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Sweet Spring Greetings Beloved Community!
There is something spectacular about spring that stirs growth deep within us, as we take nature’s lead to sprout new buds, leaves, and blossoms.
All of this new life invites us to bloom as well.
At WILDSEED the land is gloriously awake: the marigolds are in full bloom, the air is buzzing with fat bumble bees diving deep into the buffet of wildflowers, the birdsong rings out louder, echoing across the land.
We hope you are blooming too.
This early season holds a particular kind of magic. The warm sun that urges us outdoors, to bask in the splendor of colors, to move, to be in awe and reverence of a part of ourselves that is one with all there is and ever will be.
Many of us feel the energy of new life. How about you?
Here at WILDSEED we stepped into this season holding both continuity and transition—honoring the roots that brought us here while welcoming new stewards, new collaborations, and new possibilities for what this land can hold.
As we root deeper, much has been unfolding beneath the surface. Farmers planning the peak growing season. Artists resting and dreaming forward in their radical imagination residencies on the land. Conversations deepening about how we build shared infrastructure that nourishes both land and community.
Spring reminds us that transformation rarely arrives all at once. It emerges gradually—through patience, relationship, and care.
Thank you for walking alongside us as this ecosystem continues to bloom.
With love and gratitude,
The WILDSEED Team
Naima, Kavitha, Natasha, Athena, Ana, Monti, Taij, Sevaad & Nico
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Naima’s Sabbatical
A bitter sweet moment for us.
After 10 years of vision, guidance and service, our beloved co-founder and co-director, Naima Penniman, is taking a much needed sabbatical. We are so happy to support her to rest, reflect, create art, travel, and so much more. Deep bow of gratitude, dear Naima. We love you!
Thank you, Naima, for preparing us so well in this hand-off, especially your role in stewarding the onboarding of new team members.
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Welcoming Sevaad
We are super excited to welcome Sevaad into the WILDSEED ecosystem. Sevaad joins the team during a season of growth, bringing deep alignment with the values that guide our work and a spirit of care for land and community. Their presence will support the ongoing stewardship of WILDSEED as a sanctuary for farming, healing, creativity, and the embodiment of our boldest visions.
"I’m honored to be joining the WILDSEED team at a moment when the current possibility is running strong. As spring unfolds and life blooms, I’m inspired by all that will continue to emerge as WILDSEED deepens its roots in its vision and embodied practices. I carry deep gratitude for my ancestors and for the many world builders whose fierce love makes it all possible and our victories inevitable." - Sevaad
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Welcoming Nico
We are honored to deepen into partnership with Nico who has supported with several WILDSEED programs over the years. Nico will now support stewardship of the land, tend relationships with our local community, and help strengthen the health and wellbeing of the WILDSEED ecosystem as we move into a season of expansion and building.
"In the spirit of solidarity, inspiration, hope, and gratitude, I lovingly and joyfully deepen my support of and collaboration with WILDSEED. I welcome continuing to walk with the WILDSEED family through the next stages of growth and expanded commitment to liberation. May our ancestors stand before, behind, beside us as we navigate through and emerge." - Nico
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Breaking Ground
2026 marks an exciting milestone for WILDSEED. This year we will begin renovating our historic barn, transforming it into shared agricultural infrastructure that will support farmers across our region. With blueprints and site design already in process, this renovation will create space for:
- a commercial kitchen and farm store
- crop storage and processing (herbs, peppers, mushrooms and more)
- training, artist, and gathering space
- expanded regional food distribution (through sales and mutual aid)
This work is part of a larger vision emerging through the Webatuck Valley Farm Collaborative (WVFC)—a regional food hub designed to support farmers with the infrastructure needed to grow more food while strengthening local food systems rooted in justice and care for the earth.
Looking ahead, we are also exploring possibilities across the land including:
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a food forest rooted in perennial crops
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expanded medicinal gardens
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spaces for cultural gatherings and creative practice
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ecological stewardship projects that support watershed health
Each step forward is guided by listening to the land and designing with patience, humility, and long-term ecological and community care.
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Land Transfer Update
Over the past year we have continued a deep process of study and relationship-building around how WILDSEED holds and stewards land.
Through conversations with legal advisors, land justice practitioners, ecological site designers, and peer organizations, we are exploring structures that allow this land to remain in service to communities across generations.
This work includes:
- exploring cooperative and community-centered land models
- strengthening relationships with Indigenous stewards of this region
- ensuring that WILDSEED’s governance structures reflect our values of reciprocity, justice, and interdependence
These conversations are ongoing and we will look forward to listening and engaging with you, our community, as we proceed forward.
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Winter Artist Residencies
Throughout the winter months, WILDSEED hosted several artists through our Radical Imagination Residency, offering space for rest, reflection, and creative incubation.
Artists arrived carrying questions, stories, and dreams—each bringing their own practices into relationship with the land.
These residencies remind us that cultural work and ecological stewardship are deeply intertwined. Art opens new ways of seeing, feeling, and imagining the worlds we are building together.
“Thank you again for such a warm and hospitable stay at WILDSEED. I truly enjoyed my time at the Sun house, both the chance to relax and to generate new work. It was a deeply meaningful experience, and I’m very grateful.” - Kearah-Armonie
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Konbit Workday
We look forward to gathering our community again for a Konbit Workday.
Konbit is a Caribbean tradition of collective labor—neighbors coming together to support one another’s work on the land.
Through Konbit we remember that tending land has always been communal work, rooted in cooperation, reciprocity, and joy.
This year we will have a Konbit day in September.
Gathered in Abundance ~ Harvesting the Gifts of the Land:
Fall is a time of harvesting what we planted and tended to in the previous seasons. Join us in September for a day of harvesting the fruits of our labor, where the land offers its quiet generosity. Together, we’ll gather the medicinal herbs, fruits and vegetables that have grown, celebrate the season’s bounty, and share in the simple beauty of reaping what we’ve nurtured-hands full, hearts fuller.
More details will be shared soon for those who would like to join us.
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Room to Grow Farmer Highlight
Ancestral Moon Farm & Medicinals
We are excited to continue our partnership with the amazing Natasha Strickland, founder and owner of Ancestral Moon Farm & Medicinals, a participant in our Room to Grow program and Farmer-in-Residence at WILDSEED.
Through this work, Ancestral Moon is cultivating medicinal herbs while also creating spaces for rest, healing, and wellness on the land.
Ancestral Moon's mission is to create sacred spaces and practices that support holistic healing, self awareness, and renewal. Through seasonal herbal medicine, custom remedies, somatic healing exercise, guided rituals, and meditation. We help individuals release what no longer serves them, reconnect with their bodies, and plant seeds for growth. Rooted in Ancestral wisdom and community care, we honor healing as a necessity, empowering people to rest, realign, and reclaim their wholeness.
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"I came to herbalism as a way of returning- back to the land, back to the body, and back to the quiet wisdom that supports true healing. This work is rooted in deep respect for plants and for the body’s natural ability to restore itself when given care and the right conditions.
Healing, I believe, is most powerful when we are held by nature, it invites the nervous system to soften, the mind to quiet, and the body to remember its rhythm. It allows for a deeper kind of restoration-one that feels grounded, steady and real.
Guided by ancestral wisdom and commitment to collective care, and space for balance, clarity and renewal.
I’m deeply grateful to be stewarding this land in partnership with WILDSEED, having access to this space makes it possible for me to grow and tend the herbs used in my medicine in a way that is rooted in care, relationship, and respect for the land. It also allows me to create space for in person wellness offering- where people can gather, slow down, and experience healing while being held by nature. Access like this is truly invaluable and I hold it with deep appreciation and care.
Thank you WILDSEED for your trust, generosity, and commitment to supporting this work- it makes the vision possible and helps it flourish." - Natasha
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This year, our partnerships deepened into something ancient and emergent—a weaving of dreams, labor, and long-haul collaboration. In the Webatuck Valley Farm Collaborative (WVFC), we are practicing what it means to build infrastructure for a just food future as a living practice rooted in a hyper-local ecosystem.
WVFC is a QT & BIPOC-led partnership 9 years in the making between Rock Steady Farm, Sweet Freedom Farm, and WILDSEED. We are designing a food processing and distribution hub for our region, rooted in regenerative agriculture, cultural reclamation, cooperative governance, and economic sovereignty.
With cold storage, drying space, commercial kitchen, grain mill, wash and pack, and space to aggregate our harvest for distribution —the food hub will increase QT & BIPOC-grown produce by 300%, strengthening viable farm businesses while feeding our communities with dignity.
This year, WVFC secured over $5M of our overall $8M+ goal, unlocking a historic $2.2M USDA investment—a testament to what becomes possible when farmers, organizers, funders, and land stewards move in concert.
The next stretch requires all of us to ensure a future where food, culture, and care are not commodities but birthrights. Stay tuned for the launch of our WVFC Capital Campaign, and join us in building the roots of a resilient regional food system.
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Learning Journey
FARMpreneurs Sprint
Earlier this year two members of WILDSEED and one member of Sweet Freedom Farm participated in the FARMpreneurs Strategic Sprint, joining a curated cohort of farmers strengthening the sustainability and resilience of their farm enterprises.
Together with our partners Catalyst Collaborative Farm and Sweet Freedom Farm, we spent several days reflecting on the realities of farming today while imagining pathways forward. The gathering reminded us that farming is deep ancestral work for us– rooted in relationships with soil, season, spirit, and solidarity economies.
The insights from this learning journey are already shaping the next chapter of work unfolding at WILDSEED and across the WVFC.
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Flourishing Together Circle
Another seed planted this season is our Flourishing Together Circle—a community of supporters committed to helping WILDSEED grow into its next chapter through the radical distribution or wealth, land and power. Redistribution is rooted on our founding story, and we believe it is an important pathway towards our ultimate sovereignty.
Stay tuned. More information will be shared as this initiative continues to take root.
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Closing Offering
We are learning to move at the pace of the land. Seeds planted quietly now will soon flourish and ultimately nourish generations to come.
Thank you for walking alongside us as we cultivate this sanctuary and move towards sovereignty for farmers, artists, healers, organizers, and community.
Together we are growing something wild and wonderful.
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