Propaganda By The Seed Propaganda By The Seed
-
- Education
A podcast about perennial plants and trees associated with food forests, permaculture, and restorative agriculture.
-
Polyploid Breeding with The Savanna Institute
In this episode we chat with 3 time PBTS guest Eliza Greenman and her co-worker Kathleen Rhodes at The Savannah Institute about polyploid plant breeding. Polyploidy is a genetic condition where an organism has extra copies of it's genome in it's cells. Inducing polyploidy or breeding with existing polyploids can be a useful tool to gain traits such as larger fruit, larger leaves, seed sterility along with many other possibilities.
The Savannah Institute is a non-profit focusing on researching and implementing improvements in agroforestry in the midwest.
You can follow Eliza on Instagram or read her blog at elizapples.com -
Experimental Farm Network with Dusty and Nate
In this episode we talk with Dusty and Nate about their project, The Experimental Farm Network. The project is both a platform to support open-source, collective plant breeding and other on farm experiments as well as a seed store, which focuses on unusual varieties and genepools suitable for further selection. We cover how they started the project, how it's going and some the many plants they are excited about. Follow them on Instagram, Facebook or check out their web page or seed store.
-
Seaside Foraging w Rachel Alexandrou
In this episode of propaganda by the seed we sit down with Rachel Alexandrou. Rachel is a forager, educator and artist based out of the Midcoast Maine region. The focus oof this conversation is seaside foraging, plants such as saltwort, sea brassicas, sea plantain, common seaweeds and more. Rachel also talks about some of her favorite wild plants to work with, how she uses them and the thinking that informs her practices. This is highly informative & inspiring and lots of laughs. Check out Rachel’s work at rachelalexandrou.com or@giantdaughter on instagram
We also name drop SoyMilkMaid a few times in this episode you can check her work out here. -
Siberian Peashrub with Melissa Hoffman
In this episode we talk with Melissa Hoffman of Sho Farm and Living Future about Siberian Peashrub (Caragana arborescens). Siberian Peashrub is a large, multi-stemmed shrub from northern Asia. They are somewhat familiar in landscaping and as a nitrogen fixer, but the seeds remain underutilized by most people growing them around here. Melissa shares her experiences growing, harvesting and above all cooking with this plant. We also chat about several fermentation techniques including water kefir. Be sure to check out Melissa’s blog post on this topic for some beautiful photos and additional info. Some other resources that are mentioned are the book The Ecological Farm by Helen Atthowe and the website Full of Plants
Update: after publishing this episode I got a email from Jack Kertesz with some extra info to share. Rather than tarps, he now uses a wide piece of row cover material, slit to the middle and gathered around the trunk. This helps avoid excess moisture from collecting on the sheet. Before laying out the collecting sheet he mows the area. The sheet should be weighted down around the edges, or it may blow away. He also noted occasional chance seedlings from Pea shrubs if adjacent areas have freshly tilled, open soil, although it hasn’t presented a problem. -
Koji w/ Nicholas Repenning of Goen Foods
In this episode of propaganda by the seed we sit down with Nick from Goen Foods. Goen Foods is primarly known as a Miso producer in Maine, but also produces a wide range of koji based products. Nick also is an all around promoter of fermented foods/practices and helps to organize Maine’s Fermentation Fair. This conversation is an incredible glimpse into the world of Koji, some pointers and ideas for how to use it, how to grow it, some information about its history, traditional uses and a wide ranging conversation about fermentation, wild foods and (where applicable) where they cross over with Koji. For many people Koji can seem like a daunting medium to work with and hopefully this conversation helps demystify it.
Learn more about Goen Fermented Foods by visiting their website
https://www.goenfermentedfoods.com
or the gram
https://www.instagram.com/goenfermentedfoods -
Gardening for Habitat
This month we talk about gardening for habitat, especially in the North-East. This episode is adapted from a workshop that Aaron presents sometimes, so it comes with a PDF handout and a slideshow, the podcast stands up well without them, but those extras are there if you want them. We cover what habitat gardening is, why it’s important, ecological context, some steps for creating a habitat garden and/or improving the quality of habitat in your garden. Like most topics, we cover a good amount of material… but only scratch the surface of the possibilities.