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

THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY:

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

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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:

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

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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:

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

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FIND CHRIS HERE:

Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

Vivien Sansour is an artist, storyteller, researcher and conservationist.

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

THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY:

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

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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)

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:

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

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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

LINKS:

Palestine Heirloom Seed Project

THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY:

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

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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:

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

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FIND CHRIS HERE:

Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

THANKS TO:

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:

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

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FIND CHRIS HERE:

Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

THANKS TO:

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

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

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

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