OKO JOURNAL

This week marks my third month at Oko Farms and I can hardly believe it. These three months have gone by in less than a blink of an eye and somehow I also feel like I’ve been here for far longer than just a quarter of a year, which is how it often feels during growing season on a farm, I’ve found. Time flies by but is at the same time marked by crucial indicators that keep you critically aware of and grounded in the present - planting schedules, weather patterns, daylight hours, crop availability, etc - and so the growing season tends to be a profound exercise in looking ahead while remaining rooted in the vital day-to-day. As the Oko Farms Operations Manager, I oversee the programming, partnerships, and internal systems of the farm, so although I am less involved in farm tasks than I have been in my past experiences, the relentless (and utterly fulfilling) daily hustle remains the same.

My experiences on urban farms, both as farmer and in farm-adjacent capacities, has shown me how vital these spaces are for community - how food and community are inextricably linked, how farms can and often do serve as community pillars - and upon learning that this is essentially what the Yoruba term ‘Oko’ encompasses - a province or place where agriculture is at the center of socio-economic life, daily activities, and cultural traditions - I am deeply honored to be a part of a space so devoted to growing food and placemaking.

Oko Farms is my first experience with aquaponics and I have spent much of my first months here learning about the ways in which the cultivation of fish, plants, and microbes together serves as a vital tool for mending and rebuilding food systems (both urban and rural), while also providing a blueprint for how we can all meaningfully participate in our own ecosystems. Every single organism in the Oko Farms ecology must care for one another in order to not just survive, but to live optimally. It is a reality that informs everything that we do on the farm and an understanding that we hope continues to deepen and spread the more our community grows.

For those of you who I have not yet met, I hope to do so soon! Please come by our Farm Stand on Wednesdays and Saturdays or to any of our other events that we have going on - we love to see your smiling faces!