The following podcast is a deer media production.

Hey, it's Wendy.

And it's Jess and you're listening to the Food Heaven podcast.

Your online resource for delicious and nutritious living.

Today we have Leah Peniman on the podcast.

Leah is the co-director and project manager of the Soul Fire Project.

Leah also has over 20 years of experience farming both in the United States and abroad.

She also co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2011 with a mission to reclaim our inherent right to be

long to the earth and have agency in the food system as Black and Brown people.

Yeah, and I actually did her Black and Brown farming immersion retreat years ago.

I think I was part of the first retreat that she that she did at her farm and it was just the

best experience. It was the first time that I had done camping which was really interesting.

Yeah, I just had such a phenomenal time and we harvested and cooked the food that was grown

on her family's farm. I learned so much from her and thought it would be great to have her

on the podcast to talk about food and farming. Welcome to the podcast Leah. Thank you so much for

joining us today. Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. So tell us about how you first got into

growing food. Well, I have to give a shout out and credit to my grandmother, Brownie Lee McCullough

Smith, who despite being displaced by the Great Migration from her rural farm in North Carolina,

so the urban density of Boston still maintained this tiny little patch of strawberries and one

crab apple tree and she made jam every summer and I would help her out. So that was my first exposure

to growing things and has a, you know, that warm, wonderful place in my heart. So when I was old

enough to get a job and be paid for my labor, I got a job at a farm working at the food project in

...