Browse Items (385 total)

  • Collection: Cultural Exchange - Puerto Rico Sustainable Disaster Relief

The garden beds at Tainasoy Apiario are raised beds with irrigation ditches fed by a rainwater catchment system. The beds are made on contour for soil stability and to help prevent erosion, as well as for water management. These beds are for annual…

A hand built gazebo with hammocks for resting in between working, learning and sharing.

A flower in the ginger family in bloom at the top of a 10’+ stalk.

Seed Brigade volunteers were from around the world. At the brigade, Raíces crew members met volunteers from San Juan, Santurce, Brooklyn, Maine, Massachusettes, Israel, Germany and beyond. The seed relief work was done thanks to many helping hands…

Temporary goat cage constructed out of recycled/upcycled pallets after Hurricane María

The greenhouse at Finca Mi Casa was cleaned up and planted immediately after Hurricane María hit the island of Puerto Rico. Four months later, when the Raíces crew visited the farm, there were vegetables and seeds ready for harvest. The roof of the…

The Juntos Together Coalition, led by Puerto Rican Action Board Director José Montes, and made up of a compendium of groups from Central New Jersey, working together to provide disaster relief support, provided a grant to Plenitud PR for the…

The Plenitud PR Greenhouse was already in production when we arrived in January. The greenhouse itself was fixed after the donation of funds by Juntos Together, a coalition of Central NJ relief organizations working to support sustainable relief and…

The garden beds at Plenitud PR are filled with life and biodiversity, which in turn helps with natural pest control. Lizards hang out on the edge of the garden beds to sun themselves and wait for insects.

The greenhouse at Finca Mi Casa in Camuy, Puerto Rico was damaged by Hurricane María. This greenhouse, when functional, is used for water and weed control, to grow crops that are difficult to grow in the fields such as lettuce and tomatoes. The…

Despite losing the plastic roof and the door to the screened in greenhouse, Don Luis Soto of Finca Mi Casa resumed annual crop production inside his greenhouse almost immediately after Hurricane Maria passed. When the Raíces crew visited in January…

Greens and herbs growing in the greenhouse at Plenitud PR. Tender annuals and seedlings are grown in the greenhouse in order to extend the season through water control. The young seedlings and the greens are protected from driving rains and given…

While visiting Finca Mi Casa, Raíces crew members assessed the remaining damage and needs on the farm and decided to fund the repair of the greenhouse, which is essential to the growing and seed saving operations at Finca Mi Casa.

A variety of seedlings sprouting in trays in the greenhouse at Plenitud PR. The greenhouse was heavily damaged by Hurricane María, with repairs happening from the end of December to the beginning of January, thanks to a grant received by the Juntos…

The greenhouse at Plenitud PR was still under construction for reparations from Hurricane María when the Raíces crew visited in January 2018. However, the repairs had begun as soon as the grant announcement from Juntos Together Disaster Relief…

Kale, scallions, cilantro, parsley, lettuce, mizuna, arugula, chives and more were already growing in the greenhouse just weeks after repairs had begun in December 2017, and greens and herbs were already mature and being harvested when the Raíces…

Gandules, or pigeon peas, growing on trellises in the mountains of San Sebastian.

Puerto Rico National Guard service members on guard at the site of the draining of Lake Guajataca.

At Finca Mi Casa, Don Luis Soto only uses hand tools for food production. This helps build the soil instead of destroy and degrade it, protects the life within the soil and keeps the use of fossil fuels on the farm to a minimum.

Service learning program participants Darian Kolb, Sunita Dharod and Mackenna Crisally from St. Thomas University’s VISIONS program gaining hands on experience by volunteering in the garden as they learn about permaculture and agroecology principles.

A common sight throughout the island, in every municipality, is dangling electric wires and crooked or snapped poles.

Plenitud PR intern Bri Treppeda harvesting patchouli leaves to use as mulch on adjoining growing rows.

Rebekah Sánchez, a resident and team member at Plenitud PR, harvesting purslane from the greenhouse garden bed. Purslane is often thought to be a weed, but when allowed to grow and harvested for food, it is an extremely nutritious and delicious…
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