Sefra Alexandra & Dina Brewster

Sefra Alexandra – The Seed Huntress – is an ethnobotanist on a perennial quest to preserve the biodiversity of our wild and cultivated lands through seed conservation. Sefra is the co-founder of The Ecotype Project (which began as a CT NOFA initiative), the mission of which is to increase the amount of ecoregionally local native seed available for ecological restoration through the farmer-led Northeast Seed Collective. In 2020 she began BOATanical Expeditions, ‘paddlin’ for the pollinators,’ planting autochthonous species along riparian corridors. ​She started the Southport Globe Onion Festival- reviving the prolific allium heirloom in its origin terroir.​ Sefra has conducted fieldwork around the globe, including fortifying community seed banks on island nations after natural disasters. The Seed Huntress holds her M.A.T. in agroecological education from Cornell University, is the Northeast Bioregional Education Coordinator for the Ecological Health Network, is on the steering committee of the Northeast Seed Network, is a fellow of the Crop Trust, and is a WINGS WorldQuest expedition flag carrier and member of the Explorers Club.

Dina Brewster founded The Hickories in Ridgefield as a one acre vegetable garden and has overseen the development of new products and new acreage as the farm business has grown, including the farmer-led Northeast Seed Collective, making ecotypic restoration seed locally available in ecoregions 59 | 58 & 84. Committed to connecting people with working land, the Brewsters have stewarded The Hickories since 1936. She is the former Executive Director of CT NOFA. In an effort to strengthen the resilience of her family farm, she co-founded the Ecotype Project, a program at a non-profit partner Northeast Farming Association of Connecticut (CT NOFA). The Ecotype Project consulted and oversaw the initial development of protocols at Dina’s farm and soon many others – and the efforts of this program resulted in more farmers growing restoration seed throughout the region. Farmers growing this ecotypic seed then share the work of labeling and distributing that seed – work that is done by the Northeast Seed Collective, a business Dina now runs out of her farm.