Gaia Gardens

Goodbye Santa Fe

2016-12-26T08:37:00.001-07:00

I wish to begin with a Big Thank You to all the people who contributed to making Gaia Gardens, and my initiation as a farmer, one intensely profound experience.

First and foremost, my co-conspirator and dearest friend Dominique, who makes beauty of whatever she touches and helped hold a loving space for all the people who came to the farm.

To the volunteers who made us feel like a family and fed the holy fire of community.

To all the sweet people at the Farmers’ Market, who cheered us on all along, whether they were our customers or not.

To all the farmers I befriended and fell in love with.

To all the organizations and sponsors who understood our worthy and noble cause.

To my cat, who constantly made me laugh and reminded me to always stay somewhat feral.

To the teacher who inspired me to look at soil as what a farmer really grows.

To our neighbor, who through her determination to destroy the farm, helped make us popular and successful.

To all the city officials and food justice activists who helped bring more food security awareness to the community.

To the Gaia Gardens property owner, who offered his land for farming so generously and stood by us all along.

To the local Press who did mostly a very good job at covering the issues and standing up for what’s right.

To all the attorneys who helped us fend off an administration and neighbor bent on keeping the farm from operating.

To all the residents of the Los Chamisos Homeowners Association, our direct neighbors, who saw the farm as an asset to the neighborhood and showered us with kindness.

And finally to all the seed growers and seed keepers without whom this would not be written.

Many people expressed their sadness at the farm closing and my relocating to Colorado. Of course it is sad when a beautiful community hub like Gaia Gardens disappears. Many of us understand how beneficial a vibrant and welcoming farm can be to a neighborhood. Of course it is sad to have so many people deprived of the opportunity to stop by the farm and dip into a dynamic oasis of fertility and human interactions.

It is sad for me to no longer be able to hold a place for community to gather. For me the farm was way more than growing food. Just like a Café is more than just about coffee. These places always serve an essential function in the building of community. People need to interact socially for some fundamental soul nourishment. On a farm, people also get to interact with a vibrant and self-reflective ecosystem. Together with the farm, we learn. How to grow food. How to grow as people. How to grow as community.

I am personally pleased with the amount of human relationships we helped weave. Through our community potlucks, open-house policy, volunteer time and at the Farmers’ Market. For me it is probably the most important measure of our success. We made friends and felt very loved.

It is my hope that what we accomplished, with community cooperation and very little resources, will inspire others with vision and passion to keep re-greening the city with a tapestry of “farm-gardens”, where people trade their crops or buy from their neighbors. Where paths connect gardens so children can play and the wildlife has a home in the city.

Over the course of four years of farming near an arroyo, I experienced a connection and communication with birds that I wish every child on Earth to have. Birds seem to know who the farmer is, the one who cultivates plants and supports the birth of seeds, season after season. They see you everyday in the garden. They always hide in the bush near where you pee in the morning, and seem to chirp you up for a good day. They come for food and water but stay around the farm-their home.

After we closed the farm, Dominique and I committed to planting the next season for the wildlife. And we did. And that makes me very happy to have made so many friends with so many birds.

The difficulties we encountered from a neighbor’s opposition and a less than enlightened City administration dramatically increased my workload and stress level. Farming in itself is difficult enough without having to spend countless hours in meetings with attorneys, and being seriously impaired in our ability to operate freely as an educational center.

When I started Gaia Gardens, I already knew that the property was in foreclosure. I was willing to take a chance, and attempt to make a positive impact on the City, even if I only had a year to do so. Circumstances made it so that we were able to farm for four seasons. The uncertainty about the future of the property was a strong factor in making the decision to close the farm.

But it was not the only reason. My stress level made me brittle. I wasn’t operating at my best. My workload-farming year-round, writing grants, working with school gardens, dealing with a bureaucratic firestorm, helping draft an urban farming ordinance and managing the 7-unit rental property that the farm was located on, was an initiation of tough proportion. My nervous system and Soul were ready for a break.

When we began working together, Dominique and I had just met. She rented a studio on the farm. She jumped right in while also finishing her Masters degree and working as a Massage Therapist. The farm workload and stress increased for her as well. Without her complete devotion to people, plants and animals, the farm would have never been what it was.

As much as the economics of Gaia Gardens were successful by all standards, we also depended on small grants, donations and paid work at school gardens.

For me, it became increasingly difficult to work so hard while making so little money. I had to be honest with the imbalance in my life. I was working to nourish people yet felt depleted.

Dominique and I assessed that we had done our best, learned a lot, touched a lot of people, fed an abundance of wildlife and survived our friendship. We both intuitively knew that it was time to wrap it up and move on to new creative endeavors dear to our hearts.

I took a year off, went traveling, promoted a documentary that was made on the farm, got immersed in the Bernie fever, started dancing again, went to Standing Rock and began exploring where I would be drawn and inspired to acquire land for the Mil Abrazos Community Land Trust, which was birthed out of the farm momentum.

In 2016, I relocated to Paonia, on the Western slopes of Colorado, hoping to find land there. I spent a year looking but returned to Mexico Mexico at the end of 2017 and acquired irrigated farmland on the lower Pecos watershed, 30 miles south of Las Vegas.

Check our progress here.

Thank you again for all the Love and support you gave us!

With immense gratitude,

Poki

Closing the Chapter

2015-11-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of spending much of this growing season as an intern at Gaia Gardens. Over the past seven months, I experienced the natural shifts in weather and tasks from spring to summer to fall, as well as several models of marketing and engaging with the surrounding community. I learned more than I ever imagined about gardening, the demands of running a small business, the potential of urban farms, and the daunting legal and political challenges they can face. Now as the season draws to its final, hastened end, I am left at once grateful, inspired, and disillusioned.

I arrived in early March to a flurry of seeding, transplanting, and on occasion, snow. At the time, Poki and Dominique were optimistic that the urban farming ordinance that had been drafted and circulated the previous year would soon pass, and were looking forward to welcoming more school groups, hosting workshops, and reopening the farm stand. In the meantime, we spent nearly a third of our time working in two school gardens and selling seeds and plant starts at the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market.

For a time, I found it exciting and fun to work the market. I was energized by the buzz of interactions, the faces that soon grew familiar, the spontaneous moments of connection with strangers passing through, the camaraderie and admiration and support among vendors. But by mid-summer, I was also weary of the hours of loading and unloading a truck stacked high with bins and tables, hundreds of seedlings, crate after heavy crate of gallon pot tomatoes. When we finally freed ourselves, in a frenzy of giving, from the last of the plant starts, I was deeply relieved and ready to let go of the most stressful part of each week, as well as intrigued to see the farm stand unfold.

I soon understood why Poki and Dominique had been so eager and fought so hard to reopen the farm stand. I cannot imagine a more ideal space, right off a major bike trail, in the heart of the garden, where people could sit in the shade and enjoy a free cup of herbal tea grown on the farm, or walk through the garden to admire the flowers and see where and how the produce they purchased grew, just feet away. A few familiar friends and neighbors dropped by, thrilled to finally be able to walk down the street to chat and buy their produce for the week. Most of the people who came to the stand I had never seen before. Some had walked or biked by the farm every day on their way to work, wondering at the flowers along the fence, and were excited to be invited in through the open gate. Others happened to be passing by on a ride through town and were curious and excited to discover a farm in the city. One such young couple in particular are engraved in my memory. They came in from the bike trail, bought a bunch of kale and a bundle of carrots, and meandered through the garden. They eventually found their way to the “dragon bench,” lovingly shaped and plastered with straw and clay by volunteers, nibbled their way through the carrots, then headed up the hill to feed the carrot tops to the chickens. I found them in front of the coop several minutes later, still tossing the leaves piece by piece to the chickens, laughing, playful, teasing, entranced. I wondered if they had ever fed chickens before. Yes, I thought, it was moments like these, far more than the meager sum we earned, that made the farm stand worthwhile and critical.

On a practical level, the farm stand took a fraction of the time, effort, fuel, and heavy lifting of the Farmer’s Market. For months, we had spent at least five or six hours each week first loading the truck for market, then leaving before dawn, driving three miles away, and scrambling to unload and set up our stand, only to pack everything carefully back into bins a few hours later, load them back onto the truck, make the short drive back to the farm, and unload all of our supplies again. Now, instead, we could rise with the sun, quickly set up and harvest for the farm stand from within the garden, and work in the surrounding fields during lulls between customers. We could harvest just a modest amount of each vegetable, much of it that same morning, and restock as necessary. This saved us from having to figure out how to store or use up a giant harvest if sales were slow on a given day. It also meant the freshest produce possible for customers, and less going to waste. And we were providing fresh organic vegetables to a completely different clientele not already served by scores of other growers at the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market.

The farm stand lasted two weeks before it was closed by the city. The expressions of dismay and outrage of those passing by persisted for months. I came to dread the predictable questions, from the mouths of friends of the farm and utter strangers alike: Why didn’t we just return to the farmer’s market, or wholesale to local restaurants and co-ops? And couldn’t we sell them produce “under the table” in exchange for a “donation?”

What many people don’t seem to realize is that producing and selling food was only a small part of what the farm offered, or could have if it were given the freedom to. All along, the purpose of Gaia Gardens was to provide a space for people to tangibly contribute, learn by doing, share their experience and skills, and in the process, forge connections with the natural world and each other. First and foremost, the farm aimed to demonstrate, refine, and teach ecological food production methods, as well as model “bootstrapping” a farm by diverting waste and utilizing inexpensive local resources. (Rain catchment, composting food scraps from local restaurants, recycling used potting soil, and using salvaged building materials, to name a few.) Ironically, the farm stand became the central focus of the controversy around Gaia Gardens and urban farming in Santa Fe, but I believe it was actually the city’s over-zealous restrictions on school visits, volunteer groups, workshops, and community events that most undermined the spirit and promise of the farm.

We knew when we opened the farm stand that our days were numbered. The morning before, we had been informed that the property owner was not willing to consider a short-sale, and there no longer remained a viable option for securing the land. I spent most of the day clearing the dirt paths to the garden and carefully lining them with stones, shrouded in sadness. Mourning the loss of such a treasure of a place, where so many had invested their energy, dreams, sweat, and skills; found solace, inspiration, healing, and new ideas; laughed, deepened friendships, shared a meal, chomped on a lemon cucumber or scarlet runner bean right off the vine. Where barren ground had been built and nourished each year, transformed into rich soil prime for food production, and constantly fluttering with birds and pollinators.

And I mourned the loss of incredible potential, all it could have become, the fragile spider web of visions and dreams that had spiralled around it: a demonstration center or intentional community centered around natural building and permaculture, an alternative school, a summer camp, an urban farm incubator program...

I looked back through the fence at the waving fronds of cosmos, the tidy rows of vegetables, land that had passed through so many manifestations and transformations over the years, loved and abused, a stage and silent witness to the rise and fall of human ambitions and dreams, patient, enduring. A quiet assurance that even as this chapter was drawing to a close, the story of the land was far from over.

A few stones have been kicked out of place, but the paths still lead to the garden gate and through the fields, still beckon neighbors and friends and passer-bys, winged and human alike, to wander through a labyrinth of rows still blooming, still teeming with rich soil and seeds and a universe of subterrestrial life. Yet we must continue on our own winding paths, hoping, praying, trusting that in some way -- in the unknown mystery of seeds burrowed and stirring beneath the crust of the earth -- the legacy of growing, nurturing, connecting, and sharing will live on, here on this pinprick of the planet and in this community.

Blessings to all of you who have enriched this place and my time here.

Rachel Brylawski

My Meeting with the Mayor and City Manager

2015-09-29T16:43:00.002-06:00

On Sept. 3, 20156, my attorney and I met for one hour with:

Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales
City Manager Brian Snyder
Public Information Director Matt Ross
Land Use Director Lisa Martinez
Assistant City Attorney Zachary Shandler
Renewable Energy Planner John Alejandro

The purpose of the meeting was for the Mayor and his senior staff to hear about what Gaia Gardens has been going through in the past 4 years and why we decided to quit. I told them that they needed to educate their staff about how fragile an undertaking an urban farm is, and that before looking for what's "wrong" with a project like Gaia Gardens and slapping the property with a Notice of Violation amounting to a death sentence, they should look at what's "right" with a situation and help the project instead of trying to shut it down as they did.

I sent the meeting participants a "Chronology of Events" ahead of the meeting (see below).

The Mayor apologized for all of our troubles at the onset of the meeting. I explained how, before we began breaking ground at the farm, the property owner and I met with five senior Land Use planners in early 2012 to present what we intended to do (farming, education, etc.) and to seek guidance. We were given their blessings.

See below a history of our dealings with the City administration. There are 23 referenced attachments that you can download at once here).

Chronology of Events
Nov. 2011 through August 10, 2015

Nov. 2, 2011
Mr. Piottin places an ad on Craigslist seeking a parcel of land for urban farming
(See attachment 1 -Posted on Craigslist 11-02-2011)

November 15, 2011
Stuart Tallmon, owner of the Gaia Gardens property, offers his land for creating the urban farm project

Jan., 2012
Mr. Piottin emails Mayor Coss, informing him of his plan to start an urban farm and asks whom he should talk for land use information. Mayor Coss refers Mr. Piottin to Heather Lamboy, a Land Use Senior Planner

Feb. 6, 2012
Ms. Lamboy sends Mr. Piottin an email and suggests that he meets with Land Use Staff for further exploration (See attachment 2- Heather Lamboy Letter)

Feb. 17, 2012 10:00am-11:00am
Mr. Tallmon and Mr. Piottin meet with five Land Use and Water Division staff (including Heather Lamboy and Tamara Baer) to present the farm project and request guidance (See attachment 3 - Presentation to Land Use Feb. 17, 2012). Land Use staff doesn’t foresee any issues with our plan, states that the only thing to be aware of is the farm can’t sell off the premises. Land Use staff never mentions that the farm needs to apply for a Home Occupation License.

June 11, 2012
Unable to get a booth at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market, farm announces the opening of a farm stand on property with access from the bike trail (See attachment 4 - Farm Stand Blog announcement)

July 2, 2012
Farm Stand opens to the public Mon., Wed. and Fri. 7:00am-11:00am

August 8, 2012
New Mexican publishes article on the farm, describing the farm stand (See attachment 5 - New Mexican Article 8/8/12)

Sept. 5, 2012
Mr. Piottin, having been accepted as a Santa Fe Farmers’ Market vendor applies for a City of Santa Fe Business License. Vince Daniels at the City Business License Office, after hearing from Mr. Piottin that Gaia Gardens is operating a farm in the City limit and needs a Business License, tells Mr. Piottin that a Farmers Market Vendor Business License is all that is required. Mr. Daniels never mentions the need for Mr. Piottin to apply for a Home Occupation License. Business License # 12-00116243 is issued on that date. Mr. Piottin has renewed his Farmers’ Market Vendor Business License each year since then.

Jan. 18, 2013
Mr. Piottin emails Mayor Coss and informs him of the farm stand operating successfully in 2012 and requests help to obtain a variance to continue the farm stand (See attachment 6 - Letter to Mayor Coss). Mayor Coss never responds to Mr. Piottin’s email.

Feb 1, 2013
Mayor Coss sends email to Matt O’Reilly asking if Mr. O’Reilly can help with Mr. Piottin’s request (See attachment 7 - Email from David Coss to Matt O'Reilly Feb. 1, 2013)

Feb. 3, 2013
The New Mexico Community Foundation, Gaia Gardens’ fiscal sponsor, informs Mr. Piottin that his neighbor Susan Turner has called the Attorney General’s Office to complain that: 1) the farm non-profit is illegitimate 2) that the farm is trespassing on public land in its creation of a small shrine (made with sticks and stone). The complaint is dismissed for being without merit (See attachment 8 - Dear Ms. Turner)

Feb. 11, 2013
Tom Watson, an elder and friend of the farm, takes it upon himself to visit Matt O’Reilly, then Director of Land Use. Mr. Watson reports to Mr. Piottin the next day that he met with both Matt O’Reilly and Patti Bushee, and his assessment on the meeting is that “the City wants to shut down the farm” and that the farm in their view is "an inappropriate use in a residential zoning".

Feb. 18, 2013
Matt O’Reilly calls Mr. Piottin into his office. On Feb. 12, Matt O’Reilly receives a complaint from Susan Turner, (one of our neighbors), about the farm being an illegal operation in residential zoning (See attachment 9 – Susan Turner’s Complaint)

Feb.-June 2013
Land Use Inspectors visit the farm on at least 5 occasions, looking at all areas of the farm operation. Mr. Piottin cooperates and lets them on the property without dispute. All inspectors are very courteous.

April 9, 2013 
Gaia Gardens received the Santa Fe Sustainable Commission's Award for "Best Sustainable Food System".

June 2013
Councilor Bushee introduces a draft for a Farm Stand Resolution. Because of opposition from the Farmers’ Market, the Farm Stand Resolution draft is handed to the Food Policy Council for a rewrite (See attachment 10 - Councilor Patti Bushee Farm Stand Resolution 6/12/13)

June 6, 2013
Mr. Piottin applies for Home Occupation License. When Mr. Piottin drops off his application at Land Use, he is told by inspector at the desk that “Matt O’Reilly said a Home Occupation License couldn’t be given because the farm is using volunteers” (See attachment 11 - Home Occupation Permit Application 6/6/13)

July 11, 2013
Mr. Piottin sends email to Councilor Bushee and offers her to visit the farm to hear about the farm’s experience running a farm stand. Councilor Bushee never replies to Mr. Piottin’s email (See attachment 12 - Letter to Councilor Bushee July 11, 2013)

June 11, 2013
Property owner Stuart Tallmon receives a Notice of Violation asking that the farm operation cease immediately (See attachment 13 - Notice of Violation Letter 6/11/13)

June 12, 2013
Poki Piottin, on behalf of Mr. Tallmon, requests an extension on the Violation Notice (See attachment 14 - Letter to Matt O'Reilly 6-13-13)

June 27, 2013
After Matt O’Reilly requests complete access to all the property dwellings for inspection, a group of inspectors from water, grading, electrical and plumbing departments meticulously inspect the property for any building violation.

June 30, 2013
Matt O'Reilly having informed Mr. Piottin that he could not live in the trailer that was parked on the farm property, Mr. Piottin begins researching the issue, and posts an ad on Craigslist asking the public whether the City has enforced this against others (See attachment 15 - Posted on Craigslist 06-30-2013). In the farm neighborhood alone, Mr. Piottin can easily point to several residents living in trailers. Matt O’Reilly calls Kyle Harwood, an attorney helping us at the time, asking him if “we were planning to file a lawsuit against the City”. Kyle Hardwood contacts Mr. Piottin to ask if he had posted the ad on Craigslist. Mr. Piottin deletes the Craigslist ad that same day.

July 3, 2013
Property owner Stuart Tallmon receives another Notice of Violation (See attachment 16 –Letter to Stuart Tallmon 7-3-13)

Sept. 4, 2013
The Los Chamisos Homeowners Association, bordering the farm property on two sides, passes a resolution supporting all the activities of the farm (See attachment 17 - Los Chamisos Homeowners Association Resolution)

Oct. 13, 2013
An email is sent to Matt O’Reilly regarding a progress update on the building violations (See attachment 18 - Progress Update Oct 13, 2013)

Feb. 6, 2014
An email is sent to Matt O’Reilly regarding a progress update on the building violations (See attachment 19 - Progress Update Feb. 6, 2014)

May 13, 2014
Mr. Piottin and Richard Welker, a volunteer doing research on urban agriculture ordinances around the US, present to the Santa Fe Food Policy Council a comprehensive document to assist the SFFPC in the drafting of an urban agricultural ordinance (See attachment 20 - Proposed Elements for Urban Agricultural Ordinance)

July 1, 2014
After Mayor Gonzales comes into office, Mr. Piottin sends Noah Berke, Planning and Policy Administrator for the Mayor, the Proposed Elements for Urban Agricultural Ordinance document.

July 14, 2014
Mr. Piottin meets with Mr. Berke to discuss the creation of an urban agriculture ordinance. Mr. Berke mentions that Katherine Mortimer, Sustainable Santa Fe Programs Manager for the City of Santa Fe, is being considered to lead that effort.

Oct. 23, 2014
Mr. Piottin, Ms. Pozo, co-founder of Gaia Gardens, legal counsel Gretchen Elsner and three Gaia Gardens interns meet with Ms. Mortimer to begin a discussion on the details of an urban agriculture ordinance.

Oct. 2014 - May 2015
Mr. Piottin, Ms. Pozo, legal counsel Gretchen Elsner and several Gaia Gardens interns continue to work with Ms. Mortimer to further draft the details of an urban agriculture ordinance. (See attachment 21 - Sample of Communications with Katherine Mortimer). The City appeared not to be making any progress toward having a public meeting or finishing a draft of the ordinance, but the proposed ordinance draft does make clear that farm stand will be allowed.

May 28, 2015
John Alejandro, Renewable Energy Planner for the City of Santa Fe, invites Mr. Piottin to become a member of a newly created Urban Agriculture Committee.
Mr. Alejandro is replacing Ms. Mortimer as the person in charge of creating an Urban Agriculture Ordinance. Mr. Piottin participates in several meetings until his resignation from the committee on August 13, 2015.

May-August 2015
On two occasions, during meetings of the Urban Agriculture Committee, Mr. Piottin asks Mr. Alejandro to help the farm find a way to get a permit for the farm stand that the farm plans to open in July 2015. Mr. Alejandro states both times that he will work on Mr. Piottin’s request with the Land Use staff.

July 24, 2015
After two years of contacting the City regarding how to offer fresh, locally grown vegetables to the neighborhood, the farm stand opens 8:00am-12:00pm. Inspector Mike Purdy comes to the farm at 2:00pm and issues a Notice to Stop Work order on the property for “Commercial/Business in Residential Zoning” (See attachment 22- Stop Work/Red Tag)

July 24, 2015 4:00pm
Mr. Piottin visits City Hall and meets with Lisa Martinez, Director of Land Use and Greg Smith, Division Planning Director of Land Use. Ms. Martinez and Mr. Smith state that they are looking into a way to legalize the farm stand, maybe using a special “neighborhood grocery” license.

July 25, 2015
The documentary Bringing Food Home, centered on the Gaia Gardens’ story, premieres to a sold-out audience at the CCA.

July 27, 2015
Ms. Martinez and Mr. Smith visit the farm to take a look at our operation. Farm stand is open that morning and several neighbors, including architect and neighbor Wayne Lloyd, are present to greet Ms. Martinez and Mr. Smith, and praise the farm for being a good neighbor. At the end of the visit, Lisa Martinez states that they will try to get a “pilot project”-type permit for the farm stand.

July 27, 29, 31 and August 3, 5, 7, 10, 2015
Farm stand continues to operate 8:00am-12:00pm. 90% of farm stand customers are using the bike path, not creating traffic in the neighborhood, nor needing parking.

August 10, 2015
Lisa Martinez and several Land Use inspectors come to inspect the farm property, are being told and shown what building violations have and haven’t been remedied. Ms. Martinez, at the end of the inspection, states that the farm needs to close its farm stand. Mr. Piottin states, and also confirms via email, that he no longer represents Mr. Tallmon, the property owner, and that from now on, he only wishes to address the code violations related to the farm. (See attachment 23 - Email to Lisa Martinez August 10, 2015)

August 10, 2015
Mr. Piottin issues a press release stating that Gaia Gardens has made a decision to stop farming in the City of Santa Fe. Mr. Piottin submits his resignation from the Urban Agriculture Ordinance Committee to the Mayor and the Committee Chair John Alejandro.