A flower past prime?

Or seeds ripening right on time?

We love you more, either way 💛

Whoever you are, wherever you are, we’re sending love & courageous questions to both the life and loss in the gardens of our soils as well souls:

What is ready

for a fresh perspective

in your life?

Who is uniquely suited to accompany your perspective shift, human and beyond?

What is something about transformation that you didn’t know when you were 6? 16? 26? 56?

What needs lay beneath

fear of transformation?

How is your garden nourishing you beyond calories, beyond doing, beyond knowing?

How do our gardens

model the generosity

of needs encouraging more vulnerability

presence

sharing

amplifying the generosity

of the world?

What seeds

are hidden

in the crumpled petals of

unmet expectations?

Friends, as Matthew and I approach two years of sharing seeds as gifts rather than life that can be commodified and sold, we are asking ourselves an abundance of questions and look forward to sharing more questions as well as reflections with you 💛

And Local Loves, if you’d love to harvest sunflower, tomato, melon and icelandic poppy seeds with us, don’t be shy:

Rain or shine, join us Saturday, Aug 29th anytime after 10 am for our next Becoming Good Soil Together work party. As brings ease and joy, bring a dairy-free offering for our mid-afternoon feast that we’ll harvest, prepare and share together as we feed each other and our neighbors, among so many other delights. See you soon and

learn more here!

As nights grow chill, the insect choir undaunted sings:

What can we sow now?

So(w) much!

With apples blushing crimson as monarch migrate south:

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson:

we dream of a world that

sustains

rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and Friends, we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

And Friends:

Thank you

for growing with us

and sustaining us

in all the ways!

We grow and sustain each other.

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

As the first leaves turn gold, we are grateful for this poem:

Beyond the Lines

~

Middle august

beginning autumn

~

The seasons

themselves

don’t seem to mind

~

What month it is

or day

~

They come and go

forever changing,

honest like a friend

~

Consistent

and present

~

Telling

a time

beyond the lines

~

Through green

and golden leaves.

~ digger

If you’d love to receive periodic poems from digger in your inbox, send a sweet ask of an email to dougdecandia@gmail.com 💛

Local Loves!

Join us Sunday, Aug 23rd anytime after 10 am for our next Becoming Good Soil Together work party social. We’ll harvest and save watermelon as well as tomato seeds, feeding each other and our neighbors, among so many other delights! See you soon and

learn more here!

And Friends, as you soften the space between your eyebrows, taking the deepest breath you’ve taken all day:

Can you feel?

The sun?

So warm?

lowering in the summer sky:

hawks circling high

Feeling soft breeze on your cheeks as Indigo Buntings sing in the sugar bush:

A few weeks back, Shake on the Lake, our regional theater interpreting Shakespeare for our time — impressively committed to no charge and non-traditional performance — graced an audience of 80+ people here on the farm with

Comedy of Errors

on the edge of our community orchard:

Both hilarious and tenderly relevant for our time (as all good stories are), how fitting when one of the people helping with parking quietly came to us in the middle of the performance:

“There are two people

and a dog here

disoriented and hungry.”

Their AirBnb host sent them, realizing they were lost, walking down the hot summer road:

“Walk to Fruition Seeds,”

their host told them.

“They will feed you,

get you water

and give you a ride back.”

Indeed.

Our doors are always open as

seeds

food and water

pour forth from this land

as so many gifts of sun and soil:

so many beings seen and unseen

present and past.

That night, dozens of people shared a potluck prior to the performance. The feast of summer beckoned from every corner and counter of the community kitchen. As we always say,

when you come, come hungry:

Your plate is waiting.

These wayfaring travelers, new friends no longer disoriented and hungry, got a ride back to their AirBnb and we were struck by a few things:

a) Comedy of Errors, indeed! (What is fiction, what is non-fiction?)

b) Welcoming and feeding people, caloric and beyond, from near and far, both planned and (especially) unplanned, among other privileges and pleasures: this is why we’re here. (What are seeds, but beings needing to be nourished by land and community so they themselves can nourish other beings, so generously?)

c) How many homes had they walked by on their way to us? What will kindle our courage as we remember, reimagine and practice the relational skills of nourishing ‘strangers’ and neighbors as ourselves?

Let’s remember together.

Despite the headlines and heartbreaking unraveling of our time, what if every chance and choice to smile, sow and share grows our capacity to keep growing?

We are the seeds.

What long, hot road are you walking right now, Friend?

How are you reaching out for help along the journey?

How are you

opening the door

of your heart

to your fellow

dusty, hungry travelers?

What may quench the thirst of our fear?

What nourishment comes as we meet each other’s hunger?

As we harvest the final pods and compost our first succession of bush beans, suddenly there is space to sow abundance for fall and beyond:

What can we sow now?

So(w) much!

As young hawks circle high above the orchard, may we all learn to soar a little higher:

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson:

we dream of a world that

sustains

rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and Friends, we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

And Friends:

Thank you

for growing with us

and sustaining us

in all the ways!

We grow and sustain each other.

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

As we harvest roots in summer’s heat and sow more abundance to come, we are so grateful for this poem:

Roots

Reparation

is re-membering

~

The root

of being

human

~

- Hum-ility

hum-us -

~

One

together

earth.

~ digger

If you’d love to receive periodic poems from digger in your inbox, send a sweet ask of an email to dougdecandia@gmail.com 💛

garlic is maturing.

Perhaps you, too, breathed ash of a world on fire this week.

Perhaps you, too, have garlic ready to harvest in your garden.

Whether your skies are clear, cloudy or full of smoke, heartbreak or joy:

May the garlic we’ll soon savor as well as cure

nourishing those we love

for seasons and perhaps even

generations to come.

And let’s step back for just a moment:

Remember last fall

cold fingers plunging

cold cloves in cold soil?

As you feel the life of summer and seasons changing within and all around you:

Let’s not be daunted by headlines.

Inspired by the timeless Mexican proverb:

They tried to bury us

in winter’s cold

of isolation and despair:

But they didn’t know

we were garlic.

Happy Harvesting, Fellow Sowers of New Worlds!

And Friends!

Did you know we’ve made

thousands of videos

hundreds of blogs

dozens of growing guides

a dozen online courses

all for you?

And our collective great-great-grandchildren, too 💛

Explore Our Website Here

As we commit ourselves to sharing seeds and life as a gift, exploring how giving and receiving are synonymous, our website continues to be a digital sanctuary sharing detailed growing and seed saving instructions alongside inspiration and insight so (y)our carrots grow so much more than calories.

As we harvest garlic, suddenly there is space to sow more seeds for fall abundance:

What can we sow now?

So(w) much!

Save the date!

James Bird in Concert

at Fruition Friday, July 24th: potluck at 5, music at 6:30 pm

A beloved Friend and luminous bard of our times, James returns with his exquisite musicianship and storytelling, rain or shine. Bring a dish to pass, a lawn chair and a friend as well as a gift to sustain James! If you’d love to come earlier in the day (or even the day before), join us anytime to help tend the farm and prepare for generosity and joy.

Comedy of Errors

Shake on the Lake returns to Fruition Friday, July 31st: potluck at 5, music at 6, performance at 6:30 pm

Rain or shine, come savor our beloved regional theater company devoted to rural, outdoor & free Shakespeare brilliantly interpreted for our time! Though there is no charge, reserve your spot here 💛

Seeds & Songs of Resilience

at Folk Art Guild’s Craft Weekend retreat Aug 6th - 9th

As the world unravels, seeds and songs keep us grounded. Let’s explore how embodied creative practices can open pathways for personal and collective resilience. We’ll play with song (listen here!), explore gardens, movement, forest bathe, write, reflect and rest. Whether you’re new to nature study and singing or have decades of experience tending these edges, you’re invited to join this circle of shared exploration dedicated to our shared well-being.

Together we’ll craft an evolving, communal sanctuary of discovery. We’ll play with song, explore gardens, welcome grounding movement, forest bathe, honor our lineages, write, share silence, reflect and rest. Each session alternates between the seeds leading us (with Petra, co-founder of Fruition Seeds) and song as our muse (with Tracy, founder of Vocal Bloom). We’ll share solo, partner and group explorations supported by gentle facilitations designed to spark curiosity, creativity and connection.

With seeds and songs as our ancestors and mentors, we’ll explore practices growing our personal as well as collective capacity to respond creatively, cultivating joy and resilience in these times.

learn more & join us here!

Common Ground Fair

Sept 25th - 27th in Unity, Maine

Join us singing as we cultivate gift culture throughout the Fair! Stay tuned for more details of exactly when & where we’ll be weaving magic together💛

Come Say Hi!

and don’t be shy

Friends, we’re in a chrysalis season here at the farm, resisting big gatherings so we can focus on internal becomings and deep personal connection. If you’d love to come visit for an hour or five or day or three, we’d love to weave you into our flow here and reach out anytime, petra@fruitionseeds.com, and

come hungry:

your plate is waiting💛

As sparrows fledge, fumble-fall-flying through the orchard, we all learn to soar a little higher:

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and Friends, we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

And Friends:

Thank you

for growing with us

and sustaining us

in all the ways!

We grow and sustain each other.

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

As we join the 6000+ generations of humans and garlic co-adapting together, we are so grateful for your invitations and commitment to transformation, Olly Costello:

Dear Friends & Fellow Sowers of New Worlds,

I watched

the other day

as quickening hawk wings flew

above the orchard

something grasped in sharp talons.

A small cloud of barn swallows streaked around and behind the hawk, mad and harassing, the pain of their protest palpable.

As they passed over the barn roof, each swallow peeled away except one who continued to fly high and dive, shrieking as she nearly touched the hawk’s tail.

I watched their dance til we all disappeared into the sky.

And Friends:

What have you lost this week

that will never return?

What have you chased this week

that you will never find?

What did you receive as a gift

as the life asking for life

and how did you say thank you?

What is painful

what is joyful

what is transforming

within and around you

that we might mistake as ‘ourselves’ or ‘other’?

As we harvest a few plump and sumptuous peas to share for supper, we leave most pods to ripen seeds to gift wide; I’m in awe of the countless (in)actions and (in)decisions and we make each day forever shifting the trajectory of life becoming death becoming life.

How can my gratitude

grow a little softer

a little stronger

deepening the well

of well-being for all beings?

Sending love as we navigate the many ways we nourish and are nourished, as we feed and fed upon in this world💛

What can we sow now?

So(w) much!

Save the date!

James Bird in Concert

at Fruition Friday, July 24th: potluck at 5, music at 6:30 pm

A beloved Friend and luminous bard of our times, James returns with his exquisite musicianship and storytelling, rain or shine. Bring a dish to pass, a lawn chair and a friend as well as a gift to sustain James! If you’d love to come earlier in the day (or even the day before), join us anytime to help tend the farm and prepare for generosity and joy.

Comedy of Errors

Shake on the Lake returns to Fruition Friday, July 31st: potluck at 5, music at 6, performance at 6:30 pm

Rain or shine, come savor our beloved regional theater company devoted to rural, outdoor & free Shakespeare brilliantly interpreted for our time! Though there is no charge, reserve your spot here 💛

Seeds & Songs of Resilience

at Folk Art Guild’s Craft Weekend retreat Aug 6th - 9th

As the world unravels, seeds and songs keep us grounded. Let’s explore how embodied creative practices can open pathways for personal and collective resilience. We’ll play with song (listen here!), explore gardens, movement, forest bathe, write, reflect and rest. Whether you’re new to nature study and singing or have decades of experience tending these edges, you’re invited to join this circle of shared exploration dedicated to our shared well-being.

Together we’ll craft an evolving, communal sanctuary of discovery. We’ll play with song, explore gardens, welcome grounding movement, forest bathe, honor our lineages, write, share silence, reflect and rest. Each session alternates between the seeds leading us (with Petra, co-founder of Fruition Seeds) and song as our muse (with Tracy, founder of Vocal Bloom). We’ll share solo, partner and group explorations supported by gentle facilitations designed to spark curiosity, creativity and connection.

With seeds and songs as our ancestors and mentors, we’ll explore practices growing our personal as well as collective capacity to respond creatively, cultivating joy and resilience in these times.

learn more & join us here!

Common Ground Fair

Sept 26th - 27th in Unity, Maine

Join us singing as we cultivate gift culture throughout the Fair! Stay tuned for more details of exactly when & where we’ll be weaving magic together💛

Come Say Hi!

and don’t be shy

Friends, we’re in a chrysalis season here at the farm, resisting big gatherings so we can focus on internal becomings and deep personal connection. If you’d love to come visit for an hour or five or day or three, we’d love to weave you into our flow here and reach out anytime, petra@fruitionseeds.com, and

come hungry:

your plate is waiting💛

As Indigo Buntings sing in the sumac above ripening berries beside the sparkling, sonorous stream:

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and Friends, we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

And Friends:

Thank you

for growing with us

and sustaining us

in all the ways!

We grow and sustain each other.

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

As hickory nuts begin to swell here on Hickory Bottom Road, we’re grateful for this poem:

Names

Pine Ridge Road

Bog Hill

~

The names we give to places

~

Can be

a chance

~

If allowed to be

~

A prayer

of thanks

~

When spoken.

~ digger

If you’d love to receive periodic poems from digger in your inbox, send a sweet ask of an email to dougdecandia@gmail.com 💛

Take a peek at these gorgeous poppies 💛

We’ll be saving and gifting these seeds wide, growing a world more soft, beautiful and possible for our collective great grandchildren together:

And Friends, before I offer a delicious new podcast for your ears as well as heart, let’s listen to the beyond-human soundscape of this land that has grown ever more adaptive seeds — and me — these last fourteen seasons with Fruition…

imagine:

you

me

each seed

all of us

the fruits

of countless imaginations

longings, dreams & seasons

of this land:

We are so not alone.

So yes, welcome and let’s listen as we look across the fields:

Deep in the heat of June’s end, Goldfinches sing their scalloping flight over the whispering poppies, comfrey and clover hot in the breeze as 100+ fruit and nut trees reach for the sky above. A quiet symphony of wide lime leaves sing of new growth in the swaying branches. A Great-Crested Flycatcher sits sonorous atop a 4 year old pear, freshly 10 feet tall.

And can I tell you?

The coarse, optimist croaks of the Great Crested Flycatcher have emerged from the hedgerow all these years but today, as this one sings from the center of our fledgling community orchard, I feel in my heart as well as bones:

Some of these fields

after being clear cut two centuries ago

are returning to trees.

A lot of beings are singing about it.

And this:

Home

Adam Wilson writes

is a place where

nothing is sold.

And Friends:

We are all growing

changing and

ever making home

for each other here.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, thank you for joining us.

Indigo Bunting and Song Sparrow join Cricket as a surround-sound choir as I stand, makeshift desk on the porch, rap-tap-tapping at this keyboard, thanking these words for slowing down more than just me as we relish the raucous, ebullient polyphany that is June.

What is the sound closest to you?

What is the sound farthest from you?

What is the easiest sound to hear?

What is the most subtle sound you can hear?

What sound is most familiar?

What sound is least familiar?

What sound brings up emotion for you?

What sound brings the most joy?

Thank you for slowing down to listen to the world so vastly alive around us…

…and within us all 💛

And Friends, speaking of listening, I’m honored to share a recent conversation with my dear friend Dan we recorded for his remarkable podcast, The Seed Grower:

listen here!

You’ll hear lots of stories and learnings around Fruition’s transformation from selling to gifting seeds, diving deep into what these seasons have meant and where we are heading. You’ll hear me laugh and shed a tear (or two), as well.

And Friends, though I wish otherwise, sharing such stories in writing has felt largely out of reach in this season of life. I am grateful they emerge easefully in conversation with beloved humans on the farm and beyond…

…and Dan, I’m endlessly thankful for your generosity and joy making it possible for us all to listen to each other and perhaps even ourselves 💛

Also, if you’re curious about the deeper breeding of Dulcinea carrot (above), Mermaid’s Aurora collard + cabbage (below) as well as other delicious behind-the-scenes details of how seeds find their way from our gardens to yours, you’ll likely not see seeds quite the same. There are so many ways to listen and I hope you enjoy

What can we sow now?

So(w) much!

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

~ In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and Friends, we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

And Friends:

Thank you

for growing with us

and sustaining us

in all the ways!

we are the seeds

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

As Juneberries and Cherries ripen, surrounded all night by Fireflies, we are so grateful for this poem:

Gift

Years from now

I hope to be

a tree

who has gathered seasons

of light and given

just as much

comfort to those around me

---

May these roots

feed the earth

my branches carry fire

please take this trunk

and build your home

and catch my leaves with children

---

Know that I

am forever yours

and We

are the gift

I’ve lived for

~ digger

If you’d love to receive periodic poems from digger in your inbox, send a sweet ask of an email to dougdecandia@gmail.com 💛

…did you know?

We can gently pull rather than snap garlic scapes,

often releasing 8+ inches of tender, scrumptious scape

beneath where they emerge from their leaves!

It took us lots of practice to become consistent at patiently lifting rather than snapping scapes and whoever you are, wherever you are, here’s a lil video sharing how:

how to pull vs snap your garlic scapes

And ohhhhh, in addition to sunset walks surrounded by fireflies, here is another favorite flavor of June, especially when we grill the scapes first:

As garlic scapes rise and baby birds fly:

What can we sow now?

So(w) much!

And Friends, a lil update from the farm 💛

We’re deeply savoring slowing down, here on the land, tending the seeds and the people who join us. Dozens of species across several acres are burgeoning green are bursting into flower with some green seed pods already forming, like those of these watermelon radish pollinated by countless beings, including this hummingbird moth:

I (Petra, here!) am stepping into a season of reflection and skill-building, strengthening my community storytelling muscles. A student to many (especially the seeds themselves), you’ll notice less big public gatherings on the farm this summer (though there will be some, stay tuned!) as I focus inward. An immersion with MaMuse, cross-pollinating at Bread & Puppet and steeping with regional elders and storykeepers will nourish so much more than anything I can yet anticipate…

…and I look so forward to sharing the journey with you 💛

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

~ In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and Friends, we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

And Friends:

Thank you

for growing with us

and sustaining us

in all the ways!

we are the seeds

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

As our hearts break for so much violence, hunger and longing in the world, we are moved to tears, so grateful for garlic and the fact of this poem:

Bowing

-

Garlic scapes

like a group

of swans

-

Curl

their necks

in the garden

-

Heads white,

beaked

and bowing

-

As if

to the miracle

that makes us different

-

And

so very much

the same.

~ digger

If you’d love to receive periodic poems from digger in your inbox, send a sweet ask of an email to dougdecandia@gmail.com 💛

Today, May 14, 2026, I am about to drive 100 miles to Buffalo gift seeds and seedlings to anyone who comes to 5 Loaves Farm from 6 to 8 pm.

There is so much more to say, and for now:

Every day is an anniversary of an unthinkable horror.

Every day is also the anniversary of countless improbable acts of individual and collective resistance and resilience.

As we honor them both we become the friends, neighbors, elders and beloved ancestors who will be remembered for the

seeds we sowed in the darkest of times

the songs we sang in the bleakest of hours

the soil, spirits and (im)possible worlds

we grew fertile with our love and longing.

Seeds are healing

& we are healing.

As the Mexican proverb endlessly reminds:

They tried to bury us.

They didn’t know we were seeds.

So grateful to be seeds & in this together, Friends 💛

Local Loves, see you soon!

Rochester Plant Share

Friday, May 15th from 6:30 to 7:30 pm at the Public Market

Expect thousands of vegetable, herb & flower seedlings as well as Fruition’s community seed table: rather than a Gift of Seed practice with seeds in packets, we’ll have a few dozen bags of seeds for you to dip into, receiving for you as well as community gardens, seed libraries, schools and other ways we remember how to share together.

bring:

~ any seedlings / cuttings / bareroot divisions you’d love to share

~ box(es) to bring transplants home in

~ your capacity to receive generously, even (especially!) if you’ve no plants to give:

(y)our hunger is (y)our greatest offering

and join us on the farm for spring’s final Fruition

Gift of Seeds & Transplants

Saturday, May 16th from 1 to 3 pm

Wildflower, bird, fern: Nature hike at the farm & potluck to follow!

Thank you for arriving ~15 minutes early to settle in & plan to stay the whole time: think community ceremonial theater — with puppets & immersive, participatory experience! — rather than drop in seed swap vibe 💛

bring:

~ any seedlings / cuttings / bareroot divisions you’d love to share

~ a box to bring transplants home in

~ open hands & heart to receive (especially if you’ve no transplants to share)

~ hunger for a world we dream of (let’s grow a more resilient, delicious world together)

~ boots (& binoculars…!) prepared for spring mud if you join us for the nature hike

~ dairy-free potluck offering & courage to stay for supper, even if you just bring you 💛

As lilacs bloom and tanagers return:

What can we sow now?

So(w) much!

We are the seeds!

And let us gift you seeds:

In gorgeous Fruition packets as well as in larger quantities for your regional seed libraries, community gardens, schools & other ways we practicing sharing rather than selling…

nourishing us all

& all generations to come 💛

Our many regionally adapted seeds we share as gifts in our gatherings, take a peek:

find full event details here!

If you’d love to come ~40 minutes early to help set up our Seed Feast, play acoustic music or bring us a dairy-free snack (!), we love you and don’t be shy.

Also, if you’d love to gift seeds or anything else to gift us all, thanks for arriving ~20 minutes early to contribute to the cornucopia!

Thurs, May 14: Gift of Seed at 5 Loaves Farm from 6 to 8 in Buffalo, NY

Fri, May 15: Transplant Swap & Share at Public Market from 6:30 to 7:30 in Rochester, NY

Sat, May 16: Gift of Seed & Transplants from 1 to 3 pm at Fruition, nature hike & potluck to follow (details on website)

Tues, May 19: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Eberhart Center from 6 to 8 in Canandaigua, NY

Sat, May 23: Community seed gifting from 1 to 3 pm at Green Visions in Rochester, NY (rather than a Gift of Seed practice, we’ll be gifting dozens of varieties of bulk seed for communities to receive & spread wide)

Stay tuned for music, abundance sharing, plays & more opportunities to savor, laugh, learn, serve & grow together all summer, fall & for seasons to come!

all events & details here!

Becoming Good Soil Together:

work parties on the farm are sprouting once again!

Rain or shine, come and go as you please: There are always a diversity of activities honoring the many ways we share, grow and may be of service together. Bring a dairy-free offering for our lunch potluck and clothes to be comfortable in our ever-changing and beautiful world.

Sunday May 17 from 1 to 4 pm, Monday May 18 from 10 to 4 pm

Sunday, May 31 from 1 to 4 pm, Monday June 1 from 10 to 4 pm

Monday, June 8 from 10 to 4

Sunday, June 14 from 1 to 4 pm, Monday June 15 from 10 to 4 pm

And Friends, if you’d love to slumber party and stay a day (or three!), send a sweet ask of an email and bring your toothbush: your plate is waiting 💛

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

~ In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and Friends, we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

And Friends:

Thank you

for growing with us

and sustaining us

in all the ways!

we are the seeds

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

Gift

Years from now

I hope to be

a tree

who has gathered seasons

of light and given

just as much

comfort to those around me

---

May these roots

feed the earth

my branches carry fire

please take this trunk

and build your home

and catch my leaves with children

---

~ digger

If you’d love to receive periodic poems from digger in your inbox, send a sweet ask of an email to dougdecandia@gmail.com 💛

with oceans of pollen nourishing clouds of insects and the Blackburnian warblers have traveled thousands of miles to arrive at the party, right on time:

Let’s join them!

Frost was sparkling in the grass this morning, melting as the sun rose (so early, have you noticed?!) and perhaps you, like me, feel the beautiful, tender, constantly changing edges that come from having many homes, too:

I feel, deep in my bones, the immense gratitude for all the people across the Northeast these many months who have made home for and with the seeds and me, sitting in circles large and small, gathering strangers and friends, receiving so generously countless tens of thousands of seeds, gifts of the earth longing for life to sprout again, gifts of our longing to gift rather than sell these exquisite, deliciously adaptive beings:

thank you

we make and sow the gardens of home together

And home, ohhhhhhh this home here on this land, this farm, these hills and glens, communities of beloved beings, human and beyond…

And Friends, perhaps you’re like me and tend a tender awareness of the impact that leaving one home has on our beloved friends, neighbors and strangers, as we go to nourish the worlds of our homes…

…and as cilantro, fava beans and peas burst through slowly warming soil, I am grateful for land and the seeds and the long-traveling orioles as well as each of us hungry,

voracious

for the relational gifts

that come when we

slow down

and share

on land

together:

we are the seeds

Digging Deeper:

Where do you feel most at home right now?

Where else do you feel at home in the world?

How would you describe the migrations of your life, in your heart and in the world?

How might you honor and nourish the many places you feel at home, near and far?

How might you honor the needs, instincts and necessities — of movement, of change, of migration — in our hearts and in our families, of all our human kin and beings beyond?

In body as well as spirit:

Would you join us, Friends?

We’re about to share music, transplants, food and community as well as seeds as gifts on the farm this week and ohhhhhhh we’d love to see, share & grow with you 💛

And can we talk about gifts for a moment?

there is nothing you need to do to ‘earn’ a gift

no amount of money can ‘buy’ a gift

gifts are not ours, even as we receive them

gifts are like breath:

gifts become nourishing for us all

as we generously receive

give thanks

and let go

in ways that keep us all in mind

especially our great grandchildren

and all species yet to come.

Deliciously, generously, joyously

in body and / or spirit

join us savoring the gifts

of presence, transplants, listening, seeds, breath, connection, community 💛

Join us savoring the sweet serenade of Desiree Dawson sharing a house concert here on the farm on Friday, May 8th. Farm tour at 4, potluck at 5 and music from 6:30 to 8. She is deep medicine for us and perhaps she'll have medicine for you, too:

And ohhhhhh let’s share and expand together our

Gift of Seeds & Transplants

Saturday, May 9th from 10 am to 3 pm

bring:

~ any seedlings / cuttings / bareroot divisions you’d love to share

~ organic seedling / seed starting (not potting) mix

~ 3-4” containers to pot up tomatoes

~ a box to bring transplants home in

~ open hands & heart to receive (especially if you’ve no transplants to share)

~ hunger for a world we dream of (let’s grow a more resilient, delicious world together)

10 to noon: potting up hundreds of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatillos, flower and herb transplants together (arrive anytime)

noon: potluck! we’ll share soup & salad from the farm

1 to 3 pm: Gift of Seeds & Transplants (thank you for arriving ~15 minutes early to settle in & plan to stay the whole time: think community ceremonial theater — and immersive, participatory experience — rather than drop in seed swap vibe)

Crucially: everyone will be invited to receive transplants, even if you don’t have plants to share💛

Food for Thought:

Do we expect a freshly sown tomato seed to offer us a tomato sandwich that same afternoon? Tomatoes unapologetically seek the sun to receive what they need and Friends, what if our needs felt this fruitful?

As trilliums bloom and grosbeaks return:

What can we sow now?

So(w) much!

We are the seeds!

And let us gift you seeds:

In gorgeous Fruition packets as well as in larger quantities for your regional seed libraries, community gardens, schools & other mutual aid networks…

nourishing us all

& all generations to come 💛

Our many regionally adapted seeds we share as gifts in our gatherings, take a peek:

find full event details here!

If you’d love to come ~40 minutes early to help set up our Seed Feast, play acoustic music or bring us a dairy-free snack (!), we love you and don’t be shy.

Also, if you’d love to gift seeds or anything else to gift us all, thanks for arriving ~20 minutes early to contribute to the cornucopia!

Sat, May 9: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (details above)

Tues, May 12: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Library in Geneva, NY (details on website)

Thurs, May 14: Gift of Seed at 5 Loaves Farm from 6 to 8 in Buffalo, NY

Fri, May 15: Transplant Swap & Share at Public Market from 6:30 to 7:30 in Rochester, NY

Sat, May 16: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (details on website)

Tues, May 19: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Eberhart Center from 6 to 8 in Canandaigua, NY

Sat, May 23: Community seed gifting from 1 to 3 pm at Green Visions in Rochester, NY (rather than a Gift of Seed practice, we’ll be gifting 100+ varieties of bulk seed for communities to receive & spread wide)

Stay tuned for music, abundance sharing, plays & more opportunities to savor, laugh, learn, serve & grow together all summer, fall & for seasons to come!

all events & details here!

Becoming Good Soil Together:

work parties on the farm are sprouting once again!

Rain or shine, come and go as you please: There are always a diversity of activities honoring the many ways we share, grow and may be of service together. Bring a dairy-free offering for our lunch potluck and clothes to be comfortable in our ever-changing and beautiful world.

Monday, May 11 from 10 to 4 pm

Sunday May 17 from 1 to 4 pm, Monday May 18 from 10 to 4 pm

Sunday, May 31 from 1 to 4 pm, Monday June 1 from 10 to 4 pm

Monday, June 8 from 10 to 4

Sunday, June 14 from 1 to 4 pm, Monday June 15 from 10 to 4 pm

And Friends, if you’d love to slumber party and stay a day (or three!), send a sweet ask of an email and bring your toothbush: your plate is waiting 💛

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

~ In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs (which we’ve freshly updated, HuzZaH!) and Friends, we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

And Friends:

Thank you

for growing with us

and sustaining us

in all the ways!

we are the seeds

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

As warblers land in our branches after traveling a thousand miles and often more, we are grateful to remember migration is sacred, in humans and warblers alike, and like a lost child wondering where their mother is, may we all feel the earth beneath our feet, trusting so vividly, as Olly Costello encourages us to remember:

“This

is love

made visible,”

she said, looking out over dozens of people joyfully scooping seeds for one another. “And to think of all these seeds traveling across watersheds and states, even states of mind, gifting communities most in need…

…this is life changing.”

And Friends, before we begin:

Tune in! I’m talking seeds, spring, compost & gift culture with Evan Dawson on Connections at 1 pm eastern on Wednesday, April 29th.

Troy and Cooperstown, see you this weekend! We’re sharing seeds in packets as well as bulk seeds for you to gift your local seed libraries and community gardens, too 💛

Local Loves: In addition to all our upcoming seed gifting, seed starting and transplant swapping (!), join us savoring the sweet serenade of Desiree Dawson sharing a house concert here on the farm on Friday, May 8th. Farm tour at 4, potluck at 5 and music from 6:30 to 8. Her medicine for the world is such a gift.

And Friends, can I tell you?

Last week, over 70 people gathered

to receive the gift of seeds

to gift seed libraries, community gardens, schools and mutual aid networks across the northeast and beyond.

For three days we fed each other at these long tables:

And Saturday we shared a Seed Feast like no other: Fruition’s first annual bulk seed gifting gathering enshrouded all surfaces with 100+ bags, jars and 10-gallon totes (!) full of seeds bursting open, like so many hearts:

Take a deep breath and imagine

can you feel?

all these people

bringing all these seeds

to so many communities, large and small

near and far

and can I tell you?

It was such balm for our souls: rather than the frenetic feeding frenzy that can so easily descend like hungry hyenas on seed ‘swaps’ and other spaces where “things” are deemed ‘free,’

the respect

the listening

the slow, deep connection

the love

so audible in our ears

here in our hands

being poured into countless bags:

have you ever seen so much love so

visible?

Matthew, my beloved partner (above), shared such a powerful sentiment before we gathered:

“I don’t want to control these seeds,”

he said. “They are generous beings, gifts on their own journey.

And yet I feel, when we send our children off to school, how vital it is to know and build trust with their teachers, as well as other parents…

How do we cultivate

such deep, wide webs

of relationship

with these seeds

with each other?

The questions we ask — and especially the ones we don’t — become the care and community that is our future.”

Friends, how do we disentangle ourselves from cultural conditioning that entitles us, when we see so many seeds without a price tag:

“they’re free, so take as much as you want…”

As we slow down our consumer minds, how do we nourish our hearts longing to sustain rather than monetize the world, ourselves and each other?

One of a thousand thousand ways:

At our Seed Feasts, no one receives their ‘own’ seeds.

Joyfully scooping seeds for ‘strangers’

we serve each other

keeping each other in mind

practicing releasing the perception

of something as ‘mine’

deepening our connection

and generous accountability

to the multitudes of other beings

whose lives are inseparable from own.

Friends:

If the muscles of ‘getting even’ can build such high walls, imagine what those muscles might build when we widen our tables?

Then came the moment when someone whispered in my ear:

“Are you afraid

people will take

more than they need?”

“Ohhhhh, listen!” I said. “Our beloved friend and mentor Adam Wilson taught us to listen for a phrase people often say, when offered a gift — something not needing to earned, bought, bartered or otherwise controlled:

“…but surely someone needs this more than me?”

And sure enough, he reported an hour later that he needed more than two hands to count how many times he had heard gracious paraphrases spoken aloud around those long, seed-laden tables.

And Friends, we’ve heard it innumerable times across countless circumstances and this is among the reasons why we haven’t given up on our species yet:

“…but surely someone needs this more than me?”

The words of a heart keeping other hearts in mind. A life whose life is intertwined with all life. A person choosing connection and care often over perhaps even their own comfort:

“…but surely someone needs this more than me?”

Can you imagine hearing these words walking down a grocery store aisle? Especially when something is on sale?

These words are deeper in our bones than the need for dollars:

“…but surely someone needs this more than me?”

When will you hear these words next? How will your actions inspire them in little ways and large?

As we savor redbud blooms and greet freshly arrived Indigo Buntings:

What can we sow now?

So(w) much!

And Friends:

Let us gift you seeds!

In gorgeous Fruition packets as well as in larger quantities for your regional seed libraries, community gardens, schools & other mutual aid networks…

nourishing us all

& all generations to come 💛

Our many regionally adapted seeds we share as gifts in our gatherings, take a peek:

find full event details here!

If you’d love to come ~40 minutes early to help set up our Seed Feast, play acoustic music or bring us a dairy-free snack (!), we love you and don’t be shy.

Also, if you’d love to gift seeds or anything else to gift us all, thanks for arriving ~20 minutes early to contribute to the cornucopia!

Sat, May 2: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4:30 at Media Sanctuary in Troy, NY

Sun, May 3: 2 pm seed packing social; 3 to 5 pm Gift of Seed at Origins Cafe in Cooperstown, NY

Wed, May 6: Seed Starting at Fruition (details & sign up on website)

Sat, May 9: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (details on website)

Tues, May 12: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Library in Geneva, NY (details on website)

Thurs, May 14: Gift of Seed at 5 Loaves Farm from 6 to 8 in Buffalo, NY

Fri, May 15: Transplant Swap & Share at Public Market from 6:30 to 7:30 in Rochester, NY

Sat, May 16: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (details on website)

Sat, May 19: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Eberhart Center from 6 to 8 in Canandaigua, NY

Sat, May 23: Gift of Seed in Rochester, NY (more details to come)

Stay tuned for music, abundance sharing, plays & more opportunities to savor, laugh, learn, serve & grow together all summer, fall & for seasons to come!

all events & details here!

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

~ In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs (which we’ve freshly updated, HuzZaH!) and Friends, we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

~ We’d love to share that as of April 27th, we’ve received $12,850 as well as expansive gifts of relational and material generosity, from hugs and eggs to boots and belonging and beyond:

And Friends:

Thank you

for growing with us

and sustaining us

in all the ways!

we are the seeds

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

“Does gift economy exist?”

she asked, a sparkle in her eyes, smile wide.

“Do you feel them?

These seeds in your hands?

“And did you know?” she added:

“Seeds are everywhere.”

Gift economies are around and within, they are everywhere, Friends.

Can you imagine receiving the invoice for this, your next breath? Your next laughter? Your next hug?

These last 400 million years

plants have spread seeds wide

across the green Earth

without a single price tag

sale or discount code.

And for most of our 2 two million year human history, we did the same.

When did we stop trusting each other? When did we stop trusting ourselves? When did ‘getting even’ seem like trust more than the cyclic, synonymous tides of giving and receiving?

In cultures where we find ourselves most often spaces that are owned rather than shared, we understandably might feel gift economies don’t exist.

Yet the sun continues to shine

even through clouds

greening leaves and sending water vapor to sky

raining down generosity

that doesn’t stay in one place long

before becoming rivers and raspberries.

Gift economy

is within and all around us:

The foundation of any other economy

no matter how commodified.

As we practice re-membering, nourishing and re-imagining the gifts that flow through us, thank you for the hunger, the longing and the love that keeps you coming back to the well with us.

As we say often here on the farm:

we don’t have a lot of answers…

…but we do have a lot of seeds.

And Friends:

Let’s grow gift culture together!

Calling all who are connected to community gardens, seed libraries, schools and countless other ways seeds move through community in beyond-commercial ways, their gifts becoming gifts for us all:

We’re thrilled to invite you to

Fruition’s first annual

Growing Seed, Community & Capacity:

Gift Culture Camp & Bulk Seed Gifting

Friday, April 17th to Sunday, April 19th

as the larger community-building container for:

Bulk Seed Gifting Gathering at Fruition

Saturday, April 18th from 1 to 4 pm

Let’s cultivate gift culture and share seeds, learning, soup and spring together:

learn more & rsvp here!

Together, let’s explore and expand our capacities to notice and receive as well as how to give gifts:

In a culture where giving

is more comfortable than receiving

let’s practice receiving

so generously, Friends.

And in a culture where buying and selling are the predominate tendrils of connection between human and beyond-human worlds, it’s understandable that we might mistake seeds offered as a gift for zero market dollars as ‘free.’

Rather than free as in ‘beer,’ these seeds are perhaps free as in ‘speech,’ these certainly they are gifts, free as in Fannie Lou Hamer:

“None of us are free

until all of us are free”

And together let’s practice how we receive such gifts, amplifying generoisty for us all and especially our collective great-great-great grandchildren 💛

As daffodils burst and towhees return:

What can we sow now?

So(w) much!

And Friends:

Let us gift you seeds!

to gift us all 💛

& all generations to come

Our many regionally adapted seeds we share as gifts in our gatherings, take a peek:

find full event details here!

If you’d love to come ~40 minutes early to help set up our Seed Feast, play acoustic music or bring us a dairy-free snack (!), we love you and don’t be shy 💛

Also, if you’d love to gift seeds or anything else to gift us all, thanks for arriving ~20 minutes early to contribute to the cornucopia!

Wed, April 15: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Sawmill Herb Farm in Montague, MA (free)

Fri April 17th evening ~ Sun 19th morning Seed & Gifting Retreat: Bulk Seed Gifting & Gift Culture Cultivation for Community Organizers at Fruition (free, details here)

Sun, April 19: Growing the Gift of Seed (seed gifting 1 to 2 pm, seed starting 2 to 4 pm) at Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY (free, details on website)

Saturday, April 25: Gift of Seed from 3 to 5 pm followed by a potluck & evening of local author & poet readings with Earth Works: Writing Our Environmental Future at Gell Center at 6581 West Hollow Road in Naples, NY (free, register here)

April 28 – May 1st Retreat: Being Seeds in a Garden of Change at Holy Cross Monastery West Park, NY (sliding scale, details on website)

Sat, May 2: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4:30 at Media Sanctuary in Troy, NY (free)

Sun, May 3: 2 pm seed packing social; 3 to 5 pm Gift of Seed at Origins Cafe in Cooperstown, NY (free)

Wed, May 6: Seed Starting at Fruition (free, details on website)

Sat, May 9: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (free, details on website)

Tues, May 12: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Library in Geneva, NY (free, details on website)

Thurs, May 14: Gift of Seed at 5 Loaves Farm from 6 to 8 in Buffalo, NY (free)

Fri, May 15: Transplant Swap & Share at Public Market in Rochester, NY(free, details to come)

Sat, May 16: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (free, details to come)

Sat, May 19: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Eberhart Center from 6 to 8 in Canandaigua, NY (free, details to come)

Sat, May 23: Gift of Seed in Rochester, NY (free, more details to come)

Stay tuned for music, abundance sharing, plays & more opportunities to savor, laugh, learn, serve & grow together all summer, fall & for seasons to come!

all events & details here!

If you’d love to say thank you, we love you and wonder:

What if giving was the new receiving?

What if we couldn’t tell the difference?

What if you trusted your presence in our lives was simply enough?

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

~ In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

Thank you

for growing with us

in all the ways,

Friends!

we are the seeds

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

“This isn’t about seeds,”

she whispered to me, tears in her eyes.

“This is about community.”

Yessssss.

Can you feel them?

All the seeds germinating?

In the dark?

Shall we join them?

Finally having the courage to let go?

Of the hard protective coat we’ve only known?

First seeds send their roots down.

From the speck of a snapdragon to the immensity of coconut, every seed sends down their roots before their shoots rise.

They find what they need

there in the dark

leaving the rest.

How do you find the courage to receive what you need, leaving the rest behind?

Imagine being a root:

sense the stone

the salamander

the mycelium

How do your beyond human kin let you know you’re not alone?

Then, rooted in community

unseen by our eyes:

they rise.

Friends!

Whoever you are, wherever you are

thank you

for helping us compost

the incessant, independent ‘i’ of our culture

into a deeper, wider

‘we.’

Together let’s long for and deepen our roots, no matter how tender, into soil and imaginations ready to grow more fruitful futures for all.

Join us!

Calling all who are connected to community gardens, seed libraries, schools and countless other ways seeds move through community in beyond-commercial ways, their gifts becoming gifts for us all:

We’re thrilled to invite you to

Fruition’s first annual

Growing Seed, Community & Capacity:

Gift Culture Camp & Bulk Seed Gifting

Friday, April 17th to Sunday, April 19th

as the larger community-building container for:

Bulk Seed Gifting Gathering at Fruition

Saturday, April 18th from 1 to 4 pm

Let’s cultivate gift culture and share seeds, learning, soup and spring together:

learn more & rsvp here!

And Friends, Matthew and I (Petra, here!) welcome this gift of being together as students of the gift. Rather than centering Fruition as a model, we are honored to be with Friends— fellow heartbroken, humbled (and perhaps even hopeful) humans — hungry to practice, learn, compost and grow together.

All of us need all of us!

People practicing

diverse forms of mutual aid

from all over the Northeast

will be gathering...

...join us!

And what a gift to learn alongside you, Friends 💛

As pussy willows bloom and spring peepers gather their choirs:

What can we sow now?

So(w) much!

And Friends:

Let us gift you seeds!

to gift us all 💛

& all generations to come

Our many regionally adapted seeds we share as gifts in our gatherings, take a peek:

find full event details here!

If you’d love to come ~40 minutes early to help set up our Seed Feast, play acoustic music or bring us a dairy-free snack (!), we love you and don’t be shy 💛

Also, if you’d love to gift seeds or anything else to gift us all, thanks for arriving ~20 minutes early to contribute to the cornucopia!

Sat, April 4: Gift of Seed from 1 to 4, followed by a potluck at Fruition (free, more details on website)

Wed, April 8: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at UU Society of Schenectady, NY (free)

Sat, April 11: Gift of Seed, Keynote & other delights at the Maine Seed Festival (free)

Wed, April 15: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Sawmill Herb Farm in Montague, MA (free)

Fri April 17th evening ~ Sun 19th morning Seed & Gifting Retreat: Bulk Seed Gifting & Gift Culture Cultivation for Community Organizers at Fruition (free, details here)

Sun, April 19: Growing the Gift of Seed (seed gifting 1 to 2 pm, seed starting 2 to 4 pm) at Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY (free, details on website)

Saturday, April 25: Gift of Seed from 3 to 5 pm followed by a potluck & evening of local author & poet readings with Earth Works: Writing Our Environmental Future at Gell Center at 6581 West Hollow Road in Naples, NY (free, register here)

April 28 – May 1st Retreat: Being Seeds in a Garden of Change at Holy Cross Monastery West Park, NY (sliding scale, details on website)

Sat, May 2: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4:30 at Media Sanctuary in Troy, NY (free)

Sun, May 3: Gift of Seed from 3 to 5 at Origins Cafe in Cooperstown, NY (free)

Wed, May 6: Seed Starting at Fruition (free, details on website)

Sat, May 9: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (free, details on website)

Tues, May 12: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Library in Geneva, NY (free, details on website)

Thurs, May 14: Gift of Seed at 5 Loaves in Buffalo, NY (free)

Fri, May 15: Transplant Swap & Share at Public Market in Rochester, NY(free, details to come)

Sat, May 16: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (free, details to come)

Sat, May 19: Gift of Seed & Transplants in Canandaigua, NY (free, details to come)

Sat, May 23: Gift of Seed in Rochester, NY (free, more details to come)

Stay tuned for music, abundance sharing, plays & more opportunities to savor, laugh, learn, serve & grow together all summer, fall & for seasons to come!

all events & details here!

If you’d love to say thank you, we love you and wonder:

What if giving was the new receiving?

What if we couldn’t tell the difference?

What if you trusted your presence in our lives was simply enough?

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

~ In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

Thank you

for journeying with us

in all the ways,

Friends!

we are the seeds

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

As maple sap becomes sweet syrup and phoebes return boisterous:

What can we sow now?

So(w) much!

And Friends,

within and despite

the deep dark

of our cultural times:

We rise!

And Ithaca:

Come say hi!

As so many seeds sense it is finally time to rise:

Let’s start seeds together!

We’ve several seed starting workshops upcoming on the farm and beyond (take a peek at our events calendar!), and Friends, whoever you are, wherever you are:

did you know?

We made you growing and seed saving insight and inspiration for every seed we share on our website, in addition to videos, blogs, growing guides and even online courses including

Starting Seeds with Ease

together we rise!

And Friends, all these gifts are free not as in ‘valueless’ but as in Fannie Lou Hamer:

‘None of us are free

until all of us are free.’

and they’re made to be shared, as all gifts are, so don’t be shy 💛

Here’s the downloadable, printable PDF of our 26-page seed starting book, Rise & Shine: Starting Seeds with Ease:

Fun fact: I injured my leg in the Adirondacks many years ago (!) and wrote this book as I cooked for all my friends who were out cross-country skiing all day. Here’s to the silver linings often beautiful as well as delicious:

And Friends:

Let us gift you seeds!

to gift us all 💛

& all generations to come

Our 300+ regionally adapted seeds we share as gifts in our gatherings, take a peek:

find full event details here!

If you’d love to come ~40 minutes early to help set up our Seed Feast, play acoustic music or bring us a dairy-free snack (!), we love you and don’t be shy 💛

Also, if you’d love to gift seeds or anything else to gift us all, thanks for arriving ~20 minutes early to contribute to the cornucopia!

Wed, March 25: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 at CPP High School Cafeteria in Corning, NY (free)

Fri, March 27: potluck followed by expansive Gift of Seed focused on deepening community connections from 5 to 8:30 at Foundation of Light in Ithaca, NY (free)

Sat, March 28: Gift of Seed from 10 to noon (new time!) at Soil Factory followed by the No Kings rally in Ithaca, NY (free)

Tues, March 31: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Wood Library in Canandaigua, NY (free)

Wed, April 1: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at St Elizabeth Motherhouse in Alleghany, NY (free)

Thurs, April 2: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at RIT’s Bamboo Room in Rochester, NY (free)

Fri, April 3: ​From 9 to 11 am we’ll share light breakfast fare as we pack seeds and learn how sunflowers can help remove heavy metals from the soil. All are welcome, drop in anytime and register so we can send you specific directions to Causewave Community Partners in Rochester, NY (free)

Sat, April 4: Gift of Seed at Fruition (free, more details on website)

Wed, April 8: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at UU Society of Schenectady, NY (free)

Sat, April 11: Gift of Seed, Keynote & other delights at the Maine Seed Festival (free)

Wed, April 15: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Sawmill Herb Farm in Montague, MA (free)

Fri April 17th evening ~ Sun 19th morning Seed & Gifting Retreat: Bulk Seed Gifting & Gift Culture Cultivation for Community Organizers at Fruition (free, details on website)

If you are connected to community gardens, seed libraries and other means of sharing seed abundance in non-commercial ways, join us to receive lots of bulk seeds and deepen our gift culture community and skills together!

Sun, April 19: Growing the Gift of Seed (seed gifting 1 to 2 pm, seed starting 2 to 4 pm) at Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY (free, details on website)

Saturday, April 25: Gift of Seed from 3 to 5 pm followed by a potluck & evening of local author & poet readings with Earth Works: Writing Our Environmental Future at Gell Center at 6581 West Hollow Road in Naples, NY

If you love language as much as gardens, this is the Gift of Seed for you!

April 28 – May 1st Retreat: Being Seeds in a Garden of Change at Holy Cross Monastery West Park, NY (sliding scale, details on website)

Sat, May 2: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4:30 at Media Sanctuary in Troy, NY (free)

Sun, May 3: Gift of Seed in Cooperstown, NY (free, details to come)

Wed, May 6: Seed Starting at Fruition (free, details on website)

Sat, May 9: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (free, details on website)

Tues, May 12: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Library in Geneva, NY (free, details on website)

Thurs, May 14: Gift of Seed at Trinity Church in Buffalo, NY (free)

Fri, May 15: Transplant Swap & Share at Public Market in Rochester, NY(free, details to come)

Sat, May 16: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (free, details to come)

Sat, May 19: Gift of Seed & Transplants in Canandaigua, NY (free, details to come)

Sat, May 23: Gift of Seed in Rochester, NY (free, more details to come)

Stay tuned for music, abundance sharing, plays & more opportunities to savor, laugh, learn, serve & grow together all summer, fall & for seasons to come!

all events & details here!

If you’d love to say thank you, we love you and wonder:

What if giving was the new receiving?

What if we couldn’t tell the difference?

What if you trusted your presence in our lives was simply enough?

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

~ In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

Thank you

for journeying with us

in all the ways,

Friends!

we are the seeds

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

As we prepare to sow cold-loving poppies and phacelia, we are so grateful for this poem:

Rose and Poppy

When I fall to thinking

I am not enough

~

I imagine

the rose and poppy

~

And encouraged

by the presence

~

Of love’s

abundance

~

I rise

like a flower in spring.

~ digger

If you’d love to receive periodic poems from digger, send a sweet ask of an email to dougdecandia@gmail.com

ppps

...and though I was grinning from ear to ear, I found myself craving lyrics less about rum and debauchery and more about

joy and resilience

courage and encouragement

resistance and refuge

cultivating cultures of care

with commitments to mutual flourishing

we remember, re-imagine and practice together.

So Friends, we've re-hydrated many traditional sea shanties since…

…and we fondly call them

see(d) shanties!

Why?

As much as we wish many ships in the last millennia had stayed at anchor to heal their own hearts and homelands, we now sing these see(d) shanties to

break spells of scarcity

and cast spells of belonging

seeing

the moment we’re in and

seeding

futures with peace, healing and abundant gardens for all 💛

So come!

Join us!

Let’s sing as we cross oceans serene and tumultuous...

....finding meaning and nourishing mystery, grounding land and joyful harmony together:

we sing & sow til we free us 💛

Here is one of my favorites, a traditional sea shanty called Bully in the Alley, whose title references an old English phrase:

To be ‘bully’ in the alley was to be black-out drunk in the alley...

...and we live in a rather toxically inebriated culture with power-hungry bullies at the helm, yes?

Thanks for

laughing & crying

rigging & rowing

singing & sowing

our way to

new worlds together!

Chorus:

Oh help me Friend / there’s a bully in the alley
Way HEY! Bully in the alley
help me Friend / there’s a bully in the alley
What we gotta compost now?

Now, fascists think that some of us are better
Way HEY! Some of us are better
We’re still learning we’re all in this together
What we gotta compost now? (Chorus!)

What if lettuce was better than a carrot?
Way HEY! better than a carrot?
All life is sacred in this salad!
What we gotta compost now? (Chorus!)

Hitler thought he was better his brother
Way HEY! better than his brother
Why we got to other one another?
What we gotta compost now? (Chorus!)

Can you feel the seasons changing
Way HEY! seasons changing
Leaves & neurons growing, rearranging
What we gotta compost now? (Chorus!)

Trump wants us to fear our neighbors
Way HEY! fear our neighbors
But we’re not afraid of love or labor
What we gotta compost now? (Chorus!)

We call each other here to remember
Way HEY! here to remember
We are both so strong & tender
What we gotta compost now? (Chorus!)

Let’s compost, Friends, the bully in our hearts
Way HEY! The bully in our hearts
We shout aloud it’s not too late to start!
What we gotta compost now? (Chorus!)

And in case you’re preparing, just like us:

And Friends:

Let us gift you seeds!

to gift us all

& all generations to come

Our 300+ regionally adapted seeds we share as gifts in our gatherings, take a peek:

find full event details here!

If you’d love to come ~40 minutes early to help set up our Seed Feast, play acoustic music or bring us a dairy-free snack (!), we love you and don’t be shy 💛

Also, if you’d love to gift seeds or anything else to gift us all, thanks for arriving ~20 minutes early to contribute to the cornucopia!

Thurs, March 5: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 at Village Community Room (behind the Library) in Potsdam, NY (free)

Tues, March 17: Gift of Seed from 5 to 8 in at HardPressed in West Danville, VT (free)

Thurs, March 19: Sand River Community Farm supper at 5:30 with Gift of Seed from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Grange in Keeseville, NY (free)

Sat, Mar 21: Rochester Urban Ag Conference & Seed Swap! (sliding scale, registration is limited & register here!)

Wed, March 25: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 at CPP High School Cafeteria in Corning, NY (free)

Fri, March 27: potluck, mini Gift of Seed + community gift culture + solidarity conversation from 5 to 8:30 at Foundation of Light in Ithaca, NY (free)

Sat, March 28: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4 pm at Soil Factory in Ithaca, NY (free)

Tues, March 31: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Wood Library in Canandaigua, NY (free)

Wed, April 1: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at St Elizabeth Motherhouse in Alleghany, NY (free)

Thurs, April 2: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at RIT’s Bamboo Room in Rochester, NY (free)

Sat, April 4: Gift of Seed at Fruition (fre, more details on website)

Wed, April 8: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at UU Society of Schenectady, NY (free)

Sat, April 11: Gift of Seed, Keynote & other delights at the Maine Seed Festival (free)

Wed, April 15: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Sawmill Herb Farm in Montague, MA (free)

Fri April 17th evening ~ Sun 19th morning Seed & Gifting Retreat: Bulk Seed Gifting & Gift Culture Cultivation for Community Organizers at Fruition (free, details on website)

If you are connected to community gardens, seed libraries and other means of sharing seed abundance in non-commercial ways, join us to receive lots of bulk seeds and deepen our gift culture community and skills together!

Sun, April 19: Growing the Gift of Seed (seed gifting 1 to 2 pm, seed starting 2 to 4 pm) at Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY (free, details on website)

April 28 – May 1st Retreat: Being Seeds in a Garden of Change at Holy Cross Monastery West Park, NY (sliding scale, details on website)

Sat, May 2: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4:30 at Media Sanctuary in Troy, NY (free)

Sun, May 3: Gift of Seed in Cooperstown, NY (free, details to come)

Wed, May 6: Seed Starting at Fruition (free, details on website)

Sat, May 9: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (free, details on website)

Tues, May 12: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Library in Geneva, NY (free, details on website)

Thurs, May 14: Gift of Seed at Trinity Church in Buffalo, NY (free)

Fri, May 15: Transplant Swap & Share at Public Market in Rochester, NY(free, details to come)

Sat, May 16: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (free, details to come)

Sat, May 19: Gift of Seed & Transplants in Canandaigua, NY (free, details to come)

Sat, May 23: Gift of Seed in Rochester, NY (free, more details to come)

Stay tuned for music, abundance sharing, plays & more opportunities to savor, laugh, learn, serve & grow together all summer, fall & for seasons to come!

all events & details here!

If you’d love to say thank you, we love you and wonder:

What if giving was the new receiving?

What if we couldn’t tell the difference?

What if you trusted your presence in our lives was simply enough?

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

~ In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

Thank you

for journeying with us

in all the ways,

Friends!

we are the seeds

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

ppps

Rain gently falls as I sip maple sap, cardinals singing of spring as mulch rings around fruit trees suddenly become visible, deep snows rushing to become lake.

Can you feel?

The deep wet chill of the world?

And also the life

coursing so vividly

in the veins of trees

birds singing in the branches?

Let’s join them.

And Friends, after three weeks of gifting seeds around the Northeast, I’d love to share 1 affirmation, 1 gratitude, 1 intention (how Matthew and I begin & end most days) to surround us all with care and courage as we practice new worlds together.

Affirmation​:

Takes A Village

​Hundreds of people made it possible for thousands of people to receive seeds as gifts

practicing

releasing the fiction

of buying and selling life

even if just for a moment

and Friends, I am in awe of the gifts large and small that so many people offered so joyfully. Thank you 💛

Coordinating community space for us to gather, spreading the word to friends and neighbors, coming early to share laughter, pack seeds and laying wide the Seed Feast together, tucking seeds back in boxes, welcoming a seedy songbird into their home for a night or two, surrounding me with nourishment as well as friendship: I felt so welcomed and utterly at home everywhere I went.

And Friends, I’m an extrovert, but nonetheless:

stepping into such a

swift, wide river

of giving and receiving

and finding them synonymous

is only possible

when we go together.

Thank you for coming with us.

Also, a toast to all the people who joined our Gift of Seed practices: you showed UP! In the bustle of modern life, in the deep and relative mystery of what even are we doing and how: thank you for trusting and going on a journey with us.

And for feeeeeeeeling with us.

I often jest, without joking:

our seeds are more expensive than ever —

you have to feel your feelings.

A person in Massachusetts asked: What does success look like for you now? And immediately I knew: If at even one person is moved to tears, I am doing my work. Thank you for helping us all succeed.

Gratitude:

S​eeds!

Our 400 Million-Year-Old Mentors & Kin

Thank you, seeds, for living daily the joy, courage and necessity of knowing where, when and how to germinate. Of opening up, of shaking off a seed coat that no longer serves. Of sending down roots, of sending up shoots, of bending in the breeze, of being in relationship with a thousand thousand beings, animate and (deceptively) inanimate all around. Of the beauty, the challenge, the dance of adapting.

In the​se past 13 seasons of Fruition Seeds, we’ve grown in the wettest year on record (in our county) as well as the driest, the warmest as well as the coldest.

As atmospheric and cultural climates change

we’re grateful for the seeds

that continue to germinate

even in seasons of despair:

May we do the same.

Thank you for bringing us together, seeds. Across so many seasons as well as political and cultural borders. For nourishing us every day, that we might remember to see and feed each other, composting the questions of who is worthy.

​As Adam Wilson shared in a closing circle:

“Thank you seeds

for not giving up on us.

I endeavor to not give up on us, either.”

Intention:

Iteration is Love & Iterate We Shall!

The intended comedic & perennial invitation of Fruition is that we are always ‘coming to fruition,’ always growing, always decomposing, always becoming. Growth is not linear and not always upward. Pruning, letting go and compost is essential. In this constant adaptation and becoming, we are committed to finding yet deeper ways to bring to life the wisdom that All Flourishing is Mutual.

Thank you for growing with us in all the ways, Friends!

We’ll continue to deepen our story telling (it’s so sweet to fall in love with puppets...!) and find ever more ways to live and love as if all of us need all of us...

...and we’re so grateful to keep sowing and growing together 💛

And Friends:

Let us gift you seeds!

to gift us all

& all generations to come

Our 300+ regionally adapted seeds we share as gifts in our gatherings, take a peek:

find full event details here!

If you’d love to come ~40 minutes early to help set up our Seed Feast, play acoustic music or bring us a dairy-free snack (!), we love you and don’t be shy 💛

Also, if you’d love to contribute seeds to the offering, thanks for arriving ~20 minutes early to contribute to the cornucopia!

Wed, Mar 4: Buddhist Mobile Monastery visits Fruition 2 to 9 pm (free, details on website)

Thurs, March 5: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 at Village Community Room (behind the Library) in Potsdam, NY (free)

Tues, March 17: Gift of Seed from 5 to 8 in at HardPressed in West Danville, VT (free)

Thurs, March 19: Sand River Community Farm supper at 5:30 with Gift of Seed from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Grange in Keeseville, NY (free)

Sat, Mar 21: Rochester Urban Ag Conference & Seed Swap! (sliding scale, registration coming soon!)

Wed, March 25: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 at CPP High School Cafeteria in Corning, NY (free)

Fri, March 27: potluck, mini Gift of Seed + community gift culture + solidarity conversation from 5 to 8:30 at Foundation of Light in Ithaca, NY (free)

Sat, March 28: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4 pm at Soil Factory in Ithaca, NY (free)

Tues, March 31: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Wood Library in Canandaigua, NY (free)

Wed, April 1: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm in Olean, NY (free, details to come)

Thurs, April 2: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at RIT’s Bamboo Room in Rochester, NY (free)

Sat, April 4: Gift of Seed at Fruition (more details on website)

Wed, April 8: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at UU Church in Schenectady, NY (free)

Sat, April 11: Gift of Seed, Keynote & other delights at the Maine Seed Festival (free)

Wed, April 15: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Sawmill Herb Farm in Montague, MA (free)

Fri 17th evening ~ Sun 19th morning Seed & Gifting Retreat: Bulk Seed Gifting & Gift Culture Cultivation for Community Organizers at Fruition (free, details on website)

If you are connected to community gardens, seed libraries and other means of sharing seed abundance in non-commercial ways, join us to receive lots of bulk seeds and deepen our gift culture community and skills together!

Sun, April 19: Growing the Gift of Seed (seed gifting 1 to 2 pm, seed starting 2 to 4 pm) at Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY (free, details on website)

April 28 – May 1st Retreat: Being Seeds in a Garden of Change at Holy Cross Monastery West Park, NY (sliding scale, details on website)

Sat, May 2: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4:30 at Media Sanctuary in Troy, NY (free)

Sun, May 3: Gift of Seed in Cooperstown, NY (free, details to come)

Wed, May 6: Seed Starting at Fruition (free, details on website)

Sat, May 9: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (free, details on website)

Tues, May 12: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Library in Geneva, NY (free, details on website)

Thurs, May 14: Gift of Seed at Trinity Church in Buffalo, NY (free)

Fri, May 15: Transplant Swap & Share at Public Market in Rochester, NY(free, details to come)

Sat, May 16: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (free, details to come)

Sat, May 19: Gift of Seed & Transplants in Canandaigua, NY (free, details to come)

Sat, May 23: Gift of Seed in Rochester, NY (free, more details to come)

Stay tuned for music, abundance sharing, plays & more opportunities to savor, laugh, learn, serve & grow together all summer, fall & for seasons to come!

all events & details here!

If you’d love to say thank you, we love you and wonder:

What if giving was the new receiving?

What if we couldn’t tell the difference?

What if you trusted your presence in our lives was simply enough?

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

~ In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

Ohhhhh we love you, Friends!

Thank you

for laying the Seed Feast wide

for all of us

and all those yet to come.

we are the seeds

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

ppps

“Thank you seeds

for nourishing us

every day of our lives,

and our ancestors lives,

and may we grow to

be this nourishing

for future generations

of all species to come.”

She said with tears in her eyes, thanking the seeds at the end of a recent Gift of Seed practice, and can you imagine? All the ways these seeds, gifts for so much more than gardens, have been infused with so much love, longing and possibility? Accompanied by thousands of people across the northeast:

seeds

are love

made visible

Thank you, Friends!

Thank you to all who journeyed through sun and storm, hurry and heartbreak, with friends and growing families to find our Gift of Seed gatherings these last three weeks. Sharing so many seeds, songs and stories in embodied practice has been such medicine for my soul and I’m so grateful I’m not alone…

…and ohhhhhh there’s so much more I’ll share soon and first, Local Loves, drop in for 20 minutes or bring a toothbrush to slumber party as you join us in body and / or spirit:

How do we

grow love

and relationships

through food

nourishing our bodies

as well as imaginations

helping us remember

that all of us need all of us?

Preparing to gift this community grown, chopped and simmered soup to friends, neighbors and strangers, on Saturday we’ll share a conversation about how this soup can ever more deeply nourish our connections and community in these times.

Imagine:

Last week our friend Heather in Minneapolis was describing a moment of tension at a protest where emotions were escalating and she watched, in absolute awe, as two elders poured cups of steaming herbal tea to tuck in everyone’s hands…

…and how the simple act of feeling cared for, gently sipping and caring for the tea in each other’s hands instantly welcomed peace and presence…

…so, in addition to nourishing our families, friends and neighbors with this soup, we’d love to nourish regional marches, protests & demonstrations so warm cups of scrumptious soup can warm hearts and bodies showing up in these times!

Would you love to bring soup to actions you attend?

Would you love to source / share cups / mugs / spoons (disposable & otherwise) for soup sharing at protests?

Would you love to offer soup to a community organizing gathering?

Would you love to help organize & resource these visions?

We’re open to all ways this soup can nourish resistance and resilience, so don’t be shy!

Whether you join us in body and / or spirit:

bring your heavy, broken & still-beating heart

hungry

for a more connected & caring

nourished & nourishing

world

and let’s grow these worlds together💛

And Friends:

Let us gift you seeds!

to gift us all

& all generations to come

Our 300+ regionally adapted seeds we share as gifts in our gatherings, take a peek:

find full event details here!

If you’d love to come ~40 minutes early to help set up our Seed Feast, play acoustic music or bring us a dairy-free snack (!), we love you and don’t be shy 💛

Also, if you’d love to contribute seeds to the offering, thanks for arriving ~20 minutes early to contribute to the cornucopia!

Feb 11: Gift of Seeds from 6 to 8 at Arrowood Farms Brewery in Accord, NY (free)

Sat, Feb 14: Head over Peels for You! Valentine’s Day: Community Care as Self Love Soup & Collage Card Making + People’s Supper from 10 am to 8 pm at Fruition (free, more details above & on website)

Tues, Feb 17: Gift of Seeds from 5:30 to 7 at Public Library in Bloomfield, NY (free)

Wed, Mar 4: Buddhist Mobile Monastery visits Fruition 2 to 9 pm (free, details on website)

Thurs, March 5: Gift of Seed in Potsdam, NY (

free, more details to come)

Tues, March 17: Gift of Seed from 5 to 8 in at HardPressed in West Danville, VT (free)

Thurs, March 19: Sand River Community Farm supper at 5:30 with Gift of Seed from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Grange in Keeseville, NY (free)

Sat, Mar 21: Rochester Urban Ag Conference & Seed Swap! (sliding scale, more details to come)

Wed, March 25: Gift of Seed in Corning, NY (free, more details to come)

Fri, March 27: potluck, mini Gift of Seed + community gift culture + solidarity conversation from 5 to 8:30 at Foundation of Light in Ithaca, NY (free)

Sat, March 28: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4 pm at Soil Factory in Ithaca, NY (free)

Tues, March 31: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Wood Library in Canandaigua, NY (free)

Wed, April 1: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm in Olean, NY (free, more details to come)

Thurs, April 2: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at RIT’s Bamboo Room in Rochester, NY (free)

Sat, April 4: Gift of Seed at Fruition (more details on website)

Sat, April 11: Gift of Seed, Keynote & other delights at the Maine Seed Festival (free, more details to come)

Wed, April 15: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Sawmill Herb Farm in Montague, MA (free)

Fri 17th evening ~ Sun 19th morning Seed & Gifting Retreat: Bulk Seed Gifting & Gift Culture Cultivation for Community Organizers at Fruition (free, more details on website)

If you are connected to community gardens, seed libraries and other means of sharing seed abundance in non-commercial ways, join us to receive lots of bulk seeds and deepen our gift culture community and skills together!

Sun, April 19: Growing the Gift of Seed (seed gifting 1 to 2 pm, seed starting 2 to 4 pm) at Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY (free, more details on website)

April 28 – May 1st Retreat: Being Seeds in a Garden of Change at Holy Cross Monastery West Park, NY (sliding scale, more details to come)

Sat, May 2: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4:30 at Media Sanctuary in Troy, NY (free)

Sun, May 3: Gift of Seed in Cooperstown, NY (free, more details to come)

Sat, May 9: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (free, more details to come)

Thurs, May 14: Gift of Seed at Trinity Church in Buffalo, NY (free)

Fri, May 15: Transplant Swap & Share at Public Market in Rochester, NY(free, more details to come)

Sat, May 16: Gift of Seed at Fruition (free, more details to come)

Sat, May 23: Gift of Seed in Rochester, NY (free, more details to come)

Stay tuned for music, abundance sharing, plays & more opportunities to savor, laugh, learn, serve & grow together all summer, fall & for seasons to come!

all events & details here!

If you’d love to say thank you, we love you and wonder:

What if giving was the new receiving?

What if we couldn’t tell the difference?

What if you trusted your presence in our lives was simply enough?

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

~ In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

Ohhhhh we love you, Friends!

Near and far:

we are the seeds

and don’t be shy!

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

We sing in our joy and in our heartbreak and ohhhhh join us singing together (below) and if you’d love to sing regularly both at the farm and bring song to peaceful regional resistance gatherings, the answer is YES!

of the crystalline air freezing the Connecticut River as I write, headwaters that begin as a trickle seemingly far away that quickly becoming an ocean, impacting us all…

…and can you feel it?

The -20F chill accompanied by authoritarian fear seeking to freeze our hearts, bringing a trickle then torrent of 50,000+ people to the streets becoming an ocean of love for neighbors and ‘strangers’ we know are ourselves, our Beloveds and all yet to come:

We stand and sow with you, Minnesota 💛

And everyone impacted by ICE in our streets and in our hearts, which is us all…

…and if you sometimes feel small as a seed, here are a few ways to grow into this moment:

Thanks to our dear friend Zivar who is connected with urban, migrant and BIPOC growers in the Twin Cities, we’re collecting seeds with each Gift of Seed gathering to sow more fruitful futures in Minnesota this season.

If you’d love to send them seeds directly or otherwise nourish networks that nourish us all, hit ‘reply’ and

explore & sow solidarity in MN & beyond

Our love and lives live in the seeds we sow 💛

And Friends:

Let us gift you seeds!

to gift us all

& all generations to come

Our 300+ regionally adapted seeds we’ll soon share as gifts in 40+ gatherings, take a peek:

find full event details here!

Save the Date(s)!

If you’d love to come ~40 minutes early to help set up our Seed Feast, play acoustic music or bring us a dairy-free snack (!), we love you and don’t be shy 💛

Also, if you’d love to contribute seeds to the offering, thanks for arriving ~20 minutes early to contribute to the cornucopia!

Sat, Jan 31: Gift of Seeds from 2 to 4:30 pm at Centerville Community Center on Cape Cod, MA (register for free here)

Sun, Feb 1: Gift of Seeds from 3 to 5 pm at First Church of Ipswich, MA (free)

Tues, Feb 3: optional potluck at 4, Gift of Seed from 5 to 7, singing ’til 8 pm at Center at Orchard Hill in Alstead, NH (free)

Wed, Feb 4: mini Gift of Seeds within the epic L’Chaim Community Sing from 7 to 9 at SEABA in Burlington, VT (free)

Thurs, Feb 5: Gift of Seeds from 6 to 8 at UU Church in Burlington, VT (free)

Sat, Feb 7: Gift of Seeds from 10 to noon, community seed swap from 1 to 4:30 Fletcher Library in Burlington, VT (free)

Feb 8: a delightfully family-friendly Gift of Seeds from 2 to 4 (potluck to follow!) at Suarez Family Brewery in Hudson, NY (free)

Feb 10: Gift of Seeds from 6 to 8 at Suarez Family Brewery in Hudson, NY(free)

Feb 11: Gift of Seeds from 6 to 8 at Arrowood Farms Brewery in Accord, NY (free)

Sat, Feb 14: Head over Peels for You! Valentine’s Day: Community Care as Self Love + People’s Supper from 10 am to 8 pm at Fruition (free, more details above & on website)

Tues, Feb 17: Gift of Seeds from 5:30 to 7 at Public Library in Bloomfield, NY (free)

Wed, Mar 4: Buddhist Mobile Monastery visits Fruition 2 to 9 pm (free, details on website)

Thurs, March 5: Gift of Seed in Potsdam, NY (free, more details to come)

March 16 + 17: Gift of Seed in Northeast Kingdom, VT (free, more details to come)

Sat, Mar 21: Rochester Urban Ag Conference & Seed Swap! (sliding scale, more details to come)

Wed, March 25: Gift of Seed in Corning, NY (free, more details to come)

Fri, March 27: potluck, mini Gift of Seed + community gift culture + solidarity conversation from 5 to 8:30 at Foundation of Light in Ithaca, NY (free)

Sat, March 28: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4 pm at Soil Factory in Ithaca, NY (free)

Tues, March 31: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Wood Library in Canandaigua, NY (free)

Wed, April 1: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm in Olean, NY (free, more details to come)

Thurs, April 2: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at RIT’s Bamboo Room in Rochester, NY (free)

Sat, April 4: Gift of Seed at Fruition (more details on website)

Sat, April 11: Gift of Seed, Keynote & other delights at the Maine Seed Festival (free, more details to come)

Wed, April 15: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Sawmill Herb Farm in Montague, MA (free)

Fri 17th evening ~ Sun 19th morning Seed & Gifting Retreat: Bulk Seed Gifting & Gift Culture Cultivation for Community Organizers at Fruition (free, more details on website)

If you are connected to community gardens, seed libraries and other means of sharing seed abundance in non-commercial ways, join us to receive lots of bulk seeds and deepen our gift culture community and skills together!

Sun, April 19: Growing the Gift of Seed (seed gifting 1 to 2 pm, seed starting 2 to 4 pm) at Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY (free, more details on website)

April 28 – May 1st Retreat: Being Seeds in a Garden of Change at Holy Cross Monastery West Park, NY (sliding scale, more details to come)

Sat, May 2: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4:30 at Media Sanctuary in Troy, NY (free)

Sun, May 3: Gift of Seed in Cooperstown, NY (free, more details to come)

Sat, May 9: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (free, more details to come)

Thurs, May 14: Gift of Seed at Trinity Church in Buffalo, NY (free)

Fri, May 15: Transplant Swap & Share at Public Market in Rochester, NY(free, more details to come)

Sun, May 18: Gift of Seed at Fruition (free, more details to come)

Stay tuned for music, abundance sharing, plays & more opportunities to savor, laugh, learn, serve & grow together all summer, fall & for seasons to come!

all events & details here!

If you’d love to say thank you, we love you and wonder:

What if giving was the new receiving?

What if we couldn’t tell the difference?

What if you trusted your presence in our lives was simply enough?

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

~ In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

Friends, we feel so deeply for all of you unable to join our embodied seed gifting and we would loveLOVElove for us all to experience the magic of seeds as gifts, though we don’t have the capacity to manage this by ourselves.

We do nothing alone and ohhhhh, if you have the energy to help bring to life seed gifting beyond our gatherings, please do reach out:

With our vivid intention

tools and imagination

let’s sow and sing

this world into being!

And Friends,

thank you:

We know receiving our seeds as gifts

may be less convenient than when we sold them,

so let’s cultivate belonging and generosity together,

nourishing us all beyond calories

and convenience.

we are the seeds

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

As our hearts break, break open and grow with the resistance, resilience & love that is alive in Minnesota and in us all, we are so grateful for this poem:

Power

Conquest

is alive and well

In the mind of men

who hunger

For more and more

beyond their needs

Full

but unsatiated.

For true power

is in the land

In food

that grows up from it

The fruits of love

that feed the soul and hold us

In this fight to free

and to protect

All that is true

and sacred.

~ digger

If you’d love to receive periodic poems from digger, send a sweet ask of an email to dougdecandia@gmail.com

pps

Local Loves! We’ll be here in spirit and do join in body as you’re inspired and able! Community and curiosity as antidote to despair:

“Even a wounded world

is feeding us.

Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy.

I choose joy over despair.

Not because I have my head in the sand

but because joy

is what the earth gives me daily

and I must return the gift.”

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

How are you holding up, Beloved Fruition Family?

Perhaps you, like us, are heartbroken and looking for hope?

Winter, seeds and skis have long been a balm for despair in our lives, reminding us of how vividly seasons change — again and again — and how, with the right tools, friends and mindsets, we cultivate warmth in the cold together. Sometimes we glide over the grace of paths already made; other times we blaze the trails for travelers yet to come, whether they have paws, hooves, skis or anything else as feet.

May yours be one of these feet one day!

In the meantime, breathe deep.

Crystalline air curls through the rivers of our nostrils and lungs.

Every breath a listening, a returning, a reach toward reciprocity.

Can you feel them?

The dreams of countless seeds

deep under the snow

patiently knowing the moment

will yet come

to grow.

Let’s join them.

And Friends, this morning I am leaving for three weeks to visit communities large and small across New England, gifting seeds in schools by day and in public spaces as stars emerge. What we’re doing is both hard to describe and so simple, take a peek on our blog to learn a bit more:

Receiving the Gift of Seeds

Across the fullness of each seed gift gathering, we practice giving and receiving expansively:

⭐️ as people not needing to ‘earn’ to be ‘worthy’

⭐️ as people who trust ourselves as we remember each other

⭐️ as people who sow gardens for so much more than ourselves

⭐️ as people who imagine and practice cultures of care beyond consumption

Let us gift you seeds!

Our 300+ regionally adapted seeds we’ll soon share as gifts in 40+ gatherings, take a peek:

find full event details here!

Save the Date(s)!

If you’d love to come ~40 minutes early to help set up our Seed Feast, play acoustic music or bring us a dairy-free snack (!), we love you and don’t be shy 💛

Thurs, Jan 22: Gift of Seed at Montague Common Hall from 6 to 8 pm in Montague, MA (free)

Sat, Jan 24: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4 pm (with potluck to follow!) at CNTR in Middletown, CT (free)

Sun, Jan 25: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4 pm at Mercado Popular in Hartford, CT (free)

Sat, Jan 31: Gift of Seeds from 2 to 4:30 pm at Centerville Community Center on Cape Cod, MA (register for free here)

Sun, Feb 1: Gift of Seeds from 3 to 5 pm at First Church of Ipswich, MA (free)

Tues, Feb 3: optional potluck at 4, Gift of Seed from 5 to 7, singing ’til 8 pm at Center at Orchard Hill in Alstead, NH (free)

Wed, Feb 4: mini Gift of Seeds within the epic L’Chaim Community Sing from 7 to 9 in Burlington, VT (free)

Thurs, Feb 5: Gift of Seeds from 6 to 8 at UU Church in Burlington, VT (free)

Sat, Feb 7: Gift of Seeds from 10 to noon, community seed swap from 1 to 4:30 Fletcher Library in Burlington, VT (free)

Feb 8 & 10: Gift of Seeds at Suarez Family Brewery & beyond in Hudson, NY! (free, more details to come)

Sat, Feb 14: Head over Peels for You! Valentine’s Day: Community Care as Self Love + People’s Supper from 10 am to 8 pm at Fruition (free, more details above & on website)

Tues, Feb 17: Gift of Seeds from 5:30 to 7 at Public Library in Bloomfield, NY (free)

Wed, Mar 4: Buddhist Mobile Monastery visits Fruition 2 to 9 pm (free, details on website)

March 16 ~ 19: Gift of Seed and other diverse seed gifting delights around Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom (free, more details to come)

Sat, Mar 21: Rochester Urban Ag Conference & Seed Swap! (sliding scale, more details to come)

Thurs, March 5: Gift of Seed in Potsdam, NY (free, more details to come)

March 16 + 17: Gift of Seed in Northeast Kingdom, VT (free, more details to come)

Wed, March 25: Gift of Seed in Corning, NY (free, more details to come)

Sat, March 28: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4 pm at Soil Factory in Ithaca, NY (free)

Tues, March 31: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Wood Library in Canandaigua, NY (free)

Wed, April 1: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm in Olean, NY (free, more details to come)

Thurs, April 2: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at RIT’s Bamboo Room in Rochester, NY (free)

Sat, April 4: Gift of Seed at Fruition (more details on website)

Sat, April 11: Gift of Seed, Keynote & other delights at the Maine Seed Festival (free, more details to come)

Wed, April 15: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Sawmill Herb Farm in Montague, MA (free)

Fri 17th evening ~ Sun 19th morning Seed & Gifting Retreat: Bulk Seed Gifting & Gift Culture Cultivation for Community Organizers at Fruition (free, more details on website)

If you are connected to community gardens, seed libraries and other means of sharing seed abundance in non-commercial ways, join us to receive lots of bulk seeds and deepen our gift culture community and skills together!

Sun, April 19: Growing the Gift of Seed (seed gifting 1 to 3 pm, seed starting 3 to 4 pm) at Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY (free, more details on website)

April 28 – May 1st Retreat: Being Seeds in a Garden of Change at Holy Cross Monastery West Park, NY (sliding scale, more details to come)

Sat, May 2: Gift of Seed at the Sanctuary in Troy, NY (free, more details to come)

Sun, May 3: Gift of Seed in Cooperstown, NY (free, more details to come)

Sat, May 9: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (free, more details to come)

Thurs, May 14: Gift of Seed in Buffalo, NY (free, more details to come)

Fri, May 15: Transplant Swap & Share at Public Market in Rochester, NY(free, more details to come)

Sun, May 18: Gift of Seed at Fruition (free, more details to come)

Stay tuned for music, abundance sharing, plays & more opportunities to savor, laugh, learn, serve & grow together all summer, fall & for seasons to come!

all events & details here!

If you’d love to say thank you, we love you and know:

~ Take the deepest breath you’ve taken all day and trust that simply reading these words is thank you enough.

~ What are your gifts and who in your community needs them? Sharing your gifts, especially in ways that expand your comfort zone, profoundly amplifies the gift so hungry to feed us all.

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

~ In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

Friends, we feel so deeply for all of you unable to join our embodied seed gifting and we would loveLOVElove for us all to experience the magic of seeds as gifts, though we don’t have the capacity to manage this by ourselves.

We do nothing alone and ohhhhh, if you have the energy to help bring to life seed gifting beyond our gatherings, please do reach out:

With our vivid intention

tools and imagination

let’s sow and sing

this world into being!

And Friends,

thank you:

We know receiving our seeds as gifts

may be less convenient than when we sold them,

so let’s cultivate belonging and generosity together,

nourishing us all beyond calories

and convenience.

we are the seeds

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

“This is just the medicine I needed,”

she said, tears in her eyes.

“Thank you seeds

for reminding me: I too may be small

but I matter

and everything we all do matters

more than we’ll ever know.”

And yet, we’re human, so we forget and what a joy to re-member together:

As we inhabit our immensity

let’s surprise ourselves

how courageous & connected

we can be

and truly are.

And Friends:

thank you

for joining us on the journey.

As we practice the splendid (if often uncomfortable) magic of giving and receiving, of remembering to re-member together, we’ve so many Gift of Seed gatherings sprouting across the Northeast this winter, we’d love to see and share with you soon:

explore our events here

The Gift of Seeds

Join Fruition at the Genesee Country Village & Museum

Sunday January 18 | 2 to 4 pm

All flourishing is mutual, as Robin Wall Kimmerer reminds us, and seeds brilliantly embody this generosity, creativity and care. Together, let’s practice receiving hundreds of varieties of regionally adapted seeds as gifts, cultivating gift culture as well as community, nourishing all generations to come! Come ready to reflect, connect and honor your gifts as well as we all learn to amplify the gifts of community together. Expect puppets! And lots of seeds! And to come alive as we explore living in ways both old and new.

Bring a friend and a bag to bring home an abundance of seeds to sow more fruitful futures for your family, friends, neighbors and strangers as we become good ancestors together 💛

Register to reserve the gift of your presence:

register for free here!

Rather than ‘free’ as in ‘valueless,’ our gatherings and seeds are ‘free’ as in Fannie Lou Hamer, ‘none of us are free until all of us are free.’

Seeding the Future

Pack seeds, potluck & share a mini seed gifting practice with Fruition

Saturday January 17 | South Wedge Mission in Rochester, NY | 4 to 7 pm, potluck throughout!

Let’s sing, make new friends and deepen community camaraderie as we tuck countless seeds into beautiful packets to gift our wide community, Rochester and beyond!

Join us in body and / or spirit and know you are so loved, whoever & wherever you are 💛

together, we sow fruitful futures for all of us

And Friends, as we grieve such violent collapse and honor Dr. Martin Luther King Junior’s birth and legacy, we’d love to pause:

Did you know, in his vast understanding of reinforcing oppressions, that MLK advocated for food system reform?

Nothing is apolitical & here we are, climbing many of these same mountains decades later.

Four hundred years later.

Two thousand years later.

Committing to systemic change is as challenging as it is essential...

...and know that with each seed we sow and deeper breath we welcome (would you breathe a little deeper with me?), we embody the faith and embolden the legacy of Dr. King:

The arc of the moral universe is long, yes…

…and we’re here for the growth, pruning, (un)learning and becoming, woven in Love…

…and thank you for being part of our Beloved Community, whoever you are, wherever you are, near and far❤

In the spirit of Dr. King and all our ancestors who sowed seeds of courage and change (as well as carrots!) that nourish our bodies, hearts and imaginations today:

Let us gift you seeds!

Our 300+ regionally adapted seeds we share as gifts in 40+ gatherings, take a peek:

find full event details here!

Save the Date(s)!

If you’d love to come ~40 minutes early to help set up our Seed Feast, play acoustic music or bring us a dairy-free snack (!), we love you and don’t be shy 💛

Sat, Jan 17: Seed Packing & mini Gift of Seed at South Wedge Mission from 4 to 7 pm, potluck included in Rochester, NY (free)

Sun, Jan 18: Gift of Seed at Genesee Country Village and Museum 1 to 4 pm in Mumford, NY (register here for free!)

Thurs, Jan 22: Gift of Seed at Montague Common Hall from 6 to 8 pm in Montague, MA (free)

Sat, Jan 24: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4 pm (with potluck to follow!) at CNTR in Middletown, CT (free)

Sun, Jan 25: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4 pm at Mercado Popular in Hartford, CT (free)

Sat, Jan 31: Gift of Seeds from 2 to 4:30 pm at Centerville Community Center on Cape Cod, MA (register for free here)

Sun, Feb 1: Gift of Seeds from 3 to 5 pm at First Church of Ipswich, MA (free)

Tues, Feb 3: optional potluck at 4, Gift of Seed from 5 to 7, singing ’til 8 pm at Center at Orchard Hill in Alstead, NH (free)

Sat, Feb 7: Gift of Seeds from 10 to noon, community seed swap from 1 to 4:30 Fletcher Library in Burlington, VT (free)

Feb 8 & 10: Gift of Seeds at Suarez Family Brewery & beyond in Hudson, NY! (free, more details to come)

Sat, Feb 14: Head over Peels for You! Valentine’s Day: Community Care as Self Love + People’s Supper from 10 am to 8 pm at Fruition (free, more details above & on website)

Wed, Mar 4: Buddhist Mobile Monastery visits Fruition 2 to 9 pm (free, details on website)

March 16 ~ 19: Gift of Seed and other diverse seed gifting delights around Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom (free, more details to come)

Sat, Mar 21: Rochester Urban Ag Conference & Seed Swap! (sliding scale, more details to come)

Wed, March 25: Gift of Seed in Corning, NY (free, more details to come)

Sat, March 28: Gift of Seed from 2 to 4 pm at Soil Factory in Ithaca, NY (free)

Tues, March 31: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Wood Library in Canandaigua, NY (free)

Wed, April 1: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm in Olean, NY (free, more details to come)

Thurs, April 2: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at RIT’s Bamboo Room in Rochester, NY (free)

Sat, April 4: Gift of Seed at Fruition (more details on website)

Sat, April 11: Gift of Seed, Keynote & other delights at the Maine Seed Festival (free, more details to come)

Wed, April 15: Gift of Seed from 6 to 8 pm at Sawmill Herb Farm in Montague, MA (free)

Fri 17th evening ~ Sun 19th morning Seed & Gifting Retreat: Bulk Seed Gifting & Gift Culture Cultivation for Community Organizers at Fruition (free, more details on website)

If you are connected to community gardens, seed libraries and other means of sharing seed abundance in non-commercial ways, join us to receive lots of bulk seeds and deepen our gift culture community and skills together!

Sun, April 19: Growing the Gift of Seed (seed gifting 1 to 3 pm, seed starting 3 to 4 pm) at Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY (free, more details on website)

April 28 – May 1st Retreat: Being Seeds in a Garden of Change at Holy Cross Monastery West Park, NY (sliding scale, more details to come)

Sun, May 3: Gift of Seed in Cooperstown, NY (free, more details to come)

Sat, May 9: Gift of Seed & Transplants at Fruition (free, more details to come)

Thurs, May 14: Gift of Seed in Buffalo, NY (free, more details to come)

Fri, May 15: Transplant Swap & Share at Public Market in Rochester, NY(free, more details to come)

Sun, May 18: Gift of Seed at Fruition (free, more details to come)

Stay tuned for music, abundance sharing, plays & more opportunities to savor, laugh, learn, serve & grow together all summer, fall & for seasons to come!

all events & details here!

If you’d love to say thank you, we love you and know:

~ Take the deepest breath you’ve taken all day and trust that simply reading these words is thank you enough.

~ What are your gifts and who in your community needs them? Sharing your gifts, especially in ways that expand your comfort zone, profoundly amplifies the gift so hungry to feed us all.

Sustain this work and joy alongside us!

~ In the words of our beloved friend Adam Wilson, we dream of a world than sustains rather than pays us all…

…and in this spirit, we share Fruition’s relational, material & financial non-profit needs and we’re so thankful for your vision and generosity nourishing generations to come 💛

Bring your Gifts to Fruition

Friends, we feel so deeply for all of you unable to join our embodied seed gifting and we would loveLOVElove for us all to experience the magic of seeds as gifts, though we don’t have the capacity to manage this by ourselves.

We do nothing alone and ohhhhh, if you have the energy to help bring to life seed gifting beyond our gatherings, please do reach out:

With our vivid intention

tools and imagination

let’s sow and sing

this world into being!

May we all feel so held

in the hands of our friends

our neighbors

our earth

our ancestors

and all those yet to come.

we are the seeds

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do & hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

And Friends, thank you to everyone who felt for Pancho and Kevin last week: your outpouring of care was so visceral and medicinal to receive. We’re pleased to report Pancho is, miraculously and against all odds, absolutely thriving! After twelve days of gentle sedatives keeping him curled cozy by the fire (seeds are medicine, sleep is medicine), he is cross-country skiing miles on and beyond the farm every day — and hooray for the new fallen snow, soft and silent, a blizzard even as I write, the orchard barely visible just outside the window.

May our humble gratitude for both the sweetness and trials of life be as beautiful and as this snow. Is there anything else to see? Is this seeing the forest for the trees?

Cedar Waxwings sing as sleet becomes snow falling fast on crimson berries just outside the window.

What seeds fall

from their beaks, from their bowels

nourishing all generations yet to come?

Dare we trust

our own singing and leavings

to grace the world so generously?

Together, let’s try.

Before we share an experience that broke and then opened our hearts as well as nearly 30 dates (!) for our Gift of Seed gatherings across the Northeast:

Local Loves!

This Sunday, January 11th is our next Gift of Seed gathering at Caruso’s Cafe in Naples from 2 to 4 pm, potluck to follow!

Saturday the 17th we’ll be packing and gifting seeds as we share potluck and camaraderie at the epically resonant (yes, let’s sing!) South Wedge Mission in Rochester…

…and Sunday the 18th we return to the glorious Genesee Country Village & Museum sharing Fruition’s full Gift of Seed practice in fresh and delectable ways!

Join us in body and / or spirit and know you are so loved, whoever & wherever you are 💛

And can I tell you?

Our beloved dogs, Pancho and Davi, are 10 years old, young and loved. We experienced every dog lover’s fear just after Christmas and I found myself writing on the local front porch forum: