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Nicky Uy, Omar Buenaventura, Maria Dumlao, and Bitter Kalli have been coming together over Filipino foods, seeds, and stories for many years now. In this episode, we hear about the ways they weave their connections back to the Philippines and within their networks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, growing portals to memory, meaning, and each other.  We conducted this interview on January 30th, 2026 at Nicky and Omar's dining room table in South Philly after a delicious dinner featuring many of the ingredients we explore in this conversation. We especially focus on Siling Labuyo, and many other plants and dishes (see below), as well as collaborations with Truelove Seeds such as their art project with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, an exhibition with the Acadamy of Natural Sciences, Bahay215's mobile seed library, and many other ways the four of them share Filipino culture.  Here are their bios:  Bahay215 is a Philadelphia based art collaborative by Nicky Uy and Omar Buenaventura. Inspired by experiences living in Lenapehoking and growing up in the Philippines, their installations include  materials such as plants, bamboo, natural dye and soil and include activities like cooking and seedkeeping. Maria is a visual artist working in combined media, including film, video, animation, sound, photography, & installation.  Her work explores individual and collective history as mediated experience. Her most recent work History in RGB combines images of Filipino history, popular culture, mythic folklore, landscapes, and creatures to propose alternatives to the systemic representations ordered by colonial narratives. Born in the Philippines, Maria immigrated to the US with her family at age 13. She received a BA in Studio Art & Art History from Rutgers College and an MFA in Studio Art at Hunter College-CUNY. Maria's work has been exhibited, screened and performed in the US and internationally. Maria teaches art at Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania. Bitter Kalli is a writer and landworker born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. They work across mediums including soil, seeds, and printed matter. Bitter is the founder of Star Apple Nursery, a project focused on increasing access to African and Asian diaspora heritage crops. They are also the author of the essay collection Mounted: On Horses, Blackness, and Liberation. Bitter is based in Philadelphia. SEED STORIES:  Siling Labuyo Tamarind Ampalaya (Bitter Melon) Gabi (Taro) San Francisco (Croton) Calamansi Malunggay (Moringa) Sawsawan (Filipino Dipping Sauce) LINKS: Bahay215 facebook and instagram Star Apple Nursery instagram Bitter Kalli linktree, website, and instagram Mounted: On Horses, Blackness, and Liberation Maria Dumlao linktree, website, and instagram 'A tiny Filipino chili pepper takes root in Philadelphia', in the Philly Inquirer, by Juliana Feliciano READ HERE Support Mindanao's first seed bank Ancient Salt Rock in the Philippines (Tultul in Guimaras) Philadelphia Museum of Art / Community Spotlight - Siling Labuyo Academy of Natural Sciences / Heirloom Plants: Ancestral Seeds in Philadelphia Bitter and Nicky's Ancestral Seeds workshop VietLead   THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds Scribe Video Center and WPEB, West Philly Community Radio ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

Lana is a Palestinian-American farmer and the Executive Director of Montclair Community Farms, where she leads urban agriculture, food access, and environmental education initiatives in northern New Jersey, and she is the founder of Roots Of Resilience, a Mutual Aid organization dedicated to supporting farmers in the West Bank. A lifelong grower, Lana began gardening at the age of seven and now stewards a homestead in Clifton with her 3 children,  where she grows food, saves seeds, keeps bees, and raises backyard chickens. Her work centers seed sovereignty, land justice, and preserving culturally significant crops, with a deep commitment to supporting farmers and all land workers. Lana and I met at the Making Brooklyn Bloom conference in 2018 where Chris and I were presenting a couple workshops on seeds focused on stories of liberation. We became friends and collaborators, and I’m excited to say Lana and I will be presenting together tomorrow morning, January 31st, at the NOFA-NJ winter conference in Asbury Park about Truelove Seeds, thanks to Lana’s invitation as both a NOFA-NJ board member and grower for the Truelove Seeds catalog.  We conducted this interview on November 19th, 2025 starting at Lana’s kitchen table in Clifton, New Jersey. After a sweet stop to Yaffa Coffee and Ku-NAH-fah in Little Palestine, we ended up at City Green Farm Eco-Center where they give her space to grow a couple impressive rows of Bamyeh, Palestinian Okra for their CSA and for seed, which she splits between the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library and Truelove Seeds. SEED STORIES:  Bamyeh Falastinia Okra Filfil Gazawi (Gazan Peppers) Olive harvest Palestinian Za'atar Freekeh (Wheat) Maramiyeh Sage Night Blooming Jasmine Reyhan Basil LINKS: Lana Mustafa's website and instagram Roots of Resilience website and instagram Montclair Community Farms website and instagram Seeds and Their People EP. 38: Vivien Sansour on Palestinian Seeds, Longing, and Love Seeds and Their People EP. 36: Preserving Seeds, Culture, and Farming Traditions of Battir, Palestine Seeds and Their People EP. 9: Anan Jardali Zahr’s Palestinian Kitchen   THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds Scribe Video Center and WPEB, West Philly Community Radio ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

Since 2017, Truelove Seeds has been working closely with a large Karen farming community from the jungles of the Karen state in the mountains of Burma (Myanmar), who are now based in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Through their previous work with Novick Urban Farm, and continuing now with many locations including community gardens and farms throughout Philly, they grow their traditional foods for their community and offer seeds in our catalog. In 2022, we published a 2019 interview with Naw Doh, Htee Da Win, and Hser Ku as our 7th episode of this podcast (see link below). In late 2025, our friend Mu Nae came to harvest Chin Baung leaves, Sunn Hemp flowers, Siling Labuyo Peppers, Tomatos, Pumpkin shoots, and Green Carpetweed rosettes at our farm with her mother Naw Gay Lay, and sister Saiyar Moo. We were able to meet Mu Nae's daughter Blut Htoo (a nursing student serving as their driver and interpreter that day) and it seemed clear that it was time for another episode!  The stories in this episode, recorded on October 22, 2025, are beautiful, painful, and powerful, and span from growing up and giving birth on the run in the jungle from the Japanese and Burmese armies, to escaping to Thailand refugee camps, to resettling in Philadelphia - and the foods and medicines that got them here. We are immensely grateful to these three generations of brilliant, strong, kind women for sharing their time, stories, and delicious foods with us.    SEED STORIES:  Chin Baung / Besidoh Luffa Winter Melon Jamaican Pumpkin (this is the variety they harvested shoots from this year at our farm) Sunn Hemp flowers Tumeric root Betel leaves Siling Labuyo Peppers Hyacinth Beans Sesame Yuca / Cassava Bamboo Rice And shout out to fire, ashes, water, salt, and MSG!  LINKS: Karen Community Association of Philadelphia (KCAP) KCAP Facebook and Instagram Donate to KCAP Novick Urban Farm seeds offered at Truelove Seeds: Pea Eggplant, Rat-Tail Radish, Green Pumpkin Eggplant, Dark Pea Eggplant, Lavender Frog Egg Check out the Chin Baung/Besidoh poster featuring Naw Gay Lay, by Shira Walinsky and Eh Nay Htoo, sponsored by Philadelphia Museum of Art's Community Spotlight initiative Photos from the day of this interview! @seedkeeping on Instagram Article featuring Naw Gay Lay and KCAP: Julia Binswanger, 10.7.2025. ‘A lot of things to do’: This organization tends to some of Philly’s most overlooked refugees. Billy Penn at WHYY. Article featuring Naw Gay Lay: Hitomi Yoshida, 10.20.2016. Refugee elders support each other after a long, difficult journey. WHYY Speak Easy. Seeds and Their People, 5.5.2022. Episode 7: Karen Farmers from Burma. Article by Truelove Seeds featuring Naw Doh, Htee Da Win, Hser Ku on Karen food: Owen Taylor, 2.10.2020. Memories of Myanmar. Mother Earth Gardener.   THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds Scribe Video Center and WPEB, West Philly Community Radio ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

Vivien Sansour is an artist, storyteller, researcher and conservationist. She uses image, sketch, film, soil, seeds, and plants to enliven old cultural tales in contemporary presentations and to advocate for the protection of biodiversity as a cultural and political act. Vivien works with a global network of farmers and seed advocates to promote seed conservation and agrobiodiversity. As part of this effort, she founded the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, with the goals of finding and reintroducing threatened crop varieties and to collect stories to assert the ownership of seeds by communities. This episode features a conversation between Vivien and Owen in East Rock Park in New Haven, Connecticut from dusk to darkness amongst deer and woodpeckers, with mariyamiya tea and einkorn cake, and about grief and doing good things in the world with seeds.  SEED STORIES:  Qarn al-Ghazal Khobaizeh fruits / Mary's Cake Bamyeh (Palestinian Okra) Filfil Gazawi (Gazan Peppers) Olives Jarjir (Arugula) Molokhia Wild Asparagus Figs Loquat Jazar Ahmar (Palestinian Purple Carrot) Mariyamiya (Sage) LINKS: Palestine Heirloom Seed Library homepage Palestine Heirloom Seed Library newsletter 12/2/2025 Instagram: PHSL and Vivien Sansour Donate to PHSL's The Apple Path: planting another 2,000 heirloom fruit trees in Palestine THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds Scribe Video Center and WPEB, West Philly Community Radio ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

This episode features an interview with our friend Maria Hernandez of Cruz Family Little Farm about an hour northwest of Philadelphia in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania. Maria grows vegetables, herbs, and flowers for her community, including many Mexican specialties, some of which she shares through our seed catalog as well. We discussed Maria's life from growing up with eating mangos with chili in a hammock in her grandmother's orchard by the river in Mexico as a child, to moving to NYC, and then starting a farm in Pennsylvania. We walked the field visiting her favorite plants, including Cempaxochitl, which filled her grandmother's house with their aroma and beauty. Cempaxochitl are orange marigolds planted in May or June and harvested for Day of the Dead celebrations in October.  SEED STORIES:  Cempaxochitl Papalo Epazote Cilantro Macho Jicama Flor de Jamaica (Roselle) Tomatillo LINKS: Cruz Family Little Farm web page Cruz Family Little Farm at Truelove Seeds Cruz Family Little Farm: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds Scribe Video Center and WPEB, West Philly Community Radio ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

This episode features an interview with our friends Hassan Muamer, a seed keeper and environmental advocate and engineer, his wife Hannan, and mother-in-law Fatimah. They had been visiting Philadelphia from Battir, Palestine for an extended stay and we were able to build a friendship through a shared love of seeds and land over a couple of years. For this interview, we made a fire at our farm, harvested young Yakteen gourds and tomatoes, and they cooked a delicious stew while we talked about Palestinian vegetables back home and in diaspora, Hassan's work to establish his farming village of Battir as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the work of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library - which is how we first met. In early 2024, our friend Vivien Sansour, the founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, came to speak at Bartram’s Garden and introduced us.    Hassan, Hannan, Fatimah and their family began visiting our farm and with some of our other Palestinian friends, they helped us cultivate molokhia there for their family and for a big molokhia feast at the farm. We have also been working with the PHSL the past couple of years as one of their many US based seed protector sites, increasing several varieties of seeds from their collection here in the diaspora, and it has been such an honor. This year Hassan and his family grew many traditional crops at our farm, which you will hear about in this interview.   SEED STORIES: (some links take you to our friends at Hudson Valley Seed Company and Experimental Farm Network, who work closely with PHSL) Molokhia Battiri Eggplant Yakteen Gourd Faqus White Cucumber Kusa Farfahina / Purslane LINKS: Palestine Heirloom Seed Project Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines – Cultural Landscape of Southern Jerusalem, Battir - UNESCO World Heritage Centre THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds Scribe Video Center and WPEB, West Philly Community Radio ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

Sama Mansouri of Reyhan Herb Farm grows foods from Iran in the San Francisco Bay Area, California for her community members in the Iranian Diaspora. She also shares seeds through our Truelove Seeds catalog, and we met up in January of 2025 to talk about some of her favorite food plants. In June 2025, Israel and the US attacked Iran, accusing Iran of violating their nuclear nonproliferation obligations. There were thousands of casualties, mostly civilians. Sama and I spoke again a week after the ceasefire to introduce this episode and I'm finally getting around to sharing it with you! Listen in to learn about the various Iranian herbs of Sabzi and many other vegetable friends, as well as some thoughts and tips on growing and saving seeds from them.  Find seeds from Sama's farm, including the following, at: https://trueloveseeds.com/collections/reyhan-herb-farm   REYHAN HERB FARM SEEDS IN OUR CATALOG (8/25): Bademjan (Iranian Eggplant) Laboo (Iranian Beet) Marzeh (Iranian Summer Savory) Pache Baghala (Gilani Bush Bean) Shambalileh Iranian Fenugreek "Medzmama" Arevatsaghik (Armenian Sunflower) LINKS: Reyhan Herb Farm THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds Scribe Video Center and WPEB, West Philly Community Radio ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden   THANKS TO: Sama Mansouri!

In late November, 2024, we finally recorded an episode featuring Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram's Garden and many of the voices of the farmers there. This podcast in many ways is an extension of their work to "Go Back and Bring Forward What You Left Behind" - which is a take on the meaning of the Twi word "Sankofa". Its corresponding Akan proverb is, “Se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yenkyiri.” In large part, this approach to farming, community building, and cultural preservation with a heavy emphasis on learning the practices and foodways of our ancestors inspired the genesis of Truelove Seeds and this podcast lifting up the voices of people sharing about their ancestral foods. So please enjoy this episode where you hear reflections from many of the farmers from Sankofa, including:  Chris Bolden Newsome, Laquanda Dobson, Lailah Lindsey Glass, Maria Jose Garcia, Ty Holmberg, Keyone Carter, and Hajja Glover.  FOOD PLANTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Collard Greens Siling Labuyo Pepper Sehsapsing Corn Okra Castor Beans Roselle Hill Rice (Trinidad) LINKS: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram's Garden THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds The No-Till Market Growers Podcast Network (which includes our friends at the Seed Farmer Podcast) Scribe Video Center and WPEB, West Philly Community Radio ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden   THANKS TO: Sankofa Community Farm staff! Scribe Video Center

In late October, 2024, we (Chris and Owen) walked down our Germantown, Philadelphia street to interview our friend and neighbor Ms. Valerie Erwin on her porch.  We talked about traditional (and less traditional) Gullah Geechee foodways with a focus on rice, field peas, okra, cornbread, shrimp and grits, thyme, hog jowls, Nan-e berenji (a Persian rice cookie), duck confit with fried Hoppin' John, and much more. Of course, with Chris and Ms. Val on the same porch, there are lots of easy segues into the African influence on Southern food. We talked about her former restaurant, her work as a chef now, and we took a walk around her garden.  Here is an excerpt from Ms. Valerie’s bio from Les Dames D’escoffier’s member directory (with some updates): Valerie Erwin is a longtime Philadelphia chef who, for 12 years owned the critically acclaimed Geechee Girl Rice Cafe. Valerie specializes in the food of the Low Country—the coast of South Carolina and Georgia—where her grandparents were born. During its tenure, Geechee Girl was featured on many major media outlets, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Magazine, The Food Network, and NPR. For two years Valerie was the General Manager of EAT Café, a West Philadelphia neighborhood restaurant with an innovative pay-what-you-can model. Since 2020, Valerie has managed Farm to Families, a produce access program of St Christopher’s Foundation for Children. Valerie has served on the board of the Southern Foodways Alliance—the country’s premier institution for the study of food and culture. She now serves on the board of the Wyck Historic House Garden and Farm, a Germantown historic home, and the People's Kitchen Philly, a mutual aid kitchen. Valerie spends her time catering, doing business consulting, and working on food related projects with cultural institutions such as the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Jazz Project. FOOD PLANTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Sea Island Red Peas Sea Island Okra Hill Rice (Trinidad) Corn Thyme LINKS: Valerie Erwin / Geechee Girl Cafe on Instagram Anson Mills, Columbia, South Carolina Kilimanjaro Restaurant, Philadelphia Black Rice, by Judith Carney Chef Edna Lewis Culinary Historian Jessica B Harris Culinary Historian Michael W Twitty Fish Pepper episode on Seeds and Their People THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds The No-Till Market Growers Podcast Network (which includes our friends at the Seed Farmer Podcast) Scribe Video Center and WPEB, West Philly Community Radio   ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden   THANKS TO: Valerie Erwin Our son, Bryan :) Elissa Fredeen of Scribe Video Center

This episode, recorded in late September 2024, features the voices and wisdom of East New York Farms youth leaders Jemel Thomas, Gaby, and Hope, as well as staff member Alexx Caceres as they talk about their community food work and seed keeping in particular. We were chatting moments before I (Owen) led a seed keeping workshop for an awesome group of community members and visitors where all had a chance to share knowledge, swap seeds, and shell several types of beans (this part was not recorded, sorry!) After Alexx, you hear from Ms. Marlene Wilks and her twin sister Ms. Pauline Reid while we sit at their farmers market table outside East New York Farms' gates during a bustling market. The two are from Jamaica and have been farming in East New York since 1990 and selling their Caribbean vegetables, herbs, and plants at this market since 2000. Several customers also share about their cultural foods: another Pauline from Jamaica, Molly from Senegal, and chef Desma Ross from Trinidad and Tobago.  FOOD AND MEDICINE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Callaloo (Amaranthus spp.) Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia) Long Beans (Vigna unguiculata) Jamaican Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) Gungo Peas / Pigeon Peas (Cajanus cajan) Shado Beni / Culantro (Eryngium foetidum) Scotch Bonnet Pepper (Capsicum chinense) Cerasee (Momordica charantia) Moringa (Moringa oleifera) Guinea Hen Weed (Petiveria alliacea) Soursop (Annona muricata) Lemon Grass (Cymbopogon citratus) LINKS: East New York Farmers Market (homepage) East New York Farms (instagram) GreenThumb, City of New York Marlene Wilks at East New York Farms Pauline Reid at East New York Farms by Leave it Better New York gardens produce Caribbean treasures - New York Times / The Bulletin A Community of Growers How East New York Farms builds food security and provides jobs for its neighborhood. - Civil Eats In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa’s Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World by Judith Carney THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds The No-Till Market Growers Podcast Network (which includes our friends at the Seed Farmer Podcast) Scribe Video Center and WPEB, West Philly Community Radio   ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden   THANKS TO: Youth: Jemel, Gaby, and Hope Staff: Alexx Caceres and East New York Farms Ms. Marlene Wilks and Ms. Pauline Reid Customers: Pauline, Molly, and Desma Ross Elissa Fredeen of Scribe Video Center

This episode features a conversation in early July 2024 with Mohegan tribal members Sharon Maynard and Rachel Sayet about traditional Mohegan food.  Sharon Maynard is a Mohegan elder and a Tribal Nonner. Retired after serving 12 years on the Council of Elders, Sharon’s interests include food sovereignty, seed saving, and decolonizing our diets. She has a BA in anthropology and an AS in food service management.  Rachel Sayet (Akitusut) is a Mohegan writer, teacher, and indigenous food specialist. Rachel has a BS in restaurant management and an MA in anthropology. She has spent her adult life trying to cultivate awareness of Native New England. She worked for the Mohegan tribe for 8 years in their cultural department spearheading grassroots efforts in revitalizing traditional foods and diabetes prevention. FOOD AND MEDICINE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Maple, Birch Blueberries, Strawberries, Fiddlehead Ferns Milkweed, Sassafras, Elder, Boneset Corn, Beans, Squash, Sunflowers, Tobacco Succotash (Corn, Beans, Salt Pork, Salt and Pepper) Johnny Cakes (Journey Cakes) Yokaeg (traveling food made of dried, parched corn which has been ground finely with a mortar and pestle). Clams, Quahogs, Scallops, Shad, Salmon Fry Bread, Indian Tacos, Buffalo and Alligator Burgers Rachel's Johnny Cake Turkey Sandwich on America the Bountiful, PBS LINKS: Mohegan Tribe Rachel Beth Sayet, Indigenous Educator, Lightworker, Chef, Herbalist Wikôtamuwôk Wuci Ki tà Kihtahan (A Celebration of Land and Sea): Modern Indigenous Cuisine in New England by Rachel Sayet in Dawnland Voices 2.0 Tantaquidgeon Museum Gladys Tantaquidgeon - in Memorium Makiawisug, or the Little People at Mohegan Hill Eastern Woodlands Rematriation Sherry Pocknett, Mashpee Wampanoag chef, Sly Fox Den Restaurant The Man Who Weeps, story by Dale Carson, Abenaki cookbook author, in Dawnland Voices 2.0 Strawberry Thanksgiving, by Paula Dove Jennings, Narragansett  Sioux Chef, Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota Sioux Yazzie the Chef, Brian Yazzie, Diné Rowen White, Mohawk/Kanienkeha:ka, seed keeper THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds The No-Till Market Growers Podcast Network (which includes our friends at the Seed Farmer Podcast) Scribe Video Center and WPEB, West Philly Community Radio   ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden   THANKS TO: Rachel Sayet and Sharon Maynard Elissa Fredeen of Scribe Video Center

Join us and 15 of Karen Washington's dear friends, family, mentees, and collaborators in wishing her a very happy 70th birthday with this episode featuring food and plant stories about our Farmy Godmother. Karen has been instrumental in the creation and guidance of neighborhood organizations such as Garden of Happiness, La Familia Verde Coalition and Farmers Market, and Bronx Green Up, as well as Farm School NYC, Black Urban Growers, and the Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conference. She serves on the board of Soul Fire Farm, the Black Farmer Fund, and the Mary Mitchell Center and has been a part of so many others such as Just Food (where we first met) and New York Botanic Garden, and was once the president of the New York City Community Garden Coalition, organizing to protect the gardens from development. She is one of the four co-founders and owners of Rise & Root Farm in Chester, NY. More importantly, Karen is a fierce fighter for gardens and justice and loves her friends and families with gusto and grits. We hope these stories reveal her love and knack for investing in community and her life-long commitment to rising and rooting for justice.  PEOPLE WITH KAREN STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Karen Washington Lorrie Clevenger - Rise and Root Farm, Black Urban Growers, and Farm School NYC; formerly of Just Food and WhyHunger. Leah Penniman - Soul Fire Farm Cheryl Holt - Karen's neighbor, Garden of Happiness Kendra Washington Bass - Karen's daughter Kady Williams - Taqwa Community Farm, Iridescent Earth Collective; formerly of Bronx Green Up Ashanti Williams -Taqwa Community Farm, Black Yard Farm Julian Bass - Karen's grandson Nicole Ndiaye - NAHE, Bathgate Community Garden Gabriela Pereyra - Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust  Aleyna Rodriguez - Mary Mitchell Center Ursula Chanse - Bronx Green Up, New York Botanic Garden Michael Hurwitz - Landing Light Strategies; formerly of Added Value and Greenmarket Kathleen McTigue - AmeriCorps; formerly of Just Food and New Roots Community Farm Frances Perez Rodriguez - Farm School NYC Jane Hayes Hodge - Rise and Root Farm; formerly of Just Food and Farm School NYC THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds A Bookkeeping Cooperative: https://bookkeeping.coop/home/ ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden   THANKS TO: Queen Karen Jane Hayes Hodge for helping make this happen Emilio Sweet-Coll for help with audio editing   Our Patreon members and A Bookkeeping Cooperative

This episode is a compilation of recordings by seed geographer Chris Keeve and Truelove Seeds' business manager (and Owen's sister) Sara Taylor at our annual growers gathering at our Truelove Seeds farm in November 2023. They recruited party goers to their table where they mapped seed stories with strings and notes on a world map, and where they asked people to share about how their favorite seed became their favorite seed. There are a few recordings at the end that we added after the fact as well. SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE: Lex Wiley, Sankofa Community Farm - African Rice Hannah Thompson, Truelove Seeds - Black-Eyed Peas Tamanda Chabuuta, Texas A&M researcher  - Corn Chiamaka Alozie, Truelove Seeds apprentice - Cotton and Malabar Spinach Nate Kleinman, Experimental Farm Network - Nigella sativa, Nanticoke Squash Olivia Gamber - Hilige Bean (Dutch Holy Bean) and O'Driscoll Pole Bean Linda Clark, Strawflower Farm - Strawflowers Gabe Lewis, SeedEd Farm - Cherokee Purple Tomato Cassandra Brown, Haverford College Farm - none yet :) Wren Rene, filmmaker + Dr. Ashley Gripper, Land Based Jawns - Sunflowers Bahay215 (Nicky Uy, Omar Buenaventura, and Ira Angel Aurelio Buena) - Siling Labuyo (Nicky) Ampalaya/Bittermelon (Omar) Sam Stern, SeedEd Farm - Cabbage Owen Taylor, Truelove Seeds - sauce tomatoes, San Marzano + Cow's Nipple Ruth Kaaserer, filmmaker - Dandelion, Dahlia, Fava Bean Miki Palchick, Truelove Seeds - Watermelon PREVIOUS GROWERS GATHERING EPISODE: Seeds and their People - EP. 17: Mycelial Networks of Seed Growers & the Truelove Seeds Listening Project ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden   THANKS TO: Chris Keeve and Sara Taylor for recording most of these stories  Emilio Sweet-Coll for help with audio editing and compiling show notes!

This episode features an interview with Zee Lilani at Kula Nursery in West Oakland, California in January 2024. Zee grows Doodhi (Lauki/Bottle Gourd) and Kalonji (Black Seed/Nigella) seeds for our Truelove Seeds catalog as well as many varieties for Second Generation Seeds at her farm in Petaluma, California. In this episode, we hear how Zee left her work as a hydrologist, became a farmer, worked in food sovereignty and food security supporting other farmers, and then started her own nursery business focused on South Asian plants during the pandemic. During the partition of India, her family was displaced from the city of Surat, in the state of Gujarat, in India to Pakistan. Her work with plants familiar to her mother and grandmother bring Surat back to life many decades later, far from home.    In her words:  'Kula Nursery is a grassroots urban nursery working within and for BIPOC communities to increase food sovereignty through gardening education and culturally relevant plant starts. The mission at Kula Nursery is to reconnect the diaspora with heritage food, strengthen food sovereignty among these communities, and promote cultural and biological diversity. As a heritage nursery, we believe the act of growing, tending to, and eating heritage foods encourages folks to reclaim their power within the local food system while simultaneously honoring and reconnecting to their ancestors, immediate family and community at large.' Basically, this interview is right up our alley at Seeds and their People, focused on how plants connect us to our people, power, place, ancestors, and community.    SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE: Cuban Oregano, Indian Mint, Patta Ajwain, Coleus amboinicus Curry Tree, Murraya koenigii Night Blooming Jasmine, Raat Ki Rani, Queen of the Night, Cestrum nocturnum Mogra, Arabian Jasmine, Belle of India, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Jasminum sambac Henna, Lawsonia inermis Amla, Indian Gooseberry, Emblica officinalis Sugarcane, Saccharum spp. Taro, Colocasia esculenta Bindhi, Okra, Abelmoschus esculentus Doodhi/Lauki, Bottle Gourd, Lagenaria siceraria Kalonji, Black Seed, Nigella, "Onion Seed", Nigella sativa Krishna Tulsi, Ocicimum tenuiflorum Desi Girl Tomato, Solanum lycopersicum Lal Mirch Indian Pepper, Capsicum annuum Baingan Indian Eggplant, Solanum melongena Surti Papdi and Valor Papdi, Lablab purpureus MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Kula Nursery webpage Kula Nursery Instagram Kula Nursery at Truelove Seeds Second Generation Seeds (direct links to Kula Nursery varieties above) Diaspora Co. Seeds and their People - EP. 22: Gujarati Seeds and Flavors with Nital Vadalia-Kakadia Seeds and their People - EP. 2: Kristyn Leach and Namu Farm ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden   THANKS TO: Zee Lilani Nital Vadalia-Kakadia Ruth Kaaserer Emilio Sweet-Coll

Bryan O'Hara speaks about wholistic reasons for seed production on his vegetable farm, including working with natural processes such as growing winter annual crops for seed from summer to summer for better pest control and better flavor. He also discusses hybrid vigor and how to achieve this with genetically diverse populations of open pollinated plants, and explains how he selects for winter hardiness, more or less uniformity, earliness, flavor, and so on. In line with our theme of ancestral seeds, he talks about being both Polish and Irish and some connections to his farming practices through plants and ways of being and seeing. We end the episode with a traditional Irish song, Moorlough Shore, featuring Bryan on guitar, his daughter Clara O'Hara on vocals and flute, her boyfriend Sparrow Belliveau on Piano, and his brother Raven Belliveau on lead and backing violin.  Bryan O’Hara and Anita Johnson have been growing vegetables at their three acre farm for over 30 years. Tobacco Road Farm produces high quality, nutrient-dense food using no pesticides and working with nature as much as possible in a close relationship. With an intensive focus on building the health of the soil, they use no-till natural farming methods. They also introduce indigenous microorganisms (IMOs) from the surrounding forest into their compost systems and foliar sprays to feed, protect, and invigorate their field soil and vegetable crops. Bryan is also the author of No-Till Intensive Vegetable Culture: Pesticide-Free Methods for Restoring Soil and Growing Nutrient-Rich, High-Yielding Crops. Tobacco Road Farm provides ten carefully selected open-pollinated seed varieties for the Truelove Seeds catalog, which are listed below:   SEEDS GROWN BY TOBACCO ROAD FARM FOR TRUELOVE SEEDS: Ice-Bred Arugula Tokyo Bekana Wonnegold Turnip Polish Watermelon Mizuna Landrace Big Pink Tomato (not in episode) Vit Mache Presto Cress Vertissimo Chervil (not in episode) Claytonia   MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Tobacco Road Farm at Truelove Seeds No-Till Vegetable Intensive Culture from Chelsea Green Publishing Several No-Till Growers Network podcast episodes featuring Bryan O'Hara ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden   THANKS TO: Bryan O'Hara and Anita Johnson Clara O'Hara, Sparrow Belliveau, and Raven Belliveau Ruth Kaaserer