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
• Kady 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!