Seeds with Stories 

Global

The Brief

Seeds survive. They cross oceans, outlast hard winters, get tucked into coat pockets, braided into hair, and passed between strangers who somehow knew to keep them going.

Seed with Stories is our new ongoing community project - collecting heritage seeds and the stories that live inside them. A grandmother's tomato. A neighbor's bean. A flower that's been in your family longer than anyone can trace.

Inspired by our work with the Arab American National Museum, this project is built on a simple belief: every community deserves to see its seeds carried forward.

Visit us at our upcoming events - bring a seed, bring a story, or just come and be part of it.

Challenges

• Appropriate resources for holding and caring for the stories and seeds
• Climate chaos & extremes
• Economic & political pressure and conflict
• Intentional destruction of seed banks, farms, water and soil
• Skills and stories not passed on by our elders and educators, they become lost forever
• Not growing and restocking seeds bank collections making them less hardy, adaptable by the year

Design & Implementation

From the beginning, we knew this project had to feel like an invitation, not a collection drive. The design process started with one question: what would make someone feel safe enough to hand over something they've been growing for twenty years?

That shaped everything — how we show up at events, how we ask questions, and how we store and display what people share with us. Outreach began through existing community relationships, word of mouth, and trusted partners like Gateway Farm, because heritage seeds travel the same way they always have: person to person, through trust.

The physical design of the project reflects that same care. Seeds are stored in labeled envelopes and archival jars, documented with the story of where they came from and who brought them. At events, our table is set up to feel like a conversation rather than a transaction — open, unhurried, with seeds on display to spark recognition and memory. Sometimes someone sees a variety they haven't thought about in years, and that's when the real stories come out.

We're also developing a simple seed library system so that what communities bring to us can eventually be borrowed, planted, and brought back — keeping the cycle going rather than just preserving it behind glass.

Where we are now

Seed with Stories launched this spring at the Earth Day Celebration at Gateway Farm, in partnership with Gateway Farm and growing out of our collaboration with the Arab American National Museum. This is the beginning. We're actively collecting seeds and stories, building our archive, and listening for what communities most need this project to become.

If you have a seed, a story, or both — we'd love to hear from you.

Ideas in Action

• Preserving and celebrating heritage food, skills and stories 
• Seed saving and sharing
• Connecting food growing and cooking 
• Connecting food and community
• Learning as we listen

Outcomes

• A seed and story library
• We are just getting started - we will update this page and our social media accounts  over the coming months and years

“What we do is we tell stories.

We’re using this medium of gardens and plants and growth

as a sort of canvas through which we can tell stories about the community.”

Diana Abouali

Director of the Arab American National Museum

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