Reflections: January 19th 2013

As SeedBroadcast gears up for the coming year we have been reflecting on all of the incredible encounters and relationships that we have made with seed savers, gardeners, local food growers, students and those who just want to have access to healthy locally grown food. These encounters have been made across the country through community events, creative workshops, gatherings and partnering with like-minded folks.  At all of our SeedBroadcast stops, which have included libraries, farms, gardens, museums and downtown street corners, we have invited people to fill out a seed survey. These surveys help guide us to define and fine tune our intent, purpose and where best to put our resources. We believe that there is a wisdom held in each locale and we are curious to learn and hopefully share the similarities and discrepancies in regards to seed saving, dispersal and the growing and easy access of healthy local food. Really we do read these surveys.

Completed surveys at the Campartiendo Semillas, Sembrando el Futuro Seed Exchange

 in Las Vegas, New Mexico, 2012

This year SeedBroadcast has committed to investing time back to the genesis of the project, the Las Vegas, San Miquel, Mora and Guadalupe Counties of Northern New Mexico. We will be gathering and dispersing ideas, skills and seeds in various locations and will continue to present what we encounter through this blog. In order to orientate ourselves we have been going back through the surveys that were completed at last years seed exchange in Las Vegas.

The following is a selection of thoughts from these surveys.

On the idea of why save and share seeds:

Andrea from Las vegas,

"To nurture and share pure natural food and plants with human kind."

Joe from Las Vegas,

"To grow food for my family." 

Kathleen from Ocate,

 "I like the quality of my crops."

Reyna from Las Vegas,

"I would like to be more self -sufficient and help ensure that there will be uncorrupted seeds for the future."

And Trina from Tecolote,

"So that others can enjoy the whole experience of growing."

On what a seed library should be:

Annabel from Anton Chico,

"It could have all kinds of seeds and all the information that an individual would need to know about the seed."

Grace from Las Vegas,

"A selection of all the seeds available in our area."

And Jeffery from Mora.

"A place where seeds of all kinds are stored and easily accessible."

On why people have stopped saving seeds:

 Kerry from Las Vegas,

"We stopped valuing them as a resource when large scale farming became more popular."

Marge from Las Vegas,

"It is lazy to just go and buy the vegetables and flowers already grown without the hassle of doing it yourself."

And Reyna from Las Vegas,

"I think people stopped saving seeds due to not being educated on preservation of them for growth. "

Our seed survey can be found here at the PARTICIPATE! page and can be filled in online. We invite you to share your thoughts and especially any seed stories that you hold. This seed story might be about the seeds your grandmother saved, the tin of corn kernels that were found in an attic, the ancient seeds you might have been given or about your favorite seeds.  Some of these stories we have been recording and you can access them here at our Seed Story Soundcloud.

But you can write them too and we will post them on the blog. 

We look forward to hearing from you.

Armand Saiia from Infinity Farm in Ribera, New Mexico sharing a seed story.

Dixon Elementary School Visit

 Early on the morning of Monday October 29th, with the air still chilly from low overnight temperatures, students, teachers and parents from Dixon Elementary School arrived on mass to the Taos Center for the Arts to take part in SEED4 www.seedtaos.org

Aaliyah Sanchez at the seed drawing station.

 From the beginning, experiential education has been an essential component of the show. At SEED exhibitions visitors are encouraged not only to look at artwork inspired by the seed but also to engage in hands-on learning about the remarkable lives of seeds and their utmost importance in our lives. The SEED Exploratorium, is an entire room with new displays every year dedicated to engaging all five senses, so that understanding can be synthesized in multiple ways. This year SEED 4 Exploratorium highlighted the theme “Seed to Food”. The "seedettes" a group of four incredible women who organize SEED every year put allot of their energies into arranging field trips for local schools and the Dixon group,of kindergarten Ist and 2nd graders, were to be the last group before the closing of the exhibition.

Benjamin Gonzales with his seed story.

Denim Padberg  sharing his seed drawing.

 Katie Woodall, a seedette, skillfully gathered the group outside the exhibition space and introduced everyone to the various areas of activity, the exhibition, the exploratorium and the SeedBroadcast mobile station.  SeedBroadcast provided a creative seed drawing station, where the students could look at seeds through lenses and make drawings to place on the seed wall in the broadcast unit. Inside the unit they investigated the Ipods to discover seed videos, seed story interviews, and looked at the seed books. In preparation for this visit, their teacher Eva Behrens, had the students create their own seed stories so they could be recorded. When each student felt ready and confident we introduced them to the recording equipment, did sound tests and then asked them to tell us their stories. Here are a selection.  Eva will continue to record other stories back in her classroom as as we receive these they will be  added to the seeds story library.  Thank you so much students for being so courageous in sharing your stories with us. 

Investigating ipods in the mobile broadcasting unit.

Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station and Seed Stories from Taos, New Mexico

Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting and the Creative Seed Drawing Station in Taos, New Mexico.

SeedBroadcast hosted the Seed Story Broadcasting Station outside the Stables Gallery, at the Taos Center for the Arts, during the final weekend of the Seed 4 exhibition. Broadcasting in the public parking lot between the gallery, the Taos Auditorium, the main strip, and Kit Carson State Park, many passerby's stopped by to see what was going on. While the station played seed stories over the outside loud speakers to the Taoseno environs, people were encouraged to explore the resources in the Station and make drawings of favorite seeds and plants to be posted on the bulletin board inside the van.

SeedBroadcaster, Chrissie Orr, watches as a Seed Story picture is drawn.

Many people came by to share seed stories from the Taos area, as well as from distant homes. Conversations arose over local seed security, a concern many local growers have that their rights as food producers and seed savers will be compromised if resources such as seeds and water become controlled by the proprietary interests of corporations and governments.

Watching the video Seeds of Freedom inside the Mobile Broadcasting Station.

During the afternoon, Greg Nussbaum, along with a young student from Camino De Paz, stopped by after their morning selling produce at the Taos Farmers' Market. Greg, the Camino De Paz's Farm Director, shared information about their amazing school, located outside of Santa Cruz, NM. It is a farm-based middle school, which integrates hands-on working experiences of living on a farm with applied learning in the fields of "sustainable living practices, traditional arts and crafts, ecology and environmental education." Asking the question...what if public education looked like this?

We asked those we met if there was a Taos seed swap, seed library, or informal seed sharing organization, and no one seemed to know of any....although everyone seemed to think it was a grand idea. Perhaps folks we met over the weekend would be interested in working together to organize one? If you would be interested in getting involved with this please email us and we will try to get everyone in touch.

Looking at corn From Fodder Project Collaborative Research Farm and sharing some seeds.

Miguel Santisevan, a local farmer and teacher we spoke to via email, said he has been working on a seed library for several years. Its goal is to increase local seed stock among area farmers. Even though this seed library is not a public resource at this time, he encourages people to contact him to find out more about the agricultural projects their farm is undertaking. In the future, they hope to build seed networks among local farmers, and provide seed saving, cleaning, and processing workshops. You can find out more about their projects and contact Miguel at: http://solfelizfarm.wordpress.com/

Taos Seed Stories are now being broadcast!
Here are the Seed Stories from people we met over the weekend. Thank you all for sharing these wonderful stories.

Seed Story from Bob Fies, Taos, New Mexico

Seed Broadcaster, Jeanette Hart-Mann, recording Bob Fies' seed story

One of the people who stopped by to share a seed story with us while we were in Taos was Bob Fies. For the past seven years Bob, a retired physician, has been the owner and caretaker for the Arroyo Hondo property on which the historic New Buffalo commune was established. Although he was not involved in the founding of the commune in 1967, Bob shared a deeply moving story of gratitude for the generosity and compassion that local Pueblo and Hispanic people bestowed upon the young back-to-the-landers - sharing the necessary skills for building shelter and growing food in this challenging environment.



Since acquiring the New Buffalo property, Bob has supervised preserving, restoring and making sustainable the main building, planting hundreds of native trees and restoring the land. On Sunday, we followed up on his invitation to visit the property and spent the morning with him as he shared the history of this unique place, as well as his recent efforts to develop the New Buffalo Center into a place that will continue to serve as a center for connecting, learning, and creativity.

Bob Fies and Seed Broadcasters at the New Buffalo Center

View of the newly completed passive-solar greenhouse

Inside the restored sunken round room at the heart of the original structure

Guerilla Sprouting with Sibylle Ingeborg Preuschat, Taos, NM

Sibylle Ingeborg Preuschat with her Guerilla Sprouting project -
part of the SEED 4 exhibition and exploratorium

As part of the Seed Exploratorium component of the SEED 4 exhibition,  Sibylle Ingeborg Preuschat presented her Guerilla Sprouting project - a demonstration DIY sprout garden. Sibylle shared with us the story of how she came to adopt sprouting as an act of self-reliance and empowerment. She sited Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma as an influence that shifted her thinking about the carbon footprint of even the healthiest of store-bought organic produce. Sibylle describes sprouting as, on one hand, a response the waste and inefficiency of large-scale commercial farming, and on the other hand, it is also a symbolic act - of reclaiming responsibility for one's health and well-being by tending to life in a direct, hands-on way.

The Guerrilla Sprout garden a little after two weeks of being planted

"The folks running the Seed 4 Exploratorium did an amazing job growing sprouts in the middle of a busy exhibition - and these don't quite look like they would when tended at home... still you get the idea of how tenaciously they grow even when conditions aren't the most ideal!" - Sibyille

Along with her demonstration sprout display, Sibylle disseminates information on how to sprout to encourage others to try it themselves. You can read her blog, and download this great how to document which she put together for a workshop she gave during the SEED 4 exhibit.