Episodes
Tuesday Oct 04, 2022
EP. 15: Seeds of the African Diaspora with Amirah Mitchell & Sistah Seeds
Tuesday Oct 04, 2022
Tuesday Oct 04, 2022
In this fifteenth episode, Amirah Mitchell of Sistah Seeds gives us a tour of the African Diasporic seed crops on her farm in Emmaus, PA. She also describes her work to preserve seeds and stories of African-American, West African, and Afro-Caribbean foodways, how she got to this point, and where she is headed. Amirah worked for four years as an apprentice and coworker at Truelove Seeds, and we are so grateful for our continued collaboration as she embarks on the next phase of her work as a farm owner, seed keeper, educator, and inspiration to so many.
AMIRAH MITCHELL, SISTAH SEEDS:
- Web: sistahseeds.com
- Instagram: @sistahseeds
- Amirah in the press:
- Amirah Mitchell at Temple University
- Amirah's Seed Keeping Fellowship at Greensgrow
SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:
- Moses Smith Yellow Cabbage Collards
- Sea Island Brown Cotton
- Blue Shackamaxon Bean (Lenape)
- Ezelle Family Fish Eye Pea
- Fish Pepper
- Benne (Sesame)
- Green Striped Cushaw Squash
- Sea Island Red Okra
- White African Sorghum
- Celosia
- Egusi Melon
- "Odell's" Large White Watermelon
- Chocolate Scotch Bonnet Pepper
- Aunt Lou's Underground Railroad Tomato
MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:
- Heirloom Collard Project
- Heirloom Collard Project on NPR (featuring Amirah and Mama Ira Wallace!)
- Truelove Seeds Indigenous Seeds Rematriation (scroll to bottom)
- Kris Hubbard, Appalachian Seed Keeper
- Fish Pepper episode, Seeds and Their People
- Cushaw Squash in Michael Twitty's Afroculinaria blog
- The Whole Okra: A Seed to Stem Celebration, by Chris Smith
- Herbal Affirmations, 'San' Kofi Sankofa, GoFundMe
- Lost Crops of Africa, Egusi
- Watermelon Men of Philadelphia, Inquirer article on the Carter family
- Ben Burkett, Federation of Southern Cooperatives
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:
FIND CHRIS HERE:
Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden
THANKS TO:
- Amirah Mitchell
- Cecilia Sweet-Coll
Thursday Jul 21, 2022
Ep. 10: Chris Keeve: Seed Keeper, Chaotic Gardener, and Cooperative Geographer
Thursday Jul 21, 2022
Thursday Jul 21, 2022
In this episode, we hear from former Truelove Seeds apprentice and current Truelove Seeds seed producer and collaborator Chris Keeve in an interview from last fall 2021 when they visited during our annual growers gathering at our farm outside of Philadelphia, PA. There is also a short clip from the summer of 2019 while a group of us harvested peas and Chris narrates, and a short update from this month so we can hear the awesome things Chris is up to this summer.
Chris Keeve is a seedkeeper, chaotic gardener, and PhD student in Geography at the University of Kentucky. Their work focuses on the political ecologies and cooperative geographies of participatory seed work, especially through lenses of Black, queer, and liberatory ecologies. They've been known to write things here and there about seeds, politics, ecology, histories, futures, and materiality. Their apprenticeship with Truelove has led into their work with projects like the TradeRoots Culinary Collective in Wisconsin, as well as their current work in central Kentucky as a seed grower for Truelove, as well as for Ujamaa Seeds and Experimental Farm Network. This season they are most excited about the Paul Robeson tomato, with an upcoming growout of blue collards a close second. You can find them at c.keeve on Instagram, christiankeeve on Twitter, email keeve@uky.edu, or through their department page.
SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:
- Spilanthes (Bullseye)
- Spilanthes (Lemon Drop)
- Hill Country Red Okra
- White Velvet Okra
- Green Glaze Collards
- Tulsi (Kapoor)
- Tulsi (Vana)
MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:
Interviewee: Chris Keeve
- Chris on Instagram: @c.keeve
- Chris on Twitter: christiankeeve
- Chris on email: keeve@uky.edu
- Chris's department page
Resources and organizations mentioned:
- Zora Neale Hurston on Florida Food: Recipes, Remedies & Simple Pleasures, by Frederick Douglass Opie
- Heirloom Collards Project
- TradeRoots Culinary Collective
- Lobelia Commons
- Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
- Experimental Farm Network
- Ujamaa 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
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FIND OWEN HERE:
Facebook | Tumblr | Instagram | Twitter
FIND CHRIS HERE:
Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden
THANKS TO:
- Chris Keeve
- Althea Baird
- Amirah Mitchell
- Maebh Aguilar
- Sara Taylor
Monday Feb 03, 2020
Ep. 3: Ira Wallace and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Monday Feb 03, 2020
Monday Feb 03, 2020
In this third episode, Ira Wallace from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange talks about her faves: collards and roselle. She also describes her life growing up, her work with southern and African Diasporic seeds and stories, and takes questions from Truelove Seeds apprentices (and adoring fans) Amirah Mitchell and Chris Keeve and from a visitor named Mimi.
SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:
MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:
- Ira Wallace: Writer, Seed Saver, Educator
- Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
- Grow Great Vegetables in Virginia, by Ira Wallace
- Collards: A Southern Tradition from Seed to Table, by Edward H. Davis and John T. Morgan
- Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land, by Leah Penniman
- Black Urban Growers Conference
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:
FIND CHRIS HERE:
Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden
THANKS TO:
- Ira Wallace and Gordon Sproule
- Sara Taylor
- Julia Aguilar, Althea Baird, Chris Keeve, Amirah Mitchell, and Zoe Jeka of Truelove Seeds
- Mimi Puga
- The voices of the youth and other staff of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram's Garden