with Leah Penniman & Olive Watkins
September 17, 2020,
5:00 pm – 6:30 p.m EST / 2:00 – 3:30 p.m PST
The forest is a superorganism comprised of trees that “talk” to one another using the internet of fungal mycelium. They quite literally send warning messages, share carbon and minerals, and take turns helping each other out when environmental conditions are rough. Not only is the cooperation of the forest a profound guide for how we need to exist in the human community, it’s also a practical survival strategy.
In this virtual workshop, we will learn how to mimic the forest ecosystem in our cultivated lands as well as how to work with wild forests to produce food. Together we will explore:
- How to construct a terraced orchard of apple, peach, pear, and plum trees
- How to integrate trees with herbs in a “jaden lakou” Haitian-style garden
- How to care for raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries
- How to use the understory of the forest for mushrooms, ramps, and grazing animals
- How to grow less common perennials like elderberry, jostaberry, and honeyberry
- How to plan a landscape that captures carbon over the long-term
- How to integrate trees into grazing land in a silvopasture system
- How to sustainably “wildcraft” by harvesting from the forest
- How to create “value-add” products from your agroforestry system
Presenter Bios:
Leah Penniman, (Li*/Ya/She/He) has over 20 years of experience as a soil steward and food sovereignty activist, having worked at the Food Project, Farm School, Many Hands Organic Farm, Youth Grow and with farmers internationally in Ghana, Haiti, and Mexico. Li co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2010 with the mission to reclaim our inherent right to belong to the earth and have agency in the food system as Black and Brown people. Her areas of leadership at Soul Fire include farmer training, international solidarity, perennials, writing, speaking, “making it rain,” and anything that involves heavy lifting, sweat, and soil. Li’s book “Farming While Black” is a love song for the earth and her peoples.
Olive Watkins (she/her/hers) is a returning generation farmer with 6+ years of experience working on small-scale regenerative farms. Her father’s side is from the Caribbean (Jamaica & Panama), and her mother’s side is from North Carolina. After working in Hawai’i at Kahumana Organic Farms and in New York at Soul Fire Farm, she came back to the land that has been in her maternal side of the family for 130 years to continue her passion of working with the land through an agroforestry system. She currently grows shiitake mushrooms.
In addition to farming, Olivia is a current MBA Candidate at North Carolina State University where she is developing skills around business management, finance, and impact investing.