New Neighbors at Tilth
During our January meeting, Tilth members were honored to be the first to hear the announcement of the new leaseholders at the acreage next door to the Tilth Campus.
First, a little background. Rhys-Thorvald Hansen of the Puget Sound Agrarian Commons joined us to intro-duce the Agrarian Trust as “nationally supported, community-held land and agrarian property that supports sustainable food productions, ecological stewardship, community vitality, and equitable land access for the next generation of farmers and ranchers.”
In 2019, Caroline Gardner gifted her ten-acre parcel to the north of the Tilth Campus to the Agrarian Trust. The Gardner land became the first farm in the Puget Sound Commons, thus starting an Agrarian Commons movement across the nation. The Agrarian Commons is “a community-owned and governed net-work of farms in a specific local region,” designed to help farmers overcome the debt burden of modern agriculture, including high land costs.
The Puget Sound Agrarian Commons is located on the ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples and nations. As an organization primarily of settlers, the Commons is committed to actively building new relationships with Indigenous peoples that support their sovereignty. You can learn more about the names and histories of the Coast Salish peoples at native-land.ca.
Rhys announced that the Agrarian Commons board selected Modest Family Solutions of Everett as the 99-year leaseholder for the land. Adasha Turner, founder of Modest Family Solutions, then spoke to us about her organization and vision for the land. They offer a variety of homeschooling resources, a youth entrepreneurial empowerment network and learning labs to promote food justice and agroecology education, including a Junior Master Gardeners program. Adasha expressed her desire to learn about the land and community here on Whidbey. Her vision for the land is that it be used to best serve the community.
On February 21, some Tilth members joined our new neighbors on Thompson Road to celebrate Malcom X Day and the launch of Black Seed Agroecology Farm Village on the land to “support the Black Diaspora, Indigenous peoples, immigrants, refugees and other communities of color to reconnect to humanity through farming, food, and healing spaces. The land will be used by Modest Family Solutions to grow food to be sold and gifted to BIPOC communities, and will also be used for youth agroecology education.”
Learn more at the Agrarian Trust blog post www.agrariantrust.org/blog/black-led-modest-family-solutions-has-been-selected-as-the-long-term-leaseholder-and-steward-for-the-puget-sound-agrarian-commons-farmland and the Modest Family Solutions website www.modestfamilysolutions.org.