March Toward Spring

Farming While Black and all things that sprout resiliently in March

Farming While Black at Cameo Cinema Napa Valley

TONIGHT! See the Opening Documentary at the 2025 Fork2Film Festival

Farming While Black is more than a documentary — it’s a movement.

Follow the rising generation of Black farmers reclaiming their rightful ownership of land and reconnecting with their ancestral roots. From historical injustices to modern-day resilience, this film is a call to action for all of us to reconnect with the land and fight for justice. Don’t miss this powerful documentary screening of Farming While Black at the 2nd Annual Fork2Film Festival. Showtime is 5:00 pm tonight Thursday 3/6 at the Cameo Cinema in St. Helena. After the film, join Director Mark Decena on stage, with Chef Darryl Bell of Stateline Road Smokehouse, Winemaker Victoria Coleman, and Farmer Tvaso Scott-Femenella (not pictured) for an in-person Q&A.

Watch the trailer below to glimpse into the powerful stories of Black farmers reclaiming their roots and revolutionizing agriculture. The Napa County Seed Library is proud co-sponsor of the film, along with the Western Monarch Society. We’re sending a huge shout out to Emma Steele, Tessa Henry, and Erin Arnsteen for coordinating the film’s entry, panelists, and promotion. Tickets are selling fast and likely to sell out! Follow this link to attend and learn more.

Can’t make it? Here are your calls to action to support Black farmers in agriculture across the country.

• Uplift Black Farmer priorities with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives.

• Fund Black land sovereignty at BlackFarmerFund.org.

• Support Afro-Indigenous Food Sovereignty at SoulFireFarm.org, BlackDirtFarmCollective.com, and Rise & Root Farm.

4th Annual Seed Swap at the CIA at Copia

Are you ready? Then get set… and let’s swap seeds!

4th Annual Seed Swap

We’re excited to gather again at the CIA at Copia gardens for our fourth year hosting a community-wide seed swap. Come ready to exchange seeds, tips, and goodwill. Bring your organic seeds dry, clean, clearly labeled and sealed and hang out with other enthusiastic gardeners, farmers, and plant lovers as we celebrate new garden visions at springtime.

Saturday, April 5th, 2025
11:00 am to 3:00 pm
CIA at Copia gardens
500 First Street, Napa CA 94559

Tap the image above to watch Lauren and Lavender show you how to prepare for the swap

How to Prepare Seeds for a Swap

Label your seeds clearly
📝 crop type
📝 common or variety name
📝 your name (as seed saver / donor)
📝 company's name (if from a commercial seed company)
📝 harvest date (or the “packed for” date if from a commercial seed company)

Select only the best
🫘 organically grown (labeled organic or non-GMO)
🫘 untreated, clean, dry, free of dirt, debris, leaves, stems, or pods
🫘 clearly labeled (see above) and sealed in jars, envelopes, paper bags, or commercial seed packets

All seed and cash donations to the Napa County Seed Library are tax-deductible (tax ID #85-0755714). Thank you for helping us provide a regenerative and equitable resource for Napa County!

The Future of Seed Sovereignty is in Your Hands

Our efforts are all about supporting community with organic seed, grown both locally and from regions with climate signatures similar to Napa County. But let me take a moment here to talk about Seed Sovereignty. Like friends from ethical seed companies like Sow True Seed, Adaptive Seeds, and Open Circle Seeds, we only exchange open-pollinated varieties. We want you, farmers, backyard growers, master gardeners, and everyone to have the power to save their seed if they want to, or if they need to.

As you build community where you live, as a gardening enthusiast and educator, you are in a great position to spread this message. After all, food security lays on the foundations of seed security. This responsibility should be in the power of the growers and not “Big Ag.” Saving seed is experiencing another revival, now seen and remembered as an essential skill among people who are serious about sustainable food systems and caring for one another. Food for thought! So this season, maybe you can try and save one (or two) seed varieties so next year you’ll feel awesome when you don’t have to worry about where your bean seeds are coming from.

New to saving beans? We’ve got you! Watch for two opportunities to learn how to save the Rio Zape bean, a cultural favorite grown organically here in Angwin by Clif Family’s Farm Manager Tessa Henry. We’ll be taking on this seed-saving effort together, as a community, cultivating this humble bean and saving and sharing them at the end of the season.

Sowing Seeds in March

Celebrate the onset of Spring

We've made it to March! Can you feel the excitement as the spring equinox approaches? If you haven’t started already, now is a great time to plant seeds: both indoors and outdoors.

Seeds sown in March create pollinator habitat, beauty, and medicine to nourish your growing spaces and you. Be sure to protect any young seedlings from frost damage and keep indoor seedlings healthy by watering only after the soil dries out to ward off fungus, mold, bacteria, or pests. Pot them into larger containers as they grow to encourage strong roots. Below is a list of seeds to sow in March in Zone 9b (Napa County’s growing zone).

For larger images, view this post on Instagram @napaseedlibrary.

Here’s What Happened Offline

Feeling more like a groundhog than ever lately, I found myself tunneling new pathways all while avoiding traps that sap my energy. Typical winter activities came with a twist and new endeavors were truly inspiring, informative, and less difficult than I thought. Here’s what I was up to since I wrote last.

Growing with the Organic Seed Alliance

For the very first time I attended the Organic Seed Grower’s Conference, typically held every two years and hosted by Organic Seed Alliance. After a hiatus in 2023, this conference reconvened and was hands down THE BEST I’ve ever attended. (I’ve attended and planned many conferences—so this review is not an exaggeration!)

So many people, long dedicated to growing seed sustainably for all its many joys, were truly present and available to share stories, knowledge, questions, and fears — but mostly to instill hope and fortitude and plan(t) for the future. The seed education session I participated in with Amirah Mitchell, Roxanne Masters, Chris Keeve, and Chris Smith rocked my world and gave me a chance to uplift the Ira Wallace Seed School and the OSA Seed Production Course, both of which have given me the tools and confidence to continue. As a result, and the continued encouragement and respect given by more experienced seed growers, I was selected to participate in the OSA’s OSPREY seed variety breeding trials this year! Wish I had snapped more pic but I was too busy having fun.

Testing Seed Germination

At the close of my efforts for the Ira Wallace Seed School, I was tasked with testing seed germination on the heritage seeds I grew last season. Results were varied, but largely positive. The seeds I felt uncertain about at harvest did show decreased vitality (watermelon), but the germination success of other types (sorghum, green pigeon pea, golden bantam corn) came through remarkably.I’ll expand on this topic in a later newsletter, and maybe in a series of short videos.

Pigeon pea (both fully mature and partially mature pods (l) and Poona Kheera cucumber (r).

Winter Sowing

Ok, winter sowing is officially a GAME CHANGER! Folks! It’s not too late. All of March you can sow seeds early with minimal effort and maximum results. I was blown away by how much less I needed to tend to seeds started early just by using this method. It’s simply allowing nature to take its course by letting the seeds, soil, moisture and warmth within a “mini greenhouse” determine when germination and early growth will occur. It happens NATURALLY and there’s no better way to experience the truth of this than by using the winter sowing method. Super huge thanks to Elizabeth @wintersowing on Instagram for providing very easy to follow instructions and super engagement at the right time to keep people on the path to success.