Activities
Beyond the formal sessions, Synergia 2026 offers a range of participatory activities woven throughout the three days.
Final activity schedule will be confirmed closer to the event.
Building Erosion Control Structures
Jan-Willem Jansens, Ecotone Landscape Planning
Hands-on restoration work on the ranch lands with Jan-Willem Jansens, including building erosion control structures from ecologically harvested piñon-juniper materials and the Shram Dan (gift of labor) sessions. A direct opportunity to learn and contribute to regenerative land stewardship.
Biochar in Practice
James Skeet, Spirit Farm · David Sundberg, Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute
In these two two-hour sessions — led by James Skeet on Friday and David Sundberg (Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute) on Saturday — participants will learn how to make Biochar at a small farm scale. Various barrels for burning will be used, and the principles behind why Biochar is useful for composting and regenerating soils will be uncovered.
James Skeet, Spirit Farm · Friday · 3:00–5:00 pm
David Sundberg · Saturday · 3:00–5:00 pm
Herbal Preparations
Joyce Skeet, Spirit Farm
Following her talk on Friday, Joyce Skeet takes us on a two-hour practical session making Herbal Preparations with native herbs. This hands-on workshop provides the experience to make herbal salves, transforming herbal infused oils into soothing, natural healing salves. This experience will also provide you with the understanding to make your own herbal tinctures. We will also provide a demonstration to make nutritional syrups using local growing plants.
Joyce Skeet, Spirit Farm · Saturday · 3:00–5:00 pm
Movement and Metaphor, Body as Earth
Kristin Swiat · Stonegate Farm, Balmville, NY
Using earth-based metaphor and imagery as a source of our movement explorations can help us to inhabit our bodies more fully and move more freely. We will use our time together to move, to rest, to get out of our heads and into our bodies but also to integrate what we have learned and experienced at the conference using a variety of methods including somatic movement, embodied journaling and Authentic Movement.
Somatic movement is an approach of listening to your body's sensations and cues, needs and desires, moving from the inside out based on feeling rather than aesthetic consideration.
We will begin with a gentle warm up and movement meditation, moving into an Authentic Movement practice. This practice is done in pairs, involving movement with eyes closed while being observed by a neutral witness before alternating roles. Discussion afterwards around your experience as both the mover and the witness concludes a profound practice of being with yourself while also holding space for others.
These sessions are open to all bodies.
Friday, Saturday & Sunday · 3:00–5:00 pm
Kristin Swiat, originally from the Shawangunk Mountains area of New York State, is a performer, bodyworker, textile artist, and farmer based in Brooklyn. She has performed in works across Europe and New York since graduating with a BFA in dance from Juilliard in 2003, and has maintained a trauma-informed, massage-based bodywork practice since graduating from the Swedish Institute in 2010, incorporating Somatic Experiencing, Craniosacral Therapy, Focusing, and other embodied practices. Deeply influenced by a season spent in 2020 living and working on the farm at Synergia Ranch, she is currently the farm manager at Stonegate Farm in Balmville, NY. Her primary interest is exploring the spaces where art and healing connect.
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Historical Tour of Ranch Facilities
Synergia Ranch Hosts
A guided tour of the ranch's history, architecture, and decades of ecological and community experimentation. Learn about the unique story of Synergia Ranch and its place in regenerative land stewardship.
Thursday · 4:30–5:15 pm
Walk Through Arroyos and Orchard
Ranch Guides
Explore the living landscape of Synergia Ranch — walking the arroyos that channel seasonal water through the land, and through the working orchard that represents years of arid-land food cultivation.
Friday · 9:15–9:45 am
Botanical Walk
Mike Halverson
A guided botanical walk identifying native and cultivated plants in the ranch environment, with a focus on water-adapted species and land relationships.
Mike Halverson · Friday · 1:30–2:15 pm
Music Concert 'We Belong to the Land'
MoonShine · Nan Franzblau and Wind Coral
Saturday · 8:00–9:30 pm
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Poetry Session "Flow"
Dave Neita
Friday · 7:45–8:45 pm
David Neita is a celebrated lawyer, with expertise in human rights and is widely regarded as one of the most engaging and informative social justice practitioners in London. He is also a published spoken word poet who has performed and led poetry workshops for a range of groups. He is dedicated to the mission of advancing empowerment through poetry, politics and public service. Called to the Bar of England & Wales in 2000, David was a member of the legal team, which brought the largest group action claim in the UK on behalf of thousands of South African asbestos miners.
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