Nikoll Suset Vogas Reynoso: Organic Farmer / Master Fermenter / Teacher / heart sister

@pick.lenik

www.instagram.com/pick.lenik/

The scene:

We are in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, harvesting arugula seeds, in Nikoll’s gorgeous oasis garden. It is toasty and humid and breezy. We are brandishing garden shears, cutting the seed stalks to dry in a hand-built dryer with screen trays. Nikoll takes care of the garden and property in exchange for her very cute home, where she also makes a variety of fermented products with vegetables grown in her garden. I’m obsessed with her Kimchi, pesto, fermented fruit kefirs, and baba ghanoush - you can buy these and her veggies and herbs at the weekly local farmer’s market from her business Pickle Nik. Join us in the garden as we wind our way through the rows of Nikoll’s life passion.

Highlights:

• Nikoll is originally from Guadalajara. She has lived in Todos Santos, BCS for 7 years
• She came to Todos Santos to do her agriculture internship in biodiverse organic farming
• The Mexican government school teaching Agricologia (organic farming) as a career is called Sagarpa, in Texcoco outside Mexico City
• Todos Santos is an oasis in the desert of Baja, where a lot of water runs down from the mountains
• The soil here is very rich due to the minerals brought in by the arroyo (river)
• The biodiversity in her garden includes insects, frogs, and land crabs
• The climate here changes quickly - from hot to cold to warm to cold
• Most passionate about: nature…just being in nature in any way, nurturing ecosystems, protecting environments
• This land was transformed from a sugar cane crop, then wasn’t used (rested, which is good for soil to replenish with nutrients), then got taken over by an invasive grass that dries and becomes a fire hazard
• Having a garden creates biodiversity by attracting pollinators and other animals
• The length of time it takes to enrich soil depends on weather, temperature, water, compost, animal presence, past chemical usage, etc…
• Everything grown in the garden goes to use - if the veggies don’t sell, they are fermented or made into sauces, etc.
• You don’t have to have your own land to be a farmer - you can work someone else’s land
• Helpful traits: stubbornness, energy, excitement. Unhelpful traits: stubbornness (hah!), impatience
• Nikoll is able to live rent-free and have free veggies in exchange for running the garden
• If everyone grows different things, everyone benefits from many farmers
• Nikoll volunteered at a co-op farm on Vancouver Island in Canada called Amara, run by all women, who split the work at the farm and farmer’s market
• Nikoll trades for some of her life expenses (physical therapy, swim lessons) with her farm-grown/made goods
• Advice to her younger self: start sooner (aka go for it!)
• We talk about how our judgments of others are actually a symptom of a problem we are creating within ourselves
• Nikoll asks me what advice I would give to others from my viewpoint now in my life journey

A taste:

“Always try to get everything as local as you can. That is the healthiest thing you can do for your body, for your community, for the planet. It has less carbon footprint. Even though sometimes it’s not the most organic thing…as local as you can get is always going to be better than having something shipped…from Europe, that’s in a plastic container… Sometimes you don’t even know how it’s actually grown… Or where does it come from, or how do they treat their workers? When you’re supporting local, you’re getting to know your community…you’re supporting the people you live with.”