Building Eden Farms was born from the belief that land can heal, teach, and bring people home to one another. Founded by Amanda Armenteros, steward of Peekskill Regeneration Farm, the organization is rooted in the understanding that food is more than nourishment—it is relationship, responsibility, and remembrance.

Amanda’s path into farming began through a summer apprenticeship with the Ecological Citizens Project on a two-acre regenerative farm. There, she learned to grow food with intention, honoring soil health, biodiversity, and the sacred reciprocity between people and the earth. What started as hands in the soil became a calling: not only to cultivate crops, but to cultivate belonging, resilience, and care through land stewardship.

Now in her third year of stewarding Peekskill Regeneration Farm, Amanda founded Building Eden Farms to carry this vision forward. The nonprofit tends to every stage of the growing cycle—from seed starting to harvest—while also nurturing something just as vital: people. Through youth apprenticeships, school partnerships, educational programming, and free public gatherings, the farm has become a living classroom and a gathering ground for the community.

At Building Eden Farms, growing food is an act of love and liberation. By creating local food gardens and empowering the next generation of land stewards, the work moves Peekskill toward a future of food sovereignty—where the land is cared for collectively, nourishment is shared freely, and the community grows together.