Rootwork Herbals
(AKA: Jane Minor BIPOC Community Garden)
Amanda David established the Jane Minor BIPOC Community Garden in 2019, though she has been farming, gardening, and homesteading for around 25 years. She has always loved and been passionate about this work, but noticed that often gardening and farming takes place in spaces devoid of people of color and felt that this exclusion can be harmful and challenging.
Amanda has lots of experience working on farms - including herbal apprenticeships and migrant farm work. Using what she’s gained from those experiences, she wanted to create a space for minorities: “For Us, by Us,” so that people of color could reconnect with the Earth and learn skills relating to stewarding land in a “comfortable, safe, joyful, and culturally relevant” way, so that minorities don’t feel othered in their journey to connect with land.
Amanda believes that land is the basis of life, and she loves everything about gardening and working with land - it’s hard to pick a favorite aspect! It is everything we need to survive - it’s the basis of “freedom, liberation” and so much more. Her relationship with land and experiences with growing food, growing plants, and making medicine (herbal healing products, etc) has led her to believe that many of the things we need to thrive as humans can be found through the land. She believes that returning to and reconnecting with the land and ancestral roots are the essential tools that we can use to feel and become free.
If you need medicine, this is the farm to come to! There is a free medicine shelf, and Amanda is more than happy to distribute herbs to those who are interested. She feels that it is important for there to be an accessible place for people to buy herbal medicine and support other local herbalists.
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Currently, making medicine takes place primarily for mutual-aid purposes and to teach people to make medicine! Though the pandemic impacted retail from the garden, there are still many events and products that the Medicine Garden provides. Amanda does hope that if she can get enough people together, they can one day establish a community collective!! This is a lengthy process. However, it is currently in the works and she thinks it would be great if it did come to fruition!
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It is open to members (just BIPOC people) every day except Saturday and Sunday
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You can become a member so ong as you are interested in gardening! To become a member, there is an application process, along with a meet and greet so you can become acquainted with the garden - to know where the water and tools are and go over some protocols. There are two levels of garden membership:
1) The communal member - someone who can come and help tend the garden and harvest the garden
2) Someone who personally stewards the bed so they have their own plot and they can decide what they want to grow
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The garden is run solely on donations. The garden is free for members; there are free plants, free seeds, free compost, free mulch, free tools, free medicine making supplies…everything is free for attendees but run on donations! The website has ways to donate and become a sponsor of the garden. You can also donate to their reclamation fund - this helps people in their journey to reclaim their relationship to the land.
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There are multiple events! There are monthly work parties where people can contribute to work but also meet plants, taste things, drink tea, and learn about different aspects of the garden. There are always workshops, classes, BIPOC hangouts in the garden - there is always something going on and a lot of opportunities for people to interact with the garden! More information can be found on her instagram page:
@rootworkherbals
Most current events are posted on that forum rather than her website- whatever is on her instagram is the most updated version of events, in addition to what is present on this page.
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Email:
Janeminorbipoccommunitygarden@gmail.com
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