Bringing together faith and a passion for farming.
The Falaha Center for Spiritual Agriculture was founded by Aysha Venjara in 2017.
Aysha began volunteering on local Hudson Valley farms and learning regenerative agricultural practices, including permaculture and biodynamics, in 2013. It so happened that her biodynamic studies at the Pfeiffer Center in Chestnut Ridge, NY, were just down the street from the Sufi mosque she attended since childhood. The link between these two fundamental aspects of life, faith and farming, became a topic of deep exploration and formed the start of an incredible journey.
In 2016, Aysha became the steward of a beautiful piece of land, 3.5 acres of a former biodynamic dairy farm, and a 1950’s barn, lovingly converted into a home by a designer and musician couple, Martin and Laura Schnur.
The Falaha Center was born out of a calling to both protect and share the gifts of the land and the home, most especially at a time when our connections to the earth, and one another, are under constant assault.
Through the Falaha Center, Aysha uses small but thriving farm enterprises, namely log-grown shiitake mushrooms, pastured eggs, and educational workshops, to fund a food pantry garden program, on-farm mentorship for youth groups, and woodland conservation activities.
Aysha is also a columnist for dirt magazine, a local Hudson Valley food and farming publication, and a facilitator for the Cornell Small Farms Program Outdoor Mushroom Course.
In arabic, the language of the Qur’an (Islamic holy book), falaha means to cleave, split; to cultivate the land. Quite poetically, it also means to thrive, prosper, be successful, lucky, or happy.