DEAN JACKSON

These photos are of my overwinter practice with peppers. I’ve grown food plants overwinter for many years now. I’d say I’m now solidly leaving the beginner stage and entering an intermediate level of knowledge with overwintering. That said, this is the first time I’ve attempted overwintering a summer crop inside. Apparently peppers will survive and thrive if I can keep them alive! I brought the plants inside really late. Of the three plants, the middle one seems like the strongest. Maybe just because it still has leaves. It has been interesting to watch the leaves. They were yellow when I brought the plant inside. It looks like a few may be working toward green again. I can’t tell if that’s what’s really happening or just what I really wish is happening. Lol. I hope they will survive. One seems like it may not, but there’s still living stems so fingers crossed.

The plants have bottom heat and as I understand it, that will go a long way towards keeping them alive. I cut off all the dead or dying parts, and then pruned them all a bit differently - from barely any cuts to a radical reduction down to just three main stems. My guess is that the more radical pruning will end up being the strongest plant since there’s less above ground to take care of. We’ll see. I think they will stay relatively dormant until spring? This is definitely a practice of experimentation.

Practice

Family Style

Peppers love to be pampered
◦first flower*pruning of the pepper/leaves
◦Overwintering practice: bringing plants inside for the winter
⁃Curiosity
⁃Observation
⁃Hope


How to build communities of urban agriculture.
◦ learning through failure and disappointments and grief and practice and:
◦ family style
◦ whose land? where does our energy go?
◦ yt people not helping/
◦ Black / Indigenous


Black mycelium project
◦ family style
◦ underground


Big Smile
◦ thank you. It's a practice


Letting poppys grow where they want to be
◦ family style


Spinach for the winter (this might have been last year/first time we met)
◦ Over Wintering. Definitely a practice

Family Style.

Dean Jackson (they/them) is a US based urban farmer, food sovereignty practitioner, community organizer, and Black liberation worker. They come to their work with a deep respect and reverence for the land and the interconnectedness of relations that the land supports. They seek to inspire abundance in thoughts and action to counter myths of scarcity. Their most recent work involved founding and growing the neighborhood community organization Hilltop Urban Gardens from a garden in their front yard to a 12-site, 1/2 million dollar organization. Dean also served on the leadership team of National Black Food and Justice Alliance working on their Black Land and Power Campaign. They bring heart and spirit to their work while providing technical skills and guidance to advance ideas and vision into successful projects.

Instagram: @qtpocfarmer ↗