Indigo as Soil Remediation and Natural Dye in Puerto Rico

Earth Rising is proud to support Trama and Tres Vidas, two interconnected initiatives based in Aibonito Puerto Rico. Trama +Tres Vidas is a regenerative and educational farm where Tres Vidas  focuses on growing food with regenerative agriculture practices and Trama centers in reintroducing sustainable textiles and natural dyes in Puerto Rico. Together they promote food sovereignty, ecosystem restoration, and the revival of traditional artisan practices. 

This past year Trama +Tres Vidas has focused on the potential of indigo as a soil remediation strategy. Indigo is a nitrogen-fixing legume plant and has shown promising effects in improving nutrient poor soils on the farm. Beyond soil restoration, the project also focused on extracting indigo pigment, as well as educational workshops and events that connected more people with ancestral knowledge, promoted ecological stewardship, and encouraged conscious textile practices. Additionally, these workshops also presented to the community natural dyes as a sustainable alternative to the highly polluting synthetic dyes. Through research, workshops, and community outreach, this project contributed to addressing Puerto Rico’s fragile food system, building climate resilience, and ensuring long term ecological and cultural benefits.

Specifically, Trama +Tres Vidas conducted extensive research on the viability of indigo and the potential effects of indigo on social remediation. They shared this research, as well as first hand experience with indigo pigment processing with workshop participants. They promoted and shared this knowledge through a range of events at Trama+Tres Vidas. These events included like the annual open house, a part of the historic Flower Festival in Aibonito, which featured a cotton and indigo processing workshop as well as tours of the farm. The farm has also been sharing their handspun cotton yarn with textile enthusiasts. 

The process of growing and producing local indigo is deeply complex, especially when using traditional techniques rooted in responsible resource management and ecological care. Despite the difficulty, Trama+Tres Vidas remains committed to these methods because they offer meaningful alternatives to the systems of pollution and exploitation that dominate our world today. Upholding them is a way of honoring the land and resisting the logic of disposability. To affirm these techniques is to reaffirm the political stance and identity of Trama+Tres Vidas as an effort rooted in the land and community.

Earth Rising is honored to support their work. Read more about Trama +Tres Vidas here.