South LA Seed Circle
This project is managed by Dominique of Black Roots Herbals with support from Going to Seed.
The South LA Seed Circle is designed to bring our people together around food and seed sovereignty, while also promoting long-term environmental sustainability in our food system. We are merging our traditions of gathering around food, plants and medicine with a new purpose of renewing interest in gardening and growing, especially of our own traditional, high nutrient foods. With a collaborative model of monthly meetings where we will share food, seeds, and stories of learning and encouragement, we will cultivate genetically diverse crops adapted to our unique climate and community preferences. We will renew our collective love of the land, and bring it into our beloved city, with such a rich history of agriculture and Blackness. We will remember our roots as people of the land, and reinvigorate our original agreements with the plants of our people.
About this Project
This collaborative effort is designed to increase the quantity of locally grown seeds in South LA, and to spread awareness about the importance of gardening, farming and seed sovereignty. Our goal is for 30 people to sign up for and commit to a single seed-saving project that they will bring back at the end of the 2024 growing season to share with others. It can be a variety or a mix, the main thing is that it grows and produces fruit and seeds without a greenhouse or other artificial crop protection. There are 12 crops in this project for now, and ideally 3-6 people would sign up for each, by the beginning of the growing season in 2024.
As Black and Native folks, we have always known the importance of our food and our environment. The world is catching up, as we deal with the struggles of climate change and increasing corporate control, and the need for resilient, community-driven solutions is becoming more obvious. This community-building project is at the forefront of innovative approaches to saving ourselves.
About the project leader Dominique
Black Roots Herbals“everything everywhere all at once.”
we are all made of so much. i am a daughter, granddaughter, sibling, friend, blessing in disguise. an herbal activist, a rootworker, a grower.
a healer, a medicine person. a poet.
alive.
West coast raised with deep Mississippi River roots.
Queer Black Native Two - Spirit woman.
a lover. a fighter. my ancestors’ wildest dreams running free.