Heriberto Santiago

Heriberto Santiago is an urban market gardener of Nuestras Raíces and the Tierra de Oportunidades Project. He farms the Ciudad Verde (City Green) Garden on the corner of Dwight and Pine Streets in Holyoke.

He has had a tremendous amount of experience in agriculture. He has been farming since he was 13 years old in various places like Puerto Rico, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey.

Along with agricultural work in Puerto Rico, Heriberto did metalworking and well digging. He worked on tobacco and sugarcane farms and had his own plots of land raising ajices dulces (Puerto Rican sweet peppers) and calabaza (pumpkins). He also raised many small animals like rabbits and chickens.

Heriberto is excited about the opportunity that the Tierra de Oportunidades Project is offering. He is excited to have the space to plant a larger amount of plants. A crop like cilantro can easily make about $1,000 in a season and the aji dulce peppers also produce well. Heriberto is selling the produce at the land's farm stand and throughout the city of Holyoke to a network of customers that he has established.