2024 Seed Distro Update

 Food Sovereignty is the right and responsibility of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.  Food sovereignty is a food system in which the people who produce, distribute, and consume food also control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution. This stands in contrast to the present corporate food regime, in which corporations and market institutions control the global food system.  

This project began around 2005 when we packaged up some of our homegrown seeds to share at the Okanogan Family Faire.  It was such a success that we invested a great deal of time, labor, and personal funds to help expand our project and reach.  We now grow, package, and distribute around 10,000 packages of heirloom, open-pollinated, organic seed at no charge each year.  

People often ask us why we don't sell our seed.  We produce seed to help increase food access, build food sovereignty, preserve biodiversity, and we believe that access to healthy food is a human right.   Because of this, we feel that turning even a portion of our program into a capitalist endeavor is incongruent with our mission. 

Note: Special thanks to Dr. Melodi Wynne, a member of the Spokane tribe who deepened our understanding around the concept of food sovereignty.  One of our members had a brief but hugely impactful conversation about the concept of food sovereignty. She shared an experience in which she approached tribal elders and provided them with a definition of food sovereignty (Food Sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food...)  to learn about the concept from the perspective of the Spokane tribe.  The elders explained that they had no word for the concept of "right" in their language and the closest translation would be "responsibility."  In substituting that term, the entire concept of food sovereignty shifts. The idea that we have the responsibility rather than right to healthy and culturally appropriate food is the foundational concept in our seed distro work and we are grateful to Dr. Wynne for sharing this language to help describe this concept. 

The group of people who started the seed distro in 2005 were low income and mostly did not have what many would consider basic amenities or an adequate amount of resources. Although we were often struggling to pay bills or keep a 20+ year old car running, we recognized that we possessed a level of privilege in our ability to live on ecologically rich land with able bodies and a skill set that allowed us to grow and produce food that was higher quality than we could afford to purchase.  We felt that it was our responsibility to help others access food because we recognized our fortune even when living in financial poverty.  We were and are grateful for the opportunity share in the responsibilty for healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and the responsibility to define our own food and agriculture systems.  

This is a complete list of our seeds available for distribution in 2024 and quantities greatly vary (for example, we may begin with 500 packages of Scarlet Runner beans but only 120 of Leeks ).   This is intended to give an idea of what may be possible rather than what you will actually access.  For shipped packs of seed, you will receive 20 packages. 

Lettuce mix (includes 6+ varieties) 

Kale Mix (includes 4 varieties) 

Rainbow Chard 

Sunflower mix (6+ varieties inc mammoth, red, branching etc)

Flower mix (includes 6-10 varieties great for pollinators)

 Rainbow Carrot mix (orange, red, yellow, white, purple) 

Andover Parsnip 

Cherokee Trail of Tears bean 

French Climbing Bean  

Finney Homestead Bean 

Scarlett Runner Bean 

Cranberry Pole Bean 

Turkey Craw Pole Bean 

Doloff Bean

Soup Pea 

Hidatsa Shield Figure Pole Bean 

Hot Pepper Mix (includes 6+ varieties)  

Heirloom slicer tomato mix (includes about 15 varieties in a rainbow of colors) 

Tomatillo (green and purple) 

Cucumber mix (slicers including lemon cukes) 

Winter Squash Mix (includes a few varieties) 

Painted Mountain Corn (colorful corn for grinding, not sweet corn) 

Basil (includes four varieties, two purple and two green) 

King Sieg Leek 

Broccoli Open Pollinated Mix (mostly two varieties best suited for fall) 

Rhutabaga

Turnip

Herb Garden Mix

Elecampane

Yarrow

Mallow

Shirofumi Soybean

Black Kabouli Garbanzo Beans

Daikon Radish