As aTaino- Palero, I have created this blog to share creative ideas regarding sustaining ourselves through a holistic relationship with Mother Earth. I also will explore the ongoing evolution within my ancestral traditions (Taino and Palo) as I see it. This blog will not embrace in any form or participate in any form in gossip and will hold the value of "principles over personality".
Corn shoots spring forth from our harvest of Corn that we offered to one of the Cemis that we work with. This Cemis we brought to our newly built greenhouse to continue to bring the blessings and the horticultural wisdom of the Taino Ancestors to our work with our greenhouse. All the fruits, vegetables, and herbs in the bowl we collected from our Conucos. A couple weeks later we notice these fresh green shoots emerging from the corn. What a beautiful response from the Cemis! We are always excited to see these types of manifestation because this illustrates the difference between fantasy and real spiritual work!
You can see the original offering before anything grew on this post: Walking on Conuco Hill
The seeds we planted are already emerging, and we will be following up with photos once the greenhouse is vibrantly green!
Here we explore a grove of trees at the top of the hill which all were planted as tiny bareroot saplings. This came out of our original garden which was known for its tomatoes and scallions! These bareroots are already up to 20' high and have formed a magical grove. We then walk down the hill to look at the watershed, discuss trees and water table levels, and how to care for the slope and watershed.
As many know, our Taino Ancestors had mounded gardens called Conucos. We also know that this was also a term utilized by our enslaved African Ancestors to refer to their personal gardens. These personal gardens enabled them to have a small income stream in spite of their enslaved condition. In both cases Conucos were about stability, resilience, and sustenance. We utilize the Taino mounded Conucos to create swales that also harvest rainwater. Here we share a walk through the Concuos that are growing corn, beans, various squash, tobacco, white sage, potatoes and black eyed peas. We begin the walk by discussing some black walnut trees that we had cut down, which had re-sprouted. The video, taken a few days ago, shows the subtle changes of fall approaching. We also take a look into the greenhouse to see how we are working with the Spirit within the context of this 'mundane structure.' We discuss the water harvesting function of the Conucos themselves. We will follow this post up with some videos showing some of the Conucos lower down the hill, which are in very different stages of their cycle.
