Artists for Soup

10/14/2024

This past week, women worked for three days in a rural region of Nicargua in a workshop focused on: making natural insecticide 2) seed-saving strategies 3) dehydrating leaves for later consumption and 4) cooking up organic fungicide to combat some of the imbalances that come from rain inundation and imbalances in soil. These are some of the women who try to stay put in their communities and survive with their own courage and skill, despite climate change and the pressures of an imbalanced ecosystem. Sometimes their families have to immigrate in order to feed the family from work found in Costa Rica or the U.S. These are women and their families are planting a path forward despite many obstacles in Central American and in the U.S. Hoping for a world in 2025 where there are more opportunities and far less cruelty.

09/26/2024

Biointensive Method can sustain four times more plants per unit area. Growing back the soil and cultivating biodiverse food locally increases access and connection among community members.

09/25/2024

Some words from participants in different rural regions of Nicaragua pursuing small scale cultivation in food gardens using the biointensive method for the very first time:
"I am new to the world of vegetables. This year I managed to harvest 30 squash. I have Jamaica, amaranth, and carrots in my garden. What saddens me is that the rains have damaged many of my crops. They are plants that cannot withstand much water, which is why they are damaged a lot. This climate is super strange. It rains a lot. There are droughts. "
"I am currently harvesting carrots. I have already harvested 15 pounds of carrots and squash. Right now they are starting to bear fruit. I am very grateful for all that Mother Earth has given me in vegetables."
Biointensive method digs deep and builds back the soil. It has been used successfully in more than 150 countries for more than four decades and in some cases for much longer.
To learn more: https://artistsforsoup.org

09/24/2024

Allan J. Muñoz made this piece, “Lavanderas,” to add to a project he and I are doing where we collect visual art honoring rural and urban-dwelling women working. This painting shows women washing clothing in the river. The piece is 15 x 20 centimeters, acrylic on canvas.

09/23/2024

Jenny of Masiguito is 29 years old and she's rural promoter of agricultural innovation with women growing their own food. Jenny is a single mother and she's finishing her technical degree in agro-industry. And she saves and sell seed, grows and packages hibiscus tea, raises goats and sells their milk, and as of this year, she paints!

09/10/2024

It's hard to imagine this fact but December will be here before you know it and Artists for Soup will be looking for ways to keep doing what we're doing in rural and urban communities in Central America. Once people in the U.S. get through November, we'll return here to ask for your help with our work across borders.

Please click the blue link to see Artists for Soups new six minute video, CHINANDEGA FOOD GARDENS, https://youtu.be/jL0nP_JOjjo . This video shows what Artists for Soup can accomplish in receptive communities in just four months time. Chinandega, a rural region outside the city of León, Nicaragua, became more crowded after Hurricane Mitch in 1998 as families streamed in to resettle to escape flooding and wreckage. Not much has changed in these communities since 1998, in terms of harsh quality of life, but our a film shows how with just a small bit of support and monthly connection to agroecology teachers, families can turn small yards into food producing gardens.

Artists for Soup, a small non-profit organization, worked with other groups to share science-based methods for creating successful family food gardens in six...

09/06/2024

One way women in rural Nicaragua adapt to limited access to water is through planting in bags. Although this method does not allow for improvement in soil around the home, it creates extra biodiversity on the table. This season this method has been successful in producing tomatoes, squash, ginger, carrots and more.

08/26/2024

This year, Artists for Soup is using art to explore the theme of "Women in Agriculture."

This is another painting is by Lilliam Mayorga, a young Nicaraguan artists who was trained as a biologist but now works teaching art. Last year, Lilliam's painting drew a whole lot of bids before it sold in Artists for Soup's autumn online auction. Let's see what happens this year! This piece is in the traditional Nicaraguan primitivista style.

20 x 25 cm acrylic on canvas

08/19/2024

This year, Artists for Soup is using art to explore the theme of "Women in Agriculture."

This painting is by Lilliam Marorga, a young Nicaraguan artists who was trained as a biologist but now works teaching art. Last year, Lilliam's painting drew a whole lot of bids before it sold in Artists for Soup's autumn online auction. Let's see what happens this year! This piece is in the traditional Nicaraguan primitivista style.

20 x 25 cm acrylic on canvas