Learn more about Against the Grain: The Farm Aid Podcast
Against the Grain brings the magic of Farm Aid’s annual festival to listeners year-round. Hear from farmers and artists, advocates and food experts, activists and policymakers – all of whom are working towards building a more just and equitable farm and food system.
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By Reana Kim
For the last two years, Share a Seed – a mutual aid organization dedicated to growing community by sharing seeds and gardening resources – has led the Farm Aid Seed Swap in the HOMEGROWN Skills Tent. The Farm Aid Seed Swap is an opportunity for the hundreds of Farm Aid attendees to connect over their love for local seeds and plants, learn interesting seed history and growing techniques, and of course take home a very special memento from the festival.
For Farm Aid 2022 in Raleigh, NC, the Seed Swap theme was African American diaspora crops of the Southeast. To accomplish this, the seed share featured three seeds with deep roots in the region: Green Glaze Collards, Seven Top Turnips and Fish Peppers. At Farm Aid 2023 in Indianapolis, IN, the focus was on sustainable cover crops. Winter Wheat, Crimson Clover and Buckwheat seeds were shared with the public.
Share a Seed was developed by Reana Kim early in the COVID-19 pandemic to connect isolated community members to their food system and to one another with a safe and sustainable practice – gardening. The program has shared thousands of seeds with community members across the nation since its start in 2021, launched Washington DC’s first Little Free Seed Libraries, and provides training and technical assistance to help would-be gardeners of all levels get growing.
Seed breeder and advocate, Jeff Quattrone, also featured in this video, is the Founder of the Library Seed Bank. He brought the Seed Library concept to South Jersey in 2014 and has permanently changed the public’s access to free seeds across South Jersey since. He’s an artist, an activist, and a NJ seed and Jersey Tomato breeding historian. Jeff strives to expand the conversation about preserving local food diversity through seed sovereignty. Jeff has revived six functionally extinct Jersey tomatoes and is flipping the script in doing so. He’s working on a book and media project titled Jersey Tomatoes, Bred for Profit Revived for Community Organizing.
