February ’23 Love Notes

…if we think of the natural landscapes that surround us as simply blank slates, existing for humans to act upon them according to our will, then we cannot exist in life sustaining harmony with the earth.

bell hooks

Beloved Community,

We are laying the foundation for an incredible year… both literally and figuratively.

As the root cellar of the new Program Center solidifies, we have been getting ready to launch our food sovereignty programs, birth a new book to the world, and procure seeds for a bountiful farming season.

There are so many fruitful ways to connect this year! We are hosting four week-long BIPOC immersions in Ancestral Wilderness Skills, Farming in Relationship to Earth, and Farm to Table cooking and preservation. Also, Soul Fire in the City applications are open for those seeking support establishing home gardens in the 518 Capital Region. And we have a few spots left in our Solidarity Share program. Low-income residents of Albany and Troy NY are invited to sign up here for no-cost doorstep delivery of fresh produce direct from our farm.

Read on for exciting updates about Black Earth Wisdom, the campus build, and upcoming events. Stay tuned the Braiding Seeds Fellowship application launches March 1. Details below.

Wishing you ample days for play, rest, dreaming and listening to the Earth.

With Love,

Briana, Brooke, Cheryl, Clara, Crysta, Danielle, Hillary, Ife, Jonah, Kai, Leah, Naima, Ria, Shay, and Susuyu

Please join us in celebrating the birth of this love song for the land and her people. Black Earth Wisdom is a soulful collection of illuminating essays and conversations with Black earth-listeners who share messages from the land, water, and climate, and survival instructions for humankind.

Check out this preview chapter on interspecies covenants. Learn more at blackearthwisdom.org and @black.earth.wisdom, and pick up the book at your local indie bookseller.

We’re back! Black Earth Wisdom is taking over Ask a Sista Farmer this spring so we can learn from the earth-listening contributors to our new book.

Check out the first episode of the year with the brilliant Carolyn Finney and Enroue ‘Awo Onigbonna’ Halfkenny here. 

Your hosts are Leah Penniman and Clara AgborTabi of Soul Fire Farm. 
Join us alternating Fridays @ 4 PM ET (Mar 3, 17, 31; April 14, 18; and May 12)

Learn more and get the book at blackearthwisdom.org and @black.earth.wisdom

While the trees, bushes, and brambles are dormant, we remove select branches to support their healthy growth. Pruning allows light to reach the plant, reduces disease pressure, and encourages fruiting. It’s also a powerful metaphor for life. It can be tempting to leave all of the tangled branches in place, and we sometimes hesitate to remove the excess. Over time, the reluctance to prune leads to plants that are weak, sick, and prone to break under their own weight. Both humans and plants need to shed in order to thrive. 

Here are a few pruning tips for you to try in your home orchard:

• Raspberries: All canes that fruited last year can be cut to the ground. Thin the remaining canes so they are at least 6 inches apart, favoring the thicker canes. 
• Blueberries: Remove dead and diseased branches. On well-established bushes, you can remove about ⅓ of branches down to the ground, taking out the oldest to favor new growth.
• Fruit trees: Remove branches that are crossing or rubbing. Encourage lateral branching, balanced on all sides of the tree.
• Tools: Sharpen your pruning shears and saw. Disinfect between plants so you don’t spread disease.

Learn more pruning basics at www.fedcoseeds.com/trees/pruning.htm 

What are you “pruning” in your life? What are you shedding in order to thrive? 

In collaboration with The Rusty Anvil, Soul Fire Farm is offering an Ancestral Wilderness Skills Immersion designed for outdoor educators, naturalists, and wilderness enthusiasts of Black & Indigenous heritage to gain basic wilderness survival skills in a joyful, non-competitive, and supportive environment. By the end of the program, you will have the knowledge to start a fire by friction, build a shelter from natural materials, and cook a meal over a fire, as well as the skills to identify various trees and plants used to make tools and medicine. Our intention is to empower BIPOC individuals with the knowledge you need to not just survive in nature, but thrive as you deepen your relationship to wild space.

Learn more and apply.

The Soul FIRE Immersion (Farming In Relationship to Earth) is designed for aspiring, beginning, and intermediate growers of Black, Indigenous, and Latine heritage to gain basic skills in regenerative farming in a culturally relevant, supportive, and joyful environment. By the end of the program you will have the knowledge to grow and prepare your own food, and the tools to begin a comprehensive commercial farm training if you choose that path. It is our hope that you will also deepen your connection to land, heal from inherited trauma rooted in oppression on land, and take steps toward your personal food sovereignty. 

Learn more and apply. 

We recognize Latine is a complicated term that some people do not identify with, and that there may be some class, gender, generational, and documentation status divides between who claims and who repudiates this term. We are referring to a person of Mexican, Central American, South America and/or Caribbean origin or descent, and acknowledge the limitations of colonial naming of regions and peoples.

This 5-day program is designed for aspiring, beginning, and intermediate cooks and food justice workers of Black, Indigenous, and Latine heritage to gain skills in culturally-rooted, whole-foods cooking and preservation. By the end of the program, you will have the knowledge to harvest seasonal ingredients, plan menus, create value-added products, and prepare your own dishes inspired by your heritages, as well as the tools to align a professional kitchen with a more sustainable food system. As with all our programs, it is our hope that you will also deepen your connection to land and take steps toward your personal food sovereignty.

Learn more and apply.

Soul Fire in the City provides raised bed gardens to community members and groups in the 518 (Albany, Schenectady, and Troy areas). Soul Fire Farm offers materials, seedlings, soil, labor, and ongoing guidance at no-cost to support folks to grow their own food and medicine towards self-reliance and community resilience. In 2023, we have capacity to build 10 new gardens and support 50 built previously. 

Our program centers Black, Indigenous and other people of color impacted by food apartheid, incarceration, unemployment and COVID related challenges, as well as refugees, immigrants, people with disabilities and chronic illness, elders, and families with children. Regardless of identity, all are welcome to apply.

“I felt a sense of connection to my ancestors and my Southern roots…I was able to feed my family fresh, safe, organic produce” ~ 2022 Soul Fire in the City gardener

Click here to learn more about the program, and fill out this application to apply for a raised bed garden at your household, grow in a community garden, or volunteer to support the program. The deadline to apply for a garden is Monday, March 13th. Volunteer applications are rolling.

Registration coming soon! 

3D workshop recordings and resources from past skill shares can be found on our website. Topics include Agroforestry, Soil, Mushrooms, Carpentry, Crop Planning, Honoring the Land, Natural Dyeing, and Farm Business Planning. 

The 3D series is a multidimensional workshop series designed for B.I.P.O.C. (Black, Indigenous, &/or People of Color) to deepen skills in specific farming and land stewardship practices in a culturally relevant, supportive, and joyful environment. Expert facilitators offer workshops throughout the season, paying homage to legacies of African Diasporic and Indigenous wisdom and innovation carried through generations.

We’re getting excited to welcome our beloved community back to the farm this spring. Community Work & Learn Days are an opportunity for you to join us at Soul Fire Farm to learn about some of our farming practices while supporting our food sovereignty work and getting your hands on the land.

Check out the dates and purchase tickets here.

Braiding Seeds Fellowship is getting ready to launch our 3rd year of the program

Applications will be released on March 1st and close on May 1st. We will be co-hosting an informational session via Instagram live on March 1st at 4pm EST with current fellows and alumni. Our co-hosts will be sharing personal testimonies of their experiences during the fellowship and where they are with their farming projects. There will be an additional Q&A session and selection committee session later in spring as well.

We are also buzzing with anticipation for our first in person gathering with both the current ‘22-‘23 fellows and our recently graduated ‘21-‘22 cohort! This will take place at the Federation of Southern Cooperatives rural training site in Gainesville, AL March 9-11.

As educational programming became our main focus, it made sense to have a structure that was accountable to the community, and able to garner funding to make those programs accessible. We are grateful for the access to resources under this model, but also grapple with the challenges of 501c3 status, including reporting bureaucracy, pressure to cater to donors, and disruption of BIPOC kinship organizing through conflict of interest clauses. Read more in “The Revolution will Not Be Funded.”  We have worked hard to stay true to our values in the context of this structure, including the following efforts:

• Creating and offering an equity guide and equity workshops for donors
• Refusing to change our mission, activities, or structure to access funding
• Building a board from the community we serve, not one comprised of wealthy donors
• Adhering to the “worker directed nonprofit” guidelines, where all staff have a say in major organizational decisions
• Working together with partner organization to access funding, and redistributing our own resources, rather than competing with our peers
• Creating a housing/land coop as a Soul Fire sister organization, so that the people and beings residing on the land can have democratic control over their living conditions

What are some of the ways that you hold onto your values within a nonprofit structure? What are the blessings and challenges? 

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. 

We have a few spots left in our Solidarity Share program

Sign up for no-cost doorstep delivery of fresh produce. Low-income residents of Albany and Troy NY are eligible.

www.soulfirefarm.org/solidarityshares 

Join the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and other food & land justice organizations for the Farmers for Climate Action: Rally for Resilience action taking place in Washington D.C. (with accompanying satellite events taking place across the country), March 6-8, 2023. Click the link above to learn more, and register for the event! 

Note to FIRE Alumni: Keep an eye out for a soon-to-come grant funding opportunity from SFF for engagement on agricultural + land + food justice policy.

Curious about the Farm Bill and unsure where to begin? Our partners at HEAL Food Alliance have put together a robust 2023 Farm Bill Guide. Click the link to learn more about the bill, access resources, and learn how you can engage collaboratively to push for a bill that is good for people and the environment! 

Taking Nature Black Conference: As a treasured member of the Taking Nature Black community, we want you to be among the first to know!

Early bird Registration for the 2023 Taking Nature Black Conference is now open. You are invited to join us online Wednesday, March 8 and Thursday, March 9, and in-person on Friday, March 10 at the Silver Spring Civic Center in downtown Silver Spring, MD. Saturday, March 11 will be a day of free outdoor activities in several DC region locations.

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GROWNYC: GrowNYC is a 51-year-old environmental nonprofit organization – helping more than 3 million New Yorkers by providing essential services and taking action to make NYC a livable city, one where every person can enjoy a healthier, more sustainable life.  

Greenmarket Operations Manage (Full-time): We are searching for a highly organized, decisive, flexible, early-riser who can multi-task and has operations, conflict resolution, and management experience. Reporting to the Director of Food Access & Agriculture and the Assistant Director of Food Access and Agriculture, this position will spend time at GrowNYC’s Greenmarket sites and at the GrowNYC office.  

Farm Business and Marketing Specialist: Farmer Assistance is GrowNYC’s farmer technical assistance program, providing both aspiring and established Greenmarket farmers with business technical assistance and training designed to ensure the long-term viability of participating farms and farmland. Technical assistance is provided through both in-house services and the engagement of third-party consultants. The Farm Business and Marketing Specialist Specialist is a part of the Farmer Assistance team  and will be responsible for implementing, monitoring, and evaluating a suite of business and marketing/sales strategy technical assistance programming for Greenmarket farmers and graduates of our two 9 week beginning farmer business and financial training programs, Farm Beginnings (for English speakers) and La Nueva Siembra (for Spanish speakers). 

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Queer Farmer Skill Share Survey: The Cultivemos Queer Farmer Cohort is a group of 10 farmers in the Northeast with the mandate to advance network building within the queer farmer community. They are funded through Cultivemos, a program managed by the National Young Farmers Coalition, and funded by the USDA.

They have a $5000 budget to create a program and would like to fund a queer farmer skill share series in the Northeast. Their budget will go primarily to compensate teachers, co-teachers and hosts. They are planning on March 2023 for the bulk of these skill shares. They want to hear from you – our community – about what kinds of skill shares would be most helpful to you. All of your personal information will be kept confidential within the Queer Farmer Cohort group.

Other Recent Publications:

• Green Sabbath Gathering with Leah Penniman
• 10 Books by Black and & Afro-Indigenous Authors on Black History, Liberation and Futurism | NDN Collective, with Leah Penniman 
• Ms. Magazine February Reads with Leah Penniman
• Ebony Magazine 10 Black Authors to Read with Leah Penniman
• No Till Highlights on TEDx Talk with Leah Penniman
• Feature in The National Wildlife Federation with Ife Kilimanjaro

Kentucky Black Farmers Conference (remote talk by Leah Penniman)
March 4, 2023
Knicely Conference Center, 2355 Nashville Rd, Bowling Green, KY 42101, USA

2023 Kentucky Black Farmers Conference registration and more information
This event is being hosted by CFA and Black Soil: Our Better Nature

See more details

POLLINATE! Film | Rock Steady Farm
Monday March 13th, 6-7:30pm EST

Join our friends at Rock Steady Farm for a virtual screening of their newest film by Walter Hergt, which tells the story of 11 QTBIPOC beginner farmers who participated in the POLLINATE! Program at Rock Steady Farm. These stories invite us to envision a liberatory food system led by QTBIPOC farmers by weaving together personal reflections on the intersections between race, gender, sexuality and healing with the land. 

This event will feature a Q&A discussion after the screening. All ticket sales will go towards their farm education programs

Register

Oppression underwrites our food system, and a tangible action to address food sovereignty in our communities is taking reparations into our own hands through the creation of the Reparations Map for Black-Indigenous Farmers. We recognize that the food system was built on the stolen land and stolen labor of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and other people of color. We also know that we cannot 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 Northeast Farmers of Color!