Our Purpose
Second Generation Seeds tends to the kinship between the Asian and South West Asian/North African (SWANA) diasporas and the plants who have evolved alongside us.
By preserving, adapting, and breeding beloved crops, we affirm that culture is rooted in our imaginations, not just our memories.
Who We Are
Kristyn Leach
Kristyn grows plants and seeds significant to Korean-Americans in California's Central Valley. Her work focuses on no-till/strip-till methods for vegetable production, as well as learning from traditional natural farming methods that yield nutritious produce and robust soil without external inputs.
Instagram: @namu_farm
Location: Winters, CA (Southern Patwin territory)
Kellee Matsushita-Tseng
Kellee is a Yonsei, 4th generation queer Japanese-Chinese American, and works as a farmer and educator in Santa Cruz, CA. Kellee’s work focuses on creating pathways for people to connect to ancestral footways, growing seed keepers that are rooted in community, and organizing to support BIPOC farmers.
Instagram: @Bravenewseed
Location: Santa Cruz, CA (unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe, presently stewarded by the Amah Mutsun tribal band)
Ari de Leña
Ari de Leña is the owner of Kamayan Farm, a vegetable and flower farm located in Carnation, WA specializing in Asian heritage crops and dried flowers. Her work focuses on food access for low-income communities and communities of color.
Instagram: @kamayanfarm
www.kamayanfarm.com
Location: Carnation, WA (Coast Salish territory)
Scott Chang-Fleeman
Scott is the farmer at Shao Shan Farm, a 5.5-acre organic vegetable farm specializing in cool season Asian vegetables. He is a 4th generation Californian and strives to grow produce that is regionally appropriate or adapted to the Bay Area’s cool summers. Scott is particularly interested in the wide varieties of leafy vegetables that thrive on his coastal farm, as well as crops like kabocha, tomatoes, and winter melons that he grows with little to no irrigation.
Instagram: @shaoshanfarm
Location: Sebastopol, CA (Miwok and Pomo territory)
Emily Yao
Emily Yao supports Second Generation's brand and online experience. She also illustrates the crop coloring books for our Seed Stewards community! Emily's background is in design research and strategy, and she spent a few years running a social enterprise to connect kids and families to food.
Instagram: @emzlydraws
Nadia Barhoum
Nadia is the founder of Thurayya Seeds, a seed-saving and land stewardship project to recover and reconnect ties to her ancestral lands in Palestine and the SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) region. She loves hearing seed stories and learning more about the ancestral lineages and cultural traditions around plants, farming, and the cosmos.
Instagram: @thurayya_seeds
Location: El Sobrante, CA (Ohlone territory)