Seeds And Their People
 

Seeds And Their People

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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.

Episodes

EP. 23: Dr. William Woys Weaver and the Roughwood Seed Collection

Thursday Sep 28, 2023

Thursday Sep 28, 2023

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; 
  • 100 Vegetables and Where They Came From, and
  • As American As Shoofly Pie: The Foodlore and Fakelore of Pennsylvania Dutch Cuisine

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:

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

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
  • Ruth Kaaserer
  • Cecilia Sweet-Coll

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EP. 22: Gujarati Seeds and Flavors with Nital Vadalia-Kakadia

Thursday Jul 13, 2023

Thursday Jul 13, 2023

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:

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
  • Tika and her father, Mr. Krutarth Jagad
  • Zee Husain
  • Amirah Mitchell
  • Our son Bryan
  • Ruth Kaaserer
  • Cecilia Sweet-Coll

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EP. 21: Haiqal’s Garden - Indonesian vegetables in South Philly

Friday Jun 09, 2023

Friday Jun 09, 2023

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:

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

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
  • Ruth Kaaserer 
  • Lacey Walker :) 

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EP. 20: The Iraqi Seed Collective and Awafi Kitchen

Monday Apr 17, 2023

Monday Apr 17, 2023

In late February 2023, Annabel Rabiyah and Amanda Chin of the Iraqi Seed Collective visited the Truelove Seeds office to help fill the first packets of Iraqi Seed Collective seeds (Iraqi Reehan Basil, grown by Experimental Farm Network), and prepare some of their other collectively-grown seeds for germination testing. We took the opportunity to record conversations with them about Annabel's work with Awafi Kitchen, which focuses on preserving traditional Iraqi Jewish food, and about their seed collective, which works with a wide array of gardeners and farmers from Iraq and the Iraqi diaspora in the US. At the end of this episode, you will hear from several other collective members who sent short phone recordings about their transformative moments being part of the collective, as well as a recording Annabel sent after returning from their family's first trip back to Iraq in 50 years. The episode begins with answering some listener questions about growing and cooking Mustard Greens, dealing with the Squash Vine Borer, and shelling peas with kids. 

SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:

Introduction:

SEED STORIES:

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

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

Tumblr  |  Instagram  |  Twitter

 

FIND CHRIS HERE:

Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

 

THANKS TO:

  • Annabel "Nibal" Rabiyah - Massachusettes
  • Amanda Chin - Pennsylvania
  • Rivka-Suad Ben Daniel - Southern California
  • Ali Hamad - Tennessee 
  • Monique Mansour - Southern California
  • Sarmed Yasser Jabra - Michigan
  • Ali Ruxin - New York
  • Rabab Al-Amin - Maryland
  • Cecilia Sweet-Coll (for consistent helpful feedback)

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EP. 19: From a Midwestern Slovak Family Farm to Black Catholic Mississippi

Saturday Mar 25, 2023

Saturday Mar 25, 2023

In November 2022, we visited Father Tom Mullaly at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Greenville, Mississippi. Chris's mother Mrs. Demalda Bolden Newsome grew up in this church, as did her family going back three generations. Chris was born and baptized there as well. Father Tom grew up on his Slovak family's farm in the summers, raising food for their winter pantry. For the past 50 years, he has been a pastor in southern Black Catholic churches, keeping gardens in community along the way. In our conversation, Chris and his mom also talk about the importance of the Black Catholic church to their family and community. 

SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:

Introduction:

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

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

Tumblr  |  Instagram  |  Twitter

 

FIND CHRIS HERE:

Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

 

THANKS TO:

  • Father Tom Mulally
  • Demalda Bolden Newsome
  • Cecilia Sweet-Coll

Read more

EP. 18: Dragged Through the Garden: Thai Food and Chicago Hotdogs with Heidi Ratanavanich and Family

Thursday Mar 09, 2023

Thursday Mar 09, 2023

Heidi Ratanavanich invited their mom, Mae Sue, and aunties Na Na, Na Urm, and Na Toy from Thailand and Chicago to cook traditional Thai foods together for their Philadelphia friends and family and to visit their traditional foods growing at our farm. We were also able to talk about the family hotdog stand, Al's Drive-In, which serves hotdogs and Thai-inspired Chinese food. We are grateful to have recorded these beautiful moments with them for this episode!

Heidi is a visual artist, carpenter, and educator. Heidi is interested in the intersection of food sovereignty, Thai/Chinese diaspora, ecology and economy. They are involved in the collectives FORTUNE and Television. Heidi apprenticed at Truelove Seeds for a season, tending to Thai and Chinese based plants with a special focus on Kra Praow (Thai Holy Basil) saved from their mom's home, Sappaya, Thailand. They were also part of a team that re-opened a small take-out corner store in West Philly called Golden Dragon. Golden Dragon will be closing its doors this month, though Heidi plans to continue their food sovereignty work and personal journey with ancestral food, including growing a Chicago-Style hotdog garden in 2023 with Zhong Shu Tomatoes, Thai white cucumbers, Chinese Celery, Sport Peppers, and more.  

SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:

Introduction:

Heidi's Seed Stories:

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

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

Tumblr  |  Instagram  |  Twitter

 

FIND CHRIS HERE:

Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

 

THANKS TO:

  • Heidi Ratanavanich
  • Mae Sue
  • Na Na
  • Na Urm
  • Na Toy
  • Cecilia Sweet-Coll
  • Ruth Kaaserer

Read more

EP. 17: Mycelial Networks of Seed Growers & the Truelove Seeds Listening Project

Thursday Dec 01, 2022

Thursday Dec 01, 2022

Chris Keeve is a former Truelove Seeds apprentice and current seed grower in Kentucky who drove out for our annual Truelove growers gathering at our farm on October 22nd, 2022 to deliver seeds and conduct interviews for their dissertation: the Truelove Seeds Listening Project. With Truelove business manager and web wizard Sara Taylor recording the audio and interjecting occasionally, they talked to growers about their involvement in our network, including occasional seed stories, testimonials, suggestions, and which seeds they'd bring to another planet. This episode is a compilation of some of the interviews. 

SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

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

Tumblr  |  Instagram  |  Twitter

 

FIND CHRIS HERE:

Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

 

THANKS TO:

  • Chris Keeve
  • Sara Taylor
  • The Cassell Family
  • SeedEd Farm
  • Amy June
  • Olivia Gamber
  • Jonathan Minick
  • Nathan Kleinman
  • Cecilia Sweet-Coll

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EP 16: Keeping Indigenous Seeds in Kenya with Akoth Ambugo

Monday Oct 24, 2022

Monday Oct 24, 2022

Akoth with Bo pod harvest at Truelove Seeds farm in Pennsylvania

Akoth Ambugo spends part of her year back home in her family's rural villages in Kenya and part of her year in the United States as a nurse and gardener. While in the US, she is learning to keep seeds, grow nutritious food, and feed the soil.  She hopes to revive traditional indigenous crop varieties and farming practices that are more in tune with the land and the health of the people. 

She recently wrote: "This thing that we do is a return. A return to a deep and sacred knowing of wild things. That we all begin and return as seeds. This land, these hands, and these hearts all feel like a sacred alignment, weaving to-gather together. Here there is no sense of if, just is. Here I breathe in hope and beauty. This is what the seeds teach me, learning the path of patience and humility. Of fire and water in balance. Of the sweetness of my sweat and the delight of feeling my body toil for sanctuary. I eat with more awareness and gratitude. Because of the seed. The revolution has always been here and it is in the seed."

SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

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

Tumblr  |  Instagram  |  Twitter

 

FIND CHRIS HERE:

Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

 

THANKS TO:

  • Akoth Ambugo
  • Cecilia Sweet-Coll
  • Ruth Kaaserer

Read more

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:

SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

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

Tumblr  |  Instagram  |  Twitter

 

FIND CHRIS HERE:

Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

 

THANKS TO:

  • Amirah Mitchell
  • Cecilia Sweet-Coll

Read more

EP. 14: Iris Brown: Afro-Puerto Rican food and culture in Philadelphia

Tuesday Sep 20, 2022

Tuesday Sep 20, 2022

In this episode, we hear from Señora Iris Brown of Loíza, Puerto Rico, who grew up learning to cook and use herbs from her grandmother and the strong women of her hometown. She came to New York in 1967 for economic reasons, and moved to Philadelphia in 1970 when she fell in love with the back yards here. She said “I saw the possibilities of planting flowers, hanging a hammock, and looking at the stars!!” 

In the 1980s, she and her friend Tomasita Romero co-founded Grupo Motivos, a collective of Puerto Rican women that worked with West Kensington residents to establish the historic and award-winning Norris Square gardens on many blighted, vacant properties that had been used for selling drugs. Now part of Norris Square Neighborhood Project, these spaces are filled with life and beauty and Puerto Rican culture.

SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:

MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:

Please Support Hurricane Relief in Loíza, PR:

Resources and organizations mentioned:

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

 

SUPPORT OUR PATREON!

Become a monthly Patreon supporter! This will better allow us to take the time to record, edit, and share seed stories like these.

 

FIND OWEN HERE:

Truelove Seeds

Facebook  |  Tumblr  |  Instagram  |  Twitter

 

FIND CHRIS HERE:

Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

 

THANKS TO:

  • Iris Brown
  • Norris Square Neighborhood Project
  • Luz Maria Orozco
  • Akoth Tutu
  • Maebh Aguilar
  • Tania María Ríos Marrero and Grimaldi Baez

SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE (CONTINUED):

  • Oregano de Puerto Rico (Lippia micromera)
  • Avocado, Aguacate (Persea americana)
  • Papaya, Lechosa (Carica papaya)
  • Annatto, Achiote (Bixa orellana)
  • Vicks (Plectranthus tometosa)
  • Leren (Goeppertia allovia) 
  • Red-Stemmed Yuca, Cassava (Manihot esculenta)
  • Mother of Millions (Kalanchoe daigremontiana)
  • Rue, Ruda (Ruta graveolens)
  • Basil, Abahaca (Ocimum basilicum) 
  • Lemongrass, Limoncillo (Cymbopogon citratus)
  • Life Plant, Oja de Bruja (Kalanchoe pinnatum) 
  • Soursop, Guanábana (Annona muricata)
  • Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
  • Plantain, Llantén (Plantago major)
  • Krapao, Thai Holy Basil (Ocimum spp.)
  • Pigeon Peas, Gandules (Cajunus cajun)
  • Aji Dulce, Seasoning Pepper (Capsicum annuum)
  • Peppermint, Menta (Mentha piperita)
  • Ornamental Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas)
  • Zinnia (Zinnia elegans)
  • Black Eyed Peas, Frijol de Caritas (Vigna unguiculata)
  • Cleome (Cleome hassleriana)
  • Castor, Higuereta (Ricinus comunis)
  • Coconut, Coco (Cocos nucifera)

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