Española Healing Foods Oasis
The Healing Foods Oasis is part of our vision
Beata Tsosie-Peña
to end all forms of violence against women, girls, and our Mother Earth.
It’s facilitating our reconnection to the plants, water, air, and all the elements.
founder of the Española Healing Foods Oasis
The Española Healing Foods Oasis (EHFO) project invites community members to transform a barren slope in downtown Española into an edible food garden utilizing traditional dry-land farming techniques and permaculture principles.
The garden, accessible to Española residents as well as the surrounding tri-cultural communities of the northern Río Grande Valley, will provide seasonal food, Native medicinal herbs and plants, accessible pathways, and aesthetic beauty while harvesting precious rainwater.
This multi-year project broke ground in 2016. In the decade that the garden has been open, it’s had a great positive impact on our community. A 2025 case study from the Landscape Architecture Foundation found that the EHFO —
- Uplifts future generations, with 90% of 20 surveyed volunteers and visitors agreeing that the Española Healing Foods Oasis helps care for the land, support the community, or teaches things that will benefit future generations.
- Provides hands-on education for approximately 40 to 70 community members each year through 4 to 6 workshops focused on bioremediation, water harvesting, seed sovereignty, and traditional plant medicine, deepening shared knowledge of culturally grounded ecological practices.
- Increases interest in growing food and Indigenous agriculture practices, with 77% of 22 of surveyed volunteers and visitors expressing motivation to learn more about growing food or medicinal plants and 73% expressing interest in traditional or Indigenous agricultural methods after visiting the garden.
- Reduces runoff up to 84% during a 10-year, 24-hour rainfall event (2.00 in) compared to the highly eroded baseline site condition, demonstrating performance and resilience in extreme rainfall events.
- Increases plant species diversity nearly 4 times compared to the adjacent reference site, as measured by the Simpson’s Diversity Index (0.919 vs. 0.237).
To visit the garden:
The EHFO is located behind the Española City Hall, on the slope leading down to Valdez Park. Parking is available at the Española Public Library/Lucero Center lot, or on Vietnam Veterans Memorial Road adjacent to the park. Please visit any time!
Also visit our Mycoremediation Resource Page