How A Seed Hub Can Work
Interview with Farmer Ama of *Nama Farm* located in Abanake Territory/Vermont Farmer Ama is cultivating a thriving CGC seed hub!
By Mary K
April 13th, 2021
As a second year seed hub, I’ve been curious about how others are doing it. Last year I was fortunate to start a friendship with a Shoshone Paiute Hopi woman who led a community garden effort in the midst of the months-long lockdown. She distributed all of the seeds we gave her. This year I wondered about the processes others have been developing.
How do we distribute the seeds? There are a lot of different models, from seed libraries to seed swaps, to assembled seeds in mutual aid boxes.
Farmer Ama has been sharing some very inspiring posts and tagging #CoopGardens in the collective network—we LOVE it when this happens! One such post involved a beautifully labeled set of small seed envelopes… which evolved quickly to seed repackers sharing quiche! Then she posted about sizable, (masked and spaced) gatherings at a beautiful farmhouse nestled in fertile green Vermont.
One of our very first Commissioners, Ama’s insight and inspiration did much to guide the Cooperative Gardens Commission in the early phases. She offers this idea for CGC to keep going: “We need Seed Apprentices, younger people 20-30, working together with middle aged folks, and should in all committees involve Seedkeeping Elders (to keep us honest).”
For example, one of the Elders in her Vermont community is a seedsaver who is really rigorous about not using Hybrids, and proper crop separation for seed saving. Ama wants to engage young adults (and teens) to listen to our wise elders and learn why it’s important to keep seeds open pollinated (OP) and to save our own seed.
She points out that “If there should be a massive disaster, like a major hurricane that hits a major seed supplier… [we need to be prepared] we need to have regional seed & trade agreements.” This would enable diversified distribution through small operations run by farmers & gardeners, developing Regional Seed Production Strategies to benefit everyone.
Thinking ahead on multiple levels she’s “really interested in Medicinals… things that can help us.” The Coronavirus pandemic has affected about 1 percent of our total population, but humans have seen far worse, and not all that long ago…. the Black Plague impacted about 10 percent of people living at that time.
“If s**t hits the fan again, like something with a 10 percent fatality vs 1 percent… organizations like the CGC could actually be part of saving people's lives and foodways.”
Considering how we are situated now, and how we hope to continue growing, we could be evolving our seed hubs into the primary “sources of seed in each state,” region by region.
In order to see her idea through to its next phase this year, Ama looked for volunteers from organizations with some level of social awareness. She called upon the organization Showing Up for Racial Justice or SURJ, and got the best help. "They sent me young people, as well as mother/daughter and father/son teams to help repack bulk seeds and make the job lighter." Having a Politics of understanding, a future sense was critical to cultivating the seed hub they now have. She was looking for “People who’re not binary thinkers…” who pack seeds and dream aloud about a “viable future where human beings want to live and work together.”
Her seed hub is trying to cultivate youth who know how to share and listen to Elders and Indigenous people. Ama’s advice is to “look for the treasures within local schools and public libraries--incredible lives of the mind are hidden there.” She went on to say she looked for people at places like a progressive local bookstore, or at showings of radical or progressive films. [looking for people who demonstrated] open Politics, open Minds, open Hearts. She suggests folx, “Look for people who recognize and go to Indigenous Peoples activities, these family events are good places to meet good people. Look for who your natural Ally is to keep the culture going.”
In another instance she suspected that an Elder shelving books at the public library might be lonesome. Reaching out with “I need a little help packaging seeds to distribute for Free, would you be interested in that?”(Yes!)
She said all of these things may be “Ambitious visions… but we have to stay humble and practical. At the very root - I don’t want the people to starve, so what’s the best thing I can do to make sharing and abundance real?”
“Initially,” she said, “I didn’t know how I was going to distribute the seeds.”
I recall receiving my first bundle in 2020 and I was a bit overwhelmed, also unsure of how to distribute them. In our area—Shoshone Paiute/Bannock Territory/Boise, Idaho—we have access to an abundance of free seeds through local nurseries and city programs, but many of these are not open-pollinated, non-GMO, let alone Organic. They are seeds that come from large scale production and designed to create dependence—not meant to grow out to have seeds saved for next season.
Farmer Ama shared some great narrative photos via Instagram this year, early on. Her Instagram pictures caused people to write her notes asking her to be part of repacking parties and seed swaps, "I think the VT Sister Swap seed swap's been going for 15+ years.”
They combined the 4/7/21 seed swap with the East Montpelier Grange Hall Community Meal.
“They gave out 99 free hot meals that day! and many people came that didn’t take food but traded seeds.” Local producers got involved, bringing gifts including baked goods, homemade soap, and “gourmet cheese from a VT company who brought the Grange 5 kinds of soft spreadable cheese, whole milk and chocolate milk.”
Ama said to look for well established meeting places, seeking contacts like, “the person that’s head of the Oddfellows Hall, Farmers Union, Grange hall, or the Public Library. Reach out to a local Elder home that might have people who know about gardening, seed saving (Great Depression era or 1940's food preserving and Victory Gardening)… who’d be delighted to have a teen or CGC group asking questions!
"Everyplace had grange halls back in the day, we could benefit from a revival of the Grange halls and community centers!"
A houseparty or gathering in the park or community garden where we could have a mentor of 60, 70, 80 [years of age] who will tell incredible seed stories…This would be a great way for CGC to have a Cultural impact!”
Speaking about her Abanake neighbors, Ama shared that, “Indigenous people were killed off and hidden here... We are hearing that the government and some participating medical orgs were sterilizing Indigenous Women up through the 1970-80s in Vermont…. Many people were terrorized—some mixed people hid and pretended they were only white... New England was partially emptied out. The people who survived hid in plain view, and the understanding was if you could survive you did… and sometimes you just couldn't talk about all of this. This is my new and partial understanding of the inter-Generational Trauma."
Elaborating on this Ama said, “There’s a movement here. It’d be good for CGC members to invite the nearest Indigenous people to their Seed Hub, invite them to share their wisdom. Ask what types of seeds for traditional foods they would like us to try and find? Humbly ask if there’s a way to rematriate the seeds in a good way.” To learn more about this check out the work of Rowen White and the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network."
For folx looking for deep and meaningful ways to get involved, Farmer Ama offered this, “If we don’t personally have money for making reparations, we can help people rematriate seeds, help [Black, Indigenous, People of Color, BIPOC] people access land, and help carry on the seedstories… Maybe we can help lend money to help people buy a farm! There’s got to be more ways for the CGC to connect us across class and race.”
In the seed bundling sessions Farmer Ama hosts with home-made food. She creates seed kits for 2-4 people - bundled with a little plastic band. Everyone says “Coop Gardens” and notes what year it comes from and where. Now she’s giving away 10-14 varieties including two flowers and eight or more edibles.
She includes the following information “You can call our hotline, can email us, can call me.”
After the swap, Ama “takes the packages in shopping bags to the local food pantries, then posts to Facebook asking, ‘Who can take garden kits to their neighborhood?’”
This is how she can “get people to help me distribute them. All mutual aid, all free.”
She has committed two days a week, with set hours, and feeds them lunch. “Cooking with low-cost available food,” working efficiently and wisely as a “BIPOC Farmer, Black Farmer” she is giving all of this to all different ages and types of people. “Queer, Trans, Straight, always a mix…” She encourages folx to remember “to ask for Trans and Queer families, to be sure they’re getting food,” suggesting it as a great ally ship opportunity.
Not sure who to approach? Ama suggests you might “Reach out to your local church because they’ve got elders and they know who’s hungry. Help to create space for Youth to meet Elders.”
Ama shared that “We don’t have any trouble, no obvious conflict because we’re just giving.
As far as skill levels, she said that “Lots of people were beginners, and needed a little reminder. Parents with little kids really liked [gardening], they could use the planting and spacing measurements to do homeschool math.” She offered that “If you live in a wealthier area, find out who’s been homeschooling, or working with COVID pods. High school age kids are great for packing seeds. Have them play their music. Ask them about their gaming. Their gender identity. They’re happy because they’re being listened to. It’s a good time, Elders, youth, middle-age.”
It’s a pretty good strategy to use, bringing people together over food. Ama makes, “a bunch of food that’s cheap and bundles that together with the seed kits.” She tells everyone that their “Labor is worth something,” and that she doesn’t have money “but I do have food. I always give something.”
If rich people come to help, she invites them to bring their kids. “It’s been good to have a class mixture including workers around the table. Find the common ground, the main thing people agree on that they like.”
For food Ama says, “I find that dumplings and quiche work, vegetarian dumplings. After five times packing seeds, we have a potluck and get together to eat. These are the things we did last year and this year and it works.”
Giving something back to the people who helped package seeds worked!
“We got a couple hundred garden kits. Never could have done it without their help.
See what group is here nearby and would want to do the service, like SURJ.”
She wrote to their Facebook Group, and said “you’ve got a chance to get involved”
Offering clear advice “Give them a name, and show them the hashtags. Always ask permission to get pictures. ‘Can I get a group shot?’ Or ‘Does anyone not want to be in the picture?, ‘ which helps to make it normal, and make it fun.”
Ama said that, in this way, people would, “Come and help you distribute seeds and help you repack seeds. Once a richer friend printed labels, another one bought envelopes.”
The labels said:
Location:
Cooperative Gardens Commission
Crop:
Variety:
Days to maturity:
CoopGardens.org
Lastly, Ama offered that, “I’m poor but I’m happy, I choose what I do. I’m happy that we make integral decisions. Poor is relative, I would say I’m working class. If we did have kids I would not want them to have to hang their heads in shame because I had to exploit someone for my work. We all have free choice. We have a beautiful opportunity in CGC to do work across race, class, and age. This is a beautiful thing. I want us to keep it real. We can keep doing better. I challenge all of us to put our money where our mouth is, keep our values, and not let anything sway us. I hope it makes you happy too. I hope it brings you joy. There’s so much in our world that we’re not in charge of. We have power over what we do here.”
Farmer Ama is one of the first Commissioners of Cooperative Gardens Commission and an ongoing inspiration to us all.
Connect with Ama and Nama Farm via instagram @Farmer_AmaPeyman
or visit the website: namafarm.webs.com
If you have stories and methods you’d like to share with CGC, please let us know via CooperativeGardens@gmail.com.
We welcome Volunteer/Commissioner Blog Posts + Photos or interviews like this one.
If you’d like to be interviewed in a Fireside Video for FB/YouTube add “Fireside Interview” to your subject line an email to CooperativeGardens@gmail.com!