- I hear so many cars, buses on the roadway.

I hear chickens wrestling throughout the plants.

I hear birds chirping.

Gates clinging.

I feel the wind on my skin and I hear the roar of airplanes.

(cars driving on the highway) Sounds like my neighborhood.

I feel like I'm at home.

(emotional music) Well my journey began Pike Place Market, my friend, and I decided that we wanted to do culinary herbs.

I slowly got tired of the tourist scene.

The idea of selling some overpriced something to someone just because they're coming to Seattle and they want something that says Seattle on it.

So really I think just capitalism in general, I got hit with the capitalism sting and it was like, ow.

I didn't really like being a part of it.

(chill music) So to me, agriculture has been under assault for black and brown communities for so long that it has been something that we've disregarded as something that we don't want to do.

So now, when I look at commercial agriculture, it's filled with white folks and there's not an opportunity for us to have a footprint.

95% of commercial ag are white farmers.

It's crazy.

So I wanted to devote more of my time to inspiring my community.

Yeah, so we usually put like peppers and tomatoes, hot crops on this side.

Growing plants and being able to just see them thrive to me is just it's just reminiscent of the characteristics that I went in my own life.

The common peace that I found doing this work, I wanted to share that like more than anything, if you knew what soil could do, it's not just a blemish on your pants or your shoes anymore.

Like this is life.

- I feel like we should be able to grow eveything at home.

And cook at home.

- Yes.

- That's ultimately why I am here I want to connect with people.

- Okay.

(Both laugh) - Yes!

Yeah cause there's times where it's like, it's not at the store.

(chill music) - I think there's another thing about seeing the resilience in plants.

For me, it's important to have a space in the urban community where we can still call home.

It's definitely important to have agriculture local.

So really we're right smack dab in south Seattle, we're right in the middle of the community where I grew up.

So how do we get more black folks to engage in the farm well we got it here.

How do we engage in healthier eating practices?

We have it here.

Nurturing Roots Farm is a space for healing, for growth, definitely, but we're not really into selling produce.

We're more so into investing time in our humanity and finding more ways to reconnect to our environment.

- Mira is like, wow, you get to breathe in like really good air with all the plants.

Before I came to Nurturing Roots, I was blind to everything.

I'm not looking for a food desert or a food swamp.

I also learned about sustainability, being able to grow my own food.

Yeah, I love that.

Cause I have not went anywhere else where they willingly taught me these things.

- For me, owning land is very important specifically in this community because the cost of living is going up like crazy.

And often folks of color in Seattle are not getting the chance to own big plots of land.

And especially not focusing on growing food.

Agriculture has been shunned in the community because I think since I grown up, my association has been focused on slaves.

It's like, wait a second.

These are folks that have actually been harnessing everything that the community needs to survive.

We've been the healers, we've been the practitioners and making sure that the agriculture is taken care of.

But we have the resource of our humanity.

- I've wanted to connect with community in this way for a long time.

Finally came out, interested in it.

I think that there's something really beautiful about getting back to our roots and getting back to a place of stillness.

(chill music) - Often food, it nourishes your body, but it really is that spirit tied to food that I think you get to feel and just nurture when you're growing things, you get to spend the time with your food that isn't just a transactional engagement on your dinner plate.

- I really feel like this is paradise because it doesn't just teach you about the life cycle of plants and about plants.

It teaches you about the spirituality of the plant.

How well you take care of your plant it really shows how well you take care of yourself too.

If I have a toxic environment that I've planted myself at, then I'm not going to be able to grow how to nurture my land, nurture myself, heal myself, heal others.

- It's definitely being able to put your best into something and see a better outcome.

It's given me strength.

Yeah.

(emotional music)