Interviews From the Field: Nico Schuessler
New Leaf's farmers are working together to harvest what has turned out to be our biggest season Roselle yet!
While we love Roselle for it's bright flowers and delicious tea, it's also an essential piece in providing employment during the Fall and Winter season at New Leaf. With this one crop, our partner Texas Roselle has created over 175 hours of dignified, fair-wage employment for our team of 5 refugee and immigrant farmers.
We spoke with Nico Schuessler, an experienced immigrant farmer from Venezuela who joined New Leaf's team to lead the Roselle harvest this season.
Tell us a little about your background. What brought you to farming?
I was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela.
I attended school in the city and during the summer I would live with my dad at his coffee farm, in the Venezuelan Andes. He focused on sustainable and organic farming practices, always using ecologically sound methods. The farm was home to more than a dozen bird species, including toucans and macaws, the roar of howling monkeys would wake us up in the mornings and the coffee grew under the canopies of thousands of hundred year old Bucares. It was there where I developed a deep love and connection to the earth, there I came to appreciate all the gifts it offers us, and there I learned to live in harmony with the ecosystem. The Venezuelan government seized our farm in 2010, and by then Caracas had become one of the most dangerous cities in the world. It was then, at 22, that I came to Austin to build a new life.
How did you get connected with New Leaf?
I regularly volunteer for NGOs, non-profits and organizations that champion social causes. I find that it’s a way of becoming engaged with the community and meeting people who have a similar vision. When I learned that New Leaf was hosting volunteers, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to connect with the earth, and my roots.
I began volunteering in February. In May, Matt Simon, the Farm Director, asked me to help him build the new chicken coop. I am now assisting the New Leaf team with the roselle harvest, which has been plenty bountiful thanks to all the rain Central Texas received these past months.
Do you have a favorite memory so far as New Leaf's roselle team leader?
Every day is unique. I work alongside a team of people from many regions of the planet. We speak different languages and have our own unique cultural customs, which makes for some hilarious interactions when we get to tackling the day’s challenges. At noon, when we get out our lunchboxes, you can see and smell the cultural melting pot, every one of us eating a dish which reminds us of our homeland or takes us back to our childhood in another country. Different as we are, at the end of the day we all laugh and smile the same. We all have in common the desire to improve and provide a better future for ourselves, our families and communities. I know that many years from now I will look back to this harvest as one of the most memorable experiences of my life.
