Finca Morada's March Newsletter
Blessings Community! Thank you to all for joining our newsletter as we create a new pathway for communication with our community.
What happened in February on the land:
Many people remark that we don’t have seasons in Miami. And sure, our seasons are not as dramatically polar as our friends more distant of the equator, but when you tune in, our natural cycles here are beautiful and humbling to witness. This past month we observed mangos, mulberries, and many other trees flowering, loquats fruiting, new growth all around our food forest, pineapples forming, and our most abundant banana harvest yet at nearly 50 lbs! It's clear that Spring is at our doorstep.
Mini-Mural Painting Workshop
Our artist in residence, Linda Fernandez, hosted a mini-mural painting workshop in the garden. She set up two canvases on a special material used by muralists, for participants to paint on. One piece incorporated shapes as well as elemental, personal & spiritual symbols, and the other included a beautiful big drawing of the house at Finca Morada! Everyone was surprised by how swiftly two unique murals were realized from our collaborative visions and energy. The power of the collective never ceases to amaze and inspire. You can check out more of Linda's work here!
What happened in February, off the land:
Agroecology Field Trip
On Feb 8th we embarked on our 2nd annual Agroecology Field trip, where we organized a group of farmers, gardeners, land stewards, and community organizers to learn from, experience, and be inspired by other farmers and their projects. This year we visited Ever Oak, a 3 acre farm in Orlando practicing regenerative organic farming & syntropic agroforestry. A group of 8 of us enjoyed a few hours touring the farm, learning all about their robust CSA, farm stand, community engagement, agroforestry techniques, and diverse strategies for sustainability and regeneration. Then we put in a good half day of work, helping to chop and drop support species to bring fertility and stimulate growth within their agroforestry rows. After, we enjoyed an evening of connecting over food, jamming, and making up songs about what we had learned earlier that day.
The big takeaway from our time at Ever Oak was witnessing the potential in action for producing A LOT of food in a relatively small space without an overwhelming amount of work, by practicing syntropic agroforestry techniques. These techniques harness, embody, and accelerate what a forest naturally does so well - grow and ever increase its own fertility without outside inputs; exist within all spaces and layers maximizing photosynthesis, that is harnessing the energy of the sun; and create abundant, resilient, complex and diverse ecosystems.
There is so much more to elaborate on all of this to which Cris is particularly passionate to share about. Earlier this month she taught an Urban Agroforestry workshop at the Green Haven Project Community Garden in Overtown, and has plans for more similar workshops in the coming months, so stay on the lookout for those!
Cuba Farm Brigade
To close out February, we organized a Farmer-to-Farmer Brigade to Cuba. We brought a group of 6 folks from the U.S, 3 from Miami, 1 from Austin, & 2 Northeast farmers from our Soul Fire Farm community. We collaborated with Regla Soul on their new land sovereignty project called Finca Aroko, in Soroa, Cuba. Soroa is a small rural town West of Havana nestled within the gorgeous Sierra del Rosario mountains & biosphere reserve. Prior to the revolution, enslaved peoples from Africa cultivated coffee in this area. Amberly of Finca Aroko, deeply called to this land, is committed to uncovering, preserving, and honoring its important history, one at risk of being forgotten. We fundraised $1,200 from our communities and brought over much needed farming tools & supplies including machetes, guatacas, pruners, hand saws, nails, screwdrivers, angle grinder discs, garden string, work boots, work clothes, work gloves, chicken wire, shade cloth, zip-ties, irrigation parts, batteries, clothes pins, bungee chords, masking tape, solar lights, solar chargers, food, and medicine!
Our time at Finca Aroko was spent building raised beds out of reclaimed wood and stones from the river, rich compost from the land & manure from a nearby farm. Committed to complete the project, we worked in the dark and in the rain! One of our team members, Taina from Soul Fire Farm, constructed a handsome salvaged wood table to house a solar panel. We also facilitated the construction of a greenhouse, called a “vivero” in Cuba, and expanded access to water for hand washing and irrigation.
A surprise highlight of the trip was connecting with a neighboring farm called La Calendula, founded and operated solely by Eloisa, a badass AfroCuban woman, descendent of the formerly enslaved people of the area, who despite adverse challenges and naysayers, she now owns and runs a beautiful productive 7 acre medicinal and edible farm and agroforest of 11 years. Additionally Eloisa grows and roasts her own coffee, leads tours, is an incredible chef, and she runs a cooperative of female land-based entrepreneurs, connecting women farmers across Cuba to share knowledge and resources. Needless to say, we were incredibly inspired by Eloisa! One afternoon, Eloisa joined us for lunch at Elly’s older cousin’s nearby farm to make an introduction between the 2 female farmers. After instantly hitting it off, Eloisa offered to gift Elly’s cousin 300 coffee plants to add to the diversity of her farm! We’ve now sent branded labels over to Eloisa, designed by Elly, so she can add them to her existing packaging!
Vizcaya Dinner for Farmers
Finca Morada was invited to participate in the Dinner for Farmers event hosted at Vizcaya by Florida Organic Growers. It was a joy to be both honored as integral to the South Florida growers community while also having the opportunity to share our gifts with our fellow farmers.
Cris and her band Tina & The Trees provided the background sounds & vibes while Elly was invited to create an interactive art piece for the dinner. The fun and colorful piece included gratitude messages that guests sent in when they RSVP’d for the event. During the event, they had the opportunity to write more love notes to farmers & tuck them into a seed packet on the collage, which were later be distributed to the farmers.
Offerings in March:
Workshop: Herbalism for WombHealth
When: Sunday, Mar 29, 4:00-7:00 pm
Location: Finca Morada
Led by: Kennah (@justariverbed)
RSVP: RSVP Request Form *Please note, you must hear back from us to be confirmed. We receive many RSVP’s for events. If you do not hear back from us, you are on the waitlist & may be contacted closer to the date if we have any cancelations.*
In this workshop we will continue the tradition of gathering to tend to our bodies and ritualize our health through interspecies communal care between us and our medical plant kin. This is a space for you to explore how the voice of plants shows up in your unique physiology and craft your own herbal blend in support of your hormonal and uterine health. In a circular sharing model, we will exchange herbal and ancestral knowledge around wombcare, remember how to listen to the sensations of the body to understand what plants to collaborate with and be guided in making our own personalized tea/yoni steaming blend.
This is a group knowledge exchange, please come ready to share your wisdom so we can learn from each other. You are welcome to bring herbs and fruits to share!
12 herbs for crafting will be provided.
Community Event: Things Swap!
When: Saturday, March 15, 3-6 pm
Hosted by: Miami Time Swap & The Things Lab
Location: Artisan’s Playhouse, 2456 W 8th Ct, Hialeah, FL 33010
RSVP: Free, RSVP here
Bring no more than 10 gently used items (no clothes) - things that are clean, functional, and ready for a new home! You can also sign up with the Miami Time Swap (our local time-based trade economy) & trade services with other Time Swappers!
If you’d like to become a financial monthly supporter of Finca Morada:
You can now make monthly or annual donations to Finca to support our work! While we are very blessed to receive a small amount of grant funding through a beautiful organization called Kindle Project, the majority of the hours that go into holding Finca Morada & our community offerings are volunteer based. It is important to us that our work remain grassroots and aligned with our values, therefore we do not accept or apply for funds from funders who are complicit in genocide, violence, and oppression. We love this community, this land, this work we are honored to do, and we are grateful for the support!
There are multiple options/tiers on Substack to support, depending what feels possible for each person. Please note there is no difference in what you receive from Finca as a supporter no matter what amount you are supporting with. Our gratitude is boundless however much you donate and it is our intention to dismantle systems of hierarchy and oppression.
In peace and solidarity,
Elly, Cris, Beniyah, Moe, and Fela
This newsletter was co-written by Elly & Cris, voice recording by Beniyah
love the Beniyah voice addition :)