“Restoring land without restoring relationship is an empty exercise. It is relationship that will endure and relationship that will sustain the restored land. Therefore, connecting people and the landscape is as essential as reestablishing proper hydrology or cleaning up contaminants. It is medicine for the earth. Plants are also integral to reweaving the connection between land and people. A place becomes home when it sustains you, when it feeds you in body as well as spirit. To recreate a home, the plants must also return.”
~ From Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Photos from AfroSeder
On Saturday, April 7th we came together with our community for our 8th annual AfroSeder, a yearly gathering of Black Jewish people and loved ones marking the end of Passover. Central to this gathering is the telling of our ancestor’s stories; as Leah said, “May we continue to tell the stories we know and the stories we need.” Storytelling is an important avenue for us to preserve our ancestor’s narratives and cultural traditions and derive inspiration and hope. We celebrated the legacy of Harriet Tubman, as well as the liberation stories of Jewish people and the personal stories of others at our gathering with the understanding that all of our freedom is bound up with one another.
Announcements:
- This year at least 14 refugee and immigrant families will receive FREE vegetable delivery with your support. Please pitch in for a Solidarity Share today.
- We are also almost sold out of Farm Shares. Sign up to have fresh veggies delivered to your home this summer and fall.
- Sign up to buy our delicious, pasture-raised chicken available this summer, starting in July.
- There are a few spots left in our Black Latinx Youth Immersion, held July 22-28 at Wildseed Community Farm, Millerton NY. Apply today!
- Our first community farm day is April 21st! We honor the Haitian cultural practice of Konbit through collective work, followed by a potluck. Please RSVP here.
- Join us on June 23rd for our SOULstice Party to celebrate the gifts and abundance of living on this blessed planet and our beautiful community. There will be amazing performances, lots of delicious food, and the option to camp out on our beautiful land.
- And finally, check out this beautiful podcast interview Leah Penniman did with For The Wild!
Jonah and Rowe
Our beloved family member Rowe passed away a few weeks ago. Jonah shared some beautiful words in honor of her:
“You were pure unconditional love Dear One. You knew what we needed even before we did. Finding lost kids in the woods. Leading people home in the dark. A compassionate presence in hard times. A meditation buddy. A joker. Wrestler. An extrovert with such a healthy relationship with need for personal time. The best mouser. Veggie and chicken protector. There is not enough gratitude to offer for what you have gifted this land and project. From the beginning you believed and gave yourself fully. You are so loved Rowe. Rest in delight.”
Your presence is missed, Rowe.
Our 2018 staff and Eb Brown, our wonderful retreat facilitator
At the end of March our team gathered together at Wildseed Community Farm & Healing Village in Millerton, NY for our first staff retreat. When organizing it, Damaris, our assistant farm manager, thought of the retreat as an ungerminated seed that cannot transform into crops without the right soil conditions, sufficient warmth and water, and lots of love. Like plants, people also need the right conditions to thrive. Our staff retreat was a way for our team to learn the best ways to support each other so we can grow as individuals, grow as a team, and grow life-giving food for our communities. People and crops both need bed prep.
Meet Lytisha, one of our new farmers, planting fruit trees while it’s (still) snowing
And speaking of bed prep – our team has been working hard to prepare the soil for seedlings to grow in by weeding, compost spreading, bed shaping, and irrigation laying. We also harvested chickweed, one of the weeds that grows profusely in our high tunnel, because of its incredible medicinal properties. Foraging wild plants and creating medicines from them is an important tradition we want to uplift and continue. While harvesting, our farm manager Larisa tried some and remarked that chickweed tastes bright green, like spring – an exciting reminder of the many transitions this new season will bring us.
Youth from the Queens Action Council with Amani
Amani and KatSoPoetic of KATANI at Girls, Inc., K-2
Our volunteers mean so much to us! The Presbyterian Hunger Program Advisory Committee and youth visitors from the Queens Action Council helped us add lime and compost to our beds. Also pictured above is one of the many adorable photos of Amani’s visit to Girls, Inc. where young girls learned about soil and farming. Youth are the future, so educating and learning with them is so important! The Agricultural Justice Project also visited our farm to assess us for their Food Justice Certification – to date the only farm certification program that focuses on the legal rights of food systems workers that was developed primarily by farm workers and farmers. We are excited to see the future development and widespread implementation of this program.
Leah speaking at the Farm School in Athol, MA
Racism is ingrained in the DNA of the food system in the United States, resulting in declining numbers of black farmers and poor health outcomes in communities of color. This past month we talked about different strategies to redress these injustices. Leah and Amani spoke about these strategies at the Farm School, Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ) in Albany, the Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming, Goddard College, and the ThinkFOOD conference at Bard College. We’ll be continuing these conversations at the Green Table in NYC (hosted by Glynwood) on May 14th and Community Food Funders on May 16th. We also attended a Council of Albany Neighborhood Associations (CANA) meeting where representatives of different neighborhood associations discussed their needs and concerns so we can understand how we can best serve our communities’ interests.
Leah and Chaga
And finally, this past Sunday we welcomed our newest addition to our family, Chaga! We are blessed to have been connected to this warm and energetic puppy.
A tangible action we have taken for addressing our racist food system is by taking reparations into our own hands through the creation of the Reparations Map for Black-Indigenous Farmers. We are excited to announce that yet another project was funded! 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. 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.