At the center of it all are farmers Hector Lopez and Phoebe Gooding, who say growing food is but one part of their mission on this urban permaculture farm. “We’re here to heal our bodies, the land, and our communities,” Lopez said, gently chewing a mint leaf he had just picked.
Set on 1.3 acres outside the couple’s split-level brick home in Durham, Hawk’s Nest welcomes community members for regular events rooted in spirituality. At the back of their property, between a towering teepee and piles of compost, is a dome-like structure made from bent branches. Here the couple regularly offer a temazcal, an ancient sweat lodge ceremony for physical and spiritual purification that Lopez has facilitated for decades.
“We’re producing this food for healing our bodies, but it’s not just that,” Gooding said. “This is about a whole ecosystem of healing.”
Rosemary, mint, and other herbs flourish in garden beds near a mobile chicken coop at Hawk’s Nest Healing Gardens. (Photo credit: Nicole J. Caruth)
Across the country, farmers of color like Lopez and Gooding are using their farms as centers for community wellness and collective healing. Through workshops, retreats, and immersive experiences, they’re making space for their neighbors and broader community to address everything from racial trauma to burnout to traumatic brain injuries.
In communities of color, where generations of environmental racism and inadequate resources have led to issues like high food insecurity and chronic illnesses, healing-centered farms are more than just nice to have—they’re deeply needed.
“We’re producing food for healing our bodies, but it’s not just that. This is about a whole ecosystem of healing.”
A number of authors have written about land-based healing recently, with notable titles from botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer, herbalist Michele E. Lee, and farmer Leah Penniman. What they all point out is that land has been more than just a resource across cultures and time; it’s also been a healing force for bodies, minds, and spirits. But as colonization and urban industrialization disconnect people from the land, they’re also distanced from their ancestral traditions.
Now, farmers and land stewards of color are reclaiming Indigenous knowledge, taking control over their health through holistic remedies, and building spaces for rest and creative expression. By helping others heal, these farmers say they’re also healing themselves.
Coping with Tragedy
Many such farms trace their beginning back to the COVID-19 pandemic. Witnessing widespread suffering and the higher death toll among people of color was a catalyst for action, as social systems failed to provide the care and resources communities needed.
“So much was lost,” said Robyn Magalit Rodriguez, a Filipina American farmer, activist, and former Asian American studies professor at the University of California, Davis. “All of our people were dying as a consequence of the pandemic, but [also] all the failures of the system.”
For Rodriguez, the pandemic hit particularly hard. Two months after the police murder of George Floyd, amid global protests and a rising death toll, Rodriguez experienced a personal tragedy: her 22-year-old son, Amado Khaya, died from septic shock that may have been exacerbated by COVID-19.
She took up farming to process her grief and honor her son—an activist who was living and working alongside Indigenous land defenders and farmers in the Philippines. “I needed to touch life,” Rodriguez said. “I needed to be in a space where I could see life proliferate despite it all.”
Rodriguez eventually left her full-time job at the university and, along with her husband, Joshua Vang, a second-generation Hmong refugee and naturalist, founded Remagination Farm in Northern California. On the 8.5 acres they now steward, they raise goats and cultivate crops using regenerative practices.
“It’s not just a farm where you go to learn about planting seeds,” said Stephanie Garma Balon, a Filipina American arts therapist, just days after participating in a weekend retreat for mothers at Remagination Farm. “Being there is a return to self, to ancestors, and right relationship to the land.”
The retreat was organized by Raising Ancestors, a group of parents, caregivers, and activists dedicated to breaking cycles of oppression, Balon said.
Remagination Farm’s website describes it as not only a farm but also “a learning center, healing and arts space” aimed at reconnecting people of color with the land. Educational workshops offer lessons on, among other things, the principles of healing justice. Harvest festivals, film screenings, and fishing lessons invite people to visit for a few hours.
