Manish Kushwaha is a fourth generation seed farmer who had no intention of following the family tradition, but after a period working as a software engineer and thinking about what was meaningful to him, Manish decided to start working with seeds and ultimately start his own seed company, Gaia Organic Seeds in Ottawa, Ontario. In this episode, Manish talks about getting set up on land in Ottawa's NCC Greenbelt where it is possible to rent farmland for 25-year periods. This opportunity let him get set up with tile-drained fields, buildings, and a place to live. Manish explains how his approach to seed is more spiritual than scientific. He sees himself as a steward. Seeds are our allies and we walk in this journey together. Manish also uses seed growing isolation distances that are much smaller than usual recommendations. We talk about how he has established these distances without compromising his seed varieties. Throughout the interview, we keep coming back to Manish's watermelon breeding project, where he crossed 22 varieties to create a diverse gene pool and how he has been selecting out specific phenotypes from the mix, including the ever elusive mango watermelon.This leads into a discussion of how you should always keep some of your stock seed back to compensate for the vagaries of squirrels, plant disease, and rats. In the deep dive, we talk about growing watermelons from seeds, planting, spacing, harvest, and how to extract the seeds with the food processor and/or pressure.
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