Podcast appearances and mentions of owen taylor

Do you love excessively complicated mystery plots that are still somehow entertaining and fun? Do you love it when real-life couples co-star in movies and have insane chemistry? Do you know who killed Owen Taylor? Then The Big Sleep (1946) is the movie for you! Check out this quick-witted Howard Hawks directed noir and watch the sparks fly between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall; featuring a strong supporting cast that includes Martha Vickers, Dorothy Malone, and John Ridgely. Host Sara Greenfield and her guest, Steven C. Smith, (author of Music By Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood's Most Influential Composer), chat about all this and more on this week's episode of Talk Classic To Me. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Steven C. Smith https://mediasteven.com/ Music By Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood's Most Influential Composer https://www.larryedmunds.com/product-page/music-by-max-steiner-the-epic-life-of-hollywood-s-most-influential-composer

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 Kitty 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

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. 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) Chin Baung (Burmese Roselle Leaf)   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 Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   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) Rufus and Demalda Newsome on Seeds and their People, episode 4, February 2020 Newsome Community Farm on YouTube, 2008 Newsome Community Farm (in Tulsa, OK), Guardian article, 2016 Visit Mr. Elgin Johnson for greens and firewood on Highway 1 at Short Irene in Greenville, MS. 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 Rufus Newsome for interviewing and being interviewed Kevion Devanté and Elgin Johnson for being interviewed Bryan for helping Owen with editing ideas during animal noise section

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 Sabatino's "Peppe Insalata" Lettuce from Sabatino DiNardo Floriani Red Flint Corn   MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Italian Garden Project (web) Italian Garden Project (IG) Italian Garden Project (YouTube) Italian Garden Project (Facebook) Bruno Garofalo's Bidente (Two-Toothed tool) Italian American Podcast on Unification Growers Grange Italian Heirloom CSA, Corbett, OR Eggplant Parmesan recipe by Cooking with Nona The Feast of the Madonna del Sacro Monte, Clifton, NJ 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 Concetta Liberto Antonino Machi Fenice Mercurio Charles Adornetto Domenic Carpico Michele Vaccaro Ruth Kaaserer

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: Hannah Freeman Bean Pippin's Fish Pepper Bowling Pin Paste Tomato Green Striped Maycock Weaver Pole Bean Shipova Mt. Ash Hybrid MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: The Roughwood Center for Heritage Seedways Roughwood Facebook A Century of Don Yoder: Father of American Folklife James Weaver and Meadowview Farms, Bowers, PA 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

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 Amirah Mitchell's Sistah Seeds Tika's garden, Rabbit Hole Farm, Newark, NJ Kula Nursery, Oakland 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

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 Cayenne Pepper, Sambal Red Spinach, Red Amaranth, Pink Soup Lime Leaves Kenikir, Ulam Raja, King's Salad Lemongrass Moringa Banana Bitter Melon Lily Persimmon Kale Beetroot Grape leaves Honey Fig Purple Long Bean (coming soon!) MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Haiqal's Garden (Facebook) Haiqal's Garden (Children's Book) Morning Circle Media Hardena Restaurant Mural featuring Haiqal's Garden (top right) on Hardena Restaurant Sky Cafe Hung Vuong Food Market 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 :) 

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: Broadleaf Mustard Greens Squash Vine Borer in Pennsylvania SEED STORIES: Sesame Rice Aswad Eggplant Amba (Mango, Cayenne, Fenugreek, Turmeric) Ali Baba Watermelon Rashad (Chamsur) Al Kuffa Tomato Fava Bean Winter Melon Flax MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: 2023 Iraqi Seed Collective General Interest Form Iraqi Seed Collective (Instagram) The Awafi Kitchen (Webpage) The Awafi Kitchen (Instagram) Beidth al Tbeet: Deconstructing the political history of an Iraqi Jewish meal (Youtube) Garrett Williamson  PA Flax 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 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)

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: Speckled Brown Butterbean Calendula Honey Bean MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Sacred Heart Catholic Church No-Till Intensive Vegetable Culture, by Bryan O'Hara Italian Garden Project Celebrating Saint Joseph Altars: Italian American Podcast Stella Natura Biodynamic Planting Calendar (one of our moon calendar references) Seventy Septembers, by Mary E. Best 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

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: Milkweed Efo Shoko Callaloo  Coral Sorghum Couve Heidi's Seed Stories: Krapao (Thai Holy Basil) Celtuce (Chinese Stem Lettuce) Prik Chi Fa (Pepper) Lemongrass Makrut Lime Leaves Moringa Eggplant Culantro/Recao/Foreigner Cilantro/Saw-Toothed Cilantro Rice MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Goodbye Golden Dragon, on Bunny Hop Instagram Fortune Heidi at Truelove Al's Drive-In Al's on CBS News Al's in New York Times 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

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: Korean Hong Gochu Pepper Paul Robeson Tomato Charleston Grey Watermelon Bitter Melon Mississippi Purple Hull Pea Cherokee Purple Tomato Potawatomi Pole Lima Shawnee Calico Bean Astronomy Domine Sweet Corn Heilige Boon (Holy Bean) Butternut Squash Seminole Pumpkin Kernza Grain MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Truelove Seeds Growers Gathering post Chris Keeve featured on Seeds and Their People Care of Creation Ministries, Kenya SeedEd Farm Arcadia University Veteran Farmer Program Appel Farm Arts Camp Rowen White's Seed Seva Seasonal Mentorship Online Course Food as Public work by Pantaleon Florez of Maseualkualli Farm Poor Prole's Almanac Strawflower Farm Experimental Farm Network 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

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: Apoth/Ewedu/Molokhia/Jute Bo/Kunde/Field Pea/Cowpea Chinsaga/Dek/Spider Plant Sisal Besobela/Ethiopian Holy Basil Huacatay/Peruvian Black Mint Spilanthes/Toothache Plant Pili Pili/Apilo Moringa Bambara Groundnuts MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Newark Adopt-a-Lot Masanobu Fukuoka Natural Farm, Japan Tagetes minuta as a natural dye in Kenya The Kenya Cereals Enhancement Programme - Climate Resilient Agricultural Livelihoods - Cowpea Extension Manual Seed Savers Network, Kenya 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

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: Inquirer, 12/21 Grid Philly, 1/22 Edible Philadelphia, 3/22 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 Sokoyokoto Lagos Spinach (Leaf Celosia from EFN) Efo Shoko (Lagos Spinach/Leaf Celosia from Truelove)  Feathery Plume Celosia (Ornamental)  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: Truelove Seeds Tumblr  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram's Garden   THANKS TO: Amirah Mitchell Cecilia Sweet-Coll

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: Northern Adapted Pigeon Peas (Gandules) Aji Dulce (Seasoning Pepper) For a more complete list, see bottom of page MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Please Support Hurricane Relief in Loíza, PR: Taller Salud Resources and organizations mentioned: Norris Square Neighborhood Project (NSNP) NSNP: Instagram; Facebook; Web Documentary: Grupo Motivos presents: Villa Africana Colobó (Vimeo) Cookbook: El burén de Lula Reference book: Earth And Spirit: Medicinal Plants And Healing Lore From Puerto Rico by Maria Benedetti 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)

This episode features Halima Salizar and Dria Price of Justevia Teas in Watervalley, Mississippi with a focus on their beloved food and medicine plants, their work, and the ways the food cultures of West Africa and the Southern US mirror each other. They grow, harvest, dry, and package their tea blends at their farm, and they host pop-ups with local restaurants featuring Nigerian foods. They also grow the seeds of Nigerian vegetables as well as heirlooms from Mississippi and Alabama for the Truelove Seeds catalog.  SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE: Honey Bean Purple Hull Pea Hibiscus White Velvet Okra Ginger Efo Aleho (Coming soon. Similar to Callaloo) Egusi Ewedu (Coming soon. Similar to Palestinian Molokhia) Ugu (Fluted Pumpkin) Locust Beans, fermented, aka Iru Stevia   MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Help Justevia buy a Farm! Justevia's Linktree Mr. Brown's Farm, Watervally, MS Chicory Market, Oxford, MS The Potlikker Papers, John T. Edge Southern Foodways Alliance podcast: Gravy Ewedu Broom on YouTube Seeds and Their People, EP 5: RAU ĐAY, LALO, SALUYOT, EWEDU, MOLOKHIA Molokhia Survey, by Antonio Tahhan  Antonio Tahhan's Linktree Braiding Seeds Fellowship   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: Halima Salazar Dria Price Maebh Aguilar Zainab Muhammad 

This interview overflows with deep wisdom, rough experience and a heapin' side of humor all in Ms. Pearl's pecan smooth Mississippi cadence and style. It is uncharacteristically long for our conversations and we know you will be BLESSED by every minute! Ms. Pearl is a daughter of the delta and migrated north. She was born and raised in what would today be considered deep poverty in the then and now poorest state of the union in a time and place where slavery was dead in name only.  White supremacy and deep oppression of the working class was and remains a very real and present danger to peace, health, economic and spiritual progress in our beloved Mississippi. There will be some parts of Ms. Pearl's personal life story that might be hard for some listeners to hear.  Also Ms. Pearl will be speaking from her deep life experiences, in her dialect and through her ways of knowing the world in which she matured.  Please listen as always with a beginner's mind and an open heart to her intense sharing. Due to strong language and vivid descriptions of racist violence, this may not be suitable listening for young children.   SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE: Speckled Brown Butter Bean Mississippi Purple Hull Pea Mississippi Silver Hull Crowder Pea Seven Top Turnips Florida Broadleaf Mustard Collard Greens Rutabagas Okra coffee Shamrock/Wood Sorrel May Apples   MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: The Community Garden at Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram's Garden Emmett Till Legacy Foundation   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: Mrs. Pearl Trotter

In this episode, we hear from former Truelove Seeds apprentice Kai Delgado Pfeifer in an interview from last fall 2021 when they visited our office and seed room in Philadelphia. There is also a short update from this week so we can hear the awesome things Kai is up to now and in the near future. This is the second of two back-to-back episodes featuring former apprentices, but we will certainly do more in the future. Kai Delgado Pfeifer (they/them) is a Filipinx/Mixed European descent earth tender activating ancestral food, plant medicine, and spirituality as mediums for healing and liberation. Kai is also an educator who moves with the belief that our children are the light beings who will re-awaken our lineages of wisdom for the liberation and regeneration of our Mama Earth.    SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE: Smooth Bitter Melon Saluyot (Molokhia) Burdock Root Rice Beans (Tahores/Tapilan) Rice Peas Northern Adapted Pigeon Peas Hill Rice (South Trinidad) MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Interviewee: Kai Delgado Pfeifer  Kai on Instagram:@lolas.apo Kinabuhi ang Pag-Kaon / Food is Life Class Resources and organizations mentioned: Bahay215: Filipinx traditions in Lenapehoking Neal Santos: Philadelphia friend and photographer, and former co-owner of Lalo, a fast-casual Filipino food stall Beatrice Misa Crisostomo, Global Seed Savers MASIPAG: Rice and freedom in the Philippines Kai Farms: A permaculture farm in the Philippines Amirah Mitchell's 2021 seed keeping fellowship at Greensgrow GMOs and their Implications on the Filipino Peoples' Food Security, Lorelei Beyer Article: the Philippines has become the first country to approve the commercial production of genetically modified, nutrient-enriched Golden Rice 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: Kai Delgado Pfeifer Yawa

Today Katie Uttley catches up with St. Catherines native Class of 2025 OL Owen Taylor, who took home MVP honours at the CFC Tryout and Showcase in Brampton this past spring. Become a CFCINSIDER today on canadafootballchat.com

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   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: Chris Keeve Althea Baird Amirah Mitchell Maebh Aguilar Sara Taylor

In this episode, Palestinian chef Anan Jardali Zahr describes her beloved foodways and ingredients, including Molokhia, Kusa, and Zaatar. Anan was born in Akka, Palestine and came to California at age 11, after the Six-Day War of 1967. She graduated from University of California at Berkeley's Department of Near Eastern Studies and attended Graduate School at West Chester University in the Department of Education. She and her family have lived in the Philadelphia area since 1980 where she previously taught in the school system. From 1995-2001, Anan had a Mediterranean restaurant in Wilmington, Delaware and she continues to share her love for Palestinian food through cooking demonstrations (which is how we first met, at the Culinary Literacy Center of the Free Library of Philadelphia) and through Instagram: @ananzahr   SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE: Palestinian Molokhia Palestinian Kusa Squash Lebanese Za'atar   MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Interviewee: Anan Zahr Anan on Instagram: @ananzahr Seeds and Their People: EP 5: RAU ĐAY, LALO, SALUYOT, EWEDU, MOLOKHIA, Mar 16, 2020 Ingredients Across Borders: Sumac at the Culinary Literacy Center of the Free Library of Philadelphia   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: Anan Jardali Zahr Maebh Aguilar Sara Taylor

Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed in Philomath, Oregon visited our Truelove Seeds farm during a cross-country road trip in July, 2019. Frank began in the early 1980s as a salad grower providing greens for grocery stores throughout the country. As you will hear in this episode, an accidental hybrid between two of his lettuces sparked a deep passion for breeding new varieties, and he has been doing so ever since, now with varieties in many seed catalogs, and even in space.  Frank has been a invaluable mentor for so many people in the organic and small regional seed company world. We are so grateful for the wisdom he shares.    SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE: Outredgeous Lettuce Lava Dome Lettuce Wild Garden Kale Mix Chickweed Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled Cress White Russian Kale   MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Interviewee: Frank Morton Wild Garden Seed: website Wild Garden Seed on Instagram: @wild_garden_seed Dr. Alan Kapuler and Peace Seeds Renee Shepherd and Renee's Garden John Navazio's The Organic Seed Grower Rob Johnston and Johnny's Select Seeds Luther Burbank's Wikipedia   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: Frank Morton Chris Keeve Jonah Hudson Maebh Aguilar Sara Taylor

This episode features four interviews with Karen farmers from the mountains of the Karen state of Burma (Myanmar) who spent roughly a decade in Thai refugee camps before resettling in South Philadelphia. They now grow their traditional crops at Novick Urban Farm. The Karen way with food plants was key to their survival and joy while living in the center of a civil war; then again while hiding in the jungle and escaping to Thailand, biding time in the tight quarters of refugee camps; and today, farming and foraging here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their heirloom vegetables and traditional foods have become a lifeline, a heartstring, a refuge, and a delicious portal home.   SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE: White Flowering Mustard (Rat-Tail Radish) Lemon-Drop Spilanthes Green Pumpkin Eggplant (Ka) White Garden Egg (Eggplant) Chin Baung (Burmese Roselle Leaf) Dark Pea Eggplant (Ta Kaw Ka Tha)   MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Interviewees: Naw Doh, Hte Da Win, Hser Ku, and Tay Aye, Karen farmers from Burma, at Novick Community Farm Memories of Myanmar: Article Owen wrote in Mother Earth Gardener, May 2020, from the original interview [PDF] Novick Urban Farm: novickurbanfarm.org/community/ Novick Urban Farm at Truelove Seeds Novick Urban Farm on Instagram: @novickurbanfarm Novick Urban Farm on Facebook Southeast by Southeast, Mural Arts   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: Naw Doh Hte Da Win Hser Ku Tay Aye (Hte Da Win's mom) Adam Forbes Jess Renninger Ally Schonfeld Clara Varadi-True Novick Brothers Corporation Southeast by Southeast Maebh Aguilar Sara Taylor

As regular readers and listeners know, I've had a longtime interest in the organic seed movement, especially farm-based companies that grow at least some of the seed they sell and are proud to tell you where they source the rest. I like to know where my seed comes from.  Lately I've had the pleasure of getting to know a number of new-to-me companies, including Truelove Seeds of Philadelphia, whose website promises culturally important, open-pollinated seeds to people “longing for their taste of home.” Today's guest is Owen Taylor, one of its co-founders. With Christopher Bolden-Newsome, Owen Taylor started Truelove Seeds, which offers a diversity of vegetable, flower and herb seed from more than 50 small-scale urban and rural farmers committed to community food sovereignty, cultural preservation, and sustainable agriculture, and who each share in the sales price of every seed packet sold.

Is there something about your cup (or maybe what it’s filled with) that brings you joy?What is the happiest part of your day? Morning? Afternoon? Evening? Why, or why not?If you could be transported to the place in this world that brings you the most joy – where would you be?What do activity or hobby do you feel the most joy in doing?Is your joy dependent on others or yourself?What is something small that always brings you joy? Can you name five little things that bring you joy?If you lived to be 100 what would be one thing you would regret not doing/trying?Where can true happiness and lasting joy be found?How can you find joy when you don’t feel joyful? Thank you to:Jenna Cook-Garcia with Day Made Designs (podcast artwork)Tori McClure (music for the podcast - you can find her on Spotify and itunes)Pod Coach Angela Wade SimpsonPodcast Fairy-Godmother Sue Jolly* "We Wait” performed and written by Jenna Kuykendall (look for her interview in our “This Little Light of Mine…” season in early 2021!)This  episode is dedicated in loving memory of Debra Ferguson and Owen Taylor, beloved parents of our friend Sarah Condon. May they rest in peace and rise in glory.

This episode is all about the Fish Pepper, an extremely flavorful, productive, and decorative variety that makes an excellent hot sauce. The white unripe fruit were used to flavor seafood dishes in the Black catering community of Baltimore in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Horace Pippin, the now-famed painter, shared this variety (and many others) with H. Ralph Weaver in the early 1940s in exchange for bee-sting therapy. Weaver's grandson (William Woys Weaver, who you will hear from in the second half of this episode) found the seeds in a baby food jar in his grandmother's deep freezer a couple decades later, many years after his grandfather's death, and was able to reintroduce them via Seed Savers Exchange.In this episode, you will hear from Xavier Brown from Soilful City in Washington DC who makes Pippin Sauce from fish peppers grown by black farmers and urban gardeners in the DC and Maryland areas (including Denzel Mitchell, who you will also hear from). Soilful City offers their seeds through Truelove Seeds. You will also hear from Michael Twitty, author of the Cooking Gene. See links to the work of each of the speakers below. SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:Fish PepperBuena Mulata Pepper MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:Xavier Brown, January 2020Soilful City on Instagram: @soilfulSoilful City: soilfulcitydc.wordpress.comSoilful City at Truelove Seeds Denzel Mitchell, January 2020Instagram: @fatherof5fivefifthsDenzell Mitchell at Farm Alliance Baltimorefutureharvestcasa.org/denzel-mitchell"Introducing Denzel Mitchell of Five Seeds Farm in Baltimore”- Afroculinaria Blog by Michael Twitty, 2012 Dr. William Woys Weaver, August 2019Instagram: @roughwoodseeds, @williamwoysweaverRoughwood Seed Collection: www.roughwoodtable.orgSigned copies of Heirloom Vegetable Gardening Michael Twitty, April 2019Instagram: @thecookinggeneBuy The Cooking Gene Book: Amazon.com, Barnes & NobleMichael W. Twitty Facebook PageThe Cooking Gene Facebook PageMichael W. Twitty on Twitter: @koshersoulwww.Afroculinaria.comArticle Owen wrote from this original interview [PDF] 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 SeedsTumblr  |  Instagram  |  Twitter FIND CHRIS HERE:Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden THANKS TO:Xavier BrownDenzel MitchellWilliam Woys WeaverMichael TwittyHorace PippinSara Taylor

Governments are faced with the huge task of making changes and transforming to meet the workforce challenges of a rapidly changing world, and this they have to do whether they’re ready or not. The recent PwC Canadian workforce of the future survey takes a look at Canadian employees’ and employers’ perceptions of return-to-workplace plans and the digital workplace experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the show today, we will delve into this report by speaking with Owen Taylor, National Public Sector Leader, PwC Canada.

This episode is all about one plant with countless names: Molokhia (Corchorus olitorius). You may know it as Jute, Jew's Mallow, Egyptian Spinach, any of the names in the title of this episode, or as something else altogether! This plant is beloved throughout the world and so we talked to people whose roots are in Vietnam, Haiti, Philippines, Nigeria, Palestine, and Syria about how they grow, harvest, prepare, eat, and save seeds from this delicious, nutritious, healing, and slimy plant. You will hear many similarities and differences. One thing is clear: everyone holds it dear for the way the flavors, textures, and even the tedious plucking of leaves transports them back home. SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:Palestinian MolokhiaPalestinian Kusa SquashFrancois Syrian Molokhia MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:Lan Dinh and Soi Trinh, "Rau Ðay," March, 2020VietLead: vietlead.orgResilient Roots Farm on Instagram: @resilientrootsfarmOrder Lan and VietLead's seeds, including Rau Den (Vietnamese Amaranth), Smooth Bitter Melon, and Lá Tía Tô (Vietnamese Perilla)! Chef Chris Paul, "Lalo," March 2020Instagram: @chrispaulchefLegim (Haitian Stew): tasteatlas.com/legimOne Book, Many Voices Community Dinner, March 11, 2020 Nick, "Saluyot," January 2020Philadelphia Seed ExchangeSaluyot and Cleopatra Ruby Olisemeka, "Ewedu," March 2020Farm School NYC: farmschoolnyc.orgEgusiAmala FlourRed Hook Farm: added-value.orgRuby's Teacher, Oríadé Ìp?`s?´lá Ajét?`lú - indigenous Yorùbá spiritual uses of Ewedu: oriade7.7network@gmail.comwww.agloglob.com Anan Zahr "Mlukhiyie," February, 2020Anan's Musakhan and Sumac class at the Free Library of PhiladelphiaAnan Zahr Instagram: @ananzahrAnan's Mlukhiyie: click here to see a photo and descriptionSeeds mentioned in this interview: Palestinian MolokhiaPalestinian Kusa SquashLebanese Za'atar (Thyme) Hoda Mansour and her daughter Noor "Mloukhia," August, 2019Instagram: @ootybaboVisit to harvest at Truelove Seeds: see photos here Mason Harkrader, Bear Bottom Farm, "Molokhia," August, 2019Instagram: @bearbottomfarmMother Earth Gardener, "A Taste of Home:" [PDF] or read online hereFrançois Selim Moussalli, 1923 - 2018, ObituaryFrancois Syrian MolokhiaAll Bear Bottom Farm's Syrian and Appalachian seeds 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 SeedsTumblr  |  Instagram  |  Twitter FIND CHRIS HERE:Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden THANKS TO:Lan Dinh and Soi TrinhChef Chris PaulNick from the Seed SwapFarmer Ruby OlisemekaAnan and George ZahrHoda Mansour and her childrenMason Harkrader and Mo WileySara Taylor

In this fourth episode, we talk with Chris’s parents Rufus and Demalda Newsome of Newsome Community Farms in Greenville, Mississippi at Christmas. While Rufus pulls seeds from cotton he talks about growing up at ten years old working in the cotton fields as a weed chopper, a hoe filer, and a water boy. While Demalda chops vegetables for the Christmas meal, she describes growing up harvesting fruits from neighborhood trees and beans from an overturned bean truck, and getting watermelons from the watermelon man. While she and Chris make tamales, we talk about how they’d always eat them with hot donuts in the Delta at Christmas, which brings us to talking about segregation and desegregation. She describes her advocacy and food sovereignty work with Newsome Community Farms, Community Food Security Coalition, and Food First. There’s a hidden track at the very end where Rufus opens his very first moringa pods (see the videos here) and the grandkids get to taste the seeds and the way they transform water, and we discuss seed maturity and storage, and the importance of eating good bacteria. SEED AND FOOD STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:CottonMustard and Turnip GreensTamalesMoringa MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:Newsome Community Farms, by WhyHungerDemalda Newsome, Food FirstFood FirstAn Introduction: Hot Tamales and the Mississippi Delta, Southern Foodways Alliance.The brutal murder of Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi, by the History Channel.Fannie Lou Hamer founds the Freedom Farm Cooperative in the Mississippi Delta, by SNCC.  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 SeedsTumblr  |  Instagram  |  Twitter FIND CHRIS HERE:Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden THANKS TO:Rufus Newsome and Demalda Bolden NewsomeAunt VeronicaJala, Jacob, AmareionSara Taylor PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:Rufus NewsomeRufus Newsome:Years ago as a boy. Um, the field wasn't very far away from where we live. We lived in Mississippi, Greenville Mississippi. We lived on white people's land. They were called the Dominic's. They were pretty decent folks also. But we went to other people fields to pick and chop cotton. I can remember as a small child smelling that fresh cotton smell and I crave the smell now. But this cotton doesn't smell the same way it did 50 years ago. It's different. Doesn't have a smell at all. But, progress goes on.Owen Taylor:Do you remember the first times you smelled cotton and what was that like and where were you? What were you doing?Rufus Newsome:I was in the fields when I was about 10 years old. At that time I was chopping because I think people had stopped picking cotton. That was combines picking cotton then, but we still needed to chop the weeds between the rows and there weren't a lot of herbicides used on that time. So we had to chop the weeds and I can remember seeing maybe 60 or 70 people chopping cotton. It seemed like those rows were a hundred feet long, hot. And so we're chopping and the aroma of the cotton, the smell just rises from the cotton and the smell is all around. Every so often you stop and pull some cotton and just sniff it up your nostrils and then you'd go back to work.Owen Taylor:What does it smell like? Can you describe it to someone who's never smelled it before?Rufus Newsome:It was fresh smell. I mean it was fresh. Uh, it smell like fresh air. Beside that, I can't describe it though. It's just really fresh. Like after a new rain when the sun comes out and clears up, everything smells so fresh. Remind me of the wash. My mom used to wash outside and hang the clothes up on the line and once the sheets, the white sheets dried that aroma and it would just, I mean it would just suffocate you.Owen Taylor:So what are you doing right now?Rufus Newsome:Right now I'm removing the seeds from, uh, some cotton that I picked from a field about two weeks ago on my way home from work. Uh, this is left over cotton in the field. So I went out and picked some, I'm sure the owner doesn't mind. And so what I'm doing now, I'm removing the seeds from the cotton itself. This is what our ancestors did. Everything was done by hand. They removed the seeds from the cotton. It was done by hand. And this is what I'm doing and I'm reminiscing of my ancestors, my great, great grandparents. As they sat there on the plantation, probably after noon, they've done all that picking. Now it's time to remove the seeds and so they're sitting there removing the seeds, talking and having a good time. It was very important that they remove the seeds because of course you know those seeds were planted the next year.Owen Taylor:Have you ever grown cotton at your house?Rufus Newsome:Oh yes we have. We, we grew cotton in Oklahoma. It was so beautiful. People would stop by older people, and say, you know what? That reminds me when I was a boy, when I used to pick cotton, I hadn't seen cotton in 50 years. And so we had planted a couple rows out in front of the house on the main street there, one of the main streets there in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was, it was a beautiful sight to see. That was about four feet tall. This is white and beautiful. That's why so many people stopped - they had never seen cotton up close before, just on television.Rufus Newsome:Well, you know, cotton been around for thousands of years. They Egyptians grew cotton and cotton is what kept the South alive. Major crop. Major crop cotton.Owen Taylor:Do you have a question? If so, get close to the mic?Jala Newsome:Did you ever have a brother or sister that died during slavery?Rufus Newsome:Well Jala, you know, I wasn't in slavery, but I'm sure we had relatives that died in slavery that we, we've never met.Owen Taylor:How old were you when you worked in the, in the fields chopping cotton?Rufus Newsome:I started in the field when I was about 10 years old. I started, uh, I think first I did do a little picking and then as I said, the combine, it was already developed, but I guess he was a poor farmer. He hadn't had it yet, but he got it later. And so we just basically chopped. I started off as a chopper chopping grass between the rows and then I was promoted to the water boy. That was a great promotion. All you did would carry water back and forth, uh, to, uh, the workers. And I did that so well I was promoted to a hoe filer. I filed hoes. Kept the hoes sharp and all. That's what we cut the weeds with. And I did that all the way up to high school. I earned most of all the money during the summer, uh, by working in the field cause Mama was working a job, she wasn't making that much. But I, I worked the field all summer and I made $13 a day for almost a month and a half. Imagine how much that was. So that helped bought my clothes along, my sisters and my brothers and food for the house also, I never regretted working so hard and rushing home and I couldn't wait to get home and get my money to my mother. You were paid in cash of course? Actually we made $15 an hour, but the driver took three.Demalda Newsome:$15 a day.Rufus Newsome:$15 a day. I'm sorry. Actually, we made $15 a day and the driver took three of it I guess for transportation and all. And I recall Mama, I would get up early in the morning about two, three o'clock because the truck left about five and mom would fix me my breakfast and fix me lunch also. She would make me baloney sandwiches and um, I think even she would put some, uh, teacakes in the bag/container. Teacakes were like homemade cookies and all. I mean they were just wonderful. They were like just a flat cookie, just delicious. We call them teacakes.Owen Taylor:Was it like the sugar cookies that Jala made the other day?Rufus Newsome:They weren't sugar, they didn't have sugar on it outside, but they were sweet though just from the inside.Chris Bolden Newsome:It's basically a sugar cookie recipe. Just thicker.Rufus Newsome:It's thicker. Yeah, it was a thicker, it was a thicker cookie. It was. It was a flat cake.Owen Taylor:So did, did other people in your family work in the same field? Did your brothers and sisters do the same work?Rufus Newsome:I remember my brothers, well my brothers had left already, but I do remember my sister, they tried it. Uh, the oldest sister. Um, of course you understand it was hot during that time, really hot. And I do recall my sisters going a few times, but they, they couldn't maintain. And then my baby sister Emma, she tried and she couldn't maintain because it was just so hot. Well there were several people that just couldn't do it. They couldn't work in the field. But for me, I worked, I had to work, I needed to work for my family's sake.Jala Newsome:Did you ever get tired of picking cotton for them?Rufus Newsome:I didn't pick cotton a whole long time. I didn't do it a long period of time because the cotton machine... Someone developed the cotton machine. The combine. Yeah.Jala Newsome:I thought they didn't care?Rufus Newsome:You thought who didn't care?Jala Newsome:The people that you had to pick cotton for.Rufus Newsome:Yes they cared, they want their crop in and they want things done cheap, they want things done as cheap as possible.Chris Bolden Newsome:That's why people use machines. Even though the machines hurt the earth.Rufus Newsome:One machine can do the work of 100 men or more.Chris Bolden Newsome:They wouldn't have pay to have paid 100 men or boys $13 a day.Rufus Newsome:For example, when I was watching the BBC, the history channel on BBC was talking about talking about a certain whale can eat up to like 200 pounds of a certain fish a day, but now the fishery can collect four to 5,000 tons of it in a day. And so they just, I mean what they're doing, they're taking more fish. They just taking too much.Chris Bolden Newsome:Pretty soon won't be none left.Rufus Newsome:There won't be any because they're taking too much. They're taking too much.Jala Newsome:Like in this article I read about penguins. Penguins are dying off because their parents are leaving them for food and then they're searching for fish and fishermen get too many fish and the adult penguins have to go farther and farther away from their children to get fish.Rufus Newsome:They're dying because when they leave predators come by and snatch their babies or if they don't return, they die from starvation unless they're adopted by another mother penguin.Owen Taylor:Can I ask you another question about when you were growing up? Um, how was your, what was your day to day life like? Like how did it compare to the life that your grandchildren live now? Like at home and in the community?Rufus Newsome:Because we had hardly, we only had enough to sustain ourselves. Um, of course we had a television, but of course we didn't have what the kids have now. And I can't compare because - I can't compare and say, well we didn't have games and they have the computer games now. Um, everything we did - basically we was outside a lot. We stayed outside a lot and we did a lot outside activities and all. Uh, we played outside a lot. We, we produced our own toys if we didn't have any - picking up a stick or something going around dragging on the ground, rolling a tire down the road, the gravel street there. That's the type of fun that we had. Uh, going fishing, not staying in the house all the time, watching video games or playing video games or etc. or things like that. We were, we were more active than kids are. Sure. I was more active than what my grandkids are now, even though my oldest grandson plays football, I was way more active then than the way he is right now because they have video games and he's on that a lot. And of course he's also preparing himself for when he go to college by watching other football players, by playing video games. And I'm not saying that it's not helpful. I think it is helpful, but we didn't have that. We learned, we basically, we learned by trial and error. We were out there, we learned to play sports just by doing it. We learned from my parents by watching what they were doing and they had us participate in it. It wasn't like, well I don't want to do it, you did because you had to do it. You had to do it.Owen Taylor:Um, what did, did you all have a, um, a kitchen garden at the house or a farm at the house. And what were the things that were the most important crops that you would grow at home?Rufus Newsome:Oh yeah, we did. We lived in the country. Matter of fact, the whole family lived in proximity of each other no more than 20-25 feet away. There's my grandmother in the middle, my uncle on the left, and my mother and I, we're on the right side. Grandmother lived in a shotgun house. If you're not familiar with a shotgun house, just what it says, one door in the front, one door in the back. So you go straight out. That's why they call them shotgun homes and all - just a little box with a front door and a back door. So my grandmother lived there and we lived in a regular house with two bedrooms. My mother, well, let me rephrase that: two rooms. We had a front room - that's where mother slept. There was a back room where all the kids slept. There was two beds in the back. Everybody slept together, boys and girls. We had a wash, a metal wash tub that we bathed probably I think maybe once a week, maybe once a week on the weekend. Um, girls, they washed first and then we will come in second. We didn't change the water, used the same water, bathed in it, then once it was finished we threw it out. And we didn't have an indoor toilet. We had what we call a slop pot. It was about pot about three feet tall, usually white and that's what we use for the indoor toilet. Once that thing is filled, you can't use it, so you have to go outside at one, two in the morning and all to down the outhouse, what we call it. And an outhouse was just a building, a small building with a hole dug about four - five foot deep. And the house was set over the hole and that's what we…that was our, our toilet, our outside toilet. And once that toilet was filled, we moved the house. The dirt that we recovered from that we, we use that and cover that back up and dig another hole and put the house over that hole. And so the process continued on: here, here, here, here.Chris Bolden Newsome:One of the ways they kept their soil fertile.Rufus Newsome:Yeah.Jala Newsome:I have question: Did any children, um, little babies in your house? I mean, little sisters or brothers that was babies - did they sleep in little drawers where you put clothes at?Rufus Newsome:Your uncle - Uncle Chris slept in a baby drawer, in a dresser drawer. He slept there as he was a baby. We didn't have dressers. We were too poor. We didn't have nothing like that. When we lived in the country, everything would just stored where ever in boxes and all. We didn't have a dresser with four or five drawers where you can store stuff. We didn't have that. We were too poor. And so we just managed the way we did. That was then.Owen Taylor:And so, and so what, what would be in the kitchen garden? What kinds of things would be grown outside?Rufus Newsome:Oh, the garden? Yeah, we got away from that. Yeah, we usually, okay, in the garden there'll be corn, okra, squash, mustard greens of course mustard greens. Turnips, huge turnip bottoms. Um, peas, beans, watermelons, sweet potatoes. And of course around the house you would have a mess of mustard greens right there, right available for you, right beside the house, the front door. And we'd just go out and pick them. When you needed some.Owen Taylor:Just like you had an Oklahoma. That's how you grew up. Always having a big patch of mustard greens.Rufus Newsome:Oh yeah, we always had a patch of mustard greens. Mustard green was a favorite green. Um, of course we ate other greens also, but it was the favorite green, but every black that I knew during that time, everybody loved mustard greens.Chris Bolden Newsome:Still do!Rufus Newsome:Oh yeah, still do.Owen Taylor:Where we live, people, people think of collard greens as the Southern greens. What do you have to say about that?Rufus Newsome:Oh, that's fine too. We've eaten collards also but I think I prefer the mustard myself though.Chris Bolden Newsome:We don't in Mississippi, we don't favor the collard in this part of the country. People don't favor the collard. I was in conversation with a woman in Kroger today. She said, I've never eaten any. She didn't know how to cook it. This is a grown woman older than me. And so I gave her a recipe how to cook it and she was afraid because we don't eat them. You go to the grocery store here, you go to the grocery in Mississippi, first top shelves are turnip greens and mustard greens and then collard greens on the bottom because it's the least picked. She didn't know how to pick it. It was too tough. But I also, I believe that there was a reason we ate turnip and mustard greens. The main ailment of enslaved Africans and then our descendants, their, their descendants. Um, has always been stomach ailments. It's always been infections to the stomach oftentimes, but just infections, you know, and particularly gut health has always been real important. You eat mustard greens, you know what I'm saying? Because traditionally black people got, even in daddy's lifetime, they got the worst of the food. They got the worst of the food, they got, they got, after white folks was finished and then had thrown it away. That's what you got to eat. When you used to get in a second rate food, spoiled over, molded... and I ain't talking about during slavery and time in the 60s, you know, you would get used to getting second rate food. Which is how many black people still live today. Many poor people all over the country still live today.Rufus Newsome:I remember the place that we live on the.. the Dominic place. We would shell peas for him. And once we completed that, he would send all his leftover fruit to us, like grapes, apples, pears, cherries. Of course, they had been picked over by everybody. And so they would send us a box full of boxes full of grapes that were all cracked open and juice running out. But hey, we saw that boy, Oh my goodness, that was a treasure, but they didn't know there was a treasure for us. They just getting rid of that mess. But it was a treasure for us because we didn't really get fresh fruits like that. We had no fruit trees around, no fruit trees at all, none. And we went out to pick blackberries. There weren't any blackberry bushes around where we live, so we had to go elsewhere and picked the blackberry. But that box of fruit was, was a treasure to us. We enjoyed it.Owen Taylor:What else would you pick in the neighborhood or in the wild?Rufus Newsome:All I can recall is we picked blackberries, but once we moved to the city, there were pears, there was peaches. The neighbor had several pear trees and during the summer all the families got together and harvested pears and made preserves and all.Chris Bolden Newsome:If you plant a fruit tree, a fruit tree, implies permanence. Really ownership. So you say y'all didn't have any fruit trees. That makes sense. You don't own your land, you didn't own your land, you did not put up fruit trees. Fruit trees was a sign that I live here now and I'm going to be here for a while.Rufus Newsome:Of course, we didn't stay there either long. I mean when I became of age we left. We left all that behind. Sure did. But uh, yeah, but during the fall of the year, we'd harvest our sweet potatoes and all, and we had a good huge crop. Of course, we all, we'd already harvested our corn and stuff like that. And I can't recall putting up any corn, but Mama did can peas and beans and I know my grandmother loved, uh, what is it Rumal that goes in the ground? Purple...beets, your grandmother, your great grandmother loved beets. Planted them all the time. Yeah. All the time.Chris Bolden Newsome:Great grandma? Ari?Rufus Newsome:Mm hm. She loved beats and she had this one collard plant for years and it just grew and grew and she'd just take the leaves off and one day I was, I was cutting the grass and I accidentally cut it down. It didn't come back. It didn't come back. It didn't come back. Sure didn't. And this is the reason why we lost our fingerprints also. Picking cotton and removing the seeds if you continue to do that.Chris Bolden Newsome:You don't have no fingerprints Daddy?Rufus Newsome:I have fingerprints. I'm saying our ancestors endured so much they had lost fingerprints they didn't have fingerprints because especially during that season there. But of course, when you stop, they were, they did return the prints they returned back to you. Yeah.Chris Bolden Newsome:Didn't know that. There's something, there's something kind of really deep and powerful about the idea that you lose your fingerprints picking through cotton, because, um, it's kind of also what happened in a real way. In this culture and in this century, fingerprints are used to identify people. So to say you lost your fingerprints, you know, also sounds like you've lost your identity.Rufus Newsome:I didn't think of it like that but yes you did. That's, that's what it was - during that period of time, we lost our identity. Yeah. Sure did.Chris Bolden Newsome:That's something powerful. We lost our fingerprints. I know that people will use, um, I asked you about that and now that the kids aren't in the room that people would use during slavery times. I know that our grandmothers would use cotton as an abortifacient in order to abort their pregnancies. You know, abort their babies. Yeah. And that if things got real....that was the last resort. Things were terrible, terrible, terrible. This was knowledge that women kept amongst themselves and never let out. So very rarely used, but for people who were tired of getting... Women who were tired of being constantly impregnated by force, especially by their white masters...course, you have to worry about the white men and black men if you were an enslaved woman. But you really had to worry about the white man who had absolute indiscriminate power over you. Did you know that? You never heard of cotton being associated with abortion?Rufus Newsome:Never. First time.Chris Bolden Newsome:Well, I'm very glad to, you know, to have my father in my life and I'm very proud to be able to do the work, um, that he did and that his father and his mothers did and their fathers and mothers did. Even if they did it. Um, you know, by force, you know, I'm really proud to be able to...that we did not like so many other black people in this country abandon the knowledge and the skills just because it came with some pain, you know? So I, I credit my being a Christian, being able to be able to understand that.Rufus Newsome:I told you about what Ms. Walker said. Mr. Walker's wife: "I'll never go back to the farm. I thought that was so rude of her to say.Chris Bolden Newsom:She said the farm, or to the South.Rufus Newsome:No, the farm. I'll never go back because they made me do all that. They made me do that. They made me do it.Chris Bolden Newsome:You have a lot of people for whom that was their only experience that they could never see it as something that they...Rufus Newsome:But it sustained them though. And they didn't see it like that. That tells me that that was some secret, or some hatred, some type of hatred that they have for the farm or the family - didn't want to work on it. "They made me do it". How else were you to survive if they didn't make you do it or force you, because apparently you didn't want to do it.Chris Bolden Newsome:You're talking about, at this point, family making, making the kids work.Rufus Newsome:Yeah. But everybody has to work. How was you going to eat if you didn't work?Chris Bolden Newsome:I think there's so much. It's we, we, we just as a people have lost so much of that work ethic. You know, that sense of ownership and then they can, people can blame the experience with the land, you know, as being the reason they don't want to do, you know, don't want to work, don't want to do anything outside especially, but you know, at the end of the day I don't, I don't, yeah, I don't understand why we don't have that.Rufus Newsome:I've come to the conclusion they just don't want to do anything. Why would they have to make you do it, why can't they just tell you "go ahead and get this done". You saw them do it. Why was so hard for you to do it? Because you didn't want to do it.Chris Bolden Newsome:What you said: "You got too much."Rufus Newsome:We had too much. Yeah. Too much.Chris Bolden Newsome:When you have too much, you start getting a sense of entitlement. e, but do you remember.Demalda Newsome:Demalda Newsome:I think it had to be in the early or mid sixties when I was a little girl. There was a food truck, you know we had trucks coming through neighborhood all the time. The one bad thing was that in our neighborhoods they all had ditches. The streets were not like regular streets in other neighborhoods. So what ended up happening is one day a bean truck came down through the neighborhood and I guess it may have taken a wrong turn off of highway number one, but the next thing we knew, this huge truck had tipped over in the ditch. It was a huge truck. The truck was full of beans, green beans. Oh back then that was like a treat to have like fresh green beans. So they had been freshly picked. That word went all through the neighborhood. People sent their little babies and children. Everybody with a pillow case, like...we would fill them up, and get those beans. It was a white driver driving the truck and he was just screaming and then he just gave up cause it was so many people there just grabbing those beans off the ground even though they were grabbing sometimes dirt. It was just like a rush. And what I remember during that time it was like, it just seemed like everything was really dark and dingy and, and people were in a state of hunger at that time. Why I felt that way, I don't know. But I remember feeling like that was something from God that was so miraculous that this truck tipped over in our neighborhood and people had so many green beans to eat and back then, you know, we had to snap them and do all that. But nobody cared because you had food then. It was like you had fresh green beans. Guy couldn't call the police, he could call anybody because there were no cell phones back then. He just sat on the curb and just watched his whole truck get demolished. I mean just everything was taken off of those, I mean no green beans left. Not one. (Laughter).Owen Taylor:So did you grow up also shelling peas?Demalda Newsome:Yeah, I mean it was just a regular thing to do. Like if you wanted to eat, it was a way of keeping your food for the winter. It was so much work and it was so hot in Mississippi, there were no air conditions for a long time. People only had box fans. And the way I got cool was I would, I would go and hide in the closet and lay on the cold floor, cause it was just I, it was as if I wasn't even from Mississippi itself. Like I just could not take the heat. I would lay there for hours on that floor trying to cool off. And then air conditioners came along, you know before then everybody had screen doors and screen windows and they were up all night, all day. And you put the box fan in there. But it was just blowing hot air. So we were just blessed that when air conditioners did come out, we were one of the families that was able to get an air conditioner. But it was a lifesaver for me because I just knew I was not gonna make it.Owen Taylor:So your memory of shelling peas is just heat.Demalda Newsome:It was just so much heat. And it was, it was like you had to get it done, you had to get it done, you would get a big bowl and then you think, “Oh well I'm done”. You were never done. It was never ending. It just seemed like it went on and on and on, you know, but we were thankful for it in the winter time when mom would come out and, you know, take it out the freezer and, and, and make these peas that we had put up for the summer that we had shelled. It was me and my three sisters. We all shelled peas.Owen Taylor:Where'd the peas come from?Demalda Newsome:You know, it used to be people that come out, come, you know, down the street in cars...well, old fashioned trucks. They would come in these trucks and, and they, they'd scream, you know, watermelon, watermelon man. Or then they'd have peas and fresh greens and they would holler out in a song of sorts to let you know what they had that day and people would rush to the truck and purchase it. That was the way that they did it.Owen Taylor:Do you remember at all any of the songs they might sing?Demalda Newsome:I just remember the one, the watermelon man, but I can't sing so I don't wanna embarrass myself, but he would say, "watermelon, watermelon man whoa, watermelon, watermelon man." You know, every kid in the neighborhood loved watermelon. So we'd all be begging our mom to "please mom get us watermelon, get us a watermelon." But they would also, like I said, they'd sell peas and things, but always, there was a neighbor that grew a lot of things like that and they would share with the next door neighbors. You know, some of their bounty that they would, that they would get, but I don't know. It had become to some people a source of shame to get garden-raised food. They didn't want people to know because it made it seem like they were very poor, if they were having to grow a garden to eat, which I as a child never understood that and I'm thinking "ah you know, these vegetables look great", but some people felt it was, you know, shameful do to grow a garden or to eat from a garden. But that was a lifesaver for most people. I remember too in the summers, the way I would eat, it would be a group of girls and we, you know, we were on our own little posse so we, we gathered together in the morning in one, you know, special location and then we'd wait to the - to whomever house that we were gonna go to - that they had gone to work. And so, we knew where every peach, plum tree, pear tree, we knew where every one of them were in our neighborhood. And we'd wait till they go to work and raid the trees. I remember just sitting, you know, somewhere in the empty vacant lot and laying on the ground and just eating peaches or plums and you know, the juice dripping all over our faces and arms, you know. I just remember that. And then a rumor went out and I don't know if it was ever true but it became really bad cause a lot of people when they got home their branches would be broken down. And that wasn't our group of people. Apparently, you know, some other group had done that, but we would tried to be (FRONT DOOR) really careful when we would go in to get the peaches and plums and things. But, um, a rumor had gone out that this woman (FRONT DOOR) had sprayed her tree and some child had gone while the people were gone and eaten the fruit and died and that, that kind of put an end to what we were doing. Cause after that our parents said, you all are probably going around eating. You know, cause we never brought our loot of fruit home. We just ate it in you know, an empty lot or something that was in the neighborhood. Like I said, that was the end of it.I just remember relocating back here to Mississippi and the first thing I wanted to find was where are those neighborhood trees that were in the front yards and, and backyards? And they were all gone and I couldn't understand it. I remember going to a, um, farm service agent, an NRCS person too and asking them like what happened to all the fruit trees. This place was abundant with fruit trees, you know, pomegranates, big, huge pomegranates and all those things that when I was in Oklahoma you paid a lot of money for, and these were just on trees here, but the, the trees were all gone. And what I was told that that some, some um, some kind of virus had hit back in the 90s that took out a lot of the fruit trees and they just never, people never put them back cause the people that would have owned it would've been great grandparents. And so I, I guess the, the ones that were still here didn't find that, you know, as valuable. Or they didn't think that people would eat off those, still eat off the trees. I don't know, but I know, I was very disappointed. And one of the things I'd like to do is to kind of maybe perhaps look into some sorts of funding to bring back those neighborhood fruit trees and teach children that they're edible. You can eat directly from the tree. (PHONE DING) We didn't wash them off or anything. Now I'm not saying don't wash your stuff off, but I'm saying as a kid we did not wash our stuff off. We were so happy to get those plums and pears and none of us got sick.Chris Bolden Newsome:I think that's why you all didn't get sick, because you ate foods with all the microbes and all the good bacteria on it. Now they understand, white man's science proves, there are more probiotics for your gut health contained in the core of an apple than eating yogurt. So when you eat apple, the skin and the core and that sort of thing, you get all of that good bacteria in a way that you just would never get it.Demalda Newsome:Now we would, you know, back then, we weren't scared of worms. We'd like eat around and try to pull the worm out with our finger or something and just eat the part where the worm wasn't. You know, we, we didn't freak out about seeing a worm in something, you know, you just ate around it and you know, just kept eating. And I remember eating figs, figs have so many ants in it and we didn't care about eating the ant back then. You know, it just cause the, the fig is so good. We were just like, Oh my God, it's so sweet. Cause back then parents didn't let you have a lot of sweet stuff. You know, it was something, this new disease that it was only talked about in whispers and they thought for sure that that's what caused people to have this disease. And they called it "sugar diabetes" or no they would say "sugar". That person has sugar. But it was said in a whisper like: "Oh yeah they got sugar. Shh don't talk about it". And they looked at it as a cancer almost and that's the way they talked about it. And then back then we actually got worms, you know, like real ones, you know, you'd go to the bathroom when you found a worm coming out of you. And I mean, you know, as a kid you're freaking out because something has come out your body that wasn't like the regular stuff that comes out your body. Now that freaked us out. We didn't care about eating worms and stuff but you didn't want one coming out of you. Sorry, but that's, you know, that's just one of those stories that people don't know about that back then. Now I never hear of any kids having worms, you know? So apparently maybe the immunizations or something else. I don't know what they're doing.Chris Bolden Newsome:Kid's don't get worms now?Demalda Newsome:They don't get worms anymore. Most young parents have never heard of what I'm telling you today that you could actually go to the restroom with a stomachache and then you, then you give birth to a worm. The longest damn worm you've ever seen.Chris Bolden Newsome:Mommy they had worms when I was a kid! We had worms!Demalda Newsome:I know you all were the last generation to have worms and it was, it was, it was sort of an anomaly that you all had them.Chris Bolden Newsome:No.Demalda Newsome:Yes, it was the doctor...they have not really been treating a lot of children for worms.Chris Bolden Newsome:But you see, this is why we kept mustard greens in our garden mustard and turnip greens in our gardens. They were fumigants. They were fumigants. Most of our ailments were stomach ailments. I didn't know people didn't get worms anymore. I had no idea.Demalda Newsome:But the worms you all had got were pinworms that come down at night. These were not the worms that you, you sat on the toilet and just gave birth to. I mean that was different. And I mean now thank God nobody has to birth a worm anymore.Chris Bolden Newsome:Well I don't know about that cause I think that probably not, I don't know if I would thank God for it because not worms means that there's something not in the environment. It's good. I mean I don't want to have worms again ever, but what does it mean that we in such a sterile environment and then we also don't have near as many birds. You know what I mean?Demalda Newsome:Though when you're a little kid and you're there screaming, somebody got to pull that worm out. Yeah. That's not cool.Owen Taylor:So switching gears a little bit. (Laughter) We really went down a wormhole.Chris Bolden Newsome:I think it's important to talk about those old ailments though, baby. Particularly for people especially like in the North and stuff where there's just so little like connection to...people didn't take care of...like, I don't even know, did you go to the doctor if you had worms?Demalda Newsome:No, everything got taken care of at home. Back then, you didn't go to a doctor they gave you, um, what, what was that one? Turpentine. Turpentine either killed you or healed you. I mean that's what it was. You had a little bit of it.Chris Bolden Newsome:But there's other stuff we took for worms, I have it written down on that list of Mississippi cures.Demalda Newsome (15:55):I just remember if you had to get turpentine, you were dealing with something real serious, it was like the mother of getting rid of anything that was serious. Like if turpentine couldn't do it then you are going to die anyway.Owen Taylor:Do you remember other home remedies?Demalda Newsome:Now see my grandma was the kind of person that she didn't do a whole lot of, you know, old fashioned remedies. Well she did things like when I had a baby, you know, um, and I was having real bad cramps. And then, um, I went to take my shower and when I got back and I laid down in the bed and I didn't have any more severe cramps and, and she asked me, "are you still cramping?" I said, "no". And what I found out she had done was she had put a sharp axe between the mattress and the um, you know, what do you call it? The board. And it cut off the, the sharp cramps that I was having. You know, unbeknown to me, I didn't know why they just stopped. It was miraculous. Thank you God. I was just so glad they stopped cause they were, you know, real extreme and I guess that's a uterus, you know, contracted and everything trying to get back into shape. But I know things like that. She didn't really do a whole lot of things like um, my husband's mom where she would use fat back and put it on open wounds and things like that. I found that really shocking. That was different than I had grown up with. I think mine was mostly... We got medication, my grandma would buy Castoria if you needed it or you know, um, whatever, constipation, whatever, things like that. Or we had Creomulsion and it had the things in it. It had those old kinds of medicines in it. Um, and we never took Father John because it had castor oil in it. We took Castoria, which would taste better. But my husband, they were taking Father John and they were taking a big dose of Cod liver oil.Chris Bolden Newsome:But you all took castor oil too, you gotta remember, especially like nowadays castor oil is considered a home remedy. And it wasn't medicine.Demalda Newsome:Well we didn't do caster oil. Mama didn't do it.Chris Bolden Newsome:Why'd you all give us castor oil? You didn't take castor oil?Demalda Newsome:I only remember taking it like one time and I don't know why mom did it that one time. It was not a continuum.Chris Bolden Newsome:Why did y'all give it to us?Demalda Newsome:Um, because your dad had used it. So I was like, okay, well you know, he grew up with that and he felt like that was something you wanted to do. He said it really helps the kids get through the flu, the cold season, all of that. And you've got that during cold and flu season. You got that big dose of warm castor oil with a little bit of sugar in it. And then you just took the biggest spoonful you could. It was horrible tasting, but the kids, they really didn't get a lot of colds and things.Chris Bolden Newsome:I think it protects you for old age too.Demalda Newsome:Perhaps. So since you had it while you were young.Owen Taylor:So we're sitting here preparing for big Christmas meal. I'm wondering if you remember the like quintessential, like most important dishes from this area, from your grandparents' generation that have made maybe some that made it to the future, maybe something that didn't.Demalda Newsome:Well, one of the ones that didn't and I tried to bring it back and, and I did at Thanksgiving was Ambrosia. Ambrosia was one of the ones that, and I don't, I'm, I'm pretty sure every household didn't do it. Um, for I guess I grew up mostly what was black middle class. And so Ambrosia is this really delicious, um, concoction of fruit with coconuts, oranges in it. We use Mandarin oranges. Um, this year I use the seedless orange, but not the Halo oranges. It was another type of orange. I used that with the coconut and pineapples. And, um, and we had nuts and you put, um, I'm thinking that we put cranberry, we put cherries in it. And so you blend all of this together. But that's one of the ones that, um, if you go and you look at old Southern cookbooks is still there. And the giblet gravy, um, is something that's a must have at Christmas and Thanksgiving. But you usually do a goose - upper middle class again - you do a goose along with the turkey for, for Christmas and um, a duck and turkey or Thanksgiving. Yes. We always had like two different meats.Owen Taylor:Besides the meats. You know, I know that Southern peas are super important. Crowder peas, butter beans. What are like the vegetable dishes, whether they have meat in them or not. What are the most important vegetables of this region?Demalda Newsome:Of course, all of the greens, you know, this, uh, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, and not the curly ones, you know, just a straight leaf, uh, mustard greens. My, my mom never really did collard greens that much. And Rufus, he didn't, he didn't do collard greens. He didn't like them. I don't know. So we've had a time trying to, you know, um, fix them in a way that, that he would eat them also. So what I've come up with now that people eat them is with, I blend them with cabbage, so I stir fried them with cabbage and all that. What has changed is I do more stir frying of greens than ours - they were just boiled with lots of meat and lots of um, you know, fat back and uh, salt pork and things like that. Um, and that's how the greens were made. We had sweet potatoes, you know, they were candied sweet potatoes is what we called it. And peas. Now these were not things that... peas were not really things that we ate at the holiday time. We did mostly greens and dressing and things like that.Owen Taylor:Hmm. So not the, not the butter beans either.Demalda Newsome:No, because remember they weren't in season. Those were things you, you kept in your freezer for hard times. You didn't, it wasn't brought out during celebratory times, it was just kind of brought out during hard times, getting through the winter.Making TamalesChris Bolden Newsome:Making tamales with my mama at Christmas. We eat tamales in the Mississippi Delta. They were introduced by Mexican immigrants in the 30s and 40s. They were brought up here to work and we adapted and adopted their food ways because we Africans, we liked spicy food anyway. It was a perfect mix.Demalda Newsome:Some things have changed. I'm finding more people uh, African-Americans that can't tolerate spicy foods and yeah, I found that real strange cause when I was growing up we, we enjoyed tamales and a little spice and Tabasco. Now people like "I don't want tabasco", you know.Chris Bolden Newsome:It goes hand in hand with deterioration of a lot of black culture. We can't eat our foods anymore.Demalda Newsome:I know like our trip to Africa, it was so surprising. I don't know why I found it surprising that the food was really spicy. You know, I didn't think of African food as being that spicy.Aunt Veronica:You go to Nigeria, your food be burning up.Demalda Newsome:I mean, yeah, but the, the African food here has been, I don't know, it's been kind of toned down for, for Americans, but in Africa you get the full African flavor and the spiciness, like it's really spicy,Chris Bolden Newsome:You grew up eating hot food. Black people, to my knowledge, I always ate hot food everywhere. There was one thing that distinguished us. One thing was common to us, no matter where I went, Negros in Omaha or in Oklahoma, well I don't know about Oklahoma, well, a that's a different breed of Black. They don't really eat hot food. Shoot, they don't really eat no hot food. I don't know what to say about that.Demalda Newsome:But I always thought, you know, coming up and especially being in my young twenties that, that, um, that was just something almost sacred to black people is that we, we, we could eat spicy foods, but now I'm finding more and more people like, "Oh, like this hot"Chris Bolden Newsome:Even white people in the South ate spicier food than white people in the North. I expected when I went to the North... Black people up there, you know, they can't take nothing. Black pepper to them is hot.Demalda Newsome:Yeah. I used just a tiny bit of cayenne when I, when I moved back here and people were like, my tongue is on fire and it's like, it's a very little bit in there. So when I have guests now I have to really know that they can tolerate any kinds of spice.Chris Bolden Newsome:I don't ask, child. I just make it and you're going to eat it. You're not gonna eat. And most times they like it and they've had to drink a lot of water, whatever. But I ain't, I ain't tolerating, these folk need to learn how to eat their traditional foods in they traditional way. I ain't making no concessions.Demalda Newsome:People here act like you need to call the fire department when they eat something like it's so hot, so, so hot. And it is, it is. It's like, this it's not fun.Chris Bolden Newsome:Maybe people are old and they stomach can't take anymore what they used to be, what they used to be able to take.Demalda Newsome:But you see, this something, you know, cause our grandchildren, they can eat hot chips and hot Cheetos and all kinds of hot spicy chips, but they cannot stand in spicy foods.Chris Bolden Newsome:These kids can't eat our food?Demalda Newsome:No. These, these do because, you know, it's forced upon them that if you're gonna, you know, they, they see the, the analogy between hot Cheetos and, um, and eating hot food, you know, so that's the difference. They, they, they see that it's, it's real.Owen Taylor:Can you tell us what you're doing here? Like what's the process?Demalda Newsome:Okay, so we, we, we started our, um, our steaming pots going. Um, we put the insets in there, the steaming basket part, and then we have the bamboo, um, steamers going. So we actually have like four pots on, but a total of six steamers. Or three pots. How many is that? It's about five steamers, maybe five steamers going, yeah, we've got them doubled up.Owen Taylor:Okay. So what's the next step?Chris Bolden Newsome:You make the masa. Take the masa and put the masa in the leaf. And we soak the leaf.Demalda Newsome:So we clean the leaves off. And so I was telling him, like, you really still have to look at them and clean them, make sure that they're clean. They look clean, but we gotta make sure that they're clean. Um, and so, um, and so after that they soaked for a little bit to make them, um, more moveable as we're putting the, um, we're doing vegetarian ones, so we're putting the beans and cheese and, and jalapenos and onions, garlic, putting all that together. So we, we pat the, we form the dough, we make the masa and mix it up and form the dough into little clumps. So we gather a little clump and we pat it into the husk and then start layering from that. Layer our beans and, and, um, peppers and cheese and rolled it up.Chris Bolden Newsome:Well, you know what, I saw mommy, when we was in Africa. This is not, I know why we adapted this so quickly. It's why, why is the Mexican workers, they brought it. Probably they was eating it for their lunch and share it with us cause I'm sure they had to live where we lived. And I know they didn't live where white people lived.Demalda Newsome:That's the story that I read on Southern Food Alliance is that the Mexicans were also working in the fields. Um, and this was during...I understand this was during the time of slavery.Chris Bolden Newsome:Slavery?Demalda Newsome:I'm pretty sure. Maybe I may have that messed up.Chris Bolden Newsome:There were no Mexicans working in the fields during slavery, mommy.Demalda Newsome:No, that's what they're saying, I don't know. Let me look it back up just to be sure. But it was either after that or after the civil war that they were here, but they were working side by side in the fields together.Chris Bolden Newsome:This is late. This is in the thirties this is like in the thirties. But see when we went to Africa we saw that they were all, when we got there they were, they... People were eating basically what were tamales. In Ghana, West Africa they call it Banku and Banku is fermented masa. All it is is Masa that's fermented, wrapped up in a corn leaf look just like this. It is flavored by its fermentation and you use that as a base and you eat, you eat stuff with it, you take it out, they heat it up and then they heat it up and they use it as a starch to each your meat with to eat your beans with. So it was basically the same thing. So you know, and I'm sure before corn made to Africa, we were already eating, we were eating something else. All a tamal is is a dumpling. Everybody eat dumplings. Every culture got their own dumpling.Demalda Newsome:Hmm.Owen Taylor:Can you describe what you're doing right this minute and the plate that's in front of you?Chris Bolden Newsome:Breaking up. Shit, messing this up. Damn.Owen Taylor:Can you use a little more imagery?Chris Bolden Newsome:I'm folding the tamal with the, with the masa and the filling in it, you know I'm tying it up with another string from that I made out of ripped up hoja of the the mais corn leaf.Demalda Newsome:I like that it tears right along the grain. I mean, it makes a straight tear. So, yeah, I like that. Makes it lot easier to put it together. So we're closing the top and the bottom. So when we steam them, it won't just, you know, seep out of the top. I'm thinking if we put them tightly together as tight as we can without, you know, putting any indention in it so deep that it doesn't look like a tamale, I think it'll be all right.Owen Taylor:Did you make these when you were in Oklahoma?Demalda Newsome:We did when, um, when Rumal would come home, um, during the holidays, him and I would, um, at the Christmas break make these tamales together. I would make the meat ones and he'd make the vegetarian and sweet dessert ones. Yeah. I didn't think about making them until he, um, you know, he kept reminding me of, of having them back in Mississippi and never really thought about making them and how it was.Chris Bolden Newsome:In Mississippi people don't make them, people buy them. I mean, it is always just one lady who make it in the neighborhood and everybody else buy it from her. It's getting like that in Mexico too, from my understanding. Traditionally this is Christmas food. This is like Holy day food. You make it, I don't know why Christmas. It’s a native American tradition, but people make it at Christmas time and it used to be, my understanding, in Mexico, everybody, people would make it. All ladies get together and you make an literally a tub, a big old tub and it was an all night affair and you did it Christmas Eve and you had them all and then you just had tamales upon tamales, upon tamales. And now people just wait for the person, for whoever the lady is who knows how to make it, to make it so, cause I'm vegetarian and in Mississippi you can get a lot of tamales in the Delta but you can't get none vegetarian nowhere.Demalda Newsome:Well now this one guy started selling some, but I don't think he makes it. Yeah, he doesn't make it in mass quantities. You may have to order them.Chris Bolden Newsome:But you know, Mexicans don't make a lot of vegetarian tamales. The only vegetarian tamales that I've had has been from Salvadorians or central Americans. They usually make it just straight corn.Aunt Veronica:(Hard to hear) Pepper tamales, vegetables, I've seen all that.Chris Bolden Newsome:Well, not in Mississippi. In Mississippi, they only want the pork and they want their tamal to be red and dripping with grease.Demalda Newsome:Oh yeah. Grease make it better. Chris Bolden Newsome:Eat it with Coca-Colas Demalda Newsome:Yeah. Coca-Cola's, crackers, or when we were younger, we had it with donuts, hot donuts. We eat the tamale, the sweet and salty together.Owen Taylor:Where would you get them?Demalda Newsome:We got it at Shipley donuts.Chris Bolden Newsome:Best donuts in creation.Demalda Newsome:That's what they say. The best donuts. So you get to see them being made and, and you get to get hot donuts.Owen Taylor:That's the doughnut place that's still downtown there?Demalda Newsome:Um, they have one store downtown, but it's one...Chris Bolden Newsome:Uh uh, we didn't go to the one downtown.Demalda Newsome:Well we did go to the one downtown because this other one wasn't here.Chris Bolden Newsome:No, that's downtown mommy? The one...Aunt Veronica:Over the railroad tracks.Demalda Newsome:That, right. That's the one we went to. Cause the other one wasn't here.Demalda Newsome:The one on number one, highway number one.Chris Bolden Newsome:Oh you are talking about when you was little.Demalda Newsome:When I was little. When you were little, it was there.Chris Bolden Newsome:When I was little that's the one we went to.Demalda Newsome:Right. But when we were little...Chris Bolden Newsome:But, that one was not open then why to they have pictures in there from segregation days.Demalda Newsome:Ok. They took some of the pictures from back then.Chris Bolden Newsome:I thought so, cause they got only them pictures of all them nice white ladies eating their donuts.Demalda Newsome:We never drove out that far. You know, it was kind of scary to drive into territory that you know, you knew was all white. Um, so we wouldn't have really come out this far.Aunt Veronica:Yes, we would have. We came that far with the mall being there.Demalda Newsome:No I'm talking about before that, before that.Aunt Veronica:We did if you were going down to South Bend the back way down Reed Road.Demalda Newsome:I don't remember going down Reed Road when I was younger, I remember that was coming this way. This was too far. Cause you didn't have cell phones. If you got in trouble with people. No cell phones.Owen Taylor:Did you hear stories of people getting in trouble out here?Demalda Newsome:Well getting in trouble, like if your car broke down, you're in an all white neighborhood. I mean you know that anything could have happened.Aunt Veronica:(Disagreeing).Demalda Newsome:I don't know why you didn't think they would do anything to you, but it was rumored. It was rumored.Aunt Veronica:It was rumored, but there was book. Greenville, Mississippi…(Disagreeing).Demalda Newsome:Yeah, but I lived in a lot of fear. I couldn't wait to get away from it. Having grown up in fear.Aunt Veronica:We didn't think about as much about prejudice as much as the other....Demalda Newsome:That's not true. I don't know where she grew up.Chris Bolden Newsome:Well you know mommy? That's true. No, what she's saying - Greenville - no she is true. The Delta.Aunt Veronica:Greenville didn't have that problem.Demalda Newsome:No, I'm not going to say that they didn't have the problem, but there was more black - this was the seat of black power. She's right. She right. There was more black-white cooperation here. You don't know, mommy. You grew up in Greenville, thank God. But honestly, the rest of Mississippi was hell for black people. The Delta. I, I, she right. I'm gonna tell you what - I have in Mississippi history textbook that states, and this textbook speaks with such vitriol and venom about the Delta, especially about Greenville. That's how I know that black people were successful. They talk about, they say, "Oh black..." They believed that black people were being put over white - over poor white farmers here. Because black people were successful. After reconstruction and stuff, black people here had got more clout and so the Delta has always been prosperous for black people, historically. You've got to think about this is this is the seat of Mt Bayou and Fannie Lou Hamer. Oh no, you was always scared cause white - I mean white folks still, you know, were rude and they still had a lot of wickedness in them. Especially people in power, you know? Yeah, absolutely. But I'm saying that it'd be better to be black here. You have more chance of being successful, which is why I would imagine per capita you have fewer black people leave the Delta historically until recently than you did other parts of Mississippi.Aunt Veronica:It is, it is a article that was written up. I don't know if it was the Dallas newspaper or what...Demalda Newsome:I don't care about no article. I'm telling you it was a scary time to grow up in Mississippi here. Maybe it wasn't a lot of things directly with the Klan activities and stuff, but just hearing about it - like we grew up hearing about Emmett Till. But just hearing about it, it was enough to put a lot of fear in you and hearing about hangings and things like that and that that could happen to you. I mean, to me that was, that was fearful.Chris Bolden Newsome:But here in the Delta was a place, mommy, that historically has always been more successful black people and more black people getting together. I mean, you, um, even it's even the stories you all tell about Sacred Heart and stuff, how, how, you know, you have white nuns and priests and stuff, even though they were foreigners, there was more cooperation. People who actually gave black people a chance and, and allowed, you know, I mean, it wasn't as suffocating as it was in other parts of the state or in other parts of the South even. We were more prosperous here because you think about the bad, the proof of it is at Greenwood in Tulsa was named Greenwood and I didn't know that. I learned that it was named Greenwood after Greenwood, Mississippi. Yes. It wasn't named Gulf Port. It wasn't named Spit Bucket or none of them other places. It was named Greenwood because black people were successful in the Delta and they wanted to remember, they want you to remember where they came from. So I'm not saying it wasn't bad, it was bad all over. I mean Malcolm X said all of America is Mississippi. You know, but um, but I think pound for pound, if you had - and I didn't live in the 60s or the 50s anything, but they say if you had to be black in Mississippi, you rather be black in the Delta than somewhere down South.Aunt Veronica:And even when we integrated schools for the first time in early ‘72 or whatever, and I was going to the seventh grade they said we didn't have no problem with riots, people fighting.Chris Bolden Newsome:Didn't have people clubbing and stuff like that.Demalda Newsome:No, it wasn't quite that easy because we went before it actually segregated. Connie and I went to Solomon before it was, yeah, before I was actually desegregated and it was, it was rough. We were, we were kicked. We were, we were hit from behind. All kinds of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. They kicked us in our butts when we got out of that classroom and then finally some of the girls felt bad because we were girls and they were watching us…Chris Bolden Newsome:White girls?Demalda Newsome:Um, yeah, few of them felt bad and said, "you know what, that's still a girl. Don't, don't do that to girls." And then we had some that actually stood up for us, but they were poor kids that did that, that stood up for us. But we had a really good principal, Mr. Dunaway and he, he, he was ready for integration. Yeah. When I went to public school and he's like, he, he had a conversation, I guess they, they had a conversation with the white kids and then he came in, you know, we had a meeting with all of the black students, so anytime we would have real problems, um, mr Dunaway, um, we didn't have to convince him of what had happened. He knew what was going on and what, what we said when we, you know, took anything to him that it was true. I mean just hit, kicked...cause the prints of their feet would be on the back of our clothes and things like that. They knew we weren't making it up. And they had to assign the seats on the bus cause the white students didn't want to, they wanted to sit in the front but they didn't allow them to sit in the front. They made us sit, all of the black students sat in the front two seats they were reserved for us. Oh yeah. They were angry about that.Chris Bolden Newsome:They would make up lies that we was being put over them when really folks were just trying to get equality or, or trying not to be in the back of the bus where any number of ungodly things could have happened to you in the back of the bus.Demalda Newsome:Some of the white students got off of the bus. Rather than ride with us sitting in the front. I'm telling you it was, it was, it was something. Now I remember all of that. They'd stick us with, you know, stick pins and all kinds of stuff and sometimes the black guys would stand up for us when the white boys would do stuff and then they would end up fighting and then a lot of them would jump on the black boys and you know, so it'd be an all out fight, its awful.Chris Bolden Newsome:But could you imagine, mommy, something like that could have turned into a dangerous situation in which death could have occurred in another part of Mississippi. That's all I'm saying.Demalda Newsome:Good thing nobody used knives back then, now probably people would use knives and guns.Chris Bolden Newsome:But you think about it, Emmet Till was killed for a lot less than that. Just in another part of the state. Could you imagine a black boy standing up for some black girl's honor? Um, you know, somewhere else. Them white folks wouldn't tolerate that.Owen Taylor:Can we ask you about your work with social justice through your farm Oklahoma, but also with your national work and your work in the South in general, supporting black farmers and poor farmers?Demalda Newsome:Well, one of the things was um, in Oklahoma, you know, we did, we opened up the first farmer's market on an actual farm since the history of statehood. So, I did a lot of work around um, getting farmer's markets and..well Chris and I did it together. Chris moved back home for almost a year and him and I worked on Oklahoma, not Mississippi, cause he considers his home to be here in Mississippi. We both were born here, but, um, so Chris and I worked on getting them the WIC, um, extension of the Women Infant Children program where they got fresh vegetables. And so we worked with the state. I think we were one of the only, um, non-governmental agencies to be invited into the conversation when they were starting out. We help with surveys and putting surveys together, um, for the program before it actually started. And so we did, uh, did that and we were able to successfully, you know, with the, with the state, get that put in place. And so with the WIC, uh, they're able to get fresh vegetables at farmer's markest. And then also through the snap they're able to get extra, uh, fruits and vegetables. Um, and so also with the senior WIC program, we were working with that also. Um, we were one of the first ones in Eastern Oklahoma to work with the, um, a native American tribe to get, um, with their WIC program and they, they, uh, we did their WIC and their senior farmer's market. Um, so we, we had farmers, uh, to come and sell their vegetables to them. Um, we also started the first school garden on the East side of Oklahoma as well. And that's, no, I'm talking about Newsome Community Farms. That's one of the things that we did along with, um, going out and promoting community gardens in the community and not just promoting them. We were getting seeds for them and for backyard gardeners along with, um, anyone who started a community garden. We did community garden trainings and school garden trainings. Those were some of the things that we put on, uh, in Oklahoma. But we also worked... Um, Chris and I worked to get the healthy corner store initiative going in, in Oklahoma. Our group, we did all of the research and you know, on it being developed in another area. At that time I was on the Community Food Security coalition board. And so they were working on the healthy corner store nationally. It was a national program. And so Philadelphia is where they did the first big training of it. And so we were in there. It w

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:CollardsRoselle MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:Ira Wallace: Writer, Seed Saver, EducatorSouthern Exposure Seed ExchangeGrow Great Vegetables in Virginia, by Ira WallaceCollards: A Southern Tradition from Seed to Table, by Edward H. Davis and John T. MorganFarming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land, by Leah PennimanBlack 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:Truelove SeedsTumblr  |  Instagram  |  Twitter FIND CHRIS HERE:Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden THANKS TO:Ira Wallace and Gordon SprouleSara TaylorJulia Aguilar, Althea Baird, Chris Keeve, Amirah Mitchell, and Zoe Jeka of Truelove SeedsMimi PugaThe voices of the youth and other staff of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram's Garden

Welcome back to Seeds And Their People! In this second episode, Owen interviews his seed friend Kristyn about her Korean seed stories, her food, farming, and activist community, and our mutual love for Jewel in the Palace. SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:Mugwort and Ungnyeo (Bear Woman)Better Chamoe Korean Melon38N Kkaennip (Korean Perilla) MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:Kristyn Leach on Instagram Namu Farm at Truelove SeedsSecond Generation Seeds at Kitazawa Seed Co.Great Big Story (video documentary about Kristyn's work)Chuseok (Harvest Festival)Jewel in the Palace / Dae Jang Geum 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 SeedsTumblr  |  Instagram  |  Twitter FIND CHRIS HERE:Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden THANKS TO:Kristyn LeachSara TaylorLaura Starecheski of RevealAlthea Baird, Amirah Mitchell, and Zoe Jeka of Truelove SeedsAdele, Elena, and Remy

Welcome to Seeds And Their People! In our first episode, we share some seed stories that are important to us, our ancestors, and our story as partners in life and love. You'll hear about the Irish Lumper potato, the field pea, the Borlotto bean, and okra. We also share how cotton and apples helped bring us together.----more---- SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE:Irish Lumper PotatoField PeaBorlotto BeanOkra CottonApple MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE:William Woys Weaver and Roughwood Seed Collection2020 Seed Keeping CalendarLasting of the Mohegans by Melissa Tantaquidgeon ZobelBritish slave ship image: BrookesThe Cooking Gene by Michael W. TwittyComplicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery by Anne Farrow, Joel Lang, and Jenifer FrankGrowing Food and Justice Initiative 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 SeedsTumblr  |  Instagram  |  Twitter FIND CHRIS HERE:Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden THANKS TO:Sara TaylorRufus and Demalda Newsome of Newsome Community FarmsLaura Starecheski of RevealAutumn Brown of How to Survive the End of the WorldTagan Engel of The Table UndergroundVerónica Bayetti Flores of Radio MeneaJonas Moody of The Raisin at the Hot Dog's EndAlthea Baird, Amirah Mitchell, and Zoe Jeka of Truelove Seeds

Nico sits in a park with Owen Taylor- queer seed keeper and social justice activist Owen Taylor. They talk about how seed keeping is tied to cultural sovreignty and, maybe, queer family building. This episode also features music from Owen's band, My Gay Banjo! https://trueloveseeds.com/, @seedkeeping, https://mygaybanjo.bandcamp.com/ It's HRN's annual summer fund drive, this is when we turn to our listeners and ask that you make a donation to help ensure a bright future for food radio. Help us keep broadcasting the most thought provoking, entertaining, and educational conversations happening in the world of food and beverage. Become a member today! To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we have brand new member gifts available. So snag your favorite new pizza - themed tee shirt or enamel pin today and show the world how much you love HRN, just go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate Photo courtesy of @seedkeeping Queer The Table is powered by Simplecast.

Featured Guests:Owen Taylor – Founder of TrueLove SeedsWebsite: https://trueloveseeds.com Owen Taylor recently launched Truelove Seeds, a seed company offering rare, open pollinated, and culturally important vegetable, herb, and flower seeds grown by urban and rural farmers committed to community food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture. He also grows open-pollinated seeds, herbs, and flowers at Mill Hollow Farm in Edgemont, Pennsylvania. Alkebu-lan Marcus – Farm Director of Mill Creek Urban FarmsWebsite: https://www.millcreekurbanfarm.org I’m 25 years old, and I got into urban agriculture to empower my community to find solutions and to provide an alternative to the current structure. Personally I truly believe our connection to the soil is our main asset towards black liberation. Jess Renninger – Head Farmer at Novick Urban FarmWebsite: https://novickbrothers.com/urban-farm.html Novick Urban Farm was founded in 2012 by co-owner Gary Novick. Seeds of what Gary planted -- both literal and figurative -- grew into an organization that each year feeds thousands of people in need while teaching just as many area children about the value of nutrition.Nate Kleinmann – Experimental Farm NetworkWebsite: https://www.experimentalfarmnetwork.org Nate Kleinman is one of the co-founders of the Experimental Farm Network. He is an activist, organizer, plant breeder, and farmer, based in Elmer, New Jersey. His background as an organizer includes work with Occupy Sandy, Service Employees International Union, the Sudan Freedom Walk Campaign, and various political campaigns.Jeannie – Hops Farmer in East Mount Airy Kenton Cobb Website: https://phytoamorous.com Kenton is a clinical herbalist, educator and activist. They work one-on-one with people looking to modify their state of health by using herbal medicine, food and lifestyle changes. They also teaches classes and workshops about the same, and with these skills strives to support local and national movements and revolutionary work by providing medicine, direct care and first aid.Keith Monahan – Co-Founder of South Jersey Seed LibraryWebsite: https://www.facebook.com/SJSeedCircleLibrary/ Keith Monahan has served many roles in the South Jersey region, contributing momentously to sustainability efforts across several municipalities. He serves as an Education and Outreach Manager for GMO Free NJ and Seed Librarian for South Jersey Seed Circle Library.Eric Devine – Friend of the Seed SwapEammon Tweedy – Math Professor and Friend of the Seed SwapChris – Local FarmerNyksiha Madison – Farm Manager at Urbantree ConnectionWebsite: http://urbantreeconnection.org The Urban Tree Connection (UTC) is a 501(c)(3) community-based organization, and our mission is to work with residents in Philadelphia’s historically marginalized urban communities to transform abandoned open spaces into safe and functional places that inspire and promote positive human interaction.Annie Preston – Farmer at Horticultural CenterNick Tornambe – Mushroom GrowerMusic: Philadelphia Jazz Project “Price | Diehl | Sunkett” - http://www.philajazzproject.org/index.php?id=pjp-mixtapes LessSupport the show (http://urbanislanders.org)

Owen Taylor is a long time community gardener, seed saver and food justice activist whose passion for seed keeping led him to found Truelove Seed Company in 2017.

In this episode, J. Richard Jones explores the journey to digital success in government. He chats with Sonia Powell, Director General, Workplace Solutions, Real Property Branch, Public Services and Procurement Canada and Owen Taylor, National Public Sector Leader, PwC Canada. Hear about the government's current transformation journey with GCWorkplace, the challenges, the successes, and the employee experience. Learn more about how government can set itself up for success in digital transformation and what top technologies are currently disrupting government. All this and more on this week's episode of CGE Radio. To learn more, visit https://www.pwc.com/ca/digitalgovernment Visit our website at https://canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca/ Interested in subscribing to our weekly newsletter? Click here.

Owen Taylor, Area Sales Manager for New American Funding, joins us on the AOC System Build Lifestyle series to help us get over the fear of securing a loan for a modular build. Owen explains that the lending process for traditional sticks and bricks onsite construction is the same for modular off-site construction processes. Both onsite and modular new housing projects require the same steps - securing a loan, purchasing the land and hiring a builder. Find out what you need to know to finance your next project!

Geek out on seed keeping, the importance of ancestral seed stories, building vibrant community and undoing racism work with this amazing human and the 20+ farms growing with him at Truelove Seed Co.

Guest: My Gay Banjo Julia Steele Allen and Owen Taylor talk about forming My Gay Banjo, their creative process and their latest album "Country Boys in the City." They also perform a few songs in the studio. Host: Amanda Plumb

Nick Briggs and Benji Clifford are back together, presenting all the latest on Big Finish's audiobooks and audio drama. The guest star is Doctor Who companion Sophie Aldred.

This week on Let’s Eat In Cathy Erway is joined by Owen Taylor of Just Food and Rev. DeVanie Jackson of the Brooklyn Rescue Mission and Bed-Stuy Farm. The topic of this week: chickens and, more specifically, the raising and keeping of chickens in urban New York. Learn about the The City Chicken Project and how you can help out via Kickstarter. This episode is sponsored by Just Food.

In these hard economic times does a Private Members Bill introducing new standards for the food sourced by public bodies stand a chance of becoming law? Simon Parkes visits Nottinghamshire, where some hospital meals and all school dinners are procured this way, to look at what such a change might mean in practice. The Nottingham City Hospital has been sourcing sustainably for 7 years, buying its meat and vegetables from local farmers. Food is fresher, higher quality, and no more expensive, and now over half the money the hospital spends on food goes into the local economy, benefitting local suppliers like dairy wholesalers Transfresh, and butchers Owen Taylor.Also 7 years ago Nottinghamshire County Council began its process of sourcing its school meals food sustainably, and has now achieved Silver Standard under the Soil Association Food for Life Partnership scheme. Donna Baines, School Food Development Manager, met Simon in Maloney's butchers, which now supplies all their meat, with Alison Maloney and Jeanette Orrey, school meals campaigner, to discuss the impact of these changes on the food, their finances, and the threats posed by the current spending review. The service is currently being "market tested" with a view to potential privisation. Conservative Councillor Andy Stewart explains what that might mean.In the studio to discuss the Bill are Labour MP Joan Walley (Stoke on Trent North) who tabled the Private Members Bill; Tony Cooke Government Relations Director of catering service provider Sodexo; and Kath Dalmeny, Policy Director of Sustain, which runs the Good Food for Our Money campaign. Producer: Rebecca Moore.