiative welcomed 14 new families, bringing the cohort to over 50 local households growing their own.
This year also marked the completion and renewal of a circle in time. Thanks to your generosity, we raised the full amount of our capital campaign, which will allow us to build three public buildings on the land – a classroom, dining facility, and sleeping lodge. The classroom Sanctuary was the first to be inaugurated, marking the end of an era of running programs out of the resident family’s home. We also completed a cycle of leadership, with co-ED and farm manager, Larisa Jacobson graduating, and Ife Kilimanjaro joining as Managing Co-ED. Just as the first child of Soul Fire, Neshima, grew up and went off to college, the youngest child of Soul Fire, Lyris, was born into loving arms.
Thank you does not have enough letters for the gratitude we feel to do this honorable, “common as mud” work of tending the land and supporting the rising generation of farmers. Thank you for being with us in this sacred and widening circle.
~Ria, Brooke, Kai, Naima, Cheryl, Azuré, Dayo, Ife, Jonah, and Leah
