Those looking for a longer stay can book the Amado Khaya Healing House, a two-story home near the farm that was established for activists and organizers to rest and rejuvenate.

“I feel so empowered by being in this space,” said Balon, who is the founder of Kapwa Kultural Center, a mental health and wellness space for Filipino youth in Daly City. “The pandemic taught me that we can reclaim the way that our ancestors lived—and we’re able to embody that at Remagination Farm.”

Rodriguez has found the pace of farming healing, too. “There is really something to be said about being present with the life cycle as a farmer that can be deeply healing,” she said. “Planting and harvesting and starting again really gets you to a different place.”

Reclaiming Indigenous Knowledge

Born in Mexico City, Lopez grew up unaware of his Indigenous heritage. “When they moved into the city, they abandoned their communities, their languages, and their traditions,” Lopez said, referring in part to his family, some of whom had farmed in mountainous regions.

Now, more than two decades later, he walks the damp earth at Hawk’s Nest Healing Gardens in knee-high rubber boots, explaining how Indigenous agroecology—or what’s widely known as regenerative farming—influences every aspect of his and Gooding’s urban farm.

“We are taking back all this knowledge,” Lopez says. “All these things that we always did.”

On the western side of their farm, medicinal herbs grow alongside blueberries and beehives. On the other side, leafy greens, corn, cucumbers, hibiscus, and loofah grow in a high tunnel alongside a bounty of herbs, including arnica, basil, lemongrass, and lemon balm. An outdoor compost toilet and a rainwater catchment system work together to cycle nutrients back into the earth.

Just as important to this system are the community events that bring neighbors onto the land.

Recently, Lopez and Gooding have offered seed blessing ceremonies and Día de los Muertos altar workshops. This year, Lopez is hosting a new healing series specifically for men, pairing talking circles with sweat lodge ceremonies over five months. According to the website, this is meant to help men unburden themselves of a toxic masculinity that “distances them from their full humanity” and allows them to shift from “conquerors” to “caretakers.”

Gooding said their sweat lodges tend to attract those already on a healing journey—people who tell her, “I needed this,” or “I’ve been wanting something like this.”

Ina Maka, a third-generation farmer and wellness practitioner with African American, Choctaw, and Caribbean ancestry, participates in sweat lodge ceremonies at Hawk’s Nest almost monthly and recognizes a difference in herself since starting the practice.

“The sweat lodge allows me to release things at a quicker rate,” she said, naming anxiousness, overwhelm, and generational pain and trauma among the burdens that come up during the ceremonies. “I’ve seen a lot of change in my life.”

Maka drives 1.5 hours to get to Hawk’s Nest from her home in Tarborough, North Carolina, and despite the distance, has built a “sisterhood” with women she’s met there “because they’ve been vulnerable with each other,” she said. “Sitting in a circle with other people and not being afraid to sweat or cry or scream has been healing.”

Bringing Herbal Remedies to Modern Medicine

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Bernadette Lim, a trained physician, has observed this trend firsthand. “People don’t want to constantly be dependent on another person to save their health,” she said. “People want to learn how to become their own healers.”

Amid growing interest in holistic healing methods, there’s been a renewed focus on herbalism, with many seeking care that reflects their cultural roots and ancestral wisdom. Ostensibly, it’s also easier access. Herbal medicine is typically more affordable than pharmaceuticals and doesn’t require health insurance, both of which can be major barriers for people of color.

Lim is the founder of Freedom Community Clinic (FCC), a nonprofit that bridges ancestral practices with modern approaches to health, particularly for Black, Brown, Native, and immigrant communities. Last January, FCC announced the opening of Ancestral Healing Farm Sanctuary, an acre of land in Orinda, about ten minutes outside Oakland, where they cultivate ancestral medicinal plants from around the world, such as those used for traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicines.

The farm isn’t designed for distribution, but rather as a holistic wellness space for experiencing land-based practices rooted in various healing traditions. June featured a workshop on vinegar extractions for healthy plants and soil.

A month before that, FCC invited its followers to gather for a workshop on bee stewardship. Plants harvested at the farm supply the organization’s apothecary in Oakland, where people can access herbs—and the expertise of local herbalists—at no charge.

FCC’s efforts appear to be having a positive impact. Lim says demand for their services has consistently exceeded their capacity. Meanwhile, Marakee Tilahun, FCC’s director of land and community stewardship, said many express to her that the farm has given them a place to feel balanced and more at ease.

“A lot of people who come to me feel so joyous for the opportunity to be on the land and for free,” Tilahun said. “They don’t need to buy anything to be here; they can just exist.”

Healers Need Healing, Too

On the one hand, farming and making space for others to experience land-based healing is a therapeutic experience. “We heal ourselves by helping others,” Lopez said. On the other hand, the labor of growing and selling food, stewarding land, fundraising to sustain it, and holding emotional space for others can be exhausting.

To support their efforts, the couple relies on the community they’ve cultivated to pour into them as they have poured into their community.

For Gooding, this reciprocity is embodied in their sweat lodge, built with the help of friends. Its heavy stones and bent-branch structure represent both the labor of creating a sacred space and the collective energy it takes to heal.

Surrounded by rows of vegetables and fresh herbs, the couple expressed gratitude for community and reverence for Mother Earth, especially during this time of environmental and political upheaval.

“She’s the boss here,” Lopez said, gesturing to the ground and the sky. Gooding nodded in agreement, adding, “And I think she’s telling us we have a lot of healing to do.”