For thousands of years, Indigenous people in eastern North American cultivated a diverse group of native seed crops. The domesticated varieties of these crops are thought to be extinct and the traditions associated with their cultivation are sleeping.*
This website exists to
share practical knowledge about how to cultivate, harvest, and cook these crops
allow communities and individuals to request seeds
*the term sleeping (as an alternative to lost) was suggested to me by the members of the St. Louis Native American Women’s Care Circle. Sleeping implies that the practices and knowledge surrounding the cultivation of these crops can be awakened.
Please note: I collected the seeds in my seed bank from free-living plants. These seeds don’t belong to anyone, but any profit that can be made from the knowledge that they make good crops rightfully belongs to the descendants of the Indigenous farmers who grew them. I will not provide seed for any venture that could result in commercialization of these plants, no matter how distant the prospect, that does not engage with the Indigenous communities about benefits-sharing.