SeedBroadcast Report for 2015

Every year since our founding in 2011, SeedBroadcast grows bigger and digs deeper and 2015 was no exception. It was our busiest year yet. We continue to be a collaborative and creative community project working with extremely diverse partners and individuals throughout the bioregion, the continent, and the globe. We continue to function as a collective cohort whose focus is to engage agency and open-source practices in support of agri-Cultural resilience and do so through encouraging diversity and subjectivity both internally within the collective and externally in the world around us. Finally, we continue to create this work wherever the calling takes us: to gardens, farms, on the street, at museums and galleries, farmers markets, government agencies, parks, parking lots, schools, festivals, and much more. For there is no place where seeds do not inspire and transform relationships, empowerment, and radicle action as agri-Culture.

2015 was a fruitful year where we established deeper connections with familiar partners and cultivated new relationships around the region. What we noticed this year in particular is that seeds are growing in many creative and exciting ways and people are challenging themselves to establish community connections, build solidarity, and make their voices heard. Many more people are trying their hands at gardening and seed saving, the Seed Library movement is continuing to grow regardless of being threatened by industrial-ag and government regulatory commissions, and seeds are bringing together interdisciplinary collaborators, across farming, art, gardening, science, performance, health, and education.

SeedBroadcast was founded on the mission of “agri-Culture.” As one word that sums it all up, we are committed to returning the culture to agriculture and hearing the voices, honoring the hands, and germinating the life of local resilience in food, seed, and empowerment. During the last year we continued this work through our major yearly programming of the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station, Seed Story Workshops, and the bi-annual agri-Culture Journal. We were also thrilled to be partners with Santa Fe Art Institute Food Justice Residency with our project |UN|silo|ED|. In 2015 we began a SeedBroadcast donation campaign with our fiscal sponsor Little Globe and located funding sources to support programming with partnering organizations and individuals. Finally we worked with Native Seed/SEARCH (NS/S) to write a Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Climate Change Solutions Fund Grant, which we were awarded in partnership with NS/S for 2015 – 2017.

SeedBroadcast at Barrio Logan Seed Bank and Chicano Art Gallery, San Diego, CA

Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station

In 2015, the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station toured New Mexico, Colorado, and across Southern Arizona and California. During these tours we partnered with Seed Libraries, organizations hosting Seed Exchanges, schools, community garden groups, marches and festivals, and at museums and galleries. At each of these locations we had the incredible opportunity to meet people from all-over and record Seed Stories, from older rural farmers, to indigenous seed stewards, to homeless guerilla gardeners, to refugee gleaners, to young garden hipsters…. And this to name only a few. Connecting with this wide array of people concerned with open-pollinated seed and the state of local food is an incredible opportunity to redefine agri-Culture and hear in it the many voices it demands. At each event we broadcasted and recorded Seed Stories, shared seed saving resources, set up art stations for drawing, and gave away seeds. All the seeds we gifted went with a commitment, a promise that the recipients would feed their families and communities and grow/save some seeds to pass on to others.

In May 2015, we were honored to be invited to perform at the International Seed Library Forum in Tucson, AZ where we met Seed Librarians from around the globe, recorded seed stories, distributed resources, and participated in policy action against shutting down community seed libraries and seed exchanges. We were also panelists on two public forum panels, “Oral Histories and Cultural Memory-Banking Documentation for Seed Libraries,” and “Publicizing Seed Libraries and Their Missions in Your Community.”

In 2015, we recorded over 100 new Seed Stories. We broadcast these through the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station and online via social media, through our blog and on our Soundcloud page. Here is a link to all of the Seed Stories recorded year-by-year: https://soundcloud.com/seedbroadcast/sets

After completing projects and participating in events we publish SeedBroadcast blogs online. Here are blog posts from each of the 2015 events:

ABC Seed Exchange, Albuquerque Public Library, Albuquerque, NM

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/03/juan-tabo-library-spring-seed-fair.html

Anton Chico Seed Exchange, Anton Chico, NM

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/03/2015-compartiendo-las-semillas-en-anton.html

Santa Fe Seed Exchange, Homegrown New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/03/santa-fe-seed-exchange.html

Silver City Garden Expo, Silver City Coop, Silver City, NM

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/03/seedbroadcast-spring-tour-silver-city.html

Owingeh Ta Pueblos Seed Exchange, Peñasco, NM

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/04/owingeh-ta-pueblos-y-semillas-gathering.html

Aztec Seed Savers and screening of Open Sesame, Aztec, NM

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/04/seedbroadcasting-with-aztec-seedsavers.html

Bees and Seeds Festival, GMO Free New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/06/bees-seeds-time-of-action-and.html

Community Day, Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Albuquerque, NM

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/07/seedbroadcasting-from-albuquerque.html

Urban Refuge A.R.T.S., Valle de Oro, Albuquerque, NM

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/07/seedbroadcasting-from-urbanrefuge-arts.html

Sierra Farmers Market, Truth or Consequences, NM

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/08/truth-or-consequences-with-seed.html

Habitat: Exploring Climate Change through the Arts, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/10/seeds-and-our-future.html

Celebración de Cultural Familia y Tradiciones, Peñasco, NM

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/07/seedbroadcasting-from-celebration-de.html

Seed Keepers of the Gila, Gila, NM

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/03/seed-keepers-of-gila.html

Mancos Seed Exchange and Spring Hoedown, Mancos, CO

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/04/seedbroadcasting-from-mancos-seed-swap.html

Balboa Park, City of San Diego, San Diego, CA

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/04/more-art-and-seeds-or-magic-of-ending.html

Patagonia Seed Library, Patagonia, AZ

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/04/seedbroadcasting-from-patagonia-public.html

Wild Willows Farm and Education Center, San Diego, CA

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/04/wild-willow-farm-and-education-center.html

A Thousand Plates, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/04/sdsu-food-and-art-panel-discussion-and.html

Barrio Logan Seed Bank, Chicano Art Gallery, San Diego, CA

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/04/seedbroadcasting-from-barrio-logan-san.html

International Seed Library Forum, Tucson, AZ

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/06/international-seed-library-forum-may.html

Ishkashitaa Refuge Network, Tucson, AZ

http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/06/iskashitaa-harvesting-hope-empowering.html

Seed Story Workshops

Along with MSSBS tours, we have been conducting Seed Story Workshops for several years. These involve gatherings where we screen Letter From a SeedBroadcaster (https://vimeo.com/jeanettehartmann/letter-from-a-seed-broadcaster) then circle round to talk about Seed Stories and how food, seeds, and agri-Culture are a part of each person’s life. We then have everyone spend about 10 minutes writing down thoughts and ideas after which each shares this with a partner. Everyone then returns to writing and finishing a Seed Story. Finally each person records his/her Seed Story with a partner and then assists in the recording of someone else’s story. After these initial workshops some groups head out to record Seed Stories in their neighborhoods.

This year we conducted three Seed Story workshops. One month long workshop with students from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), an evening workshop with the Aztec Seed Savers, and an informal workshop gathering with seed keepers in Gila, NM. The IAIA students worked through four sessions, at the end heading out into their communities to record one Seed Story and bring it back for final post-production editing to be included in a new Seed Library initiative at IAIA. The Seed Story Workshops with the Aztec and Gila gatherings were informal and more intimate leading to critical discussion, free form story sharing, and plans to repeat these gatherings in the future. Here is a Seed Story writing from Dan Dombrowski of Aztec, NM.

Since I started gardening about 10 years ago I enjoy watching the miracle of a tiny seed grow and produce wonderful fruits and vegetables.
My neighbors love that I share the bounty with them. I have been saving some of my seeds to preserve the most successful of the plants. Now I have begun to share seeds and add to mine with locally grown seeds that do well in our climate and soil conditions.
I enjoy producing healthy produce for my family.

SeedBroadcast agri-Culture Journal

The bi-annual SeedBroadcast agri-Culture Journal has been in print since the autumn of 2013. It is a collection of printable materials about resilient seed, food, and community health. It includes essays, poetry, photos, drawings, recipes, and more. Like all SeedBroadcast projects it is a free, open-source project that involves the creative agency of all who participate. Contributors of these materials are from around the globe and each receives a stack of journals at their doorstep to share with their community. The majority of the journals are distributed through the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station, dropped off at locations around New Mexico, and additional stacks are sent to partners across the nation. All editions are also available on-line via free downloadable pdf.

Here are links to the 2015 editions:

SeedBroadcast agri-Culture Journal, Spring 2015
http://seedbroadcast.org/SeedBroadcast/SeedBroadcast_agriCulture_Journal_files/SeedBroadcast%20Spring%202015%20-%20WEB%20pages.pdf

SeedBroadcast agri-Culture Journal, Cultivating Diverse Varieties of Resilience #5
http://seedbroadcast.org/SeedBroadcast/SeedBroadcast_agriCulture_Journal_files/SeedBroadcast%20Autumn%202015-WEB2_1.pdf

|UN|silo|ED|

Our partnership with Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI) and their Food Justice Residency was the highlight of our 2015 programming bringing together residents, indigenous performance artists, UNM Art and Ecology students, Rowen White’s Seed Sevas, New Mexico farmers and gardeners, and the central New Mexico arts community to ask, “What is Food Justice” and map these answers out through a presentation of curated objects, audio soundscape, and public events. This project was titled |UN|silo|ED| and it was presented at SFAI from April 27 – June 27, 2015 in the Lumpkin Room.

During these two months of our residency, we worked both outside and inside our project space to bring together all of the Food Justice materials, record and edit Food Justice audio from interviews, and facilitate discussions and |UN|silo|ED| events. On May 16th we organized a daylong public event at SFAI, which included a seed saving workshop by Rowen White, immersive dance responses by Dancing Earth and collaborators, a pot-luck lunch of local homemade food, and an evening Seed Swap.

Then on June 20th we helped SFAI celebrate the end of their Food Justice Programming at their public Lunch@SFAI event where we presented |UN|silo|ED| and also performed with the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station.

Here is the blog post from our project |UN|silo|ED|:
http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/2015/06/creatively-re-storying-our-seeds-at.html

Upcoming 2016 Projects

Partnership with Native Seed/SEARCH: Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Climate Change Solutions Fund Grant titled, “Capacity-Building for Climate Change Resilience in the Southwest’s Food Systems”

Finally in the spring of 2015, we worked with Native Seed/SEARCH to partner on a Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Climate Change Solutions Fund Grant titled, Capacity-Building for Climate Change Resilience in the Southwest’s Food Systems.” In early summer we received news that it was awarded to Native Seed/SEARCH as the recipient and SeedBroadcast as a co-pi/partner. With this funding SeedBroadcast will be working with Native Seed/SEARCH and farmers across New Mexico to creatively document bioregional seeds and climate appropriate agri-Culture. Through seasonal photo essays and interviews, SeedBroadcast will work with farmers to share their stories about growing food in a changing climate while cultivating eco-resiliency. These will be published via our SeedBroadcast blog. Over the next year, we hope to seek more funds for this project to publish a book.

Articles and Press

Campbell, Brian and Veteto, James. “Free seeds and food sovereignty: anthropology and grassroots agrobiodiversity conservation strategies in the US South.” The Journal of Political Ecology 22. 2015: 458-459. Online.

Esperanza, Jennifer. “Green Planet.” THE Magazine May 2015: 59. Magazine.

Fasimpaur, Karen. “Forum Sows Big Ideas About Tiny Seeds.” The Daily Yonder 10 May 2015. Online. 17 February 2016.

Kinkaid, Eden. “What is Your Seed Story? FoodTank.com. 13 June 2015. Online. 14 June 2015.

Lamberton, Ken. “Seed Saviors.” Edible Baja May/June 2015: 132. Magazine.

Roffman, Seth. “|UN|silo|ED| SeedBroadcast.” Greenfire Times June 2015: 21. Newspaper.

Shores, Elizabeth. “Art & Ecology: Exploring the Origin of Food Through Art.” Edible Santa Fe February/March 2015: 44-45. Magazine.

Seeds and our Future

Inside the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station

Downtown Block Party beginning to gather crowds

SeedBroadcast partnered up for the Habitat – Exploring Climate Change Through the Arts during the Downtown Block Party in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a kick off for our current focus on the role of seeds, seed savers, and resilient grassroots ecology to cope with climate change, we were interested in asking people on the street to share their thoughts while sharing seeds and stories.

Taking a picture of Orianna Pavlik's Seed Story drawing

The event was filled with artists led projects and local organizations sharing innovative ideas and works which harness the power of sustainable energy, community, and creativity. People roamed the street and playfully engaged with these projects while talking about an unfathomable future that seems so distant yet present with each decision made in our daily lives. Everyone seemed to say that the future is here and its high time that we all begin to walk the talk.

Gathering Seed

If seeds could talk, they were talking on this day. Everyone who showed up at the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station seem to be drawn to the seeds as if they were beckoning them with their belief in the potential for the future. In the sprouting of life and sustenance. Even though planting season was winding down everyone we met was keen to begin dreaming of next years gardens and the walk these seeds would take them on to try their hand at growing their own food, saving their own seeds, and sharing these with others.

Many thanks to our guest SeedBroadcasters, Andrea Gohl, Clark Frauenglas, Orianna Pavlik, and Joanna Keane Lopéz who helped out during the event recording Seed Stories and helping visitors with all this seedy fun.

Andrea demonstrating how not to eat corn

Here are some Seed Stories that were shared with us:

Phil Trujillo and Julie Holt share Seed Stories from HABITAT Downtown Block Party in Albuquerque, NM where they talk about finding old gourd seeds and following old timey traditions to grow gardens, save seeds, and share this with others.
https://soundcloud.com/seedbroadcast/phil-trujillo-and-julie-holt-talk-about-looking-for-lost-seeds-and-why-it-matters


Lynn picked up some SeedBroadcast seeds at Habitat - Exploring Climate Change Through the Arts and then shared her Seed Story and dream of changing her life to be closer to the earth and growing an urban forest with local resources.
https://soundcloud.com/seedbroadcast/lynn-shares-a-seed-story-about-growing-an-urban-forest-with-local-seeds-and-greywater


Iona Vernon and Noel Mollinedo share their Seed Story from Habitat - Exploring Climate Change Through the Arts in Albuquerque, NM where they talked about foraging for food in the mountains and the importance of seed sharing to keep our food alive.
https://soundcloud.com/seedbroadcast/iona-vernon-and-noel-mollinedo-share-a-seed-story-about-mountain-foraging

SEEDY Habitat: Exploring Climate Change Through the Arts

We will be SeedBroadcasting with Habitat: Exploring Climate Change Through the Arts during the Downtown Block Party in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This will kick off a very special SeedBroadcast project that we will be growing over the next several years, focusing our creative seedy cultivation on the role of local seeds, seed keepers, and regional foodsheds to feed communities and build resilient agri-Culture in the fact of Climate Change.

We will have a fantastic group of artists from Land Arts of the American West and UNM Art and Ecology working with us during this event.

Bring your Seed Stories to record and open-pollinated seeds to share!

Saturday, September 12, 2015 from 1pm - 4pm
On Central Avenue between 5th and 6th Streets
Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico

In partnership with 516 ARTS

Here is more information about other events and activities during the Block Party.

516 ARTS is organizing a collaborative season of public programming in the fall of 2015 that explores climate change through the arts to create a platform for education and dialogue. The public programs for HABITAT: Exploring Climate Change Through the Arts will include: a series of exhibitions at 516 ARTS; the popular Downtown Block Party; special events with guest speakers; film screenings; and youth programs.

Climate change is an urgent issue of both global and local concern. The Southwest can be considered one of the most "climate-challenged" regions of North America, with rising annual temperature averages, declining water supplies, and reduced agricultural yields. In New Mexico we've already seen destabilized and unpredictable weather patterns, water sources going dry, forests not recovering from fire, loss of urban trees, and crop failures. Public programs for HABITAT strive to raise awareness about these issues by taking an innovative approach to engaging with social and environmental change, and by bringing the community together to focus on sustainability.

DOWNTOWN BLOCK PARTY:
Interactive Art Projects, food, music and fun for the whole family!

516 ARTS presents its third Downtown Block Party on Saturday, September 12, 2015 on Central Avenue between 5th and 6th Streets Downtown, which expands the gallery programs into the street. This year, the event is presented in partnership with the Downtown Albuquerque MainStreet Initiative in celebration of the Downtown Albuquerque Arts & Cultural District. It highlights outdoor artworks and projects that address alternative energy, food issues, and land and water use in the future, all with a focus on positive solutions and dialogue. For example, GhostFood by Miriam Simun, is a performance and interactive/participatory event that explores eating in a future of biodiversity loss brought on by climate change. The GhostFood mobile food trailer serves scent-food paintings that are consumed by the public using a wearable device that adapts human physiology to enable taste experiences of unavailable foods. Little Sun Pop-Up Shop, by artist Olafur Eliasson (Berlin, Germany) and engineer Frederik Ottesen (Copenhagen, Denmark), showcases an attractive, high-quality solar-powered LED lamp they have developed, which serves as a social business focused on getting clean, reliable, affordable light to the 1.2 billion people worldwide without access to electricity. For The Future of Energy by Andrea Polli and students, the public is invited to engage with local energy issues using an app to find and create potential, and to see what they are generating in real time through visualization tools.

Truth or Consequences with Seed

Charlotte Jared tending her corn circles in Truth or Consequences

Charlotte Jared contacted us back in the spring about partnering for some seed action in her town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. It took us a while to wrangle a date that worked amongst the chaos of spring and summer planting and SeedBroadcast tours already planned. But we agreed on the date of July 25 in partnership with the Sierra County Farmers Market, which was planned for that Saturday. It was going to be hot, hot, hot. But it would also be prime summer harvest season with farmers sharing their generosity through their labor of love and food.

Driving into Truth or Consequences (or TrC as it is locally known) does not seem extraordinary. It seemingly inhabits a barrenesque low desert shrub terrain until your car pops around the bluff and travels down into a small marshy shelf along the Rio Grande where hot mineral springs bubble up and share their healing waters with all manner of creatures.

Along this route I had my first encounter with TrC in a very local and global sense. As I was driving down the street a man sitting by the curbside with kayak on one side of him and inflatable raft on the other began pointing at the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station van driving past and laughing hysterically. Actually it was a little beyond hysterical… But this struck me as a moment not to be underestimated, a thoughtful, emotional, and critical expression, which we may all need to embrace in our times of solidarity, crisis, and seed. A lot of laughter and a little madness might go a long way.

During the Saturday Farmers’ Market a good number of vendors arrived to set up tables under the shade of big canopy trees in a local city park along the Rio Grande. The shade lifted the heat and cooled the park making it a pleasant space to hang out with friends and family. Unfortunately there was very little produce available. Three weeks earlier the entire region had been hit with an unseasonable hailstorm that damaged and destroyed much of the summer harvest. That which survived was random and in little quantity. So, making it to the market this Saturday were small peaches, green apples which had begun shedding from trees, a few squash and melons, figs, onions, and greens.

Small, delicious peaches from Truth or Consequences

One farmer came bearing seeds and a farm to sell. It was just too much for her. But she laughed heartily and rejoiced in the fact that some young energetic farmer could take over her life-long work and move it forward. This was not a failure. It was the cycle of generations passing on their seeds and responsibility to labor, love, and live in a blessing of these cycles. Again there was a lot of laughter and a release from the burdens of worry. The seeds must go on.

And then the seeds began arriving in baskets, bags, bundles, and pockets. Local gardeners and farmers arrived bringing their generosity and care for community and a grand ceremony for every kind of seed they could share. There were medicinal herbs, indigenous annuals, flowers, vegetables, and careful selections of resilient varieties that folks have been working with for years. This is the family of agri-Culture here, a combination of people, plants, land, and animals working together for the joy of life and the need to be sustained. This crew was also quite jovial, with a laugh and twinkle in the eye, with kids jumping in to help with seeds and Seed Story drawings.

With this group of seeds also came a recognition that some folks were connected and many were not. The question arose, how do we stay in touch and how can we build this seed sharing network? By the end of the day everyone was talking about getting together again and organizing around the common interest in seed, and the needs we all have (seeds and people alike) to cross-pollinate, learn, and grow from one another. And of course share.

By the end of the Market the laughter and jovial madness had been sung and all the seeds had been passed among hard working hands. Rosalita a local farmer came by to give us a parting gift of quelitas, the best spinach ever. Thank you Rosalita and thank you to all those farmers and gardeners that give us sustenance.

Rosalita with her gift of quelitas

But the maddness was not over yet. Something unusual was still to happen involving an unbelievable story and something of a Zen Koan of Dadaist anti-matter….something that one cannot explain with the linear/rational mind. Take a gander and see where this story takes you…

a rada dada Sunflower

rada dada shares a Seed Story about the saloon he is transforming into a farm and the spare change that keeps growing from his vegetables.


Yet, madness and the deep arts of laughter are not really the anti-social of our times. They are the normalcy that we should embrace in our everyday lives allowing each of us to question our thoughts and actions and qualify them within our beliefs of beauty, spirit, and generosity. To stretch our laughter together through our many hiccups and laugh together for our many accomplishments. Maybe something the seed can guide us through to be asked, “what would a seed do?”

Charlotte Jared corn variation from Glass Gem Rainbow Corn

This is the path forward that two other generous spirits shared with SeedBroadcast as their Seed Stories. They were both inspired by Flordemayo and the Seed Temple in Estancia, New Mexico. Listen together and let us listen closely to our seeds.

Jia Apple tells her Seed Story about discovering seeds with the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers and the path this has led her on to remember kinships and work towards a future sharing seeds.


Charlotte Jared shares her Seed Story about discovering a familial connection with corn and the magic and depth it has brought to her life and her relations.

Contribute to the Autumn 2015 SeedBroadcast Journal DEADLINE AUGUST 31st 2015

 SeedBroadcast agri-Culture Journal is a bi-annual collection of poetry, inspired thoughts, essays, photographs, drawings, recipes, How-to’s and wisdom gathered together from a national call out to lovers of local food and seeds.  This journal supports collaboration and the sharing of seeds, stories, resources, and inspiration within local communities and between individuals, while also providing pollination through diversified regional, national, and international internet-media networks.

SeedBroadcast agri-Culture Journal 

http://seedbroadcast.org/SeedBroadcast/SeedBroadcast_agriCulture_Journal.html.

It is also available in print at various locations and directly from the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station. If you contribute you will receive a stack of printed copies.

                                           Contribute! Participate! Propose!

Send us your seed inspired poems, images, photographs, recipes, articles about your work, provocative essays, calls for seed action!

The deadline for the next edition is August 31st 2015.  

Please send your inquiries, proposals, and contributions to seedbroadcast@gmail.com

Images should be at least 300 dpi, 4" X 6" if needed include captions and a short bio.

We are looking forward to your contributions.

SeedBroadcasting from UrbanRefuge A.R.T.S and Valle de Oro

Cuidad Soil & Water Conservation District watershed diorama

The Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge invited SeedBroadcast to participate in the UrbanRefuge A.R.T.S. event which brought together artists, advocacy organizations, food trucks, and a fun public crowd to explore transportation and movement across the landscape as well as investigate the movement of change occurring at the refuge as it transitions from the largest farm in proximity to the city of Albuquerque into a Wildlife Refuge.

During the day buses, bikes, kayaks, walkers, and dancers explored the open terrain heading out on bird watching treks and performing dances in response to the ground, clouds, and the sense of place across the green open fields and cottonwood banks of the Rio Grande. At the Valley de Oro, walking, biking, jogging, driving, and horseback riding are common, especially along the irrigation and drainage ditches that run across the fields. But what is more challenging transportation wise is how to get there in the first place. It is in far south Albuquerque and it is not the easiest area to get to if you do not have a car. Yet, local efforts are under way to create viable public transportation such as a bus stop and Railrunner stop.

Panorama of the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge

This perfectly level landscape has been a working farm for over a hundred years. For a long time it was known as the Valley Gold Dairies, one of the largest historic dairies in the region. It is still being partially farmed, producing grass and alfalfa hay. During the event we hoped to meet some of the local farmers who have worked this farm and others in proximity to record stories. Many were busy on the farm and suggested meeting up in the fall to talk stories (so stay posted for more to come).

Here is a story that was shared from Chris Skiba, whose family has been farming in the South Valley for a long time.

https://soundcloud.com/seedbroadcast/chris-skiba-shares-a-seed-story-about-farming-and-gardening-in-the-south-valley-of-albuquerque



The transition to a Wildlife Refuge has many people wondering how this space will be transformed as one of the few urban refuges in the country. Its potential lies in its proximity to a major metropolitan area, its location in a dymanic riparian zone and sited on a major migratory flyway with access to water. With all these cues in place its value will be told in how it creates an urban educational opportunity through expanding the notion of what a wildlife refuge can be when it serves animals, ecology, and people. One might also wonder if there is room in the refuge mission and planning for the co-mingling of regenerative agriculture, an ecologically based agricultural system much like permaculture.

The Valle de Oro is located in the Mountain View community. This area of Bernalillo Country is far enough away from major commercial zones to be likened a food desert. With few options for fresh food it might make sense to create space where local food can be both produced and used sustainably, while enabling a demonstration site for sustainable wholistic ecology and education to bring people and the environment together.

Ruben Olgiun, a local artist presented his project Songs of Our Fathers: Migrations

Ruben Olguin is a local artist who was sharing his work at UrbanRefuge. He spent the day presenting his project, Songs of Our Fathers: Migrations, which explores "how land, time, and people are divided by technology and modern transportation. You can read more here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1044096048937167/

He kindly came by to gift SeedBroadcast a beautiful handmade seed pot he had made, its tiny mouth only large enough for the likes of very small seeds like lettuce, carrots, curly dock, and brassicas. Seed pots have been historically made and used by pueblo peoples to store seeds. These storage vessels keep seeds safe by providing a moisture free, self-wicking environment for seed preservation.

We hope to catch up with Ruben this fall for a Seed Story. And we will be Broadcasting soon with more local farmers.

Here are more Seed Stories from UrbanRefuge A.R.T.S.

Kayla Gmyr reads her poem "Vibrations" about connection and awakening to the earth and relationships from the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge in Albuquerque, NM
https://soundcloud.com/seedbroadcast/kayla-gmyr-shares-a-seed-story-of-awakening-and-connection



Kym Loc shares her aspiring work to convey the relationship between people and trees, healing, strength, and roots.
https://soundcloud.com/seedbroadcast/kym-loc-shares-a-seed-story-about-her-work-painting-trees-and-healing-the-self