Despite the huge mural on the side of an adjacent house depicting a woman with green skin and hair, who looks out over the veggies, flowers, and solar array — many people driving by don’t even notice Oasis Farm & Fishery in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood.
For the series, “Sowing Soil with Soul” with Soul Pitt Media, Terina J Hicks visited its corner lot to see what’s growing there. She spoke with Tacumba Turner, the program manager at the farm.
Tacumba Turner: My full name is Ahmed Tacumba Turner Junior. I go by to Tacumba. I’ve been working here for 3 years.
The Oasis Farm & Fishery is a branch of the tree that is the Bible Center Church which has been around since 1956. So the initial pastor actually bought a lot of land that we’re now working on. In about 2010, I want to say, the Oasis Project was created, which is the nonprofit arm of the church, and shortly after that, this space began. [It was] revitalized from a vacant lot, initially like an outdoor classroom space, which you see here. And that was done through a collaboration with G-tech, now Grounded Strategies.
Then shortly after that, Pitt’s Katz Business School – We’re able to grant us a large sum of money to be able to put in a solar array and a bio shelter, which is a Chinese-style greenhouse.
And shortly after that, the decision was made to do aquaponics. So we have our catfish and a few varieties of basil. There’s some lettuce that we recently started.
Read more from our partners, The Allegheny Front.
This is the third installment of our four-part series, “Sowing Soil with Soul,” featuring Black urban farmers who grow food to sustain their communities.
Soul Pitt Media is an award-winning multi-media entity that serves the African-American population in Western Pennsylvania and surrounding communities.
Funding for the series comes from the Pittsburgh Media Partnership.
