Morning at Espanola Healing Foods Oasis, 8/5/26
On Thursday August 5, the Sembradores arrived at the Espanola Healing Foods Oasis (EHFO), a space that was created for the community to reconnect to plants, water, air, and all the elements. The Sembradores were given a tour by Ryan, environmental coordinator for Tewa Women United, of the multi-year community healing space project that started in 2016. Ryan shared his experience with the ongoing project explaining that the project was initiated to transform a barren slope in Espanola that now provides the community many resources, such as edible garden food, a space for healing and reconnection with the land, and provides hands-on educational opportunities.
Ryan spoke about how the Oasis was once a sloped degraded piece of land that was void of plants, had poor soil health, and suffered from erosion. The Sembradores learned how it was transformed using culturally grounded ecological practices that work with nature; it now provides many ecosystem services such as bioremediation, water harvesting, seed sovereignty, and traditional plant medicines. During the walk through the space we could see the transformation that has occurred over the multi-year project that has now increased plant species diversity with fruit trees, native grasses, medicinal plants, and reduces stormwater runoff by slowing, spreading and soaking water into soil. One main takeaway was that the land takes time to heal, ten years may seem like a long time for us, but from Mother Earth’s time perspective it is just a brief blink.
As the tour ended the Sembradores got to help Ryan with an ongoing project of spreading mulch to areas that were in need of ground cover that would support soil health and provide walking spaces for community. After the work was completed and lunch was enjoyed in the beautiful garden space, Ryan gave a short presentation on the Johnson-Su composting bioreactor. While the Sembradores have learned the traditional method of composting, they learned it’s a no-turn composting process designed to create a fungal-dominant and highly microbially diverse compost inoculant over a 9 to 12-month period. Ryan handed out a bag full of composted soil from the Johnson-Su method that could be later used to make compost tea that helps to support soil health in gardens or even potted plants.
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