Huertos Familiares Harvest Sobremesa

The Fall Equinox once again finds us with our hands in the soil, harvesting the last of the summer crops, prepping the soil for the Fall and Winter gardens, reflecting on all that the land has gifted us.

It finds us pulling overgrown weeds from a garden which was left largely untended during the long summer months. One bed in particular required a tremendous amount of attention and care. The vines, which had previously offered more beans than we could eat or share, were curled up and brittle. The tomatoes, that for two seasons had colored the garden with pops of red, were collapsing under their own shriveled weight. The herbs that had flavored so many of our meals were nowhere to be seen. Dominating instead were invasive vines and deep rooted weeds. The bed, once prolific in its affirmation of life, was now overrun by weeds, which didn't sustain the life of the garden and only depleted nutrients from the soil. The cycle of regeneration was interrupted, remaining was only the aggressive suffocation of previously thriving life. But as I cleared the weeds out, as I clipped and pulled, I found, there, hidden beneath the choking weeds, the fertile soil we poured so much love and attention into. The weeds, for as aggressive as they were, still protected the soil (and some of the herbs) from the scorching summer heat and offered a lesson on grace. 

Now, as we prepare for another season, in a world that often doesn’t make sense, where the constant onslaught of violent and disheartening news threatens to suffocate us, we offer the video of our Harvest Sobremesa. It’s a reminder of the fertile soil we built throughout the pilot year of our Huertos Familiares project. The gathering, which brought together folks from across Tejas, reminds us that we still retain the power to create the world we imagine, in our backyards, in our communities, in our huertos familiares. It reminds us that every time we gather to share a meal, share our stories, share our light, we are re)discovering, (re)imagining, (re)building a world where all life is honored and respected, where our ties to the land, to that which nourishes us runs deep, where one seed can transform a landscape and a life.

So we offer our deep gratitude to all those that participated in Huertos Families, those who jumped on a broad fork to help the soil breathe, those who deepened their relationship to themselves, each other, to the land, to the life in their gardens through our Garden Salutation cards, and to all those who whispered a prayer and planted a seed.

Special thanks to Jenna Creel for the beautiful eye with which she captures our fugitive dreams and to our collaborators and funders: The Urban Bird Project, Traditional Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Healing, City of San Antonio Office of Sustainability Community Action Fund and the Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation. Huertos Familiares, of course, would not have happened without our co-mitoteros, a todo dar productions. Gracias totales for dreaming alongside us.

Wishing you all a nourishing Fall garden.