2021 EVENTS

The Art of Seed: Seed Pack Art Exhibition, Wallkill River School, Montgomery, NY • January 8 - February 28
A selection of original works from our collection will be displayed alongside our Art Packs. We are both farmers and storytellers; we work with a range of artists as diverse as our seeds to pass those stories down to present and future gardeners. For us, the art of seed unites practical aspirations in the garden with the universal human desire for beauty, meaning, and joy. NOTE: The Wallkill Gallery is adhering to Covid safety precautions and guidelines that includes required masks, social distancing, limited capacity and contact tracing. Exhibition details here.

Northeast Organic Seed Conference • January 16 - 23 (online)
Ken Greene, Co-Founder, Hudson Valley Seed Company, will participate on a variety of panel discussions. Register for the virtual conference here.

The Northeast Farming Organic Association is an organization of farmers, gardeners, and consumers working together to create a sustainable regional food system that’s ecologically sound and economically viable.

January 16 • Seed Discussion Group: Holistic Botany 6:00 PM–8:00PM ET
Presenters: Ken Greene, Hannah Traggis, Fred Wiseman, and Banu Subramaniam

Understanding the basics of how plants make seed is crucial for anyone that wishes to save seed to share within their community. For as long as humans have been cultivating crops and co-evolving with plants, language and understanding of these processes has developed to describe and communicate about them. The body of knowledge known by mainstream science today as “Botany”, is a relatively new framework within which to hold discussions about plant life cycles. While a useful tool, modern botany grew out of a specific cultural context and time period dominated by white, western European men. Botanical sciences often extracted from or ignored indigenous knowledge and spiritual relationships with plants, and attempted to fit plants into culturally and historically specific binary concepts of gender, sexuality, and reproduction under the guise of “objectivity”. But plants are no more binary than we know humans to be, and their diverse life cycle strategies and spiritual connections should be celebrated and honored. More info here.

January 19 • Meet the Seed Activists and Not-For-Profits Serving the Northeast 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM ET
Presenters: Ken Greene, Lia Babitch, Bill Braun, Jacqueline Pilati, and Cara Loriz

There is crucial not-for-profit Seed Work being done in the Northeast, from training community seed savers & new seed growers, to collaborating on Seed Rematriation work, to linking seed and food sovereignty, to rooting seedwork in the hands of adults with special needs. You are invited to meet some of the people behind these efforts, to hear these leaders share what good work & projects are being done now, and what they see needed in our future. More info here.

January 23 • Indigenous Seed Stories Opportunities and Collaborations 2:00PM–3:30 PM ET
Presenters: Ken Greene, Kenny Perkins, Janice Brant, Manuel Lizarralde Moderator: Elizabeth Hoover

Whereas our first panel focused on Native presenters speaking to a mostly Native audience, “Collaborations” includes Native and non-Native panelists who will talk about how to be a good ally and a good collaborator. Following a discussion on “seed rematriation”, panelists will discuss how to approach institutions or non-Native collaborators to partner in bringing these indigenous seeds home. Brainstorming about how these collaborations can happen and when they’ve been most successful will be offered. Stories of tribal communities who have collaborated with non-Native farmers, seed keepers and plant breeders to help restore heirloom seeds to tribal communities will be exchanged. More info here.

Stay tuned as we will be adding more events to our calendar. Subscribe to our newsletter for upcoming happenings.