Seeds are time capsules. Memories are imprinted within each – the big storm that came through when nobody expected it, the tired hands that tended the parent plant, lovingly or hastily pruning and trellising. When that seed is grown out, it brings all of those memories to life from a year, 5 years, even hundreds of years ago. Seeds are our connection to the past and the future. Seeds are counting on us to try again, offering promises of security and nourishment that is time immemorial.

When you grow a crop to seed, you get to witness its entire life cycle and the legacy it leaves. The connection is powerful. Yet within production farming, especially under capitalism, many of us do not have the option to save seeds and take part in this process. Production farming stops the crop at the fruit stage for consumption and sale. Especially as farmworkers, we often do not have access to spots on the farm to save seeds, or even have the time or energy to try…but we want to! The skill and process of seed saving is a subject that many farmworkers have shared that they want to learn…so here it is!

Join us at our upcoming Free School teach-in where Amirah Mitchell of Sistah Seeds will lead us through the Basics of Seed Saving. Come prepared to learn about plant botany, characteristics and considerations across seed types (like wet seeds versus dry seeds), and how to incorporate seed saving into your season, whether it’s on your porch or on the farm. We will also hear from farmworkers, Alé Lomanto and Tiana Suazo, who are saving and re-matriating seeds, and discuss seed sovereignty on stolen land and as farmworkers with tenuous land access.

Register Now!

There will be time for Q&A and discussion so bring your questions!

Please note that Free School for Farmworkers sessions are a farmworker-only space.

*We define a farmworker as someone working on a farm they do not own, for or without pay, including interns, apprentices, cooperative workers and aspiring farmworkers. If you have questions about whether you are eligible to participate, please contact Anita Adalja at anita@notourfarm.org

Free School for Farmworkers strives to create pockets of opportunity to skill share, connect and learn about parts of agriculture that can be overlooked, forgotten or hoarded due to the nature of working on farms under capitalism.

Flyer designed by Richella Acosta