Paqarina means 'dawn' or 'beginning' in Quechua, the indigenous language of the Andean people. While our ideas may have inspiration from distant lands, we hope that our ventures will instill in other Akron residents an awareness of their impact on and interaction with the environment. We try to be exemplar stewards of the land in both our gardening practices and in our art.

Karmi James has been traveling across the Americas for the past twelve years, from large cities like Bogota, Colombia and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to tiny towns and indigenous villages in between. While the travels were always deemed as a means "self-education," Karmi has been fortunate to learn many arts from a diverse array of interesting characters. In 2001, she learned to "pass a hat" for friends who juggled on street corners, in markets and small bars. In The Caribbean of Colombia, she started making jewelry with found natural objects after hearing the suggestion from a stranger in a market. In Panama, she baked bread for an entire island with the help of only one other person. Later, she entered circus school and studied arial acrobatics and juggling with some of the finest in the world. Throughout her travels, she always brought along her cello and was fortunate to learn music styles from Peruvian huaynos to Brazilian sambas. She taught at music schools and conservatories in Colombia, Peru and Brazil and played, as a guest artist, with the Symphony Orchestra of Cuzco, Peru. In 2009, Karmi graduated summa cum laude from Kent State University with a double major in Music Education and Cello Performance. Currently, she teaches private lessons and performs independently around Northeast Ohio. After growing an immense garden in 2010, Karmi started reading and taking classes on urban farming, permaculture, and sustainable methods or growing food. Karmi still makes jewelry and new to this year, is inaugurating Paqarina Urban Farm, together with Jeff Boni.

Jeff Boni has long since been an advocate of recreational access to parks and private lands in Northeast Ohio, so it only seems natural that he is now expanding his horizons to sustainable urban farming in one of Akron's most neglected neighborhoods. Jeff is an avid rock climber, mountain biker and swimmer. Anywhere he goes, he tries to find fun and constructive ways of spending his time outdoors. He spent several years working with troubled youth, providing them with recreational therapy through backpacking, camping and climbing in Florida, West Virginia, Texas and several other states. Jeff is currently the Vice-President of the Northeast Ohio Climbers Coalition and is hoping to gain rock climbing access in surrounding parks. Since the year 1999, Jeff has published an original periodical called the Ruff Guide chockfull of great info on parks, trails, edible wild food and other random humor. Jeff is also the one that you will find running a chainsaw or swinging a machete on Paqarina Farm!

Use the tabs above to learn more about our urban farm, see Karmi's jewelry, find out about our upcoming events that we are involved in or browse some of our photos. We hope that you'll visit us at 9 Ira this season!