NY City College Voluntours build a container garden with Rivers & Birds
On June 4th a whirlwind of New York City college students blew into the village of Arroyo Seco to learn more about New Mexico culture while offering their services. They had just worked on organic farms near Santo Domingo Pueblo, Taos Pueblo and the Miranda Canyon area.
After hunkering down for the night at the Snowmansion, these 13 students along with their guides walked to Rivers & Birds the next morning to watch our award-winning Nuestras Acequias film, as well as the instructional Global Earth Buckets video. Then armed with drills and saws they constructed and planted six self watering tomato planters. In our yard, amidst the birdsong, there was a cacophony of drilling, sawing and hip hop music as students line danced to the beat of their NY raps. 
By noon they blew out of Arroyo Seco to head to the village of Chacon where they would work on another farm.
The container garden project was inspired by the film The Power of Community, a wonderful film that documents the organic gardening transformation Cuba went through after the Soviet Union collapsed and they were left without oil. During this time period your average Cuban lost 25 pounds. They had to quickly shift from an oil intensive sugar cane monoculture to organic vegetable farming to survive. Beside planting large vegetable farms, container gardening from balconies flourished as people learned to grow food to feed themselves.
If you are in the neighborhood, we invite you to come by to check out the luscious success of this project, thanks to the NYC Voluntours!
In the meantime we encourage you to watch The Power of Community. Cuba successfully transitioned from oil dependence to a more sustainable way of life. We can do it too. In the long run, it will be a healthier and saner way to be with our Earth.