SeedBroadcast and SEEDS: A Collective Voice

Join us at SEEDS: A Collective Voice! an exhibition of artists, activists, performers, gardeners, and farmers celebrating and interrogating the current state of seeds as a life force for change.

Listen to the Seed Story shout out from exhibition organizer and seed lover, Jade Levya, who talks more about her inspiration for this gathering of seeds, creativity, and sovereignty.

Our Actions Matter, Earth Day at the Albuquerque Biopark

 SeedBroadcast was invited by Tallie Segel, Education Coordinator, at the Albuquerque BioPark  www.cabq.gov/culturalservices/biopark to join the Children's Seed Festival for Earth Day 2013. This "Our Actions Matter" festival was created to celebrate the connections between seeds, plants and human beings through various educational experiences. SeedBroadcast parked the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station at the entrance to the park to encourage families to explore the magic of seeds and seed saving.

Many young inquiring minds stopped to share their curiosity, to hold seeds, to examine them under magnifying lenses, to arrange them, to draw them and to ask questions. Many choose seeds to take home to plant in their gardens and to watch them grow. All we asked was that if the plants produced seeds that they passed them on to their neighbors and friends. Tallie made sure we had volunteers all day to help us interact with the crowds that came to visit. The volunteers adeptly learned the technical ins and outs of the Mobile Unit and quickly became experts at guiding visitors to explore our networking system.

Arranging different seeds.

Two of our wonderful volunteers.

Gabriel, who lived in Puerto Rico until the age of five, was one of our young visitors and shared this hopeful and heart felt story about planting a lemon tree and how this tree inspired him to help others to have access to healthy food. Here is Gabriel telling his story:
It was not only the children that became inspired, many of their parents, aunts, uncles, sisters and brothers were encouraged also to share stories. Kalonji told us his story of the mysterious tomato seed. During the day we broadcast some of our audio stories over loud speakers that are mounted on the roof of the SeedBroadcast Mobile Unit and we linked live to "Women's Focus" with Carol Boss http://www.kunm.org/programs/genre/news-talk who interviewed Jade Leyva and Isaura Andaluz, both active seed advocates. Jade is an artist, seed saver and organizer of SEEDS: A Collective Voice, an event and exhibition that was held at the Downtown Contemporary Gallery in Albuquerque and continues through June 8th 2103. (Read our upcoming blog for more details). Isaura, a New Mexican, is the inspiration behind Cuatro Puertas, who's mission is to connect New Mexico's urban economies with rural agricultural economies, and she is an activist for the important issues of chile politics in New Mexico. After their interview with Carol they visited us at the BioPark. You can listen to Jade in our previous SeedBroadcast blog and to Isaura talk about her seed saving work and why people should care.
We should all care, and by allowing our children open access to the magic of seeds, we might have a chance.

SeedBroadcast and Our Actions Matter!

SeedBroadcast and the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station will be at the front gates of the Albuquerque BioPark during their Earth Day Children's Seed Festival - OUR ACTIONS MATTER!

April 20, 2013
10:00 am - 2:00 pm
ABQ BioPark Botanical Garden
2601 Central Ave NW
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Stop by and explore seeds, seed stories, and our seed resource materials....also participate in a seed story shout out, by sharing your seed story via audio interview, drawing, and writing.

In Seeds We Trust/ Green Revolution at Tempe Center for the Arts.

Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station at Tempe Center for the Arts.

The last stop for SeedBroadcast in the Tucson/ Phoenix area was to the Tempe Center for the Arts where we had been invited by "In Seeds We Trust", a project by the artists Laurie Lundquist and Joan Baron https://www.facebook.com/InSeedsWeTrust.  The "In Seeds We Trust" installation was created in response to a call for local artists to be part of the Green Revolution exhibit.  Green Revolution http://www.tempe.gov/index.aspx?page=2693 is an eco-friendly, green-themed exhibition that engages visitors by addressing critical environmental issues concerning the local community. This version of Green Revolution is based on an exhibition originally created by the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and its Black Creativity Council and was made available by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.  This exhibit will continue until May 25th and we recommend, if you are in the area, to check it out.   Laurie is a sculptor and environmental artist with deep interests in both the natural and engineered systems at work in the urban landscape and Joan is a ceramist turned muti-media artist and both are avid gardeners. 

In Seeds We Trust installation.

Laurie and Joan filled recycled plastic water bottles with a variety of open pollinated seeds, an instruction sheet on how to plant and tend these seeds and a call out to post information on the status of the seeds on the "In Seeds We Trust" facebook page.  The bottles are installed in the reflection pool at the entrance to the center.

 Listen to Laurie and Joan share their seed stories:
When SeedBroadcast joined Laurie and Joan at their installation it was a warm, gentle spring evening. Our visitors took their time to explore the truck, talk about the importance of saving seeds,  and to ask questions. Thank you to Laurie and Joan for inviting us and to Anthony, Paris and Corey from Gardenfly http://gardenfly.com,who came to spend time and to share their stories with us.

Ed Lebow Public Art Director for Phoenix

In Seeds We Trust and Green Revolution

SeedBroadcast and In Seeds We Trust, an installation by artists Joan Baron and Laurie Linquist, will join forces for a public event on the plaza of the Tempe Center for the Arts during the Green Revolution exhibition.

Join us for public SeedBroadcasting and share the stories of your seeds, gardening, and local food passions!

Seed Stories from Pima County Seed Library!

Kelly Wilson , a librarian with the Pima County Library, tells the story of the opening of the Seed Lending Library and the gifting of the gourd.

Kenneth Kokroko, an anthropologist from Tucson, Arizona, shares his thoughts on seeds, seed saving and the connection between nurturing seeds and nurturing family.

Jenai Longstock tells a story about a school experiment of planting seeds in a controlled environment and the effect that had on her and her fellow classmates.

Susan Oates talks about growing native flowers in her backyard and gathering seeds to share at the Pima County Seed Library

Justine Hernandez, a librarian with the Pima County Library talks about integration of seed lending and exchange into their library system.

Pima County----Wide---- Seed Libraries

SeedBroadcast partnered up with the Pima County Seed Libraries at Joel D. Valdez, Main Library on Jacome Plaza, in Tucson, AZ, to share the seed library with passerby's, while packaging seeds, and meeting some of the folks responsible for making this seed library possible.

SeedBroadcast on Jacome Plaza

Librarians join us at the van to package seeds, and discuss seeds, seed libraries, and critical mass.

Librarian, Justine Hernandez helps people make seed balls: using clay, water, and seeds

The Pima County Seed Libraries is now in its second year and operates out of all the 27 branch locations of the Pima County Library System. Seeds are catalogued just like books, allowing patrons of the seed library to get online in their homes or local library branch and select open pollinated seeds via interlibrary loan to be sent to their nearest home library for pick up.

Seeds are cataloged along with all other library materials.

Librarian, Justine Hernandez talks about how the Pima Seed Library was started and how it functions today. 

The seed library is supported through not only the infustructure of the library system, but also the Pima county seed saving community at large. Seed savers bring extra seeds to the library to share. These include native plants, flowers, and vegetables. Some of these generous folks stopped by to visit with SeedBroadcast and share Seed Stories. Charles Bufe, a local gardening aficionado, brought several different types of tomato starts to share....a great seed story in the planting.

Charles Bufe's Zacatiran tomato plants.

We also learned that Tucson has a very broad reaching community garden network. Several of these gardeners showed up to find out more about the SeedBroadcast Seed Story Broadcasting Station and share what is growing in Tucson. This network also extends into the Public School system, which has several gardening projects implementing hands-on educational programs and gardening clubs.

Card catalog housing the seeds, and a wealth of information about growing, saving, and sharing seeds.....and some really awesome librarians!

Thank you Pima County Seed Library and all the folks we met for a wonderful day of Seed Story Broadcasting!

Pima County Seed Libraries!

SeedBroadcast and the Pima County Seed Libraries will be working together on Monday, April 15th, at the main library on Jacome Plaza, in Tucson, Arizona. Stop by to help pack seeds, share seeds and seed stories.

April 15, 2013
Seed Packaging and Story Sharing
Pima County Seed Library
http://www.library.pima.gov/seed-library/

Jacome Plaza
101 N. Stone Ave.
Tucson, Arizona
Time: 10am - 3pm

For more information contact Justine Hernandez:
justine.hernandez@pima.gov
520-594-5564

Seed Stories from Feast on the Street!

Rachel Linden of GMO Free Arizona tells a story from Walter Ritte in Hawaii, of tearing up the patent papers of family and reuniting a kinship with brother taro.

Citlaxochitl Enrique talks about a gift of hopi blue corn seed and her plans to grow this to make food for her family; including the best blue corn mush for her baby.

Sarah Grumbley talks about the Valley Permaculture Alliance Seed Library.

Maggie Leininger shares her project called Weaving the Whole 9 Yards, which investigates cotton and weaving production processes to re-envision an ecologic tapestry in the land, materials, and people of cotton.

Vynnie McDaniels of the Valley Permaculture Alliance and the community gleaner network called Garden Fly, shares a seed story from his garden, while encouraging everyone to see gardens and gardening everywhere in their lives.

Ian Kerstetter shares a seed story about a project he has been working on with a group of fellow students within the UNM Art and Ecology course called Creating Change.

Ariane Glazer talks about Horny Toad Farm, in Phoenix, AZ where she works. She also encourages everyone to support small, local family farms and COOK MORE!

Lorna Henry shares her dream of finding original seeds and starting the Garden Club Village for young women

Judy Newland shares her seed story of being a textile artist and collecting natural pigment materials from the earth and creating sustainable, non-toxic dyes for her projects.

Liesl, with the help of her friends, Sarah and Nicole, shares the story of her father,'s tomatoes and the Wall of water!

Monika Woolsey, from Phoenix talks about her work with Hipveggies.

Thank you all for sharing your seed stories!

SeedBroadcast at Feast on the Street

SeedBroadcast was invited to participate in Feast on the Street, on April 13, 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona. Initiated by ASU Art Museum, Roosevelt Row CDC, and the artists Clare Patey and Matthew Moore, the Feast in Phoenix is a transplanted work by Clare Patey, Feast on the Bridge in London.

SeedBroadcast Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station open for everyone to explore.

Feast was promoted to encourage a collaborative community engagement bringing people, public space, and local food together for a mass celebration. We attended the event with the false belief that the actual feast held on a mile long banquet table would be free: a shared community dinner for everyone who attended. We are not sure where this thinking came from, probably from our own stubborn dream that working together and sharing the wealth of sustenance is actually another form of persistent creative production and another form of exploratory economy. But, we were only partially wrong.

Feast'ers eat dinner and socialize along a mile long banquet table.

Feast'ers provided their own solutions, bringing picnics and meeting up with friends and strangers. Sure, there were also local food trucks with an amazing array of dishes to purchase, but this seems besides the point.

Opening ceremonies: giant salad toss and vegetable trampoline

Something else more powerful was lurking in the spectacle at large.....community organizing, knowledge sharing, problem solving, and creative action! We met an amazing and diverse group of individuals who shared seed stories with us, used the SeedBroadcast resources, swapped seeds, and talked about their desires for a prosperous, local, foodshed. Among the Feast'ers, were an inspiring number of kids, of all ages....taking seeds home and talking about planting gardens and sharing food. SPROUTS, RHIZOMES, and POLLINATORS!

We met folks with GMO Free Arizona, who were sharing information about GMO's and people's right to fight against the corporate stranglehold on food and agri-culture. Valley Permaculture Alliance ambassador, Sarah Grumbley, shared the Seed Lending Library which is free and open to the public. We were also blessed to meet Tonatierra founder and coordinator Tupac Enrique, who shared a very important seed story...coming soon! Tonatierra's mission is:

To create and sustain a Cultural Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples

That will support local-global and holistic indigenous community development initiatives in education, culture, and economic development in accord with the principles of Community Ecology and Self-Determination.

Art and Ecology - Creating Change students assist with SeedBroadcasting

A very special shout out to all the students from University of New Mexico, Art and Ecology,  who became collaborative SeedBroadcasters for the afternoon of the Feast. They shared seeds with people, helped folks use Broadcast Station resources, and also assisted with Seed Story recordings.
Thank you! We greatly enjoyed your partnership during the Feast!

Feast on the Street!

Join SeedBroadcast and Feast on the Street! for a community dinner stretching for half a mile in downtown Phoenix!
More coming soon....join us for some seed story shout outs.

Native Seeds /Search. Stories from Seed School Graduates.

Seed School, April 2013. Semillaistas!

Matthew talks about being food independent in the arid climate of Tucson Danielle shares her thoughts on the relationship between seeds, people and the stories they carry. Robert talks about how mountain farms are a refuge from hybrid and GMO crops. Anita talks about her love of seeds. Belinda shares a seed story of corn, relationships and caring. Leah and Xochitl share their seed stories about working together and saving seeds. Simcha shares his thoughts on diversity, mobility, culture and seeds.

SeedBroadcast at Native Seeds/ SEARCH in Tucson.

“What we are really looking for,” the elders replied, “are the seeds for the foods our grandparents used to grow.”

 

We have just arrived back from the SeedBroadcast 2013 spring tour of the Southwest.  This exploration was initiated by an invite from Greg Esser of Desert Initiative http://desertinitiative.org/  based in Phoenix, to attend their first ever Feast on the Street art event, (more on this in an upcoming blog). To make the most of this trip we made several contacts in the area and arranged, with the help of many, to partner with other seed organizations in this region to initiate critical dialogues through the culture of seeds, seed saving and local growing practices.

Our first stop was to the Native Seeds/ SEARCH http://www.nativeseeds.org/  where the annual spring Seed School was in full swing. The school is a groundbreaking educational program that trains people in the history, science, and business of seeds to construct a new sustainable seed paradigm, http://nativeseeds.org/index.php/events/seed-school .  It was one of those magic moments when the timing, for some reason, was perfect and we were graciously welcomed into the fold.

Bill McDorman, who is now director of NSS is the visionary behind this school and it was through the misfortune of a bicycle accident in Flagstaff that kicked into gear the first seeding of his dream. To hear this unique story and the vision of Native Seeds/SEARCH listen to Belle Starr, Bill's partner and Deputy Director of NSS.

The school attracts a diverse group of seed devotees from all over the world and from a variety of backgrounds and interests. This year's group included participants from Mexico, Great Britain, and the Navajo Nation, an entomologist, a film-maker, those wanting to make a significant change in their lives and those with hopes to start seed companies and co-operatives back in their communities. The students spend a week learning and experiencing the magic of the place, through the exchange of ideas and knowledge in the presence of other seed fanatics and surrounded by the precious seeds themselves.

 The NSS conservatory center holds an active seed bank which is at the heart of NSS conservation efforts. This bank holds approximately 1,900 varieties of traditional southwest crops, over one half of this collection are comprised of the three sisters, corn, beans and squash, with additional unique and rare crop varieties.  To learn more about these seeds and the seed bank listen to Collections Manager, Melissa Kruse-Peeples and Evan Sofro, the Conservation Farm Manager. The energy and passion that emanates from Bill and the other seed facilitators is contagious. You feel yourself becoming swept up in the potential that this seeded landscape holds.  Bill inspires just by breathing.  "It's easy to save seeds," he tells us "just start with a few at the beginning do not take on too much. Take a few varieties and then build from there."

Rowen White from the Mohawk community, seed school facilitator and a seed steward, Joy Hought, the Director of Seed School, talks about her facsination with the science and aesthetics of seeds. The seeds disperse their magic to all that gather, shifting the atmosphere to hope and encourgement.

Closing circle.

Lives are changed, and new relationships are built.  No one looks back, the seeds and dreams are held in reverence. So if you are looking for some hope and perhaps a gentle change from these upside down times we recommend a visit to this unique and special place.

Stephen, Development Assistant, talks about how seeds changed his life.

SeedBroadcast at Native Seed/SEARCH

SeedBroadcast is now at Native Seed/SEARCH in Tucson, Arizona broadcasting seed stories, sharing seedy resources, and listening to the stories of folks during the NS/S Seed School.

We will be here for another day, through Friday, April 12...and hope to learn more from the genius of seeds sprouting out through all the amazing people we are meeting.....we will be sharing more, soon!

Compartiendo Semillas en Anton Chico

SeedBroadcast and the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station participated in the 1st annual Compartiendo Semillas en Anton Chico, New Mexico last Saturday, April 6.

Pat Miner sharing seeds with local families

Many people from throughout the valley attended to listen to presentations about gardening, hoop houses, bee keeping, seed saving, and the local farmers' market, eat lunch together, and swap seeds. Presentations were given by local community members Paul Sandaval, Rodney Loewen, Nick Maestas, Fodder Project/SeedBroadcast, and Roxanne Despain.

Hoop house plans and information from Nick Maestas

A fantastic lunch of beans, red chile, chicos, blue corn tortillas, and sopa, was organized and cooked in the home kitchens of Marietta Sullivan, Terry Romero, Belle Sullivan, and Elaine Montano. Everyone greatly appreciated this local and delicious food. Terry also contributed several of her home cooked recipes, giving copies away to everyone.

Richard Montano could not attend the event, but created this visual example of his 2012 garden and the seeds he saved.

Many participants discussed the importance of growing local food and saving seeds. Delfinio and Marienetta Valesquez talked about personal and community connections to gardening and the importance for health and deep relations with the land. Delfinio pointed to the concha corn, a long season, stout white corn used for chicos and declared its essential relationship to local cultural heritage.

Belle Sullivan's Torpedo Winter Squash Seeds

This event brought together an inspiring group of people sharing stories and a desire to keep growing...food, seeds, and community.

Anton Chico is the home-base for SeedBroadcast and we look forward to supporting the farms and gardens of all the folks we met.  Have a tremendous year of gardening, farming, and sharing food and seeds. Keep the water dreams alive, and we will see you all soon!

Thank you to Pearl Maestas, Guadalupe Soil and Water Conservation District and Guadalupe Extension Service for organizing and supporting this community effort!

Compartiendo Semillas en Anton Chico

The first annual seed exchange is coming up this Saturday, April 6, in the vibrant agricultural community of Anton Chico, New Mexico. SeedBroadcast will be there with the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station to share our seedy activity, while broadcasting and listening to Seed Stories.

Corn varieties from Fodder Project Collaborative Research Farm, Anton Chico, New Mexico

Here is the schedule for this event and we hope to see everyone there!

Saturday, April 6, 2013 from 9am - 2pm
Anton Chico Community Center

Schedule
730am - 900am - Seed Packaging - bring your seeds to package in envelopes
900am - Noon - Workshops
Break for lunch - Home cooked lunch provided
100pm - 200pm - Seed Exchange

Workshops include

• Hoop Houses (including plans)
• Water Harvesting
• Composting
• Seed Saving
• Starting a small garden in drought times
• Bee Keeping
• Farmers' Market
• Sustaining foods from the home garden (including local recipes)
• Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station

Everyone is welcome....event is free to all!
It is not necessary to bring seeds to participate
Questions and RSVP - call Jeanette Hart-Mann at 575-427-0037 or Pearl Maestas at 575-512-5100

Sponsored by Guadalupe SWCD and Guadalupe County Extension Office