“Honor and respect to our ancestral grandmothers who braided seeds and promise into their hair before being forced onto transatlantic slave ships. They believed, against odds, that we, their decedents would exist to inherit, plant, and pass on that seed.

The Braiding Seeds Fellowship, a project of Soul Fire Farm Institute in collaboration with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, carries on the legacy of the braided seeds by providing beginning farmers with resources, professional development, and mentorship to support their livelihood on land. The inaugural cohort was drawn from the southeast and northeast, along certain corridors of the Underground Railroad and the Great Migration. We are working to bridge north-south and legacy-returning generations of farmers.”

Funding supports the growing resource demands of taking on multiple fellowship cohorts at the same time. They use the funds for payroll for the increased hours worked by co-managers, the hiring of interns, on-site visits with fellows, and for workshop resources.