Speaker 1: Citizen Chef is a production of I Heart Radio. So
Speaker 1: you know it sounds like seeds can tell almost the
Speaker 1: entire human story. Oh yeah, Hi, I'm Tom. Click you
Speaker 1: and you're listening to Citizen Chef. Yeah, so my my
Speaker 1: interesting seeds kind of happened around five or six years ago.
Speaker 1: I actually started gardening, and um, obviously obviously go from gardening.
Speaker 1: I have like like twenty or so raised beds five
Speaker 1: by seven raised beds and kind of fell down that
Speaker 1: rabbit hole and really got into it, and um started
Speaker 1: looking at seed Catalogus. I used to joke around and
Speaker 1: I started looking at seed catalog with the way I
Speaker 1: looked at Playboy when I was fifteen. Um, it's just fascinating. Um,
Speaker 1: the amount of breeds and then the stories behind all
Speaker 1: these seeds. And this year were all talking about seeds. Seed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're talking about the seed shed. Um. What does seed
Speaker 1: shed do? So I'm Ken Green. I run a nonprofit
Speaker 1: called seed Shed, and I'm the founder and creative director
Speaker 1: of a seed company called Hutson Valley Seed Company. Seed
Speaker 1: Shed focuses on seed justice issues and so we work
Speaker 1: with communities, um that are facing challenges around their seed
Speaker 1: and we also do seed literacy education UM and work
Speaker 1: to improve UH seed culture UM. That is people's understanding
Speaker 1: of seeds and the role of seeds in their lives.
Speaker 1: So let's start there. I guess people don't have a
Speaker 1: deep understanding of seed um. They don't understand I guess
Speaker 1: what it means to them. And so someone someone listening
Speaker 1: in today I would think like, well, why should I
Speaker 1: care about seeds? How do I interact with seeds? And
Speaker 1: what would you tell them? Well, you know, seeds are
Speaker 1: this invisible part of our lives that UM, we don't
Speaker 1: even think about day to day, but are affecting us
Speaker 1: day to day. They're an essential and yet invisible part
Speaker 1: of our everyday lives. UH. And when we think about
Speaker 1: some of the bigger issues that we're facing globally, seeds
Speaker 1: many times are at the root of that, whether that's
Speaker 1: about how seeds are grown, how seeds are shared, how
Speaker 1: seeds are commodified UM. And so that's part of my
Speaker 1: work is how do we pull back that curtain and
Speaker 1: get people to understand UM where they intersect with seeds.
Speaker 1: You know, if people understood that four companies control about
Speaker 1: six of the seed UM, that would probably be alarming
Speaker 1: and if they are alarmed by that, why should they
Speaker 1: be alarmed by that? Well, it's yeah, it's a really
Speaker 1: interesting statistics. So there's a I'm not sure if we've
Speaker 1: seen the graphic that Phil Howard from ms YOU created
Speaker 1: that's called consolidation of seed resources, and so it shows
Speaker 1: how over time there's been a consolidation in the industry
Speaker 1: UM by fewer and fewer corporations controlling more and more
Speaker 1: of the planet's commercial seed resources. So right now we
Speaker 1: have three multinational corporations UM really in control of the
Speaker 1: bulk of seed resources on the planet UM and they're
Speaker 1: all pharmaceutical and biotech corporations. So that's concerning because you know,
Speaker 1: they're not nutrition focused or food access focused UM or
Speaker 1: thinking about you know, regional adaptation or climate change or
Speaker 1: all of these issues that we're facing that are connected
Speaker 1: to seeds and our ability as communities to feed ourselves.
Speaker 1: They're focused on a very specific type of profit, which
Speaker 1: is either bundling UM seeds and seed breeding with pharmaceutical
Speaker 1: delivery or bundling seeds and seed breeding with chemical inputs UM.
Speaker 1: So you know, for many of us, we think that's
Speaker 1: not the right kind of folks to be controlling seeds
Speaker 1: and seed access and food and food access. Right, and
Speaker 1: we're talking about the seeds that we're talking about is corn,
Speaker 1: soy uh, what else? I mean, We're not talking about
Speaker 1: you know, someone growing carrots in their garden. Yeah, But
Speaker 1: that's the thing. So that that graphic, the consolidation of
Speaker 1: seed versus graphic. You know a lot of people look
Speaker 1: at and look at that and feel really alarmed, and
Speaker 1: there are reasons to feel really alarmed, But that graphic
Speaker 1: doesn't show all of the amazing, inspiring, good work that's
Speaker 1: happening within communities and small regional seed companies and seed
Speaker 1: nonprofits and seed advocacy organizations and community seed initiatives. There's
Speaker 1: this whole entire landscape of seed happening UM, which recognized
Speaker 1: that we have this loss of genetic diversity and that
Speaker 1: there's something we can actually do about it by working together.
Speaker 1: And so more and more there's gardeners who are growing
Speaker 1: things that are not attached to that map UM. But
Speaker 1: it's still a very small percentage compared to the global
Speaker 1: seed industry. Because I think this was a quarter true
Speaker 1: to that good food comes from good seeds. Can you
Speaker 1: can you explain that what is a good seed? Wow?
Speaker 1: I mean that's a loaded question, and you know you're
Speaker 1: going to get different answers from different folks. For me,
Speaker 1: when I think about good seed, you have to think
Speaker 1: about all the interactions and interconnections of that seed. So
Speaker 1: where did that seed come from? Who grew it? How
Speaker 1: has it grown? How was it shared? Um? Who gets
Speaker 1: to tell that seed story? Is? Is it being told
Speaker 1: by the community? Um? That represents the origins of that seed?
Speaker 1: Or was that seed appropriated in some way at a
Speaker 1: certain time? Are stolen at a certain time? Uh? And
Speaker 1: we're only hearing part of the story. So to me,
Speaker 1: a good seed is where you know, you know the story,
Speaker 1: You have a respect and understanding of the origins of
Speaker 1: that variety. UM. And that the the system that that
Speaker 1: part that seed is part of. And what I mean
Speaker 1: by that is you know how who grew it, how
Speaker 1: it was grown, and how it was shared. That you
Speaker 1: feel like all of the people involved in that chain
Speaker 1: of sharing that seed hand to hand to hand to
Speaker 1: hand until it gets to your garden, that you feel
Speaker 1: good about all of those practices, um. And the values
Speaker 1: of those folks match your values And it doesn't always
Speaker 1: line up that well. You know, you do the best
Speaker 1: you can. But you know, even when we're looking at
Speaker 1: just you know, one piece of this, say organic, you
Speaker 1: know that you want to have an organic garden, and
Speaker 1: you know treating the earth a certain way, uh through
Speaker 1: using organic practices is part of your values of of
Speaker 1: how you want to garden. Why aren't you buying certified
Speaker 1: organic seed? And people say, well, you know, I'm only
Speaker 1: worried about organic because you know, for things I'm putting
Speaker 1: in my body, things I'm eating. But of course organic
Speaker 1: is really a practice. So if you're buying seeds that
Speaker 1: aren't certified organic or used you know, grown using organic practices,
Speaker 1: then you're actually supporting someone treating the earth in a
Speaker 1: way that isn't aligned with your values. But we can
Speaker 1: look at race, we can look at gender, we can
Speaker 1: look at access, we can look at food justice, we
Speaker 1: can look at social justice, we can look at environmental justice,
Speaker 1: we can look at all of these different ways where
Speaker 1: that act of putting the seed into the soil and
Speaker 1: growing it involved many, many, many people, not just for
Speaker 1: that particular seed. But you know, going back in history
Speaker 1: and do all those values line up for you, And
Speaker 1: it's hard to know sometimes there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: transparency in the commercial seed industry. We'll be back with
Speaker 1: more citizens Chef, take me through one of those stories.
Speaker 1: I mean, is there a particular seed or particularly breeder,
Speaker 1: uh that you want to highlight? You know, is there
Speaker 1: a seed in your catalog from Hutla Valley Seed Company
Speaker 1: that you can tell that story? I just love love
Speaker 1: to hear its story about one particular seed, one that
Speaker 1: excites you. Um, give me sell me that seed. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: so there's so many different stories and different kinds of stories.
Speaker 1: One that I've been sharing more is about auto Phile
Speaker 1: flint corn. Okay, it's a I mean, the corn is
Speaker 1: just gorgeous. The ears have this golden, rich, deep golden
Speaker 1: glow to glow to them. It's not just that sort
Speaker 1: of you think of like a yellow corn sort of
Speaker 1: that pail. It's there's you can tell, there's something special
Speaker 1: about it. And it makes the most amazing polenta, Like
Speaker 1: I have never had better polenta than is made from
Speaker 1: Auto Phile. And we carry that we being huts of
Speaker 1: Valley Seed Company, we carry that in our catalog. Um,
Speaker 1: and we have been telling the story of that seed
Speaker 1: as it was past to us that it's an Italian
Speaker 1: heirloom variety that was developed in Italy, specifically for polenta Uh.
Speaker 1: It was brought over here and given to someone who
Speaker 1: gave it to someone else who I happened to know
Speaker 1: the farmer, and he gave it to us, and we've
Speaker 1: been doing our own selections to make sure it stays
Speaker 1: adapted to the Northeast. And we also have our own
Speaker 1: particular feelings about what the colors should be, and what
Speaker 1: the size should be, and what the texture should be
Speaker 1: when it's when it's ground. So we've been telling that
Speaker 1: story of this Italian heirloom. But then in my work
Speaker 1: with the nonprofit, the story totally changed, and so I
Speaker 1: was having a gathering. We work with the Aquasas Mohawk
Speaker 1: community in northern New York, in the indigenous community up
Speaker 1: near Canada, Yes, exactly. So we work with them, supporting
Speaker 1: them and growing some of their uh indigenous varieties that
Speaker 1: are disappearing. And they came down for an and we
Speaker 1: were cleaning seed together, and I wanted to give them
Speaker 1: a gift while they were here, and I gave them
Speaker 1: some ears of the Auto phile A And I'm telling
Speaker 1: them the story and my friend Rowan White, who's an
Speaker 1: indigenous seakeeper who runs the Indigenous SeaKeepers Network, was there
Speaker 1: and she looked at it and she said, this is
Speaker 1: our corn. This is eight row flint corn. This is
Speaker 1: the corn of my people. And so, you know, these
Speaker 1: stories that are past us, you know what part of
Speaker 1: that story are we telling and retelling? We can go
Speaker 1: further back with these stories and really think, oh, yes,
Speaker 1: of course corn came from here European Uh. Colonists took
Speaker 1: many of those varieties back to Europe where they continued
Speaker 1: to change and be adapted and be selected, and then
Speaker 1: they came back with immigrants, um from those European communities.
Speaker 1: But there's this longer story here of sharing seeds between cultures.
Speaker 1: And so now you know, we had to go back
Speaker 1: and say, okay, we want to tell the full story
Speaker 1: of this variety and not just the latest story that
Speaker 1: was past us. All right, Does this particular variety express
Speaker 1: itself differently? Say in Italy? Are in in in New York? Uh?
Speaker 1: Sorry I couldn't there a regionality too, is there? Does
Speaker 1: this this particular seed express itself differently, say in Italy
Speaker 1: versus uh, you know New York State? Uh, is there
Speaker 1: a regionalities even though it's the same seed in the
Speaker 1: same variety, does it does it? Does it express itself
Speaker 1: differently in different regions? It does better or worse than
Speaker 1: different regions? Yeah? Yeah, all varieties have some amount of
Speaker 1: of ability to be resilient and adapt to different areas. Um.
Speaker 1: But there's a varying degree. Corn happens to be very
Speaker 1: widely adaptable. Um. But like I said, when we got
Speaker 1: the corn um and started growing it, we saw things
Speaker 1: that we thought we could improve by doing selections in
Speaker 1: the field so that it would be more regionally adapted.
Speaker 1: All right, So when the average person hears, you know, heirloom,
Speaker 1: the word airloom, whether it's tomato or the other heirlooms,
Speaker 1: what what what does that mean? Which? What should they
Speaker 1: know about that word? Visa the particular variety of tomato
Speaker 1: are are you know p or something like? Yeah? A
Speaker 1: lot of misconception around that words. Yeah, and my my,
Speaker 1: it's almost used as a marketing word now it doesn't
Speaker 1: seem mean Yeah, it's changed so much over time, and
Speaker 1: my feelings about the value of the word have changed.
Speaker 1: When I first got involved in seeds, people like I
Speaker 1: would say heirloom seed, and people would be like, what
Speaker 1: does that mean? They had never heard something a plant
Speaker 1: called an heirloom before. UM. And when I first started
Speaker 1: using the term, what I really was trying to communicate
Speaker 1: was that there's more value to a seed than just
Speaker 1: its commodity value. You know, what, what am I going
Speaker 1: to harvest? How much am I going to harvest from
Speaker 1: this plant? And just like when we passed down objects
Speaker 1: in a family from generation to generation, and that object
Speaker 1: may have a lot of cultural or sentimental or nostalgic
Speaker 1: uh and family history value to it, but not actually
Speaker 1: be valuable, like if you try to sell it an
Speaker 1: eBay kind of thing. Um, it's a way of saying
Speaker 1: seeds are also passed down generation to generation, hand to
Speaker 1: hand that way, and that there's more value than just
Speaker 1: what is going to grow it. It comes with all
Speaker 1: of the history and all of these stories. So you know,
Speaker 1: it was a like a value, but it's really changed
Speaker 1: over time, um, how people are using it and UM.
Speaker 1: And also part of it for me was feeling that
Speaker 1: all of these stories, and this is related to the
Speaker 1: auto pheela, many of the stories that we're being told
Speaker 1: about heirlooms were specifically European UH stories UH. And many
Speaker 1: of the indigenous stories UM or diasporic stories of these
Speaker 1: seeds were not being told because they didn't fit into
Speaker 1: people's idea of this sort of romantic heirloom UM. And
Speaker 1: so I don't use the term as much. The other
Speaker 1: limitation of it is people started getting confused. You know,
Speaker 1: some people think heirloom means organic, which you know, it
Speaker 1: doesn't have anything to do with the growing practices. Um.
Speaker 1: Some people just think of heirloom as like good um.
Speaker 1: And not all heirlooms are are amazing. So some are
Speaker 1: way better than anything else you can get. So it's
Speaker 1: there's a limitation to it. And I also people started
Speaker 1: using it almost as a way of freezing things in
Speaker 1: time of saying like here's the history of this overcity,
Speaker 1: let's preserve it. Um, Like what what actually preserves it?
Speaker 1: Preserves diversity? I mean, if we only grew one tomato,
Speaker 1: I never want to be boring as hell. But number two,
Speaker 1: if if there was something that was that was particular
Speaker 1: pest are bacteria that was affecting that one particular tomato,
Speaker 1: we can lose tomato. Yeah, I mean I guess I
Speaker 1: can be simplifying things obviously, but but how important is
Speaker 1: that diversity in in in seeds? Yeah, I mean heirloom. Really,
Speaker 1: that term, once it caught on, really did help people
Speaker 1: think about genetic diversity and the importance of having lots
Speaker 1: and lots of different varieties with different tastes and different
Speaker 1: adaptations and different colors and different histories. It really helped
Speaker 1: UM spur this whole movement around diversity. But we want
Speaker 1: to continue to increase that diversity, not just like you know, oh,
Speaker 1: this is all we have left, just like freeze everything
Speaker 1: in time. There's so much work being done to increased diversity,
Speaker 1: to create new varieties UM. And there's very ethical and
Speaker 1: responsible ways to do that, and there's unethical and irresponsible
Speaker 1: ways to do that UM. And so you know, I
Speaker 1: like thinking about the heirlooms of tomorrow. What varieties are
Speaker 1: we creating today that sixty hundred years from now someone
Speaker 1: will be like, this is an heirloom variety that's worth
Speaker 1: hanging on to um and tells the story, tell the
Speaker 1: story of that, right, and the honey nuts, the honey
Speaker 1: nut squash comes to mind, which is kind of a
Speaker 1: new type squash. Yeah, if it is something, do I
Speaker 1: have my do I have my my, Do I have
Speaker 1: that right? It's it was a new a new breed
Speaker 1: of squash that was produced by Michael ms Eric. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's a yeah, yeah, that's a really that's a
Speaker 1: story I've been working on for a little while now.
Speaker 1: Um and again, like the auto phile a, people are
Speaker 1: telling you know, the latest slice, most recent slice of
Speaker 1: that story. Um. You know it's being popularized by the
Speaker 1: use of celebrity and a specific breeder at Cornell. Just
Speaker 1: to just give the background of Cellar being Dan Barber,
Speaker 1: chef who was uh it is considered one of the
Speaker 1: best restaurants in the world, and this is uh sort
Speaker 1: of his mission was to look at the way uh
Speaker 1: plant breeders were breeding for traits that weren't necessarily making
Speaker 1: food delicious, but we're used for other reasons and so
Speaker 1: that's that's UH. I just wanted a little background on that, right. Um.
Speaker 1: When you talk about ethics, ethics in in uh creating
Speaker 1: new hybrid what what are the ethics behind that or
Speaker 1: where should they be? What are your ethics? Well, I
Speaker 1: mean the honey nut is a good example of sort
Speaker 1: of thinking about a certain part of ethics, um, which
Speaker 1: is you know, who gets credit, who gets to take credit?
Speaker 1: And looking at honey nut, you know, very close, you know,
Speaker 1: not very far behind. Michael Mazourik's breeder at Cornell is
Speaker 1: Molly John who started that whole breeding project which was
Speaker 1: actually a participatory project, UM that involved a lot of people,
Speaker 1: you know, creating that variety. And then if we look
Speaker 1: behind that, we actually see that there's breeding lines from
Speaker 1: indigenous communities, from Turkey, from the Sephardic people. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: there's all these other stories that are not being told. UM.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting, you know when we look at it
Speaker 1: and the most recent story being told is um, you know,
Speaker 1: from white men. UM, when there's women and people of
Speaker 1: color and indigenous communities that are all part of that story.
Speaker 1: And why isn't that being told? Um? But in terms
Speaker 1: of hybrids, a lot of people want to set up this.
Speaker 1: You know, open pollinated is good and hybrid is bad.
Speaker 1: Open pollinated being a variety that if you know what
Speaker 1: you're doing as a seed saver, you can grow it.
Speaker 1: You can save seeds, you can plant them again and
Speaker 1: it will grow true to type. It will grow the
Speaker 1: same plant, the same fruit, the same taste, the same
Speaker 1: days to maturity all of that, Whereas a hybrid is
Speaker 1: something that was created using you know, very specifically bred
Speaker 1: parent lines that are then crossed to create a first
Speaker 1: generation offspring which has the specific traits that the breeder
Speaker 1: was looking for. Uh, And if you save seeds from that,
Speaker 1: it reverts back to random characteristics of the parent plant.
Speaker 1: So you've taken away that kind of ability to have independence. Right,
Speaker 1: So if you were if you were to save those
Speaker 1: seeds as a farmer, as a garden shave those seeds
Speaker 1: and plants on the following year, you're not going to
Speaker 1: get the same right, the same food direction. So it
Speaker 1: creates a dependence on the commercial seed source. But that
Speaker 1: commercial seed source also put a lot of resources into
Speaker 1: creating something that potentially is going to perform really well
Speaker 1: for you on your farm. So it's not on average
Speaker 1: on yeah, on average, how long does a breeder work
Speaker 1: on that particular breed that hybrids on average? Yeah, it
Speaker 1: sort of depends on what, you know, what part of
Speaker 1: that process you want to stop the time clock on um,
Speaker 1: but it can be a few years to a decade
Speaker 1: or more um depending on the plant family and depending
Speaker 1: on the traits that they're actually working on UM and
Speaker 1: also the processes that they're using UM. Whether there's more
Speaker 1: technologically drifven processes UM for creating that like being able
Speaker 1: to map out the genetics and UM you know, pin
Speaker 1: point um genes and processes to create traits, or if
Speaker 1: you're doing it more through selection and growing large populations
Speaker 1: and so it really depends on the process and what
Speaker 1: tools you have access to and what traits you're trying
Speaker 1: to change or improve. It's sort of like the concept
Speaker 1: of seed sovereignty UM. I think we hear that thrown
Speaker 1: around a lot. What what does what does that mean
Speaker 1: to you? I mean, there's food sovereignty, this idea that
Speaker 1: the people who produce food UM, who are toiling in
Speaker 1: the fields should have more control over that that that
Speaker 1: process have seed sovereignty work into that as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so there's a whole bunch of terms that seed shed
Speaker 1: the nonprofit that I run have we've been really trying
Speaker 1: to dig into seed ethics, seed justice, and seed sovereignty.
Speaker 1: There is no hard and fast definition, I would say
Speaker 1: right now, what we're looking at and thinking about is
Speaker 1: what do communities need to grow towards seed sovereignty? With
Speaker 1: seed sovereignty being a goal of canna see can a
Speaker 1: community actually manage its own seed source using the cultural
Speaker 1: values of that community? UM? So that can look different
Speaker 1: depending on what type of community that we're looking at,
Speaker 1: but it would require setting up seeds systems within that community,
Speaker 1: UM that give that community independence in what varieties are
Speaker 1: they growing and saving seed from? What are the practices
Speaker 1: that are being used to grow and save those seeds,
Speaker 1: and what are the systems that are in place for
Speaker 1: sharing those seeds within that community. It's fascinating, UM. I
Speaker 1: guess before before we leave ums, the last question is
Speaker 1: started out by asking this question why should people care um?
Speaker 1: And how they how would they interact with this and so?
Speaker 1: UM the average person whether they're shopping at a supermarket
Speaker 1: are I mean you think about chefs that are writing menus,
Speaker 1: what should they be focused on? Should they be focused
Speaker 1: on the because I started thinking about this a lot recently.
Speaker 1: Should we start talking about the variety of that character
Speaker 1: that squash are? Are that p as opposed to just
Speaker 1: well it's a leak? What what kind of leak is it?
Speaker 1: And should should that be on menus? And and is
Speaker 1: that a way to sort of get the idea across
Speaker 1: that that it's it's the varieties are so much more
Speaker 1: important than the actual you know, vegetal itself. Yeah, when
Speaker 1: I so part of se Chaid, we do see literacy education,
Speaker 1: and I've gone to restaurants and done he literacy education
Speaker 1: in the restaurant with the chefs and the cooks and
Speaker 1: the servers and everyone who works there to really talk
Speaker 1: about where do seeds come from? What kind of choice
Speaker 1: do you really have in terms of varieties, what do
Speaker 1: those choices limit in terms of what you're able to
Speaker 1: serve people? And what is the value of putting the
Speaker 1: name of the variety on your menu instead of just broccoli?
Speaker 1: Because there's so many different kinds of broccoli, and there
Speaker 1: are differences between all of them, and there's different histories
Speaker 1: and stories that come with them. So you're sharing that
Speaker 1: story just as much as you're sharing the flavor. The
Speaker 1: story is coming through that. So Yeah, my fantasy world
Speaker 1: absolutely menus of the names of varieties on them uh
Speaker 1: as just a regular practice, uh for sure. Um. And
Speaker 1: I think that the other piece to me, that the
Speaker 1: other part of your question to me, you know, why
Speaker 1: should people care about seeds? And sometimes it's really hard
Speaker 1: to just talk about it and get people to care.
Speaker 1: When we do seed saving workshops or when I do
Speaker 1: see literacy education, and I get people touching seeds and
Speaker 1: looking at the seeds and having a sensory experience with
Speaker 1: the seeds. Uh and you know, slowing down and taking
Speaker 1: that time to be with seeds. Something really transformative happens
Speaker 1: every time. And it's not something I can teach, it's
Speaker 1: not something I can write about. It's really this relationship,
Speaker 1: this moment of connecting with the seed as yourself and
Speaker 1: all the stories that are embodied in you, your personally
Speaker 1: history and your family history and your ancestors with this
Speaker 1: tiny what looks like an inanimate object that's actually a
Speaker 1: living organism sitting in your hand. And when people start
Speaker 1: to make that connection that this little tiny thing is
Speaker 1: alive and that we all come from seed savers. We
Speaker 1: all come from ancestors who had their own varieties based
Speaker 1: on where they were in the world, that they had
Speaker 1: that relationship with that plant and save those seeds and
Speaker 1: pass them on generation to generation. Doesn't matter who you are.
Speaker 1: Your ancestors saved seeds, and you can start doing that
Speaker 1: again or make decisions that support other people doing that again.
Speaker 1: That moment is when people start to care. And so
Speaker 1: the more we can get people touching seeds and being
Speaker 1: able to have that direct relationship, uh, maybe that will
Speaker 1: lead to menus with the names of righties on them eventually, UM,
Speaker 1: and a whole lot of other wonderful transformative things. I'll
Speaker 1: try to do my part. So you have all these
Speaker 1: these art illustrations on your packets, your seed packets, can
Speaker 1: you just describe one and why you're why you're doing this.
Speaker 1: So if you go to Hudson Valley Seed dot com, uh,
Speaker 1: and you click on the link that says art packs, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's where that's what we call the seeds, that feature
Speaker 1: of the art, and then you'll just see them because
Speaker 1: the rest of the catalog, you know, just has the
Speaker 1: images of the variety of photos of that. Right, why
Speaker 1: don't you describe Let me let me let me pick one.
Speaker 1: This is great. Who does the illustrations. So every one
Speaker 1: of our packs that we call art packs with the
Speaker 1: Hutson Valley Seed Company are they're created by a different artist.
Speaker 1: So we have a call for art and artists apply
Speaker 1: and then I play matchmaker and I think that artist
Speaker 1: totally needs to meet that plant. This plant story or
Speaker 1: something about this variety has a lot in common with
Speaker 1: this artist in the way they create art and see
Speaker 1: the world. Hell, come up. I tell the artists the
Speaker 1: story of that seed. The artist interprets it through their art,
Speaker 1: and then that gets put on this special kind of
Speaker 1: oregonmy folding seed pack that we offer. That's fantastic. So
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the um can you can you can
Speaker 1: you walk us through that illustration? Yeah? So every plant
Speaker 1: story is different, and some have like real deep, you know,
Speaker 1: stories about history and you know, understanding of the world.
Speaker 1: And uh, that one, the artist really was thinking about
Speaker 1: the experience of being near the plant, So instead of
Speaker 1: thinking about the history of it or where it came from,
Speaker 1: it was really she wanted to capture this in the moment, uh, feeling,
Speaker 1: and so she created this whole garden setting. What's happening
Speaker 1: in the garden? UM when you're sitting near the and
Speaker 1: you're you know how this very distinct smell to it.
Speaker 1: It attracts hummingbirds. So you get to observe um the
Speaker 1: natural world, um and invite the natural world into your garden.
Speaker 1: It's a very relaxing plant in terms of the scent,
Speaker 1: in terms of the tea that's made from it. Um.
Speaker 1: And so I think that's what the artist was trying
Speaker 1: to capture, is just that in the moment experience of
Speaker 1: having that plant in your garden. H the visual there's
Speaker 1: some wicker furniture and there's a little tea set up,
Speaker 1: so it's like tea time and you have to sit
Speaker 1: back and watch the garden. You know. My my histor
Speaker 1: story had a whole box filled filled with the anisissup
Speaker 1: And it was the first year I had bees, and
Speaker 1: my honey tastes like it had a very very pronounced
Speaker 1: its flavor. It was fantastic. And the following year I
Speaker 1: didn't have as much hissip and I actually moved the
Speaker 1: bees a little bit because they were in a in
Speaker 1: a bed. Uh. Anyway, I had a move in the
Speaker 1: sound of and I haven't only captured that again. Um,
Speaker 1: but anyway, UM, kind of thanks a lot. This is
Speaker 1: this has been a has the conversation. Yeah, thanks for chatting. Happy, Thanks,
Speaker 1: happy to meet you. And I'm always game to talk
Speaker 1: about anytime. You don't want to talk about seats some more.
Speaker 1: You're all right, Thanks, okay, Thanks everyone. Citizen Chef is
Speaker 1: executive produced by Chris Brass, Jodas, produced by Gabby Collins,
Speaker 1: and it's always a special thanks to a place to
Speaker 1: the table. Citizen Chef is a production of High Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts like this, this I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you get your favorite shows.