Seeds And Their People cover art

Seeds And Their People

Seeds And Their People

Written by: Seeds And Their People
Listen for free

About this listen

 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.Copyright 2020 All rights reserved. Social Sciences
Episodes
  • EP. 40: Lana Mustafa's Roots of Resilience in Palestine and the Diaspora

    EP. 40: Lana Mustafa's Roots of Resilience in Palestine and the Diaspora
    Jan 30 2026
    Lana is a Palestinian-American farmer and the Executive Director of Montclair Community Farms, where she leads urban agriculture, food access, and environmental education initiatives in northern New Jersey, and she is the founder of Roots Of Resilience, a Mutual Aid organization dedicated to supporting farmers in the West Bank. A lifelong grower, Lana began gardening at the age of seven and now stewards a homestead in Clifton with her 3 children, where she grows food, saves seeds, keeps bees, and raises backyard chickens. Her work centers seed sovereignty, land justice, and preserving culturally significant crops, with a deep commitment to supporting farmers and all land workers. Lana and I met at the Making Brooklyn Bloom conference in 2018 where Chris and I were presenting a couple workshops on seeds focused on stories of liberation. We became friends and collaborators, and I’m excited to say Lana and I will be presenting together tomorrow morning, January 31st, at the NOFA-NJ winter conference in Asbury Park about Truelove Seeds, thanks to Lana’s invitation as both a NOFA-NJ board member and grower for the Truelove Seeds catalog. We conducted this interview on November 19th, 2025 starting at Lana’s kitchen table in Clifton, New Jersey. After a sweet stop to Yaffa Coffee and Ku-NAH-fah in Little Palestine, we ended up at City Green Farm Eco-Center where they give her space to grow a couple impressive rows of Bamyeh, Palestinian Okra for their CSA and for seed, which she splits between the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library and Truelove Seeds. SEED STORIES: Bamyeh Falastinia Okra Filfil Gazawi (Gazan Peppers) Olive harvest Palestinian Za'atar Freekeh (Wheat) Maramiyeh Sage Night Blooming Jasmine Reyhan Basil LINKS: Lana Mustafa's website and instagram Roots of Resilience website and instagram Montclair Community Farms website and instagram Seeds and Their People EP. 38: Vivien Sansour on Palestinian Seeds, Longing, and Love Seeds and Their People EP. 36: Preserving Seeds, Culture, and Farming Traditions of Battir, Palestine Seeds and Their People EP. 9: Anan Jardali Zahr’s Palestinian Kitchen THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseedsScribe 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
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 4 mins
  • EP. 39: Mountain Farmers from Burma in Thailand and Philadelphia

    EP. 39: Mountain Farmers from Burma in Thailand and Philadelphia
    Jan 9 2026
    Since 2017, Truelove Seeds has been working closely with a large Karen farming community from the jungles of the Karen state in the mountains of Burma (Myanmar), who are now based in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Through their previous work with Novick Urban Farm, and continuing now with many locations including community gardens and farms throughout Philly, they grow their traditional foods for their community and offer seeds in our catalog. In 2022, we published a 2019 interview with Naw Doh, Htee Da Win, and Hser Ku as our 7th episode of this podcast (see link below). In late 2025, our friend Mu Nae came to harvest Chin Baung leaves, Sunn Hemp flowers, Siling Labuyo Peppers, Tomatos, Pumpkin shoots, and Green Carpetweed rosettes at our farm with her mother Naw Gay Lay, and sister Saiyar Moo. We were able to meet Mu Nae's daughter Blut Htoo (a nursing student serving as their driver and interpreter that day) and it seemed clear that it was time for another episode! The stories in this episode, recorded on October 22, 2025, are beautiful, painful, and powerful, and span from growing up and giving birth on the run in the jungle from the Japanese and Burmese armies, to escaping to Thailand refugee camps, to resettling in Philadelphia - and the foods and medicines that got them here. We are immensely grateful to these three generations of brilliant, strong, kind women for sharing their time, stories, and delicious foods with us. SEED STORIES: Chin Baung / Besidoh Luffa Winter Melon Jamaican Pumpkin (this is the variety they harvested shoots from this year at our farm) Sunn Hemp flowers Tumeric root Betel leaves Siling Labuyo Peppers Hyacinth Beans Sesame Yuca / Cassava Bamboo Rice And shout out to fire, ashes, water, salt, and MSG! LINKS: Karen Community Association of Philadelphia (KCAP) KCAP Facebook and Instagram Donate to KCAP Novick Urban Farm seeds offered at Truelove Seeds: Pea Eggplant, Rat-Tail Radish, Green Pumpkin Eggplant, Dark Pea Eggplant, Lavender Frog Egg Check out the Chin Baung/Besidoh poster featuring Naw Gay Lay, by Shira Walinsky and Eh Nay Htoo, sponsored by Philadelphia Museum of Art's Community Spotlight initiative Photos from the day of this interview! @seedkeeping on Instagram Article featuring Naw Gay Lay and KCAP: Julia Binswanger, 10.7.2025. ‘A lot of things to do’: This organization tends to some of Philly’s most overlooked refugees. Billy Penn at WHYY. Article featuring Naw Gay Lay: Hitomi Yoshida, 10.20.2016. Refugee elders support each other after a long, difficult journey. WHYY Speak Easy. Seeds and Their People, 5.5.2022. Episode 7: Karen Farmers from Burma. Article by Truelove Seeds featuring Naw Doh, Htee Da Win, Hser Ku on Karen food: Owen Taylor, 2.10.2020. Memories of Myanmar. Mother Earth Gardener. THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseedsScribe 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
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 11 mins
  • EP. 38: Vivien Sansour on Palestinian Seeds, Longing, and Love

    EP. 38: Vivien Sansour on Palestinian Seeds, Longing, and Love
    Dec 4 2025

    Vivien Sansour is an artist, storyteller, researcher and conservationist. She uses image, sketch, film, soil, seeds, and plants to enliven old cultural tales in contemporary presentations and to advocate for the protection of biodiversity as a cultural and political act. Vivien works with a global network of farmers and seed advocates to promote seed conservation and agrobiodiversity. As part of this effort, she founded the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, with the goals of finding and reintroducing threatened crop varieties and to collect stories to assert the ownership of seeds by communities.

    This episode features a conversation between Vivien and Owen in East Rock Park in New Haven, Connecticut from dusk to darkness amongst deer and woodpeckers, with mariyamiya tea and einkorn cake, and about grief and doing good things in the world with seeds.

    SEED STORIES:

    • Qarn al-Ghazal

    • Khobaizeh fruits / Mary's Cake

    • Bamyeh (Palestinian Okra)

    • Filfil Gazawi (Gazan Peppers)

    • Olives

    • Jarjir (Arugula)

    • Molokhia

    • Wild Asparagus

    • Figs

    • Loquat

    • Jazar Ahmar (Palestinian Purple Carrot)

    • Mariyamiya (Sage)

    LINKS:

    • Palestine Heirloom Seed Library homepage

    • Palestine Heirloom Seed Library newsletter 12/2/2025

    • Instagram: PHSL and Vivien Sansour

    • Donate to PHSL's The Apple Path: planting another 2,000 heirloom fruit trees in Palestine

    THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY:

      • YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds
      • 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
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 6 mins
No reviews yet