Seeds And Their People

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

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

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FIND CHRIS HERE:

Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

THANKS TO:

• Queen Karen

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

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

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FIND CHRIS HERE:

Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

THANKS TO:

• Chris Keeve and Sara Taylor for recording most of these stories 

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

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

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:

• Zee Lilani

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

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

Dr. Bryan Connolly is a botanist, horticulturalist, and professor of Biology at Eastern Connecticut University in Willimantic, CT, my (Owen's) hometown. His research interests include rare plants of New England, the nightshade family, the rose family, and cannabis. Before Eastern, Professor Connolly was a faculty member at Framingham State University in Massachusetts and also worked for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, University of Mississippi’s Medicinal Plant Garden, New England Wild Flower Society, and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. He is also involved in his family farm: Cobblestone Farm CSA in Mansfield Center, CT. Bryan appreciates his family's tolerance of his growing unusual plants, especially his wife Diane Dorfer, and he is sorry about the Erubia spines all over the yard a few years back. He thanks his son William for helping to take care of the spiny Erubia as well! 

In this interview we hear about Bryan's 33 year journey with seed saving, seed production, and plant breeding; his work with giving a boost and sometimes reintroducing native plants from New England to Puerto Rico; his work with students around growing cannabis for medicinal uses; and his trials and initial breeding work with some crops we shared with him, including pigeon peas, field peas, and roselle. 

SEED AND PLANT STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:

Chenopodium formosanum (Taiwan)

Grass Jelly (Taiwan, Indonesia)

Erubia (Puerto Rico)

Corpse Flower (Indonesia)

Easter in August Cherry Tomato

Minnesota 13 Field Pea

Bo (Black-Eyed Pea Leaves)

Mississippi Purple Hull Pea

Northern Adapted Pigeon Peas

Solanum chacoense (South America)

Cannabis (specifically the beverage, Bhang from India)

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

Bryan's ECSU professor bio

Bryan's instagram: Northeastern Connecticut Botany

Breeding Organic Vegatables, NOFA publication, by Rowen White and Bryan Connolly

Organic Seed Production and Saving, NOFA publication, by Bryan Connolly

Stewarding Indigenous Seeds and Planting by the Moon with Stephen Silverbear McComber, Seed Savers Exchange

Ploidy (number of chromosomes in a cell)

Ploidy, genetic diversity and speciation of the genus Aronia

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

While visiting Greenville, Mississippi, we asked farmer and food justice elder Mama D (our mother, Ms. Demalda Newsome) to co-produce an episode about the farmers of the Delta. This is the first of multiple episodes about Black Farming Vibes in the Delta, we hope! 

FEATURING:

7:26 - Ms. Demalda Newsome interviews Kevion Devanté Young, CTE Diversified Agriculture instructor (Leland, MS)

23:21 - Owen Taylor interviews Mr. Rufus Newsome, Newsome Community Farms, Greenville, MS

49:20 - Owen and our son Bryan record animal sounds and talk about the surrounding farm fields, Greenville, MS

54:05 - Rufus and Demalda Newsome interview Mr. Elgin Johnson, farmer and wood seller in Greenville, MS

SEED AND PLANT STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:

Carolina Broadleaf Mustard

Turnip Greens

Collard Greens

Mississippi Purple Hull Peas

Mississippi Silver Hull Crowder Peas

Cow Horn Okra

Speckled Brown Butter Bean

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

• Kevion Devanté (Linktree)

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:

• Demalda Newsome for coproducing, cohosting, and interviewing

Mary Menniti grew up with her Italian immigrant grandfather growing vegetables, figs, and tending sheep in her family's backyard. She created The Italian Garden Project to celebrate the joy and wisdom inherent in the traditional Italian American vegetable garden, preserving this heritage and demonstrating its relevance for reconnecting to our food, our families and the earth. Over the past few years, we have been connecting over our shared love of growing Italian American seeds and their stories, and are now collaborating on preserving on various farms and sharing her seed collection through our seed catalog. 

In this episode, we also hear the voices of Concetta Liberto, Antonino Machi, Fenice Mercurio, Charles Adornetto, Domenic Carpico, and Michele Vaccaro from interviews conducted by Mary.

SEED AND PLANT STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:

Figs

Broccoli Rabe

Poverella Pole Bean from Concetta Liberto

Cow's Nipple Tomato from Mariano Floro

Lunga di Napoli Squash

Cucuzza from Antonino Machi

Cucuzza seed saving with Charles Adornetto

Fagiolina del Trasimeno

Long Bean

Vinny's Neapolitan Friariello (Frying Pepper)

Ischia Eggplant

Nepitella

Fennel from Fenice Mercurio

Black Fava (Mora de Precoce) from Nicola Ranieri

Swiss Chard from Caro Simbula

Floriani Red Flint Corn

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

• Italian Garden Project (web)

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:

• Mary Menniti

Dr. William Woys Weaver is an internationally known food historian and author of 22 books including:

• Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener’s Guide to Planting Seed Saving, and Cultural History; 

Dr. Weaver lives in the 1805 Lamb Tavern in Devon, Pennsylvania where he maintains a jardin potager in the style of the 1830s featuring over 5,000 varieties of heirloom vegetables, flowers, and herbs. He is an organic gardener, a life member of Seed Savers Exchange, and for many years served as a Contributing Editor to Gourmet, Mother Earth News, and The Heirloom Gardener. 

From 2002 to 2010, he lectured on Food Studies at Drexel University and is presently lecturing on regional American cuisine in connection with a non-profit academic research institute organized under the name The Roughwood Center for Heritage Seedways. Dr. Weaver received his doctorate in food ethnography at University College Dublin, Ireland, the first doctorate awarded by the University in that field of study.

In the winter of 2013, Owen had just moved to Philadelphia. A friend introduced him to Dr. Weaver and he hired him to care for his gardens and the Roughwood Seed Collection. During his four years working with him, Owen was fascinated by slow walks through the garden where he could reveal 10,000 years of human history in each plant story. It was here that Owen first learned how to carefully select and midwife the seeds of these countless storied species. We started a seed catalog and grew for a couple other companies. Dr. Weaver’s work with seeds often connects and reconnects gardeners and farmers with seeds that help tell their own stories. One of the best examples is making the Horace Pippin peppers available to African American growers in the Mid-Atlantic, as well as Pennsylvania Dutch and Lenni Lenape heirlooms from Southeastern Pennsylvania.

SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:

Hannah Freeman Bean

Pippin's Fish Pepper

Bowling Pin Paste Tomato

Green Striped Maycock

Weaver Pole Bean

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

• The Roughwood Center for Heritage Seedways

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:

• Dr. William Woys Weaver

This episode features Nital Vadalia-Kakadia. Originally from the state of Gujarat in Western India, Nital has been fascinated by farming and food since she was a child on her family’s farm in India. These days, she tends to beautiful gardens filled with her ancestral Indian vegetables and herbs, as well as lush native pollinator plants, fruit trees, and cut flowers at her family’s home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, not too far from our home in Philadelphia. She has introduced us and our community to many Indian seeds and so it was great to have this chance to visit her home and speak with her about her life, her beloved food plants, and even get a chance to share a delicious meal featuring bindhi, guar, curry leaves, amba, and so much more.

You will also hear a couple voice recordings from Truelove Seeds apprentice Tika Jagad and her father Mr. Krutarth Jagad. And at the end, our son Bryan asks Nital and Dinesh’s son Soham a couple questions about his favorite traditional foods.

SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:

Bindhi, Okra, Abelmoschus esculentus

Guar, Cluster Bean, Cyamopsis tetragonoloba

Curry Tree, Murraya koenigii

Ratalu, Purple Yam, Dioscorea alata

Lablab, Hyacinth Bean, Lablab purpureus

White Eggplant, Solanum melongena

Transkutukú Peanuts from the Shuar people of Ecuador, Arachis hypogaea

Chana, Chickpeas, Cicer arietinum

Pigeon Pea, Cajanus cajan

Fenugreek, Trigonella foenum-graecum

Surti Papri, Lablab purpureus

Karela, Bitter Melon, Momordica charantia

Lauki, Bottle Gourd, Lagenaria siceraria

Luffa

Jewels of Opar, Talinum paniculatum and Waterleaf, Talinum triangulare 

Red Amaranth, Amaranthus spp.

Tomato, Solanum lycopersicum

Mango, Mangifera indica

Amla, Indian Gooseberry, Emblica officinalis

Falsa, Sherbet Berry, Grewia asiatica

Papaya, Carica papaya

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

• Nital's Instagram

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:

• Nital, Dinesh, and their son Soham

In the first week of June 2023, I finally visited Haiqal's Garden in South Philadelphia to speak with Hani White and Syarif Syaifulloh about their beloved Indonesian food plants, food culture, and life stories. We met five years ago at Sky Cafe, an Indonesian restaurant where Hani curated a storied vegetarian meal for our group, and then took us a few doors down to Hung Vuong, an Asian grocery store where she gave us a tour of her favorite vegetables from Indonesia. Since then, her family has visited our Truelove Seeds farm, traded seeds and plants with us, and helped us identify one of the plants we purchased at the Cambodian market in FDR Park: Kenikir or Ulam Raja! Finally, our son Bryan wanted to ask their son Haiqal some questions after reading the children's book featuring him and his dad - so he did! Listen to the end to hear their back and forth. 

SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:

• Kangkung, Water Spinach

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

• Haiqal's Garden (Facebook)

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:

• Syarif Syaifulloh, Hani White, and Haiqal Syaifulloh