blackfuturesfarm

Last year, Anela Malik from “Feed the Malik” popped in the farm,interviewed us and had us at the launch of her very cool cookbook. Today my friend, Claudia leaves me a very sweet message about being on some show on YouTube!
Check us out here along with Kees Loaded Kitchen and Henderson Wines.

Black-Owned Portland: They Couldn't Get Rid of Us Portland tried to push us out. We stayed, we built, and we're eatin...

Black Sunday!
Season 7
Episode 126

There’s a New World Coming 🍁✨

3 more Black Sundays this season yall.

Last week we had our monthly Farm Tour visit to Lucien Donation Farm! Lucien Darensburg
We had such a great time moving around on the land he stewards and seeing all the abundance he and a very few volunteers have been able to produce which is incredible!
Lucien is a long time partner and friend of Black Futures Farm and we love to see his hearts work and thriving farming work to continue pouring in to folks who desire healthy fresh produce.

We also were fortunate to have Jefferson High School students come out to Black Futures Farm to harvest veggies for us as well as pick up apples and clear out some space on the land. To be witness to some students very first experience picking a vegetable from the earth and eating it themselves is always an incredible highlight for us.
Farmers Daniel and Carrod did their thing leading this group of students through a farm tour and projects to help us out!

Do you remember the first vegetable or food you ate straight from the earth?

Happy Fall 🍂🍁 folx!

This past Wednesday, we had the Indigo Leaf Dye Workshop facilitated by who led an incredible day of Indigo teachings and hands on dying process for participants!

Participants spent much time harvesting their own indigo for their dye buckets. Then folks gathered under the tree and began dying fabric which will be used to create a quilted canopy for Black Futures Farm, offering more shade to folks who come visit during the warmer months.

The process was really hands-on and very fun to do in community. The indigo itself was grown from seed to harvest at Black Futures Farm.

For more about this work, please check out facilitator Bridgette ✨

If you were present this day, what did you enjoy most! Share👇🏽 in the comments!

🌻 We invite community to RSVP for one or a few Farm Tours!

We have three coming up one each month and our next farm tour is Saturday, September 19 visiting Lucien Donation Farm
⏰ 11am - 3pm
📍 Meet at Black Futures farm at 11am and we will drive to the farm together via carpools etc.
Lunch provided!

RSVP in the bio!

Funding for The, Black Community Food and Engagement Evaluation Program was made possible by a grant from the United States Department of agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service. It’s contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the USDA.

🌿Exploring Ancestral Plant bodies as sites of memory : ‘Ẹ̀lú | Indigo 🌿

🌀Wednesday, September 9th, 10am-1pm at Black Futures Farm
🌀Group size: 20 people

African and Black people have been cultivating Indigo for over 500 years! In Nigeria, Indigo dye pits date back to 1498, and are still in use today. Over the summer a few of us have had the pleasure of growing Indigo at Black Futures Farm. You are invited to join us for our second harvest of the season!

Together we will:
• Honor the impactful origins of Indigo as it relates to African and Black lifeways
• Begin to consider a more personal and intimate relationship within ourselves and Indigo
• Explore Black Craft as Ancestral technologies of language and memory
• Learn about cultivating, growing, and harvesting the nitrogen loving plant Indigo
• Think about reparations as it relates to craft
• Learn the chemical composition and environment required to make Indigo pigment available for dyeing
• Harvest Indigo
• Learn a variety of dye techniques
• Dye!

Please bring something to sketch/write with, water, anything you need to feel comfortable

Your facilitator:
Bridgette Hickey is a practitioner of the Black autistic psychic landscape, with a methodology of using what she has on hand, and deep listening. She comes from blue mud earth tenders, people who prayed fiercely, with written words, hands-on bodies, with water and song, in dance and ecstatic expression. Her practice includes growing plants, archiving through prose, immersive installations, earth ceremony, quilting as a form of prayer, botanical dyeing, herbal medicine making, and facilitating story and grief circles in community. Bridgette is also a craniosacral therapist with a focus on infants, pregnancy, and postpartum.
Find her at www.bridgettehickey.cargo.site/ or Bridgette

🌻This past Saturday,
Our second Farm Visit took us to Revolution of the Heart Farm, where farm lead Sunny walked us through their land and their work. Sunny shared how their capacity for the farm is tied to their full-time work — and how finding that balance is actually what keeps their love for farming alive. These in person conversations bring us closer in a good way. To learn more about revolución del corazón check them out here ☝🏽💚

🌻Saturday evening, the Breakin’ Bread folx Mosaic PDX gathered at Black Futures Farm for their final session: Acceptance & Celebration. They had a beautiful evening on the land, and we love to see it! ✨

🌻And of course — Black Sunday was filled with community again. Sharing time, connection, and fresh produce in late summer really is a blessing to partake in these days.

Have a wonderful week folx and we thank you revolución del corazón and Mosaic PDX for your work and beauty making in our community.