View allAll Photos Tagged SoilHealth
Millet is part of a cover crop mix on the Myllymaki farm. Photo taken July 30, 2019 in Stanford, Montana located in Judith Basin County.
Mike Starkey harvests soybeans on a 135-acre field in Brownsburg, Indiana Sept. 23, 2022. Starkey practices no-till farming, plants cover crops in between cash crop season and rotates his fields between corn and soybeans as part of a soil health management system. (NRCS photo by Brandon O’Connor)
Mike Starkey harvests soybeans on a 135-acre field in Brownsburg, Indiana Sept. 23, 2022. Starkey practices no-till farming, plants cover crops in between cash crop season and rotates his fields between corn and soybeans as part of a soil health management system. (NRCS photo by Brandon O’Connor)
Faba beans are part of a cover crop mix on the Myllymaki farm. Photo taken July 30, 2019 in Stanford, Montana located in Judith Basin County.
Sunflowers are part of a cover crop mix on the Myllymaki farm. Photo taken July 30, 2019 in Stanford, Montana located in Judith Basin County.
Buckwheat is part of a cover crop mix on the Myllymaki farm. Photo taken July 30, 2019 in Stanford, Montana located in Judith Basin County.
Tomatoes grow in a high tunnel at Peaceful Belly Farm in Caldwell, Idaho on July 7, 2022. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
Millet is part of a cover crop mix on the Myllymaki farm. Photo taken July 30, 2019 in Stanford, Montana located in Judith Basin County.
Mike Starkey harvests soybeans on a 135-acre field in Brownsburg, Indiana Sept. 23, 2022. Starkey practices no-till farming, plants cover crops in between cash crop season and rotates his fields between corn and soybeans as part of a soil health management system. (NRCS photo by Brandon O’Connor)
Students in Conservation Summer Camp At Peaceful Belly Farm prepare vegetables for lunch on July, 7 2022. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
Crop residue from Darryl Crowley's farm near Poplar, MT. Crowley practices conservation tillage and crop residue management. July 17, 2012.
Sunflowers with bees grow at Peaceful Belly Farm in Caldwell, Idaho on July 7, 2022. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
Left side parcel in its third year of monoculture conversion from crested wheatgrass monoculture pasture. The right side is still a crested wheatgrass monoculture. Sterling Ballbach chose to participate in the North Stillwater County Pasture Monoculture Diversification Targeted Implementation Plan, developed by the NRCS field office in Columbus based on local priorities. The purpose of the TIP is to renovate the monoculture pastures to a diverse mix of plants that allows for different season of use on these pastures. This option facilitates a grazing plan with more management options that helps to improve the health of native rangeland units. Ballbach property, Stillwater County, MT. July 2021
Sunflowers are part of a cover crop mix on the Myllymaki farm. Photo taken July 30, 2019 in Stanford, Montana located in Judith Basin County.
Mike Starkey harvests soybeans on a 135-acre field in Brownsburg, Indiana Sept. 23, 2022. Starkey practices no-till farming, plants cover crops in between cash crop season and rotates his fields between corn and soybeans as part of a soil health management system. (NRCS photo by Brandon O’Connor)
CAPTION: "Community gardeners working the Keya Wakpala Garden, part of the Sicangu Community Development Corporation (CDC) Food Sovereignty Initiative."
NRCS ARTICLE 4/2020: There’s a sense of pride that comes with doing something for yourself, and growing food is a major part of being self-sustaining, healthy and whole.
A one-acre community garden on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota is connecting tribal members with the land, with food, and with their past.
“It’s about food sovereignty. It’s about having the choice of where and how you get your food, knowing how to feed yourself,” said Matte Wilson. “If that grocery store wasn’t here, would you know how to feed yourself and your family?”
Born and raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, Wilson is now director of the recently re-branded Sicangu Community Development Corporation (CDC) Food Sovereignty Initiative. One of its major projects is the Keya Wakpala Garden. Since moving back home in 2018, food sovereignty has played a major part of Wilson’s life.
“It is something that really excites me, something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life,” he said.
Vegetable Harvest on table
The food sovereignty movement has gained significant momentum throughout the country in recent years and is largely being led by indigenous communities. According to Wilson, you don’t have to be indigenous to appreciate delicious, locally grown foods.
“Food has the power to bring people together – it’s always been an essential part of all of our social interactions, whether or not you are Lakota,” he said.
For Keya Wakpala garden manager Ed Her Many Horses, the garden and learning how to grow food has been nothing short of trans-formative.
“It’s impacted me in a lot of different ways,” he said. “It helped give me a reason to get up in the morning – it still does. There is so much to appreciate in the garden.”
But it’s more than food, he’s found. Caring for a garden fosters community. The Keya Wakpala Garden is a place where interns, volunteers, community members and children come together to work, and they take pride in the outcome.
“It’s a beacon of hope, I think,” Her Many Horses said.
The Boys and Girls Club brings kids to the garden where they can plant, pick vegetables and even harvest indigenous foods such as ceyaka, wild mint, in the nearby wetlands. They learn to identify foods as they’re grown and harvested, and follow up field work with cooking sessions. Starting with young kids, the project aims to make gardening and producing food something that’s second nature – something they’re able to pass on to future generations.
Learning by doing is key, according to Wilson.
“When they are able to see it in person and participate in the process, it is really powerful. It makes people appreciate food and agriculture more,” he said.
Garden Row signs in lakota
Foster Cournoyer-Hogan is a student at Stanford University from the Rosebud Indian Reservation who interned for the summer at the Keya Wakpala Garden. His additions to the garden plot included the signs that identified the plants with Lakota words. There was wagmu (squash), tinpsilazizi (carrots), phangi sasa (beets) and mastincatawote (lettuce).
Using the Lakota language is a way to stay connected to traditional culture. That’s especially important when children and elders visit the garden, he said.
Along with strengthening connections to culture and community, the garden is helping solve another issue on the reservation – addressing health challenges. Diabetes and diet related illness is high on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, but the produce from the garden gives people access to nourishing food.
“Our food is everything,” Cournoyer-Hogan said.
“Food is medicine,” added Wilson: “The way we treat our garden, the way we treat the land is how we treat ourselves … we take care of the land, and it takes care of us.”
The group has some expert resources when it comes to taking care of the land and the plants. Master Gardeners and university extension experts have volunteered their time and advice, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides support and funding through soil health programs.
The mission of NRCS is “helping people help the land.” That land usually refers to range land and farm acres, but the same programs and principles can apply to community gardens.
“We're trying to get people together to go back to some of the things that were important years ago to our people for self-sustainability,” said Mary Scott, a Rosebud Indian Reservation member and tribal liaison with NRCS.
Student gardner holding out herbs for the camera
The reservation’s growing environment presents some significant challenges. The garden site had been a conventional field, growing sunflowers, corn, soybeans and wheat. The heavy clay soils made it difficult to hold enough water for the garden, especially given the sloping hillside where it sits. Long, hot days would burn up the plants one day, and they next they’d be hit by torrential downpours, hail and wind.
“There are a lot of things outside of our control,” said Her Many Horses, “and that can be tough in such an extreme weather environment”
Rather than give up, however, the team has simply learned to adapt and make the most of what they have.
“We have to be really strategic about how we plan out our year to make the most of this short window,” Wilson said. “We have branched into utilizing some year-round growing structures to expand our season.”
The garden is tended with organic methods, using fish emulsion and compost for fertilizer. Local ranchers have donated hay bales – the more beaten-up and weather-worn the better. As ground cover, they help with weed control. Adding mulch or organic matter has helped break up the hard, clay soil and has been a huge asset for moisture retention as well.
We’re using a regenerative approach to agriculture,” said Her Many Horses. “We’re always trying to give back to our soil.
The garden also incorporates time-honored growing techniques of the tribal community. Produce is grown with the three sister’s method – beans, corn and squash grow in rows and benefit from one another.
“Beans help fertilize the soil by providing nitrogen,” Wilson explained. “The corn, when it grows up the stalk, the beans are able to wrap around the stalk, and the squash actually helps keep out pests and other weeds.”
7 workers talking in the garden
It’s one of many ways the garden is bringing the community back to its roots. It also brings youth and elders together, sharing a positive outlook while producing something for the whole community. It connects people with land and community, giving them knowledge to pass along wherever they go.
Sharing knowledge is a big part of the project, Scott said, because it’s how cultures and traditions are kept alive.
“Growing our own produce is very important, so that this community can become self-sustaining, not only as a people, but as a tribe,” she said.
The ultimate goal is to completely change the food system on the Rosebud Indian Reservation.
“My vision is that our community becomes a food center where we have restaurants and food trucks sourcing their foods locally,” Wilson said, “and the garden is the first step to helping change our community mindset about food.”
But it goes even deeper than that.
“I hope that our community can be healthy and happy, that we can be sovereign,” said Her Many Horses. “And for us, that starts with everyone knowing where their food comes from.”
- Written by Janelle Atyeo
Tomatoes grow in a high tunnel at Peaceful Belly Farm in Caldwell, Idaho on July 7, 2022. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
Los agricultores buscan que los pastos incrementen la productividad del hato al mejorar el contenido nutricional de la dieta y bajar costos. Conozca la historia: bit.ly/1NPYR3e Fotos: Stéfanie Neno y Adriana Varón / CIAT
Millet is part of a cover crop mix on the Myllymaki farm. Photo taken July 30, 2019 in Stanford, Montana located in Judith Basin County.
Buckwheat is part of a cover crop mix on the Myllymaki farm. Photo taken July 30, 2019 in Stanford, Montana located in Judith Basin County.
Bryce and Brian Irlbeck adapted an old drill to interseed cover crops in knee-high corn on their farm in Carroll County, IA. They are experimenting with interseeding to get more diversity and a longer growth period for cover crops to build soil more quickly.
Please Credit: NRCS/SWCS photo by Lynn Betts
Another collembola from my garden in Cheshire UK. I am not sure if it is the same as yesterday's (Dicyrtomina ornata). Perhaps an expert would comment?
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Students in Conservation Summer Camp At Peaceful Belly Farm prepare vegetables for lunch on July, 7 2022. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
Sunflowers with bees grow at Peaceful Belly Farm in Caldwell, Idaho on July 7, 2022. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
Students in Conservation Summer Camp At Peaceful Belly Farm prepare vegetables for lunch on July, 7 2022. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
USDA-NRCS State Soil Scientist Shawn Nield gives a soil health presentation at the Magic Valley Soil Health Field Day in Kimberly, Idaho on June 29, 2022. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
Tomatoes grow in a field at Peaceful Belly Farm in Caldwell, Idaho on July 7, 2022. Peaceful Belly Farm grows over 300 varieties of tomatoes for their CSA program and on-site restaurant.(NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
There’s a sense of pride that comes with doing something for yourself, and growing food is a major part of being self-sustaining, healthy and whole.
A one-acre community garden on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota is connecting tribal members with the land, with food, and with their past.
“It’s about food sovereignty. It’s about having the choice of where and how you get your food, knowing how to feed yourself,” said Matte Wilson. “If that grocery store wasn’t here, would you know how to feed yourself and your family?”
Born and raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, Wilson is now director of the recently re-branded Sicangu Community Development Corporation (CDC) Food Sovereignty Initiative. One of its major projects is the Keya Wakpala Garden. Since moving back home in 2018, food sovereignty has played a major part of Wilson’s life.
“It is something that really excites me, something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life,” he said.
Vegetable Harvest on table
The food sovereignty movement has gained significant momentum throughout the country in recent years and is largely being led by indigenous communities. According to Wilson, you don’t have to be indigenous to appreciate delicious, locally grown foods.
“Food has the power to bring people together – it’s always been an essential part of all of our social interactions, whether or not you are Lakota,” he said.
For Keya Wakpala garden manager Ed Her Many Horses, the garden and learning how to grow food has been nothing short of trans-formative.
“It’s impacted me in a lot of different ways,” he said. “It helped give me a reason to get up in the morning – it still does. There is so much to appreciate in the garden.”
But it’s more than food, he’s found. Caring for a garden fosters community. The Keya Wakpala Garden is a place where interns, volunteers, community members and children come together to work, and they take pride in the outcome.
“It’s a beacon of hope, I think,” Her Many Horses said.
The Boys and Girls Club brings kids to the garden where they can plant, pick vegetables and even harvest indigenous foods such as ceyaka, wild mint, in the nearby wetlands. They learn to identify foods as they’re grown and harvested, and follow up field work with cooking sessions. Starting with young kids, the project aims to make gardening and producing food something that’s second nature – something they’re able to pass on to future generations.
Learning by doing is key, according to Wilson.
“When they are able to see it in person and participate in the process, it is really powerful. It makes people appreciate food and agriculture more,” he said.
Garden Row signs in lakota
Foster Cournoyer-Hogan is a student at Stanford University from the Rosebud Indian Reservation who interned for the summer at the Keya Wakpala Garden. His additions to the garden plot included the signs that identified the plants with Lakota words. There was wagmu (squash), tinpsilazizi (carrots), phangi sasa (beets) and mastincatawote (lettuce).
Using the Lakota language is a way to stay connected to traditional culture. That’s especially important when children and elders visit the garden, he said.
Along with strengthening connections to culture and community, the garden is helping solve another issue on the reservation – addressing health challenges. Diabetes and diet related illness is high on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, but the produce from the garden gives people access to nourishing food.
“Our food is everything,” Cournoyer-Hogan said.
“Food is medicine,” added Wilson: “The way we treat our garden, the way we treat the land is how we treat ourselves … we take care of the land, and it takes care of us.”
The group has some expert resources when it comes to taking care of the land and the plants. Master Gardeners and university extension experts have volunteered their time and advice, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides support and funding through soil health programs.
The mission of NRCS is “helping people help the land.” That land usually refers to range land and farm acres, but the same programs and principles can apply to community gardens.
“We're trying to get people together to go back to some of the things that were important years ago to our people for self-sustainability,” said Mary Scott, a Rosebud Indian Reservation member and tribal liaison with NRCS.
Student gardner holding out herbs for the camera
The reservation’s growing environment presents some significant challenges. The garden site had been a conventional field, growing sunflowers, corn, soybeans and wheat. The heavy clay soils made it difficult to hold enough water for the garden, especially given the sloping hillside where it sits. Long, hot days would burn up the plants one day, and they next they’d be hit by torrential downpours, hail and wind.
“There are a lot of things outside of our control,” said Her Many Horses, “and that can be tough in such an extreme weather environment”
Rather than give up, however, the team has simply learned to adapt and make the most of what they have.
“We have to be really strategic about how we plan out our year to make the most of this short window,” Wilson said. “We have branched into utilizing some year-round growing structures to expand our season.”
The garden is tended with organic methods, using fish emulsion and compost for fertilizer. Local ranchers have donated hay bales – the more beaten-up and weather-worn the better. As ground cover, they help with weed control. Adding mulch or organic matter has helped break up the hard, clay soil and has been a huge asset for moisture retention as well.
We’re using a regenerative approach to agriculture,” said Her Many Horses. “We’re always trying to give back to our soil.
The garden also incorporates time-honored growing techniques of the tribal community. Produce is grown with the three sister’s method – beans, corn and squash grow in rows and benefit from one another.
“Beans help fertilize the soil by providing nitrogen,” Wilson explained. “The corn, when it grows up the stalk, the beans are able to wrap around the stalk, and the squash actually helps keep out pests and other weeds.”
7 workers talking in the garden
It’s one of many ways the garden is bringing the community back to its roots. It also brings youth and elders together, sharing a positive outlook while producing something for the whole community. It connects people with land and community, giving them knowledge to pass along wherever they go.
Sharing knowledge is a big part of the project, Scott said, because it’s how cultures and traditions are kept alive.
“Growing our own produce is very important, so that this community can become self-sustaining, not only as a people, but as a tribe,” she said.
The ultimate goal is to completely change the food system on the Rosebud Indian Reservation.
“My vision is that our community becomes a food center where we have restaurants and food trucks sourcing their foods locally,” Wilson said, “and the garden is the first step to helping change our community mindset about food.”
But it goes even deeper than that.
“I hope that our community can be healthy and happy, that we can be sovereign,” said Her Many Horses. “And for us, that starts with everyone knowing where their food comes from.”
- Written by Janelle Atyeo
CAPTION: "Rather than give up, however, the team has simply learned to adapt and make the most of what they have."
NRCS ARTICLE 4/2020: There’s a sense of pride that comes with doing something for yourself, and growing food is a major part of being self-sustaining, healthy and whole.
A one-acre community garden on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota is connecting tribal members with the land, with food, and with their past.
“It’s about food sovereignty. It’s about having the choice of where and how you get your food, knowing how to feed yourself,” said Matte Wilson. “If that grocery store wasn’t here, would you know how to feed yourself and your family?”
Born and raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, Wilson is now director of the recently re-branded Sicangu Community Development Corporation (CDC) Food Sovereignty Initiative. One of its major projects is the Keya Wakpala Garden. Since moving back home in 2018, food sovereignty has played a major part of Wilson’s life.
“It is something that really excites me, something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life,” he said.
Vegetable Harvest on table
The food sovereignty movement has gained significant momentum throughout the country in recent years and is largely being led by indigenous communities. According to Wilson, you don’t have to be indigenous to appreciate delicious, locally grown foods.
“Food has the power to bring people together – it’s always been an essential part of all of our social interactions, whether or not you are Lakota,” he said.
For Keya Wakpala garden manager Ed Her Many Horses, the garden and learning how to grow food has been nothing short of trans-formative.
“It’s impacted me in a lot of different ways,” he said. “It helped give me a reason to get up in the morning – it still does. There is so much to appreciate in the garden.”
But it’s more than food, he’s found. Caring for a garden fosters community. The Keya Wakpala Garden is a place where interns, volunteers, community members and children come together to work, and they take pride in the outcome.
“It’s a beacon of hope, I think,” Her Many Horses said.
The Boys and Girls Club brings kids to the garden where they can plant, pick vegetables and even harvest indigenous foods such as ceyaka, wild mint, in the nearby wetlands. They learn to identify foods as they’re grown and harvested, and follow up field work with cooking sessions. Starting with young kids, the project aims to make gardening and producing food something that’s second nature – something they’re able to pass on to future generations.
Learning by doing is key, according to Wilson.
“When they are able to see it in person and participate in the process, it is really powerful. It makes people appreciate food and agriculture more,” he said.
Garden Row signs in lakota
Foster Cournoyer-Hogan is a student at Stanford University from the Rosebud Indian Reservation who interned for the summer at the Keya Wakpala Garden. His additions to the garden plot included the signs that identified the plants with Lakota words. There was wagmu (squash), tinpsilazizi (carrots), phangi sasa (beets) and mastincatawote (lettuce).
Using the Lakota language is a way to stay connected to traditional culture. That’s especially important when children and elders visit the garden, he said.
Along with strengthening connections to culture and community, the garden is helping solve another issue on the reservation – addressing health challenges. Diabetes and diet related illness is high on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, but the produce from the garden gives people access to nourishing food.
“Our food is everything,” Cournoyer-Hogan said.
“Food is medicine,” added Wilson: “The way we treat our garden, the way we treat the land is how we treat ourselves … we take care of the land, and it takes care of us.”
The group has some expert resources when it comes to taking care of the land and the plants. Master Gardeners and university extension experts have volunteered their time and advice, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides support and funding through soil health programs.
The mission of NRCS is “helping people help the land.” That land usually refers to range land and farm acres, but the same programs and principles can apply to community gardens.
“We're trying to get people together to go back to some of the things that were important years ago to our people for self-sustainability,” said Mary Scott, a Rosebud Indian Reservation member and tribal liaison with NRCS.
The reservation’s growing environment presents some significant challenges. The garden site had been a conventional field, growing sunflowers, corn, soybeans and wheat. The heavy clay soils made it difficult to hold enough water for the garden, especially given the sloping hillside where it sits. Long, hot days would burn up the plants one day, and they next they’d be hit by torrential downpours, hail and wind.
“There are a lot of things outside of our control,” said Her Many Horses, “and that can be tough in such an extreme weather environment”
Rather than give up, however, the team has simply learned to adapt and make the most of what they have.
“We have to be really strategic about how we plan out our year to make the most of this short window,” Wilson said. “We have branched into utilizing some year-round growing structures to expand our season.”
The garden is tended with organic methods, using fish emulsion and compost for fertilizer. Local ranchers have donated hay bales – the more beaten-up and weather-worn the better. As ground cover, they help with weed control. Adding mulch or organic matter has helped break up the hard, clay soil and has been a huge asset for moisture retention as well.
We’re using a regenerative approach to agriculture,” said Her Many Horses. “We’re always trying to give back to our soil.
The garden also incorporates time-honored growing techniques of the tribal community. Produce is grown with the three sister’s method – beans, corn and squash grow in rows and benefit from one another.
“Beans help fertilize the soil by providing nitrogen,” Wilson explained. “The corn, when it grows up the stalk, the beans are able to wrap around the stalk, and the squash actually helps keep out pests and other weeds.”
7 workers talking in the garden
It’s one of many ways the garden is bringing the community back to its roots. It also brings youth and elders together, sharing a positive outlook while producing something for the whole community. It connects people with land and community, giving them knowledge to pass along wherever they go.
Sharing knowledge is a big part of the project, Scott said, because it’s how cultures and traditions are kept alive.
“Growing our own produce is very important, so that this community can become self-sustaining, not only as a people, but as a tribe,” she said.
The ultimate goal is to completely change the food system on the Rosebud Indian Reservation.
“My vision is that our community becomes a food center where we have restaurants and food trucks sourcing their foods locally,” Wilson said, “and the garden is the first step to helping change our community mindset about food.”
But it goes even deeper than that.
“I hope that our community can be healthy and happy, that we can be sovereign,” said Her Many Horses. “And for us, that starts with everyone knowing where their food comes from.”
- Written by Janelle Atyeo
Pumpkins grow at Cornucopia Farms in Scottsburg, Indiana on August 12, 2021. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
CAPTION: "Signs in the Lakota language identifying plants, enriching connection to traditional culture."
NRCS ARTICLE 4/2020: There’s a sense of pride that comes with doing something for yourself, and growing food is a major part of being self-sustaining, healthy and whole.
A one-acre community garden on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota is connecting tribal members with the land, with food, and with their past.
“It’s about food sovereignty. It’s about having the choice of where and how you get your food, knowing how to feed yourself,” said Matte Wilson. “If that grocery store wasn’t here, would you know how to feed yourself and your family?”
Born and raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, Wilson is now director of the recently re-branded Sicangu Community Development Corporation (CDC) Food Sovereignty Initiative. One of its major projects is the Keya Wakpala Garden. Since moving back home in 2018, food sovereignty has played a major part of Wilson’s life.
“It is something that really excites me, something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life,” he said.
Vegetable Harvest on table
The food sovereignty movement has gained significant momentum throughout the country in recent years and is largely being led by indigenous communities. According to Wilson, you don’t have to be indigenous to appreciate delicious, locally grown foods.
“Food has the power to bring people together – it’s always been an essential part of all of our social interactions, whether or not you are Lakota,” he said.
For Keya Wakpala garden manager Ed Her Many Horses, the garden and learning how to grow food has been nothing short of trans-formative.
“It’s impacted me in a lot of different ways,” he said. “It helped give me a reason to get up in the morning – it still does. There is so much to appreciate in the garden.”
But it’s more than food, he’s found. Caring for a garden fosters community. The Keya Wakpala Garden is a place where interns, volunteers, community members and children come together to work, and they take pride in the outcome.
“It’s a beacon of hope, I think,” Her Many Horses said.
The Boys and Girls Club brings kids to the garden where they can plant, pick vegetables and even harvest indigenous foods such as ceyaka, wild mint, in the nearby wetlands. They learn to identify foods as they’re grown and harvested, and follow up field work with cooking sessions. Starting with young kids, the project aims to make gardening and producing food something that’s second nature – something they’re able to pass on to future generations.
Learning by doing is key, according to Wilson.
“When they are able to see it in person and participate in the process, it is really powerful. It makes people appreciate food and agriculture more,” he said.
Garden Row signs in lakota
Foster Cournoyer-Hogan is a student at Stanford University from the Rosebud Indian Reservation who interned for the summer at the Keya Wakpala Garden. His additions to the garden plot included the signs that identified the plants with Lakota words. There was wagmu (squash), tinpsilazizi (carrots), phangi sasa (beets) and mastincatawote (lettuce).
Using the Lakota language is a way to stay connected to traditional culture. That’s especially important when children and elders visit the garden, he said.
Along with strengthening connections to culture and community, the garden is helping solve another issue on the reservation – addressing health challenges. Diabetes and diet related illness is high on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, but the produce from the garden gives people access to nourishing food.
“Our food is everything,” Cournoyer-Hogan said.
“Food is medicine,” added Wilson: “The way we treat our garden, the way we treat the land is how we treat ourselves … we take care of the land, and it takes care of us.”
The group has some expert resources when it comes to taking care of the land and the plants. Master Gardeners and university extension experts have volunteered their time and advice, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides support and funding through soil health programs.
The mission of NRCS is “helping people help the land.” That land usually refers to range land and farm acres, but the same programs and principles can apply to community gardens.
“We're trying to get people together to go back to some of the things that were important years ago to our people for self-sustainability,” said Mary Scott, a Rosebud Indian Reservation member and tribal liaison with NRCS.
Student gardner holding out herbs for the camera
The reservation’s growing environment presents some significant challenges. The garden site had been a conventional field, growing sunflowers, corn, soybeans and wheat. The heavy clay soils made it difficult to hold enough water for the garden, especially given the sloping hillside where it sits. Long, hot days would burn up the plants one day, and they next they’d be hit by torrential downpours, hail and wind.
“There are a lot of things outside of our control,” said Her Many Horses, “and that can be tough in such an extreme weather environment”
Rather than give up, however, the team has simply learned to adapt and make the most of what they have.
“We have to be really strategic about how we plan out our year to make the most of this short window,” Wilson said. “We have branched into utilizing some year-round growing structures to expand our season.”
The garden is tended with organic methods, using fish emulsion and compost for fertilizer. Local ranchers have donated hay bales – the more beaten-up and weather-worn the better. As ground cover, they help with weed control. Adding mulch or organic matter has helped break up the hard, clay soil and has been a huge asset for moisture retention as well.
We’re using a regenerative approach to agriculture,” said Her Many Horses. “We’re always trying to give back to our soil.
The garden also incorporates time-honored growing techniques of the tribal community. Produce is grown with the three sister’s method – beans, corn and squash grow in rows and benefit from one another.
“Beans help fertilize the soil by providing nitrogen,” Wilson explained. “The corn, when it grows up the stalk, the beans are able to wrap around the stalk, and the squash actually helps keep out pests and other weeds.”
7 workers talking in the garden
It’s one of many ways the garden is bringing the community back to its roots. It also brings youth and elders together, sharing a positive outlook while producing something for the whole community. It connects people with land and community, giving them knowledge to pass along wherever they go.
Sharing knowledge is a big part of the project, Scott said, because it’s how cultures and traditions are kept alive.
“Growing our own produce is very important, so that this community can become self-sustaining, not only as a people, but as a tribe,” she said.
The ultimate goal is to completely change the food system on the Rosebud Indian Reservation.
“My vision is that our community becomes a food center where we have restaurants and food trucks sourcing their foods locally,” Wilson said, “and the garden is the first step to helping change our community mindset about food.”
But it goes even deeper than that.
“I hope that our community can be healthy and happy, that we can be sovereign,” said Her Many Horses. “And for us, that starts with everyone knowing where their food comes from.”
- Written by Janelle Atyeo
Steve Worland plants field corn into a stand of cover crop in Freedom, Indiana May 12, 2022. Worland no-till farms 700 acres and planted a diverse cover crop mix that included radish, crimson clover, turnips and cereal rye before planting green into them. (NRCS photo by Brandon O’Connor)
University of Idaho Extension Specialist Linda Schott gives a soil health demonstration at the Magic Valley Soil Health Field Day in Kimberly, Idaho on June 29, 2022. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
Cereal rye cover crops on Bryce and father Brian Irlbeck farm in Carroll County, IA. Cover crop roots help build soil even at early growth stages.
Please Credit: NRCS/SWCS photo by Lynn Betts
Steve Worland plants field corn into a stand of cover crop in Freedom, Indiana May 12, 2022. Worland no-till farms 700 acres and planted a diverse cover crop mix that included radish, crimson clover, turnips and cereal rye before planting green into them. (NRCS photo by Brandon O’Connor)
Dan Perkins, co-owner of Perkins Good Earth Farm in DeMotte, Indiana, explains how his farm keeps track of planting and harvesting on July 2, 2021. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
Clay Erskine (left) and Erin Brooks discuss high tunnels at Peaceful Belly Farm in Caldwell, Idaho on July 7, 2022. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
NRCS Bozeman Area Agronomist Allison Milodragovich (L) and landowner Evan Van Order. The Van Order family grows produce on their farm near Hardin for their family's use and for sale to the community through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), the local farmer's market, the farm to school program, and a local lodge. The Van Orders are dedicated to growing healthy, nutritious food using the soil health principles. The high tunnel helps them to extend the growing season, which allows for growing more diverse crops for a longer time. Van Order family's Living Root Farm. Hardin, MT. June 2022
Steve Worland plants field corn into a stand of cover crop in Freedom, Indiana May 12, 2022. Worland no-till farms 700 acres and planted a diverse cover crop mix that included radish, crimson clover, turnips and cereal rye before planting green into them. (NRCS photo by Brandon O’Connor)
Clay Erskine stands in the community garden at Peaceful Belly Farm in Caldwell, Idaho on July 7, 2022. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
Clay Erskine (left) and Erin Brooks observe lettuce and other crops at Peaceful Belly Farm in Caldwell, Idaho on July 7, 2022. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
A community garden plot grows at Peaceful Belly Farm in Caldwell, Idaho on July 7, 2022. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
CAPTION: “When they are able to see it in person and participate in the process, it is really powerful. It makes people appreciate food and agriculture more.”
NRCS ARTICLE 4/2020: There’s a sense of pride that comes with doing something for yourself, and growing food is a major part of being self-sustaining, healthy and whole.
A one-acre community garden on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota is connecting tribal members with the land, with food, and with their past.
“It’s about food sovereignty. It’s about having the choice of where and how you get your food, knowing how to feed yourself,” said Matte Wilson. “If that grocery store wasn’t here, would you know how to feed yourself and your family?”
Born and raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, Wilson is now director of the recently re-branded Sicangu Community Development Corporation (CDC) Food Sovereignty Initiative. One of its major projects is the Keya Wakpala Garden. Since moving back home in 2018, food sovereignty has played a major part of Wilson’s life.
“It is something that really excites me, something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life,” he said.
The food sovereignty movement has gained significant momentum throughout the country in recent years and is largely being led by indigenous communities. According to Wilson, you don’t have to be indigenous to appreciate delicious, locally grown foods.
“Food has the power to bring people together – it’s always been an essential part of all of our social interactions, whether or not you are Lakota,” he said.
For Keya Wakpala garden manager Ed Her Many Horses, the garden and learning how to grow food has been nothing short of trans-formative.
“It’s impacted me in a lot of different ways,” he said. “It helped give me a reason to get up in the morning – it still does. There is so much to appreciate in the garden.”
But it’s more than food, he’s found. Caring for a garden fosters community. The Keya Wakpala Garden is a place where interns, volunteers, community members and children come together to work, and they take pride in the outcome.
“It’s a beacon of hope, I think,” Her Many Horses said.
The Boys and Girls Club brings kids to the garden where they can plant, pick vegetables and even harvest indigenous foods such as ceyaka, wild mint, in the nearby wetlands. They learn to identify foods as they’re grown and harvested, and follow up field work with cooking sessions. Starting with young kids, the project aims to make gardening and producing food something that’s second nature – something they’re able to pass on to future generations.
Learning by doing is key, according to Wilson.
“When they are able to see it in person and participate in the process, it is really powerful. It makes people appreciate food and agriculture more,” he said.
Foster Cournoyer-Hogan is a student at Stanford University from the Rosebud Indian Reservation who interned for the summer at the Keya Wakpala Garden. His additions to the garden plot included the signs that identified the plants with Lakota words. There was wagmu (squash), tinpsilazizi (carrots), phangi sasa (beets) and mastincatawote (lettuce).
Using the Lakota language is a way to stay connected to traditional culture. That’s especially important when children and elders visit the garden, he said.
Along with strengthening connections to culture and community, the garden is helping solve another issue on the reservation – addressing health challenges. Diabetes and diet related illness is high on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, but the produce from the garden gives people access to nourishing food.
“Our food is everything,” Cournoyer-Hogan said.
“Food is medicine,” added Wilson: “The way we treat our garden, the way we treat the land is how we treat ourselves … we take care of the land, and it takes care of us.”
The group has some expert resources when it comes to taking care of the land and the plants. Master Gardeners and university extension experts have volunteered their time and advice, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides support and funding through soil health programs.
The mission of NRCS is “helping people help the land.” That land usually refers to range land and farm acres, but the same programs and principles can apply to community gardens.
“We're trying to get people together to go back to some of the things that were important years ago to our people for self-sustainability,” said Mary Scott, a Rosebud Indian Reservation member and tribal liaison with NRCS.
The reservation’s growing environment presents some significant challenges. The garden site had been a conventional field, growing sunflowers, corn, soybeans and wheat. The heavy clay soils made it difficult to hold enough water for the garden, especially given the sloping hillside where it sits. Long, hot days would burn up the plants one day, and they next they’d be hit by torrential downpours, hail and wind.
“There are a lot of things outside of our control,” said Her Many Horses, “and that can be tough in such an extreme weather environment”
Rather than give up, however, the team has simply learned to adapt and make the most of what they have.
“We have to be really strategic about how we plan out our year to make the most of this short window,” Wilson said. “We have branched into utilizing some year-round growing structures to expand our season.”
The garden is tended with organic methods, using fish emulsion and compost for fertilizer. Local ranchers have donated hay bales – the more beaten-up and weather-worn the better. As ground cover, they help with weed control. Adding mulch or organic matter has helped break up the hard, clay soil and has been a huge asset for moisture retention as well.
We’re using a regenerative approach to agriculture,” said Her Many Horses. “We’re always trying to give back to our soil.
The garden also incorporates time-honored growing techniques of the tribal community. Produce is grown with the three sister’s method – beans, corn and squash grow in rows and benefit from one another.
“Beans help fertilize the soil by providing nitrogen,” Wilson explained. “The corn, when it grows up the stalk, the beans are able to wrap around the stalk, and the squash actually helps keep out pests and other weeds.”
7 workers talking in the garden
It’s one of many ways the garden is bringing the community back to its roots. It also brings youth and elders together, sharing a positive outlook while producing something for the whole community. It connects people with land and community, giving them knowledge to pass along wherever they go.
Sharing knowledge is a big part of the project, Scott said, because it’s how cultures and traditions are kept alive.
“Growing our own produce is very important, so that this community can become self-sustaining, not only as a people, but as a tribe,” she said.
The ultimate goal is to completely change the food system on the Rosebud Indian Reservation.
“My vision is that our community becomes a food center where we have restaurants and food trucks sourcing their foods locally,” Wilson said, “and the garden is the first step to helping change our community mindset about food.”
But it goes even deeper than that.
“I hope that our community can be healthy and happy, that we can be sovereign,” said Her Many Horses. “And for us, that starts with everyone knowing where their food comes from.”
A high tunnel growing various types of tomatoes sits at Perkins Good Earth Farm in DeMotte, Indiana on July 2, 2021. Perkins Good Earth Farm is a USDA Certified Organic farm in northwestern Indiana. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
A sunflower with bees grows at Peaceful Belly Farm in Caldwell, Idaho on July 7, 2022. (NRCS photo by Carly Whitmore)
Ces photos ont été prises dans le cadre de l’initiative "Clubs conseil en santé des sols " à Diourbel, Kaolack et Mbeckhé au Sénégal. L’Union des Producteurs Agricoles Développement International (UPADI), en partenariat avec le Conseil National de Concertation et de Coopération des Ruraux (CNCR), accompagne trois groupements agricoles: la Fédération des Groupements Associés des Paysans de Baol (FEG- PAB), le Cadre de Concertation des Producteurs d’Arachides de Kaolack (CCPA) et l’Union des Groupements Paysans de Meckhé (UGPM). L’objectif principal est de renforcer les capacités des agriculteur(trice)s, en particulier les femmes et les jeunes, à gérer de manière durable la santé de leurs sols à partir de données factuelles techniques.
L'initiative s'inscrit dans le projet « Sécurité alimentaire: une agriculture adaptée » (SAGA) coordonné par la FAO et rendu possible grâce à l'appui technique et financier du Ministère des relations internationales et de la Francophonie du gouvernement du Québec. Comme partenaire du projet SAGA, UPADI contribue à améliorer les capacités de planification de l'adaptation de la société civile au niveau local, ainsi qu’à la promotion d'une approche holistique de l'adaptation, en collaborant avec les autres partenaires impliqués, provenant des secteurs gouvernementaux, de la recherche et de la société civile, pour créer des synergies et capitaliser sur les leçons apprises.
©CNCR
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These photos were taken as part of the ""Soil health advisory clubs"" initiative in Diourbel, Kaolack and Mbeckhe, Senegal. The Union of Agricultural Producers - International Development (UPADI), in partnership with the National Council for Rural Concertation and Cooperation (CNCR), supports three farmers' groups: the Federation of Associated Groups of Farmers of Baol (FEG-PAB), the Framework for Consultation of Groundnut Producers of Kaolack (CCPA) and the Union of Farmers' Groups of Meckhé (UGPM). The main objective is to strengthen the capacities of farmers to sustainably manage the health of their soils based on technical evidence, with a particular focus on women and young people.
This initiative is part of the “Strengthening agricultural adaptation” (SAGA) project coordinated by FAO and made possible thanks to the technical and financial support of the Ministry of International Relations and La Francophonie of the government of Quebec. As partner of the SAGA project, UPADI contributes to improving the adaptation planning capacities of civil society at the local level, as well as the promotion of a holistic approach to adaptation, by collaborating with the other partners coming from government, research and civil society, in order to create synergies and capitalize on lessons learned.
©CNCR
High tunnel. The Van Order family grows produce on their farm near Hardin for their family's use and for sale to the community through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), the local farmer's market, the farm to school program, and a local lodge. The Van Orders are dedicated to growing healthy, nutritious food using the soil health principles. The high tunnel helps them to extend the growing season, which allows for growing more diverse crops for a longer time. Van Order family's Living Root Farm. Hardin, MT. June 2022