By Obiora Embry
Obiora Embry and his siblings were born to Afrocentric, artistic/creative, intelligent, forward-thinking, family- and community-minded, articulate, well-read, revolutionary, and loving parents: Deborah [DeBora] Mapp-Embry (the second youngest of eight) and James Embry (the youngest of three). Both parents have familial farms where they spent time during the summers of their youth helping to harvest, tend to the animals, and do other farming tasks.
Martin Acres, in southwestern Kentucky, is my maternal family farm. My grandmother, the late Viola Martin Mapp was born and raised there, and my mother, DeBora Mapp, spent her summers there when she was young. Portions of the land that now comprise Martin Acres were bought initially by my great-great-great grandfather, Lourenza Martin (born in 1833), and sold (possibly after his death). My great-grandfather, Herbert Martin, re-purchased the land that his grandfather had owned, so the familial vibrations of this land go back eight generations.
I have been going to this ancestral land since 1980 and in December 2012, my twin brother, Irucka and I decided to inquire about leasing two acres of our home away from home to grow food. In 2013 when we first stepped onto the two acres - now called Getting Back to Nature @ Martin Acres - that were selected for us to create an edible forest garden, we were dismayed by the dreariness of the land on that mid-March morning. We saw two large brush piles full of dead trees, barren soil, and dying trees along the perimeter. Even though it was close to the Vernal Equinox, we didn’t see any signs of healthy flora, not even from the Eastern Red Cedars that were abundant in the southern forest.
One tree in the southwestern forest stood out. It looked like it was dying and looked worse than the other trees in that area. Several family members told us that we should cut it down because it was dead. We inquired with our now-deceased great-uncle, Howitt Martin, about other locations for our edible forest garden, but none of them looked better than the initial hand that we were dealt, so we decided to make do with what we had and turn lemons into lemonade (even though we both
like the taste of lemons). We were grateful for an opportunity to grow food on our beloved Martin Acres.
When I started to grow food as an adult in the early 2000s, I took a cue from my sister, Ayōdele Thomas, who talked affectionately with our house plants. Growing up I thought it was strange, but as I started to become spiritual, it made sense to me. Before leaving our two acres for the weekend (Martin Acres was a six-hour drive for me at the time), I would say to the flora “I love you,” “keep growing,” and would also refer to them as “my babies.”
I took a photograph of the western forest in November 2013. While working near the
southwestern forest in November 2015, I noticed that the trees there were growing again! I grabbed my camera and tried to recreate as best as I could the image I took two years prior. It was apparent to Irucka and me that the tree that was “dead,” was coming back to life and had grown taller and wider!
Family members and others who saw the images asked what we did to those trees. Neither Irucka nor I had physically touched those trees, but we felt the positive vibrations and love that we were putting into our two acres helped the flora find the strength within to reclaim their health and wellness. Not only were the trees healing themselves on our two acres, but our great-uncle Howitt told Irucka that quail had returned to Martin Acres after being gone for at least 40 years. Not only were the trees thriving from positivity and love, but the fauna too!
Obiora Embry is a multi-talented, creative, and intelligent entrepreneur with a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering. Obiora is a food grower, forager, photographer (Nature, landscape, event, real estate, etc.), computer developer (Web sites and applications, systems, utilities, desktop applications), speaker/instructor (workshops, classes, presentations, etc.), writer (self-published author, poet, tutorial, essay, fiction, non-fiction, etc.), consultant, and more.
Comments