Black History Month
Leah Berry talks about her family allotment project and the importance of farming as an occupation to Black history .
Black History Month
Feature
Celebrating Black history through occupation
Leah Berry talks about her family allotment project and the importance of farming as an occupation to Black history .
M
y name is Leah Berry . Those who know me , personally and professionally , know that I ’ m passionate about celebrating and advancing Black history . Those who follow me on Twitter ( now known as X ) may have glimpsed snippets of myself watering , digging and speaking about our family allotment .
In our second year of harvest , I can now take the time to reflect on the benefits this occupation has had for our three generations , the importance of farming to Black history and lessons learned on our mini patch of heaven .
We ’ re a close-knit family consisting of my retired parents , two sisters in their 20s , myself ( aged 33 ) and my husband and two children , aged 12 and 9 , added to the mix for fun . The allotment project was initially the idea of my middle sister in the midst of COVID-19 lockdowns in 2021 , as something to do should quarantines and social distancing begin to become the new normal .
Due to waiting lists we didn ’ t set foot on the plot till 2022 , however by this point we were no longer in lockdown and time was not as freely available , so we decided to start with a small plot and work together as a family .
Occupational therapists have been known for using horticulture as a therapeutic intervention for as long as we ’ ve been known to weave baskets . However , these interventions are often set within groups presenting around similar ages , with similar presenting issues , such as depression , neuro-rehab or social isolation .
I consider what this occupation might mean or contribute as a family-based intervention , especially within the given context of having familial roots from the Caribbean .
Jamaica is home to centuries of generations upon generations of farmers . Predating plantations and the slave trade , subsidiary farming was a common occupation primarily to feed Jamaican families and secondly to suffer trade .
My paternal grandfather came from a family of farmers ; great crops such as banana , sugar
Leah Berry cane and coco . On coming to the UK in the Windrush era , he could no longer grow the produce that he could back home .
His new life in the UK involved working intense shifts to bring in income . This didn ’ t leave time to engage in learning about the new English soil and what could be grown here .
It wasn ’ t untill his later retired years that he began to cultivate food again . I remember him bringing harvest to our house on a Saturday . I remember his greenhouse in his back garden decorated outside with hanging baskets of flowers .
A shift had occurred ; on returning to this occupation , it was no longer about survival or providing an income . Instead , this occupation was just for enjoyment .
In the same way , my family ’ s return to our farming roots has been something of spiritual journey , to use the CMOP-E model . We reconnected to generational occupations and each other .
Whatever hard work I put in I get some kind of result . And where results lack , we learn together as a family to do better next time ; an ongoing restorative process to commit together as a family on this project has allowed for the following benefits and outcomes :
• Providing my retired parents with increased routine and social contact .
• Connectedness with neighbouring gardeners keeping their allotments .
• Giving my parents a new role as teachers passing on their knowledge of the soil to their children and grandchildren .
• An increased amount of social contact between family members required to organise planting plans , watering schedules and harvesting distribution .
• Memories made and captured through
24 OTnews October 2023