Monday, May 23, 2016

2016 Bees and Seeds Festival

SeedBroacast and the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station will be at the Bees + Seeds Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico!

Come join us and celebrate local seeds, gardens, farmers, food, and healthy community.

Bring SEEDS to swap and bring a Seed Story to record!

May 28th, 2016
3pm - 9pm

Location
Tractor Brewing
1800 4th ST NW
Albuquerque, New Mexico


Presented and Sponsored by: GMO-Free New Mexico

Monday, May 16, 2016

11th Annual Dandelion Festival, Durango, Colorado.



We left really early with the light of dawn just appearing on the horizon. The air was cold and the sky indicated we were in for unpredictable weather. It was a slow journey to the north, the seed truck taking its time to meander up and over the New Mexico state line into Colorado and on to Durango. We were invited to be part of the 11th Annual Dandelion Festival, which is held at the time of the dandelions to celebrate the power of this plant, organic parks, local food and spring.

Rotary Park, site of the Dandelion Festival.

The festival is coordinated by the Turtle Lake Refuge , the mission of which is to celebrate the connection between personal health and wild lands. Turtle Lake was founded in 1998 by Katrina Blair who teaches sustainable living practices, permaculture and wild edible and medicinal plant classes locally and internationally. She is the author of a book titled “Local Wild Life- Turtle Lake Refuge’s Recipes for Living Deep”, that focuses on the uses and recipes of the local wild abundance.


The Festival was held in the Rotary Park which is surrounded by grassy areas filled with huge bright yellow dandelions that attracted people to sit and make necklaces and headbands to wear in honor of this special plant.
The dandelion derives its name from the French term ‘dent de lion’ meaning ‘tooth of the lion’. And if you look carefully at the petals of this pant you can see the connection. Though the dandelion has been carried from place to place since before written history, it can at least be said that the plant is native to Europe and Asia. The earliest recordings can be found in Roman times and use has been noted by the Anglo Saxon tribes of Britain and the Normans of France. In the tenth and eleventh centuries there is mention of dandelions being used for medicinal purposes in the works of Arabian physicians. As people migrated they took these plants and seed with them to grow them in their new homeland. Dandelions were an important element of their culture and well-being as they were essential medicine, food and wine.  Now the dandelion is known as a weed as it is hard to contain, they have a long tap root and are resilient. They produce hundreds of seeds that are distributed by the wind and can be carried hundreds of miles.


The festival  highlights the benefits of the dandelion and seeks to reestablish its medicinal place in our contemporary culture and to dispel the “weed” myth. All parts of the plant can be eaten and are often found in salads, roasted, fried,  or made into wine, tea, or a coffee-like drink. Dandelions have a taste similar to chicory or endive with a bitter tinge. Studies have shown that the plant can produce antibodies to cancer and can buffer blood glucose levels for diabetics and there are many other health benefits.

Turtle Lake Booth

At the Turtle Lake booth one could learn many ways to incorporate this plant into your diet from dandelion quiche, dandelion pesto, tea and a dandelion lemonade. The Dirty Hands Collective, a radical activist group provided free food, in the style of Food not Bombs, hearty dark rye bread with salad and pasta smothered in dandelion pesto. While eating you could browse the numerous hand- made anarchist Zines arranged at their booth.

Dirty Hands  Collective Zines
 Even though the weather was constantly changing from snow to sun many people came out to share  music, dancing, bartering and in general celebration. There were people bartering their newly sprouted seeds, a thrift shop exchange to raise money for the next festival, a healing tent for those who needed that massage or acupuncture treatment. and of course SeedBroadcast sharing seeds and stories.
Towards to end of the day as the sun began to sink in the cloudy sky a May Pole was carefully erected and Katrina guided us in the ins and outs of the traditional May Pole dance.

May Pole Dance

 It started well, the weaving of people under and over but at one point chaos emerged and the pole and people were entangled in a web of multicolored strands. Everyone was laughing and dancing and taking care of each other.



Katrina exclaimed the end of the dance “sometimes love can get messy!"

The festival was one of love not only for each other but for this wonderful medicinal plant we call the dandelion so please try not to pull it from your fields and gardens,  try not to think of it as messy, take care of it, respect its healing properties, go out and find some and taste that dark green leaf, make some tea, or put it in your salad, you will not be disappointed!

 The following seed stories were shared with us:
Rachel Bennett
Krista Atencio

Monday, May 2, 2016

Seed Swap at Ecozoic Era: Friday May 6th




SeedBroadcast SWAP

Ecozoic Era: Plant| Seed|Soil| opens at the New Mexico State Capital
 Friday May 6th from 4pm to 6pm.
Curated by Bobbe Besold with artists:
Margaret Bagshaw, Bobbe Besold, Matthew Chase-Daniel, Helen Hardin, Jeanette Hart-Mann, Basia Irland, Courtney M Leonard, Jade Leyba, Amy Lin, Sarah Molina, Sabra Moore, Larry Ogan, Ruben Olguin, Chrissie Orr, Hayley Roberts, Ahni Rocheleau, SeedBroadcast, Gabriela Silva, Penny Spring, Nancy Sutor, Rulan Tangen, Pablita Velarde, Marion Wasserman, Jerry Wellman, Rick Yoshimoto

Come on by and bring seeds and stories to SWAP.  Join in the radical seed action in the heart of the State Capital to keep our traditional land race seeds free and in the hands of the people that believe in their true spirit.   The Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station will be there and we can record and share that precious seed story.....  Seeds and Stories keep that culture in agi -Culture!






Sunday, May 1, 2016

SeedBroadcasting at the Dandelion Festival in Durango, Colorado


Join SeedBroadcast and the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station at the Dandelion Festival and come celebrate spring with the wild seeds and wild foods.

Saturday, May 7th, 2016 from 1-9pm
Rotary Park
Durango, Colorado

Contact Turtle Lake Refuge for more information: http://www.turtlelakerefuge.org/
970-247-8395

SWAP and the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station at the New Mexico State Capital


SeedBroadcast is participating in the exhibition The Ecozoic Era: Plant|Seed|Soil with SWAP and the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station at the New Mexico State Capital
April 29 - August 5, 2016

Location: New Mexico State Capital Building at the corner of Old Santa Fe Trail and Paseo De Peralta, Santa Fe, New Mexico

SWAP is a traveling Seed Story pollination pop-up and mini seed library. This experimental “grow kit” will enable the cultivation of radical rooted seed action at the New Mexico State Capital. Bring seeds to swap, pick-up seeds to grow, post local food and seed sovereignty news on the SWAP bulletin board, listen, draw, and record Seed Stories!

The Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station will also be there at the Opening Reception on Friday, May 6 from 4-6pm.

Join us to celebrate local seeds and their stories!