Spirit Farm: Reconnecting and Reclaiming Roots

Reconnecting with nature and reclaiming Indigenous practices are what James and Joyce Skeet’s Spirit Farm is all about. From climate change to the dismantling of environmental infrastructure to people’s need for convenience and ultra-processed foods, the relationship between humanity and nature has deteriorated. But this is not irreparable; much like any couple going through a rough patch, reconciliation is still possible. It is all a matter of opening ourselves up, being vulnerable and listening to the needs of the environment around us.

James and Joyce founded Spirit Farm in 2014 in Vanderwagen, New Mexico. A farm that focuses on regenerative agriculture, Spirit Farm is a pillar of their community, providing high-quality, nutritious food to combat food insecurity in New Mexico. Spirit Farm encourages the community to reconnect with Indigenous practices and ancient farming techniques. James says that most people today “have separated the physical and the spiritual. Indigenous people have never done that; they have kept those two intact.”

“It’s almost like building a bridge … It’s helping people to understand our method as Native people and how we interact with our traditional landscape.”

It’s not just the type of food that is grown but how it is grown that is important. From a purely analytical lens, regenerative farming is about building up and maintaining nutrients in the soil. But it is so much more than that — it’s about working with the land rather than dominating it. We should recognize it as an autonomous entity and give back as much as we take. In doing so, the soil retains nutrients which makes the food we grow more nutritious.

Joyce recalls the moment this concept finally struck her. Growing up as a Mennonite, Joyce was taught that the land needed to be tamed and controlled. To her, farming was a top-down network. But one day, while collecting amaranth, she decided to take the time to ask for permission from the flowers, and “it was then that I felt such an overwhelming response from the plants. It almost made me cry,” says Joyce. “They just really appreciated that I would ask and honor them that way … We are at one with the plants.”

The natural landscape of Utah is arid, so when it comes to growing food, that dryness needs to be taken into account. When it comes to implementing regenerative agriculture in not only rural Utah, but in urban areas as well, James says, “We now have to tell people how to regenerate this land that has been colonized … and to put some of the key players at the table again, which is the Paiutes, the Shoshone, the Goshutes, all these different tribes that have understood how to function within these brittle environments.” In practice, that would be harvesting heirloom seeds from corn, beans, squash or any other crop indigenous to Utah, which have a higher nutrient density than other domesticated crops. “It’s almost like building a bridge,” says Autumn Gillard, an Indigenous leader from the Southern Paiute tribe. “It’s helping people to understand our method as Native people and how we interact with our traditional landscape.”

Most people today “have separated the physical and the spiritual. Indigenous people have never done that; they have kept those two intact.”

It should be noted that James and Joyce were planning to come to Utah for a Soil Summit in Cedar City this June. The Soil Summit was to be a chance for Indigenous people across the region to gather and share farming practices unique to their tribes. However, due to budget cuts from the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF), it was postponed indefinitely. Rather than letting this get in the way of progress, we should instead be emboldened to take action and support the local and Indigenous farmers in the area. Go to covenantpathways.org and facebook.com/covenantpathways to learn more about Spirit Farm’s many ongoing projects. When it comes to agriculture, the work doesn’t end.

Spirit Farm reminds us that these ancestral practices endure because they work. We must remind ourselves that we are a part of nature, not its master. So here’s hoping that more farms implement regenerative practices, and maybe one day we can live in that solar punk world that we all dream of.

Read more about local farm organizations:
Solstice Spices and Urban Pepper Project’s Farm-to-Jar Philosophy
Utah Farm to Fork: Healthy Foods Foster a Healthy Community