Soul Fire Farm

About this land node

Overview

Project Vision

A food system in which Black and Brown people reclaim their inherent right to belong to the earth and have agency over how they are fed. Soul Fire envisions land held as a relative rather than a commodity, farms that increase topsoil, sequester carbon and biodiversity, alumni-led farms and gardens across the country, and reparations and land return that restore Indigenous and Black stewardship of the Northeast.

Project Purpose

To end racism and injustice in the food system. Soul Fire Farm raises life-giving food and medicine in solidarity with people marginalized by food apartheid, trains the next generation of Black, Indigenous and Latine farmer-activists, and uses land as a tool to heal from racial trauma and reverse the dangerously low share of farms owned and operated by people of color.

Project Title

Soul Fire Farm

Ecoregional Location

Eastern edge of the Rensselaer Plateau where it meets the Taconic Mountains (EPA Northeastern Highlands ecoregion), in the One Earth New England-Acadian Forests ecoregion, bioregion Northeastern American Mixed Forests (NA10); Little Hoosic River watershed, which drains through the Hoosic River to the Hudson.

Local Location

Hudson Valley Bioregion (upper Hudson, Capital Region), on the mountainside between Grafton and Petersburgh along NY Route 2, about 40 minutes east of Albany and Troy. Navigate: Google Maps https://www.google.com/maps/dir/?api=1&destination=42.767330,-73.410859 | Apple Maps https://maps.apple.com/?daddr=42.767330,-73.410859&dirflg=d | Soul Fire directions https://www.soulfirefarm.org/contact/directions/

Political Location

Grafton (postal address Petersburgh), Rensselaer County, New York, United States

Ecology & biodiversity

Biodiversity context

The Rensselaer Plateau is described by Hudson Taconic Lands as one of the largest and most ecologically intact native habitats in New York, with boreal-leaning forests and wetlands and a 2,798 ft high point at Berlin Mountain nearby. Nearly all of it was logged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and regenerated because the thin soils discouraged farming. Soul Fire’s polyculture, agroforestry and seedkeeping add cultivated diversity within that forest matrix.

Ecological corridors

The farm’s forest connects to the Rensselaer Plateau forest block and across the Little Hoosic valley to the Taconic ridge, where the Taconic Crest Trail and state forests run north-south along the New York-Massachusetts-Vermont line. The Little Hoosic and Hoosic rivers link the plateau to the Hudson. Hudson Taconic Lands (merger of the Rensselaer Plateau Alliance and Rensselaer Land Trust) coordinates conservation of this landscape.

Natural boundaries

The farm occupies forested, sloping ground on the mountainside where the Rensselaer Plateau drops toward the Little Hoosic valley along NY Route 2. The plateau’s eastern boundary here is a steep escarpment and the narrow Little Hoosic River valley, beyond which the Taconic Mountains rise toward Petersburg Pass and the Massachusetts line.

Ecosystem unity

Part of the 118,000-acre Rensselaer Plateau, one of the largest and most ecologically intact native habitats in New York State, whose cool climate, acidic soils and poor drainage support forests and wetlands more like the Adirondacks than the surrounding Hudson lowlands. The farm’s mostly-forested 80 acres function as part of that continuous forest block rather than as an island of cropland.

Climate & water

Climate Zones

Humid continental, warm-summer (Köppen Dfb); USDA hardiness zone 5b. Considerably colder than the Hudson lowlands because of elevation; the plateau’s frost-free season runs about 90-135 days, with last frost around May 11-20 and first frost around October 1-10.

Rainfall patterns

Precipitation spread fairly evenly through the year with a wetter late spring to early autumn; heaviest months June, July and October. Snow typically falls November through April, with the heaviest snowfall in January.

Average Rainfall

About 1,240 mm (49 in) a year at Grafton; snowfall in the Rensselaer area averages around 55 in (140 cm) a year.

Temperature Extremes

January average low around -10 °C (14 °F) and average high near -1 °C (30 °F); July average high around 26 °C (79 °F). Zone 5b implies winter minima of roughly -26 to -23 °C (-15 to -10 °F).

Average Temperature

Annual mean of about 7.9 °C (46 °F), with average highs of 12.9 °C (55 °F) and lows of 2.8 °C (37 °F).

Watershed

Little Hoosic River watershed. The Little Hoosic joins the Hoosic River in North Petersburgh; the Hoosic flows west through Hoosick Falls, Johnsonville and Schaghticoke to the Hudson River at Lock 4 near Stillwater. The Rensselaer Plateau holds the headwaters of seven watersheds, four draining to the Hudson below the Troy Dam and three to the Hoosic.

Nearby water bodies

Little Hoosic River in the valley below; Hoosic River about 10 km north at North Petersburgh; Grafton Lakes State Park (Long Pond, Mill Pond, Second Pond, Shaver Pond) a few kilometers west; Hudson River about 30 km west at Troy.

Land & terrain

Elevation & slope

Mountainside site on the plateau’s eastern flank; the Rensselaer Plateau lies at roughly 1,000-1,800 ft (300-550 m) with perimeter relief up to 400 ft, while the hamlet of Petersburgh below sits at 554 ft (169 m). Grafton village is listed at about 1,470 ft (448 m). Slopes are moderate to steep toward the Little Hoosic valley.

Landforms

Rolling upland plateau of erosion-resistant Rensselaer Graywacke, the oldest rock south of the Mohawk and east of the Hudson, thrust over younger layers during the Taconic orogeny; a steep escarpment on the east; glacial till, kettle ponds and wetlands formed 12,000-14,000 years ago; the narrow Little Hoosic valley and the Taconic ridge to the east.

Soil Types

Mostly Buckland very stony loam (map unit BuC) over Rensselaer Graywacke bedrock and rocky glacial till; heavy clay subsoil. The plateau as a whole has thin, acidic, poorly drained soils; pockets of limestone and dolomite in the Little Hoosic watershed give locally richer, less acidic soils.

Soil health

Thin, stony and compaction-prone soils that were logged hard before the farm began. The farm builds them with no-till mulching, cover crops, on-site compost and manure, raised beds for drainage on heavy clay, and agroforestry; it reports increasing topsoil depth and sequestering soil carbon, and formerly employed a soil carbon field researcher.

Erosion risk

Moderate on cultivated slopes with heavy clay and stony loam; managed with permanent cover (mulch, cover crops), raised beds that direct drainage to pathways, and agroforestry and silvopasture that keep roots in the ground. Forested acreage and the hard graywacke bedrock limit erosion elsewhere.

Renewable resource potential

Solar: the farm already heats water primarily with solar and designs buildings for passive solar gain; regional solar energy is about 1,410 kWh/m² a year. Sustainable firewood from its own forest feeds efficient wood stoves. Silvopasture and agroforestry provide biomass and carbon storage.

People & history

Land Acknowledgements

Soul Fire Farm stewards 80 acres of Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican territory. The Mohican people were forcibly removed from this land in the 1800s to a reservation in northern Wisconsin. The farm is establishing a cultural respect easement allowing Mohican citizens to use the land for ceremony and wildcrafting in perpetuity, maintains a native seed exchange with Mohican farmers and herbalists, and works alongside Mohican people to protect ancestral burial grounds from development.

Recent land history

Mohican homeland until forced removal in the 1800s; logged with the rest of the plateau in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and left to regrow because the thin soils discouraged farming; heavily logged again by the previous owner, damaging the red oak community. Leah Penniman and Jonah Vitale-Wolff bought 72 acres in 2006 and opened Soul Fire Farm in 2010, formed the Land Stewardship Collective cooperative, and expanded the campus from 2020 with a Program Center and root cellar.

Regenerative practice

Regenerative Focus

Regenerative Agriculture & Soil Health, Syntropic Agroforestry / Permaculture, Heritage Species & Seed Sovereignty, Community Regeneration & Resilience Building, Indigenous And Traditional Knowledge, Education, Regenerative Grazing, Participatory & Regenerative Governance

Regenerative Methodologies

No-till with heavy mulch; cover crops of peas, oats and buckwheat; on-site compost from livestock manure and crop residue (African Dark Earth-inspired); raised beds on heavy clay; polyculture modeled on the Haitian jaden lakou and the Mohican milpa; Afro-Indigenous agroforestry and silvopasture (sheep under sugar maple and chestnut); wildcrafting; seedkeeping of 8-10 varieties a year for Truelove Seeds and Ujamaa Seeds; red oak community restoration; natural building in adobe, straw bale and local pine timber with solar hot water; spiritual farming practices including asking permission of the land before major changes.

Environmental objectives

Increase topsoil depth and sequester soil carbon on thin, stony plateau soils; raise biodiversity through polyculture, agroforestry and native species restoration; restore the red oak community damaged by the previous owner’s heavy logging; keep the majority of the 80 acres as forest with buildings on 1.5 acres; protect water by keeping soil covered year-round; build and heat with local, natural and reclaimed materials and solar energy.

Community objectives

Feed people living under food apartheid and those targeted by state violence through Solidarity Shares, farm-to-table meals and doorstep delivery; train Black, Indigenous and Latine farmers and support alumni into land and markets; reconnect youth to land; build no-cost raised-bed gardens in Albany, Schenectady and Troy; move reparations and land return for Northeast farmers of color; honor Mohican sovereignty through a cultural respect easement, seed exchange and burial-ground protection.

Community engagement

Open to the public through weekly Work-and-Learn days (Tuesdays, 10 am to 3:30 pm in season), Friday farm tours (3:30-4:30 pm), Family Fun Days, the SOULstice alumni reunion and festivals. Deeper engagement runs through the FIRE, Farm to Table and Youth Immersions, 3D skill shares, Soul Fire in the City gardens in the 518 region, the Uprooting Racism in the Food System training for organizations, the Braiding Seeds Fellowship for beginning farmers, the Speakers Collective, the Sovereign podcast and the monthly Farming While Black Instagram Live. The farm hosts movement organizations for retreats through Campus Sharing and participates in the Northeast Farmers of Color Network, HEAL Food Alliance, the National Black Food and Justice Alliance and, through the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, La Via Campesina. Visitors must register for a program before coming to the farm; see the calendar.

Economic Model

Nonprofit (Soul Fire Farm Institute, Inc.) with an operating budget of about $3.1 million in 2024, funded by foundation grants, individual donations and program fees, with no single funder providing half or more of revenue. Land is held by the Soul Fire Farm Land Stewardship Collective LLC housing cooperative. Farm products are distributed primarily through sliding-scale Solidarity Shares and farm-to-table meals rather than market sales; immersion tuition is sliding scale and heavily subsidized. The farm also runs an online shop, a speakers collective, and emergency relief and reparations funds that move money to BIPOC farmers and families.

Impact

Expressed Impact

Soul Fire describes its impact as feeding people and soil, training the next generation of farmer-activists, and shifting land, resources and narrative toward Black and Indigenous food sovereignty. It reports being in kinship with 407,629 people in 2024, 27,000 in 2023 and more than 50,000 in 2022, and reaching over a million people through its storytelling. Alumni of its immersions and the Braiding Seeds Fellowship are starting farms, cooperatives and apprenticeships from Alabama to Puerto Rico. The full 2025 Annual Report is on the farm’s site.

Key impact metrics

80 acres (32 ha) stewarded, most kept as forest; farming since 2010 (land purchased 2006); about 600 BIPOC farmers trained by 2021, 86% still growing food; 81 new immersion alumni in 2025; 225 people fed weekly through Solidarity Shares in 2022 and 204 in 2023; 3,000 farm-to-table meals in 2022 and 1,600 in 2023; 1,400+ low-cost CSA shares reached Schenectady County families in 2025 through a $100,000 Food Box sponsorship; a $25,000+ Food for the People emergency fund in 2025; 8-10 seed varieties saved yearly for Truelove and Ujamaa Seeds; Liberation on Land videos reached 45,000 learners in 2022; Sovereign podcast reached 70,000 listeners in 2025; 407,629 people in kinship in 2024; about $3.1 million operating budget, FY2024.

Visiting & links

Nearest urban centres

About 40 minutes (30 km) east of Albany and Troy, the Capital Region cities where Soul Fire delivers Solidarity Shares and builds Soul Fire in the City gardens; Schenectady about 50 km west; Williamstown and North Adams, Massachusetts, 20-25 km east over Petersburg Pass; Pittsfield, Massachusetts, about 40 km southeast. Navigate: Google Maps https://www.google.com/maps/dir/?api=1&destination=42.767330,-73.410859 | Apple Maps https://maps.apple.com/?daddr=42.767330,-73.410859&dirflg=d | Soul Fire directions https://www.soulfirefarm.org/contact/directions/

Website

https://www.soulfirefarm.org/

Social media

https://www.instagram.com/soulfirefarm/; https://www.facebook.com/soulfirefarm/; https://twitter.com/soulfirefarm; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz3Bs3G0GkDR83JSxF4C5Eg

Visit Link

https://www.soulfirefarm.org/visiting/

Connections

In the same bioregion

Nearby