Join us and other vendors at Farm.One on Sunday, December 14th for a stacked lineup of local vendors selling all kinds of goodies — perfect for gifting (or treating yourself, because we all deserve something nice!). Expect greens + herbs, freshly baked goods, pizza, spirits, teas, and so much more!

Plus, there will be a special raffle! You definitely don’t want to miss this one.

Join us at Welcome Home for a holiday market, featuring 9 incredible artists and crafters! The market will have everything from ceramics & jewelry to culinary oils & curated books! Not to mention candles, knits, holiday calendars, and handcrafted items made from secondhand textiles. Come do your holiday shopping and support these talented folks!

Swing by to say hi, grab a pastry and coffee, and support Oko Farms!

D is for Delight + Despair

We hold delight and despair as two threads of being alive, woven closely together. In this session, we’ll notice how both live in the body, what they reveal about what we hold dear, and how they shape our lives. We’ll spend time with plant allies that steady and nourish us in the presence of each, move through somatic practices that help us honor their truth, and reflect on how community makes it possible to carry joy and sorrow side by side without forcing ourselves to choose one over the other.

Each month, we explore two plant friends,  one letter of the alphabet, one emotion, and one somatic practice to reconnect. From Acceptance to Zeal, we listen for the ways our bodies speak, and remember how plants have always connected us through feeling, healing, and change.

This isn’t about fixing or overcoming ourselves.
It’s about learning how to stay with what’s here, with a bit more curiosity and compassion.

Each gathering includes:
✨ one emotion as a guide
✨ plant allies to steady and nourish
✨ a somatic practice to rest, release, or reclaim
✨ a ritual or reflection to carry into your month

This space welcomes both new and experienced plant practitioners.
You don’t need to have it figured out.
Your body is welcome. Your questions are welcome.
Your healing—complex, layered, and real—is welcome.

We begin in August with the letter A for acceptance.

Together, we explore:
🌿 How does this emotion live in my body, and what might it be trying to teach me?

🌿 What plants have supported people through this feeling across time and place?

🌿 What can this plant teach me about being in right relationship—with myself, with others, and with the planet?

🌿 How can I respond with more connection, care, and choice?

Join the conversation shaping the future of New York’s food and agriculture—where insight sparks real policy action and lasting change.

This interactive workshop serves as a continuation of our recent values aligned purchasing roundtable with national leaders, focusing specifically on engaging New York practitioners in meaningful dialogue about advancing good food procurement practices. This session provides an invaluable opportunity for local practitioners to share their work, experiences, and challenges while developing actionable policy recommendations together.

About the Participants:

Mandana Boushee: Bridging land, plants, and poetry, Mandana Boushee’s work weaves together the wisdom of ecology, community organizing, and the power of storytelling, drawing on two decades of experience as an earth worker, ethnobotanist, writer, educator, and community herbalist. Whether through her care work as an herbalist, her advocacy for farmers through the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust, or her poetry, the heart-mycelium feeding Mandana’s work remains clear: to connect, heal, and protect through the land and the stories that shape it.

Aliana Ruxin: Ali (she/her) stewards two farm sites with the Red Hook Farms team in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY. A founding member of the Iraqi Seed Collective, she grows and shares Iraqi seeds and their stories with other Iraqi and SWANA heritage growers in diaspora. She also organizes with food, farm, and hospitality worker collective FIG NYC. Ali’s favorite thing to grow this year was ta’roozi, a crunchy, slightly sweet Iraqi cucumber.

Francis Yu: Francis Yu is a queer Asian-American farmer (Star Route Farm) and a food systems + land access practitioner (West Branch Commons). They have a background in urban planning and policy and currently serve as an Adjunct Professor at NYU Wagner School of Public Service teaching about the intersections of race, class, gender, and the history of public policy and segregation in our cities. They enjoy cooking, hiking and foraging, and developing a poetry and writing practice. Francis has roots in Manila, Philippines, and in occupied Patwin territory (Vallejo, California).

West Branch Commons (WBC) is dedicated to advancing equitable land access as a community land trust. At its core, WBC’s mission is to provide secure, affordable land access to marginalized farmers, using an agroecological approach that de-commodifies land and promotes long-term stewardship. It seeks to do so on 287 acres of farmland in Delancey, Delaware County, New York currently owned by American Farmland Trust. WBC works with constellation of resources to educate the public and farmer lessees on farm viability, regional collaboration, and intergenerational knowledge transfer.

Yemi Amu: Yemi Amu is the Founder and Director of Oko Urban Farms, Inc. In 2013 she established NYC’s first and only publicly accessible outdoor aquaponics farm – The Oko Farms Aquaponics Farm and Education Center. She directs all of Oko Farms’ programs including education, design/build projects and community related activities. Yemi is one of NYC’s leading aquaponics experts and is a committed educator. Over the past decade, she has facilitated the creation and maintenance of over 20 edible spaces throughout NYC; created and implemented various culinary, nutrition and gardening programs for both youth and adults; and promotes aquaponics as a tool for environmental awareness and stewardship. Yemi has a M.A. in Health and Nutrition Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. In 2021, Yemi became part of the inaugural cohort of the Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab created by Theaster Gates and Prada.

This 6-week class takes a deep dive into the history, science, and practice of aquaponics - a unique ecosystem approach to farming.

Participants will gain insights into the aquaponics ecosystem, its significance in enhancing food security, and its role in promoting environmental stewardship.

PROGRAM GOALS:

Oko Farms strives to ensure participants exit our program with a strong foundation in Aquaponics System operation and design. The program emphasizes aquaponics as a natural ecosystem and permaculture applications. Participants will leave with the skills to develop and maintain sustainable aquaponics operations of various sizes, along with the capacity to engage the public on diverse topics relating to aquaponics, fish welfare, and ecosystem sustainability.

Workshop Details

Dates: Wednesdays (August 27 to Oct 29, 2025)

Time: 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM EST

1. Intro to Aquaponics (8/27)

2. Microbes + Nitrogen Cycle in AP (9/3)

3. Water Quality Parameters (9/17)

4. Fish Management and Welfare (10/1)

5. Plant Cultivation in AP (10/15)

6. Aquaponics Hardware + Design (10/29)

About the Facilitators

Sasha Fishman is a sculptor and researcher based in New York. Working with materials such as hagfish slime, algae, and cicada shells, Sasha’s work investigates marine biomaterial extraction, toxicology and genetic engineering as points for critical analysis and mechanisms for sculpting.

Abigail Regner is a ceramic artist and educator based in Manhattan, New York. She earned her BFA in Ceramics from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 2019. For the past six years, she has led workshops in a variety of specialized ceramic techniques—including large scale hand building and wheel throwing, nerikomi, and lustre firing—at studios across New York City.

Oko Farms’ mission is to promote aquaponics as an ecological farming method that mitigates the impact of climate change and increases food security for urban residents while demystifying aquaponics through awareness and education.

C is for Compassion

Compassion is the courage to stay tender in a world that tries to numb us. In this session, we explore compassion as both balm and boundary, noticing how it moves through the body and shapes connection. Plants guide us toward softening without collapse, openness without overwhelm. Together, we will share plant allies that nurture the heart, explore embodied practices, and reflect on how to extend compassion inward and outward.

Each month, we explore two plant friends,  one letter of the alphabet, one emotion, and one somatic practice to reconnect. From Acceptance to Zeal, we listen for the ways our bodies speak, and remember how plants have always connected us through feeling, healing, and change.

This isn’t about fixing or overcoming ourselves.
It’s about learning how to stay with what’s here, with a bit more curiosity and compassion.

Each gathering includes:
✨ one emotion as a guide
✨ plant allies to steady and nourish
✨ a somatic practice to rest, release, or reclaim
✨ a ritual or reflection to carry into your month

This space welcomes both new and experienced plant practitioners.
You don’t need to have it figured out.
Your body is welcome. Your questions are welcome.
Your healing—complex, layered, and real—is welcome.

We begin in August with the letter A for acceptance.

Together, we explore:
🌿 How does this emotion live in my body, and what might it be trying to teach me?

🌿 What plants have supported people through this feeling across time and place?

🌿 What can this plant teach me about being in right relationship—with myself, with others, and with the planet?

🌿 How can I respond with more connection, care, and choice?

This 6-week class takes a deep dive into the history, science, and practice of aquaponics - a unique ecosystem approach to farming.

Participants will gain insights into the aquaponics ecosystem, its significance in enhancing food security, and its role in promoting environmental stewardship.

PROGRAM GOALS:

Oko Farms strives to ensure participants exit our program with a strong foundation in Aquaponics System operation and design. The program emphasizes aquaponics as a natural ecosystem and permaculture applications. Participants will leave with the skills to develop and maintain sustainable aquaponics operations of various sizes, along with the capacity to engage the public on diverse topics relating to aquaponics, fish welfare, and ecosystem sustainability.

Workshop Details

Dates: Wednesdays (August 27 to Oct 29, 2025)

Time: 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM EST

1. Intro to Aquaponics (8/27)

2. Microbes + Nitrogen Cycle in AP (9/3)

3. Water Quality Parameters (9/17)

4. Fish Management and Welfare (10/1)

5. Plant Cultivation in AP (10/15)

6. Aquaponics Hardware + Design (10/29)

This 6-week class takes a deep dive into the history, science, and practice of aquaponics - a unique ecosystem approach to farming.

Participants will gain insights into the aquaponics ecosystem, its significance in enhancing food security, and its role in promoting environmental stewardship.

PROGRAM GOALS:

Oko Farms strives to ensure participants exit our program with a strong foundation in Aquaponics System operation and design. The program emphasizes aquaponics as a natural ecosystem and permaculture applications. Participants will leave with the skills to develop and maintain sustainable aquaponics operations of various sizes, along with the capacity to engage the public on diverse topics relating to aquaponics, fish welfare, and ecosystem sustainability.

Workshop Details

Dates: Wednesdays (August 27 to Oct 29, 2025)

Time: 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM EST

1. Intro to Aquaponics (8/27)

2. Microbes + Nitrogen Cycle in AP (9/3)

3. Water Quality Parameters (9/17)

4. Fish Management and Welfare (10/1)

5. Plant Cultivation in AP (10/15)

6. Aquaponics Hardware + Design (10/29)

B is for Burnout

Burnout is both a wound and a messenger, showing us where care is missing. In this session, we explore burnout as both personal and collective, noticing how it who we are to ourselves and each other.. Together, we will meet restorative plant allies, practice somatic tools for replenishment, and reflect on how to rebuild energy with gentleness and care.

Each month, we explore two plant friends,  one letter of the alphabet, one emotion, and one somatic practice to reconnect. From Acceptance to Zeal, we listen for the ways our bodies speak, and remember how plants have always connected us through feeling, healing, and change.

This isn’t about fixing or overcoming ourselves.
It’s about learning how to stay with what’s here, with a bit more curiosity and compassion.

Each gathering includes:
✨ one emotion as a guide
✨ plant allies to steady and nourish
✨ a somatic practice to rest, release, or reclaim
✨ a ritual or reflection to carry into your month

This space welcomes both new and experienced plant practitioners.
You don’t need to have it figured out.
Your body is welcome. Your questions are welcome.
Your healing—complex, layered, and real—is welcome.

We begin in August with the letter A for acceptance.

Together, we explore:
🌿 How does this emotion live in my body, and what might it be trying to teach me?

🌿 What plants have supported people through this feeling across time and place?

🌿 What can this plant teach me about being in right relationship—with myself, with others, and with the planet?

🌿 How can I respond with more connection, care, and choice?

This 6-week class takes a deep dive into the history, science, and practice of aquaponics - a unique ecosystem approach to farming.

Participants will gain insights into the aquaponics ecosystem, its significance in enhancing food security, and its role in promoting environmental stewardship.

PROGRAM GOALS:

Oko Farms strives to ensure participants exit our program with a strong foundation in Aquaponics System operation and design. The program emphasizes aquaponics as a natural ecosystem and permaculture applications. Participants will leave with the skills to develop and maintain sustainable aquaponics operations of various sizes, along with the capacity to engage the public on diverse topics relating to aquaponics, fish welfare, and ecosystem sustainability.

Workshop Details

Dates: Wednesdays (August 27 to Oct 29, 2025)

Time: 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM EST

1. Intro to Aquaponics (8/27)

2. Microbes + Nitrogen Cycle in AP (9/3)

3. Water Quality Parameters (9/17)

4. Fish Management and Welfare (10/1)

5. Plant Cultivation in AP (10/15)

6. Aquaponics Hardware + Design (10/29)

In a world that pulls us toward disconnection, we’re practicing how to return—to ourselves, to each other, and to the earth.

Whether you're just beginning to explore plants, or you’ve long moved with their medicine...
Whether your body feels distant or deeply known
This space meets you right where you are.

Each month, we explore two plant friends,  one letter of the alphabet, one emotion, and one somatic practice to reconnect. From Acceptance to Zeal, we listen for the ways our bodies speak, and remember how plants have always connected us through feeling, healing, and change.

This isn’t about fixing or overcoming ourselves.
It’s about learning how to stay with what’s here, with a bit more curiosity and compassion.

Each gathering includes:
✨ one emotion as a guide
✨ plant allies to steady and nourish
✨ a somatic practice to rest, release, or reclaim
✨ a ritual or reflection to carry into your month

This space welcomes both new and experienced plant practitioners.
You don’t need to have it figured out.
Your body is welcome. Your questions are welcome.
Your healing—complex, layered, and real—is welcome.

We begin in August with the letter A for acceptance.

Together, we explore:
🌿 How does this emotion live in my body, and what might it be trying to teach me?

🌿 What plants have supported people through this feeling across time and place?

🌿 What can this plant teach me about being in right relationship—with myself, with others, and with the planet?

🌿 How can I respond with more connection, care, and choice?