Mora Seed Swap

Stop by and share in the wisdom of seeds as Mora Seed Swap hosts their annual potluck, Seed Swap, and conducts a seed saving class.

SeedBroadcast will be there to share seed stories and the open-pollinated how-to's of many other inspiring seed folks. We will also be recording seed stories. So bring a story to share!

Mora Seed Swap
April 6, 2014
St Gertrude's Parish Hall
Junction of HWY 518 & 434
Mora, NM

Seed Swap/Potluck 12 - 1pm
Seed Saving Class 1 - 530pm

Bring:

• a dish for potluck
• 2 glass jars with lids
• a sense of humor

SeedBroadcasting from Juan Tabo Seed Library

New Mexico Bolitas in the re-purposed card catalog

Seed Catalog at the Juan Tabo Public Seed Library

SeedBroadcast partnered up with the Juan Tabo Public Library in Albuquerque, New Mexico to celebrate and kick-off Albuquerque's first public seed library. Folks came from near and far, curous about the call for seeds and wondering what a seed library could possibly be. New Mexico Master gardeners, volunteers from ABQ BioPark, Wes Brittenham from Plants of the Southwest, and Noel Chilton with SEEDS: A Collective Voice Community Seed Mural were also there to share, educate, and inspire visitors to get the year growing with seeds.

Getting up close with the ABQ BioPark Seed Exploratorium

Community Seed Mural

Library visitor helps create the seed mural

The celebration did not attract massive crowds, but what it did was situated in the everyday. The seed library engaged people who are already using the library, surprising them with the new card catalog addition of seeds to be grown, saved, shared, and realized year after year. Library patrons walked by, arms loaded down with books and packets of seeds, heading home to spend the beautiful spring day outside planting.

Inspired by the seedy inspiration spreading across the country and her love of gardening, Juan Tabo Branch Manager, Brita Sauer, decided to organize the seed library and bring people together around seeds. You can listen to her seed story here.

Library patrons explore the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station

In Memory of Amy Hetager

Amy Hetager was a remarkable woman with a powerful vision.  Five years ago when she found out she had cancer she decided to dedicate her life to build a community of people dedicated to growing and sharing their own food so she initiated Home Grown New Mexico and the Santa Fe Seed Exchange. Amy, a master gardener, was also involved with many local organizations such as Frenchy's Community Garden and the Milagro Community garden.
SeedBroadcast met Amy two years ago and we were honored to work with her on the 2013 Santa Fe Seed Exchange where Amy shared her story of her grandmother's gifting of seeds. Unfortunately she could not attend this years seed event but her vision and dreams were held by all who attended.



Amy sadly lost her battle to cancer and she will be sorely missed here in our community. Our deep respects go out to her family.

Amy left us an incredible gift of her inspired wisdom and dreams.........

SeedBroadcast agri-Culture Journal

SeedBroadcast agri-Culture Journal is a bi-annual collection of poetry, inspired thoughts, essays, photographs, drawings, recipes 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 our local communities and between individuals, while also providing pollination through diversified regional, national and international internet-media networks.

The Spring 2014 edition is now available to download 

 http://seedbroadcast.org/SeedBroadcast/SeedBroadcast_agriCulture_Journal.html and is available in print at various locations and from the 

Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station. 

 For this edition we were honored to receive many diverse contributions: from Deluvina Armijo in Las Vegas, New Mexico who shared with us her recipe for collecting and cooking quelites (wild spinach) to Whitney Richardson and Maureen Walrath of Pueblo Semilla in Chicago and to Isaura Andaluz and Jade Leva of SEEDS: A Collective Voice in Albuquerque, New Mexico and many more. 

Please check out this Spring edition and let us know what you think,

Deadline for the Autumn 2014 edition is August 31st 2014. 

Send contributions to seedbroadcast@gmail.com

And a huge thank you to all of you who contributed.

Stories from Ely, IA

Ely Iowa is a rural farm town on the outskirts of Cedar Rapids. Like other small farming communities, its landscape and surrounding architecture are a testament to the current paradigm of corporate agricultural monopoly.

Krob Feed Mill - Ely IA - Becca Kacanda 2014

But Even in the midst of factories like that of Dupont, and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) with its giant post-apolcolyptic sci-fi looking facility capable of processing 3,000 acres of corn into high-fructose corn syrup daily, not to mention International Paper and a coal burning plant, all within a 10 mile radius of the town, Ely, with a population of 1,776, is not without empowered individuals reviving both recreational interest and entrepreneurial opportunity in food production and who are cultivating new enthusiasm for the natural world. 

Ali Eggenberg Alldredge - Seed Starting Demonstration @ Ely Public Library 2014

The Takes family, for example, who have raised 6 kids on their Ely dairy, milking two times a day and marketing milk through Swiss Valley recently purchased, and are in the process of transforming a defunct lumberyard into a local creamery in order to market their milk directly to locals, and in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids grocery stores. They also have plans to churn their own ice cream- which is sure to be a hit, especially for bikers taking the new Cedar River Bike Trail through town.

Ely SWAP

Earlier this month we met up with community members at the the Ely Public Library,  home to one of the first Seed Libraries in the country-initiated in 2011 by Ali Eggenberg Alldredge.

Melissa Sharapova replenishing Ely Seed Library with new seed - 2014

SeedBroadcast Soundcloud

Cheri Frank's Pale Cone Flower Seeds - 2014

ABC Seed Library Kickoff

Juan Tabo Public Library is dusting off its card catalog to make room for some very old editions of cultural knowledge...to be shared, grown, passed on, and returned....SEEDS.

Join us for the opening kick-off of the ABC Seed Library. The first public seed library in Albuquerque.

March 22, 2013
ABC Seed Library
Juan Tabo Public Library
3407 Juan Tabo NE
Albuquerque, NM

For more information
Email: juantabo@cabq.gov
Call: 505-291-6260

We invite you to join us in SeedBroadcasting and celebrate the local genius of seeds. Share and listen to stories about seed saving, gardening, farming, and local food desires. Explore the Seedy Resources bulletin board, copy center, library, and interactive multi-media workstation, free and open for everyone to use.

Bring SEEDS To SWAP and share YOUR Seed Stories

SeedBroadcast and the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station is a collaborative project exploring grassroots food action and seed sovereignty. We travel near and far to pollinate the culture of agri-Culture by broadcasting local seed stories through audio interviews, while networking and distributing do-it-together-how-to resources.

Seed Stories: http://soundcloud.com/seedbroadcast

Website: www.seedbroadcast.org

Corn and Beans Minus the Monopoly: Iowa's Open-Pollinated Corn and Edible Bean Producers

Last week in Iowa we met with two major players in local food: Farmer Laura Krause and Food System Planner and Farmer Jason Grimm to talk about their role in building a more resilient food system in Iowa with non-GMO staple crops. 
 
Here, where the landscape now consists of over 60% GMO herbicide-resistant corn and beans, Jason and Laura's farming practices represent an important kind of negotiation: growing crops at a scale that benefits from the efficiency of conventional machinery, but doing so using sustainable practices. On the farm, they select and save seed, and maintain soil health with green manure and diversified crop rotations. Off the farm, instead of doing what most of their neighbors do by depending on agrochemical companies to provide them with both inputs and markets for their crops, they pay attention to the needs of local buyers, market locally, and grow through the support of neighbors, families, and supportive peer-to-peer networks with whom they obtain and share information and resources. 

Neil's Yellow Dent Corn

Laura Krouse @ Abbe Hills Farm, Mt. Vernon, IA

Laura Krouse at Pesticide Action Network's
Driftcatcher Training Session. Grinnell, IA (2013)

I first met Laura at a Pesticide Action Network Training session where we were learning how to operate Driftcatchers; devices that collects air samples to be analyzed for pesticides. Laura, who has been farming in Mt. Vernon since 1988, was interested in documenting the otherwise invisible chemical exposure that occurs on her 150-acre organic farm, now located in the midst of thousands of acres of GMOs. As a provider of vegetables to over 150 area families, and in anticipation of the release of 24D resistant soybeans in 2015, she wanted to know exactly where she, her crops, and her customers were in relationship to the risks of genetic and chemical contamination.

Laura's seed story emphasizes the urgency to protect seeds and germplasm from appropriation by monopoly interests. She also discusses her ideas about empowering creative, smart people to enter into the world of plant breeding.  

Laura's Seed Story: Part I

"The seeds belong to people... The genetics simply cannot belong to a company. They must belong to humans. "

Part II

Meeting New Demand for Local Legumes : Black Turtle Beans

Jason Grimm @ Grimm Family Farm, North English, IA

I met Jason throguh the Practical Farmer's of Iowa Beginning Farmers Network and soon found out that if there was any regional food business development on the table- Jason was behind it. 

Raised on a farm and trained as a landscape architect, Jason became interested in working in regional food systems after studying walkable urban communities and imagining how the principles of new urbanism could be applied to decentralized rural communities.

Jason is currently the local food system planner for the Iowa Valley RC&D, the manager of the Iowa Valley Food Co-Op as well as a grower. The thing I most respect most about him is his responsiveness to the needs voiced at local summits and regional conferences. When he hears "we need an online resource to buy and sell local goods" he doesn't waste time gathering collaborators, and turning the idea into The Iowa Valley Food Co-Op. He hears "we need a local producer of legumes" and he's off researching Nebraska edible bean farming, negotiating a spot on the family farm, and and filling the bulk bins at the local New-Pi Food Co-Op with his own black beans.

Jason's practice also includes a serious commitment to social mobilization, by participating in pragmatic collaborative community building, especially among young and beginning farmers.

Stay tuned for Jason's Seed Story! 

"That's why I love design too. You're given a problem and then you have to come up with a solution, and knowing that there's multiple avenues to get to the solution... that's kind of how I've looked at the beans. I've never grown them the same way in the last three years that I've grown beans, and this year it's gonna be another different way."

SeedBroadcast at the Annual Seed Exchange in Santa Fe, New Mexico

SeedBroacasting at Frenchy's Field, Santa Fe, New Mexico

The Annual Santa Fe Seed Exchange 2014 was held on March 12th in Frenchy's Field and SeedBroadcast was honored to partner with Home Grown New Mexico http://homegrownnewmexico.org/ and the City of Santa Fe Parks Division. It was one of those chilly, blue, clear, late afternoons that brought out the hardy local gardeners and lovers of home grown food.  The early spring had everyone talking about planting and the importance of our drought tolerant seeds in a time of such little moisture.  There were a great variety of seeds to pick from, with Jannine, Giant Veggie's huge pumpkin seeds, http://giantveggiegardener.com/ to Poki from Gaia Gardens http://gaiagardens.blogspot.com/  who offered a great mix from his stash and then there were tables scattered with varieties of seeds that were donated by attendees.

Giant Veggie Gardener's pumpkin seeds

Poki from Gaia Gardens sharing his seeds

SeedBroadcast also shared seeds and our spring edition agri-Culture Journal that was hot off the press. Our table was graciously wo/manned by Jessie Esparza and Betty Booth. Jessie is the project specialist with the parks division and coordinates all of the city parks community gardens. Betty is on the Parks and Open Space advisory board and has been an active advocate for the city to create these community gardens within the park system.  There are now six of these gardens throughout Santa Fe and for a fee of $15 residents can rent a parcel of land to create their own space to grow food.
For more information on the location of these community gardens you can go to www.santafenm.gov/community_gardens.

Jesse Esparza and Betty Booth at the SeedBroadcast table

 It is the season for Seed Exchanges and they are springing up all over the nation. So keep a look out for one near you as these are such places of sharing, not only seeds but information, conversation and especially hope and potential for the coming growing season. It is such a relief to be in a place to exchange wealth and well-being without the necessity for money.  Seeds bring us together in ways we have perhaps forgotten. Try to hold one in your hand and see what it reminds you of then plant it and nourish it as it will nourish you in ways that you will not expect.

SeedBroadcast's next engagement will be at the Juan Tabo Library Saturday March 22nd 11am-2pm. This will be the opening of their new Seed Library. http://abclibrary.org/juantabo
We hope to see you there.

 

Seed package that arrived on one of the communal tables

Today in the New Bohemia District: Cedar Rapids, IA

We'll be swapping seed stories and hanging out with the Mobile Seed SWAP Station from 10:00-2:00 today at the New Bo City Market, located in the New Bohemia District in Cedar Rapids Iowa.

After being ravaged by the flood of 2008, the New Bo Market building sat neglected, a blight on the neighborhood, until a handful of creative locals came together to create what is now NewBo City Market. A small business incubator, New Bo provides commercial space to dozens of small business start ups. Stop by for breakfast or lunch and say hello!

SeedBroadcast at the Santa Fe Seed Exchange

SeedBroadcast will be at the Santa Fe Seed Exchange Wednesday March 12th from 4-7pm. This yearly event is hosted by Home Grown New Mexico and the City Parks Division.  Come and share seeds and stories.  We will have a table inside the Barn at Frenchy's Field and the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station will be in the parking area. We look forward to seeing you there.
For more information http://homegrownnewmexico.org/

In like a Lion

We're on the move::

Three Counties in Two Days!

Exuberant Politics 

We've installed the SWAP station alongside videos, computer games, prints, sculptures, paintings, and murals culled from nearly 400 entries received from every continent except Antarctica in a celebration of art, activism and political feeling from around the world. The show will be up all month at Legion Arts CSPS (open 10:00-6:00) and PS1 (Gallery Hours TBA) with opening events this weekend!

Post by Seedbroadcast Iowa.

Opening Receptions 

Thursday March 6 Legion Arts Center Cedar Rapids 5:00-7:00 

 & Friday March 7 Public Space One Iowa City 6:00-8:00

We'll be doubling up on Friday night, moving our second station out to West Branch for

Library...After Hours: WB Grows! 

Friday March 7th West Branch Public Library 7:00-9:00

West Branch is kicking off their first seed lending library! I'll be joining in with a short presentation on what it means on a political level to save seeds in Iowa. Refreshments will be provided by New Pioneer Co-Op. Apparently, this event is for ages 21+. Sorry kids  :(

Ely Seed Library Farmer's Market + Seed Starting Demos

Saturday March 8th Ely Public Library 9:00-12:00

Post by Homegrown.