One-third of Connecticut’s residents identify as people of color, but statistically, more than 98% of Connecticut’s farmers are white. It’s a disparity rooted in generations of racism, unequal access to land and credit, and systemic discrimination. But while their numbers are small, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) farmers do exist in Connecticut. All summer long, we will bring you their stories through audio interviews and photographs, which will be posted here. Listen to these farmers in their own words.
Aarmere Jackson, 19, Aarmari Quinoñez, 24
"People hear, ‘Oh, you're a beekeeper?’ It's like an amazement to them."
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Aarmari Quinoñez, 24, adds sugar water to a hive he and his family keep at a garden in Hartford. “We learn from bees all the time,” says Quinoñez, "You can take some bees from separate hives and they can create a colony ... working together instead of working as one individual can make a lot more of a difference. It takes a village to raise a colony.”
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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— BIPOC farmer Herb Virgo connecticut agriculture
Morning light glances over a honeycomb frame in one of the Keney Park hives operated by young beekeepers Aarmari Quinoñez, Aarmere Jackson and their mom, Aarvah Quinoñez.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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— BIPOC farmer Herb Virgo connecticut agriculture
Wearing a protective suit, Aarmere Jackson carries a tray of freshly harvested honeycomb from hives he and his family keep at the Keney Park Sustainability Project in Windsor.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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— BIPOC farmer Herb Virgo connecticut agriculture
Described as “Yoda” by young beekeeper Aarmere Jackson for his expertise and knowledge, master beekeeper Peter Ferreira inspects honeycomb harvested from bees managed by Jackson’s family at the Keney Park Sustainability Project in Windsor. Ferreira’s beekeeping history is generations long and traces back to his family’s roots in Portugal.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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— BIPOC farmer Herb Virgo connecticut agriculture
Aarvah Quinoñez (left) air-dries hive frames with Herb Virgo while tending to her family’s bees at Virgo’s Keney Park Sustainability Project in Windsor. Quinoñez’s 19-year-old son, Aarmere Jackson, credits Virgo with helping his family get started in beekeeping after taking a class at Keney Park.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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— BIPOC farmer Herb Virgo connecticut agriculture
Bees managed by Aarvah Quinoñez and her family cluster around honeycomb in their hive box at the Keney Park Sustainability Project.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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A bee descends on a sunflower at a garden in Hartford as, behind the scenes, beekeepers Aarmari Quinoñez, Aarmere Jackson and their mom, Aarvah Quinoñez, tend to some of the hives they operate throughout the region. "It's just awesome to watch," says Jackson when describing the growth of a hive into "thousands of bees," adding, “honey is honey is good, you know, it's just everybody loves honey."
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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— BIPOC farmer Herb Virgo connecticut agriculture
Master beekeeper Peter Ferreira (left) consults with new beekeeper Aarvah Quinoñez and Herb Virgo of the Keney Park Sustainability Project. With her beekeeping business relatively new, Quinoñez says information from other beekeepers better prepares her for problems with the hives. “There are problems I know about that I have never seen yet. But I feel confident that when I run into it now, I'll be able to take care of it because of the knowledge I get from the family, the community, of beekeepers,” she said.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Aarmere Jackson, 19, mops sweat off his face trying to cool down after wearing a full-body bee suit while working with his family’s hives at a garden in Hartford. “People see me with dreads. I usually wear hoodies – black pants – you know what I’m saying? So people, a lot of times think like, ‘Oh, he's like some really rude, mean kid.’ But you take the time to talk to me – I'm pretty nice. I'm pretty open-minded. And I genuinely like to help people most of the time. So don't judge too harshly just on appearances.”
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
Working as part of a family operation called the Aasaaska Foundation, two brothers manage beehives throughout Hartford. The pair discussed honey, perceptions of beekeepers and what people can learn from bees.
Hear the brothers pour sugar water to help with honey production and puff smoke into the hive to keep the bees under control. (Originally aired: 8/22/2022)
Gary Carter, Cassius Spears Sr., Jeremy Whipple
“Giving thanks was knowing that we were the weaker ones and not the ones that were dominant over all life.”
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Using a sharp-edged stone he found while preparing fields for planting, Roberto Rivera cuts weed-control tarps at the Meechoook Farm operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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With early morning sunlight illuminating the greenhouses at Meechoook Farm, farm manager Cassius Spears Sr. (left) and director Jeremy Whipple coordinate their plan for the day.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Meechoook Farm manager Cassius Spears Sr. inspects hydroponic tomatoes growing in one of two greenhouses at the farm.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Bryan Holder, 35, of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, guides vines working their way up lines in one of the two greenhouses on the Meechoook Farm operated by the Mashantucket Pequots.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Delicate leaves of lettuce started from seed are prepared to be transferred to larger hydroponic growing chambers inside one of the Meechoook Farm’s greenhouses. The mature, full-sized heads of lettuce will be used, in part, to supply restaurants at Foxwoods Resort Casino.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Hydroponic- and greenhouse-grown heads of lettuce at the Mashantucket Pequot Meechoook Farm are warmed by the morning sun before being harvested to supply Foxwoods.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Randolph Young harvests hydroponically grown lettuce inside a greenhouse at the Meechoook Farm operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Farm manager Cassius Spears Sr. (left) of the Narragansett Tribe and Bryan Holder of the Mashantucket Pequots weigh boxes of zucchini being prepared for distribution to Foxwoods.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Signs are posted around Meechoook Farm indicating the Native American words for plants and animals.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Micheal Martins of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation pets one of the pigs the nation is raising on its Meechoook Farm.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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A bee harvests food inside a zucchini flower at the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation’s Meechoook Farm.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Bryan Holder takes a break to wipe his brow while clearing weeds off land where fall crops will be planted at the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation’s Meechoook Farm.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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A young strawberry plant, an integral food for Mashantucket Pequots, grows in soil at the tribal nation’s Meechoook Farm.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Bryan Holder places a sign outside the recently opened farm stand operated by the Mashantucket Pequots as a place to sell goods and produce grown on their Meechoook Farm.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Crookneck squash, zucchini and tomatoes harvested from the Mashantucket Pequot’s Meechoook Farm are displayed on shelves at the tribal nation’s farm stand.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Jeremy Whipple, director of the Mashantucket Pequot’s Meechoook Farm, says goodbye to a team of UConn researchers partnering with the tribal nation to expand the farm’s outreach and broaden its goods and services.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
On hundreds of acres of abundant tribal land, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and its recently formed Department of Agriculture are farming in forests, fields and hydroponic greenhouses. Three farmers discussed food, harvests and giving thanks throughout the year.
The conversation began with strawberries. (Originally aired: 8/8/2022)
James Faison, 87
"I do what I can today. What I can’t do, I let it go. If I wake up tomorrow morning, I’ll start all over again."
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— Mr. James "Bo Beep" Faison BIPOC Farmers New Haven
“Bo Peep" works the soil outside his New Haven home, continuing a farming tradition he has practiced since childhood in North Carolina.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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— Mr. James "Bo Beep" Faison BIPOC Farmers New Haven
On his plot in New Haven, 87-year-old James "Bo Peep" Faison, works the soft warm soil of the New Haven plot he has been cultivating for years. “As long as I can get up and go, I’m gonna keep doin’ it.”
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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"Without farms," says Faison, "We'd be lost."
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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— Mr. James "Bo Beep" Faison BIPOC Farmers New Haven
"We're made from this dirt here, according to the good book," says Faison, "So I get to come out and talk to plants, 'Doing good today fellas...love you.' If the need water water, I water them."
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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Morning sunlight warms a flower and a bee working alongside the produce Faison grows on a plot in New Haven adjacent to his home.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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— Mr. James "Bo Beep" Faison BIPOC Farmers New Haven
Faison checks the plants he grows on a small rectangle of land outside his New Haven home.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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James "Bo Beep" Faison is an 87-year-old New Haven resident who grew up on a farm in North Carolina and now grows outside his home. The farming, he says, keeps him alive in both body and spirit. “I do what I can today. What I can’t do, I let it go. If I wake up tomorrow morning, I’ll start all over again. That's me. That's today I'm living for. Tomorrow come – I take care of tomorrow.”
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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— Mr. James "Bo Beep" Faison BIPOC Farmers New Haven
Faison rests his hand on a vegetable stake while working the land outside his New Haven home.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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— Mr. James "Bo Beep" Faison BIPOC Farmers New Haven
87-year-old James “Bo Peep Faison continues a farming tradition he has practiced since childhood in North Carolina. “Not much has changed about it,” he reflects, “It’s the same thing, same earth. Without farming, we’d be lost.”
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
At a small plot of land in a New Haven neighborhood, a farmer known as "Bo Beep" says farming keeps him alive in body and in spirit. (Originally aired: 7/18/22)
Lauren Little, 33
"Many of them have come to me and been like, ‘You’re the only Black teacher that I’ve had before.’ Or, ‘I didn’t know there were Black farmers.’ That hurt me."
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— BIPOC farmer lauren little connecticut agriculture
Lauren Little leads a mindfulness session at the start of her gardening class. “A lot of my activities encompass mindfulness,” says Little. “You get more oxygen into your brain. That's good. Giving students a time to think, you know, sometimes they need extra minutes to process things or to like, reflect. Even if they decide not to become farmers, the skills that they learned are important.”
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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Lauren Little waters plants in beds she maintains behind Hartford’s Free Space. With farmland scarce in Hartford urban landscape, Little farms at small locations around the city.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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Farmer Lauren Little (left to right) reacts as nine-year-old Mariah Mendez and Mayra Alamo sample some of the greens little grows at Hartford’s Free Center. As advocate for the potential of farming to strengthen communities, Little says, “Everyone loves food. So it doesn't matter, like who you are on what you're doing. There's a there's a way for you to develop that connection.”
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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In garden plots behind Hartford’s Free Center, farmer and educator Lauren Little talks with participants in one of her farming workshops. “The reason why I started growing food and teaching kids how to grow food,” says Little, “Is that I was studying psychology, I learned about how students’ academic achievement is directly tied to their nutrition.”
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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Participants in Lauren Little’s farming class, Shanelle Morris and Jose Crespo (left to right) tend to vegetables growing behind Hartford’s Free Space on New Britain Ave.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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Squash leaves are lit by afternoon sun coming down behind Hartford’s Free Center, one of a half-dozen or so plots around Hartford where Lauren Little farms.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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Urban farmer Lauren Little leads a class to mulberries growing on a tree along New Britain Ave. “I know Harford has a lot of fruit trees, some of them are public, some of them private,” she says, “If it's hanging on the sidewalk, I will eat it,” says Little. “People are gonna get mad at me for eating a fruit? The birds can eat the fruits. I can't eat the fruits?”
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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— BIPOC farmer lauren little connecticut agriculture
Lauren Little sifts through a compost pile on the edge of a parking lot where she farms at Hartford’s Free Space.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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Strawberry lover A’Shis Barron, 5, hunts for fruit on a hillside farmed by Lauren Little at Hartford’s Free Space. In tandem with the classes, Barron’s father, Tyronne Waterman, (right) has been expanding the size and scope of the vegetable garden he tends to at his Hartford home.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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— BIPOC farmer lauren little connecticut agriculture
Farmer Lauren Little (left) offers a strawberry to five-year-old A’Shia Barron who came with her father and brother to one of Little’s Saturday morning farming-education program at Hartford’s Free Space.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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Behind Hartford’s Free Center, farmer and educator Lauren Little samples berries growing on one of the nearby trees. “I know Harford has a lot of fruit trees, some of them are public, some of them private. If it's hanging on the sidewalk, I will eat it,” says Little. “People are gonna get mad at me for eating a fruit? The birds can eat the fruits. I can't eat the fruits?”
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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— BIPOC farmer lauren little connecticut agriculture
Lauren Little scans the sky for flying predators while farming her plots behind Hartford’s Free Center. With farmland scarce in Hartford’s urban landscape, Little farms at about a half dozen plots around the city.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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— BIPOC farmer lauren little connecticut agriculture
Lauren Little harvests vegetables from her New Britain Ave. plots to take home for dinner. Explaining, in part, why she grows food, Little says, “I feel like I'm doing something good for the environment but also, farmers don't have all that much money. So I also need to grow the foods I can eat.”
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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— BIPOC farmer lauren little connecticut agriculture
A variety of tools and colors rest in the grass around Lauren Little’s growing beds behind Hartford Free Center. With farmland scarce in Hartford’s urban landscape, Little is required to bring the tools with her as she travels the city to her plots. “Even if I'm walking with my tools, I can't just have my shovel. I got to be careful because someone might think I have a weapon or the police might get called and I might get shot and so it's just like I got to be super careful.“
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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— BIPOC farmer lauren little connecticut agriculture
Putting away her hose at the of her farming day, Lauren Little walks past photographs on exhibit at Hartford’s Free Space, one of the many spots around Hartford where she grows.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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— BIPOC farmer lauren little connecticut agriculture
Urban farmer Lauren Little loads her gardening tools into the back of an Uber for her ride home. “Even if I'm walking with my tools, I can't just have my shovel. I got to be careful because someone might think I have a weapon or the police might get called and I might get shot and so it's just like I got to be super careful.“
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
The founder of Lauren Little Edutainment says farming fosters connection. As she filled up a bucket of water near a busy street, Lauren Little showed that her lessons often begin by pulling food out of the ground and taking a bite. (Originally aired: 7/11/22)
Sarah Rose Kareem, 29, & Azeem Zakir Kareem, 29
“She was like, ‘Why is no one coming? This is so strange. Why is no one here?’ I'm like, 'cuz you got a Black dude here.’ This isn't a place where you just find Black people walking around.”
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Azeem Zakir Kareem aligns irrigation pipes on land he farms with his wife, Sarah Rose Kareem, in Windsor Locks, Connecticut.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Sarah Rose Kareem and Azeem Zakir Kareem harvest lettuce and clear footpaths on their Windsor Locks farm.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Azeem Zakir Kareem hauls sprinkler heads from storage to a field he is preparing for planting. “In order to come back to where we have to be, not just as Black people, not just Native American people – but as a whole planet – we have to come back to agriculture,” said Kareem.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Azeem Zakir Kareem brushes gently past his wife, Sarah Rose Kareem, while the two tend to lettuce rows at their Windsor Locks farm.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Water showers fresh-cut lettuce as Sarah Rose Kareem cleans the harvest on the Windsor Locks farm she manages with her husband, Azeem Zakir Kareem.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Azeem Zakir Kareem sets up irrigation lines on the Windsor Locks land where he farms with wife Sarah Rose Kareem.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public
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Water showers fresh-cut lettuce as Sarah Rose Kareem cleans the harvest on the Windsor Locks farm she manages with her husband, Azeem Zakir Kareem.
Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Azeem Zakir Kareem jumps over a sprinkle pipe junction while preparing his fields for irrigation. “You start working in that soil, and there's things – there's biology inside the soil that sends a light signal through your nervous system that hits your brain, that has your brain release beautiful, joyous chemistry that makes you feel good,” said Kareem.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
Speaking on a windy day outside their Windsor Locks farm, the married co-founders of Samad Gardens Initiative celebrate the freedom they’ve found farming, but they say customers at farmers markets treat them differently depending on who’s behind the stand. (Originally aired: 6/27/22)
Xóchitl Garcia, 26
“Growing up, my family made agriculture a taboo subject because it was a method of survival.”
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— Xochitl Ahtziri Ferry Street Farm New Haven BIPOC
“Agriculture, for me, is reconnecting with our indigenous ancestors,” says Xóchitl Garcia, who farms land at the Ferry Street community garden in Fair Haven.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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— Xochitl Ahtziri Ferry Street Farm New Haven BIPOC
In the weeds, Xóchitl Garcia clears her 4-by-8-foot plot of land in the Ferry Street community garden in Fair Haven, where there is a waitlist for 56 growing beds. “My parents themselves were farmworkers, but they just called it work,” says Garcia.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Preparing to plant, Xóchitl Garcia breathes in the smell of epazote seeds. “Growing up,” she says, “my family made agriculture a taboo subject because it was a method of survival rather than a passion-seeking career.”
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Hauling topsoil, Xóchitl Garcia moves through young plants at the Ferry Street community garden in Fair Haven, where there is a waitlist for 56 growing beds.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Farm supervisor Billy Flynn and Xóchitl Garcia (left) share a laugh over tomato and pepper plants Flynn gifted Garcia for her plot in a Fair Haven community garden.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Gently tapping the soil, Xóchitl Garcia nestles a tomato plant into a new bed at the Fair Haven community garden where she farms. “I actually feel very proud having dirt on me,” she said, “looking all sweaty and tired because this is all my passion and energy that's going into cultivating something."
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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After planting her bed, Xóchitl Garcia hugs her friend Ruth Garcia, one of the founders of the Fair Haven community garden on Ferry Street.
Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
A woman explores how farming intersects with her Mexican identity while working at a community garden in New Haven. (Originally aired: 6/13/22)
Liz Guerra, 37 & Héctor Gerardo, 38
“We are not a traditional ‘ag’ family … We came here with a dream and a compost box.”
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Héctor Gerardo backs his first tractor out of the garage, careful to avoid the family van.
Tyler Russell / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Elizabeth Guerra and Héctor Gerardo look out over their homestead farm in Danbury.
Tyler Russell / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
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Héctor Gerardo's garlic is coming in nicely now that squirrels have stopped eating it each night. The secret is a little cayenne pepper.
Tyler Russell / Connecticut Public / Connecticut Public
The co-owners of Seamarron Farmstead in Danbury want you to know that “Black farmers do exist and BIPOC farmers – in Connecticut.” They describe a farming journey that started on a New York City fire escape and led to their farm, where they grow everything from garlic to hemp in the backyard of their Connecticut homestead. (Originally aired: 6/6/22)
