Truelove Seeds

10/11/2026

Wow! Our annual Truelove Seeds growers gathering was so beautiful yesterday. Growers came from near and as far away as Cincinnati, North Carolina, upstate New York, eastern Massachusetts, Pittsburgh, and New Jersey. On our farm tour friends shared about their favorite plants from Palestine, Burma, Philippines, Ecuador, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and more. Max interviewed guests about their seed stories. Sankofa Community Farm and Truelove interns and apprentices and others cleaned seeds. Former Truelove apprentices and growers Chris Keeve and Gabe Lewis led an art making station with seeds, chaff, and other plant material. We had a potluck feast of culturally significant dishes. Thanks to our incredible community of growers and friends for an invigorating and heartening day together 💜

10/08/2026

Miki has been tracking the progress of 10 upland rices this year for a trial we are doing with the support of the Second Generation Seeds Seed Stewards program. Seed Stewards creates “spaces for our communities to come together, share stories of food and seeds, and deepen our cultural understandings.”

These are rices that grow well without flooding, simply on drip irrigation like the rest of our crops.

1&2: Dellmati
3. HB1
4. IITA 119
5. Hill Rice (Trinidad)
6. S2-6
7. Tiara
8. Duborskian
9&10. Loto
11&12. Kwanto Wase
13. Sensho Tane

The first three we trialed last year from seeds shared by Nebedaye Farms and liked them enough to trial again.

We’ve been growing Hill Rice from Aleya Fraser-Parris and Francis Morean for nearly a decade and we love it :)

The rest were listed in various other Northeast, mid Atlantic, and Midwest trials so we are giving them a shot!

10/08/2026

Without Traditions, You Have Nothing (last slide)

Max and I visited the northern adapted pigeon pea trials at Reinhard St. Community Farm & Kitchen (with Karen Community Association of Philadelphia) and at Norris Square Neighborhood Project today. Both groups are pigeon pea loving people, one from Burma/Myanmar (where it’s called something like “kli buu thaa” in the Karen language) and one from Puerto Rico where they are “gandules”.

At the first stop, they are not only growing the seven varieties officially in our trials but also many hybrids from the crossing in last year’s trials. Clara noticed a magenta (fresh) to maroon (dry) seeded pea has emerged from a hybrid, even though none of the parents were dark-seeded. It’s so beautiful! They were hesitant to choose favorites since they like all the peas, but we did narrow it down a little.

At Norris Square Neighborhood Project, the two varieties that were most abundant were also the strongest and most able to withstand squirrels harvesting peas without breaking the branches. We took a tour of the casita (beautifully re-built by celsoart!) and Max was able to hold a rotary phone for the first time :)

So excited for year three of our trials, and the second year generously supported by Northeast SARE.

10/04/2026

Our molokhia harvest and cooking workshop was delicious. Thank you to Ms. Fatima and her daughter Rasha for making a delicious meal over the fire and sharing their love and knowledge of Palestinian molokhia. Thank you to Rawan of Healing Hands Fund - H2F for giving us all a chance to support her group’s work to send much needed medical supplies and prosthetics to areas like Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Sudan, and Syria.

We jumped right in plucking leaves together so that Ms. Fatima and Rasha could cook them alongside rice and chicken over the fire. We ate them with lemon, cucumber tomato salad, and pita, followed by Palestinian coffee and desert. Attendees learned how to harvest molokhia and they took bundles (and dahlias) home.

Thanks to all who came and supported!

09/27/2026

Tomorrow, the 214 year old Academy of Natural Sciences, which opened its doors to the public in 1828, will close its doors to the public. The William Penn Foundation just offered to help keep it open while they make a long-term plan, and savetheacademy is working hard to mobilize people and the interim director to keep it open too. The museum has been flooded with people ever since the announcement.

Over the years, my family and the Truelove Seeds community has really enjoyed this Philly institution! We’ve worked with our local cultural seed keeper friends Norris Square Neighborhood Project Sankofa at Bartram's Garden Karen Community Association of Philadelphia Bahay215 ᜊ ᜑ and VietLead to collect, press, and record the stories of our most beloved plants for the Academy herbarium. We’ve curated an exhibition on our heirloom plants including moving images, our voices, kitchen and garden tools and ingredients and recipes. We’ve given workshops, panels, tastes of our dishes, and seeds swapped. At our farm and others, I’ve hosted several Drexel courses that were funded by the Academy, which are now no longer funded and no longer offered. It’s been an honor and pleasure to work with the supportive and talented Academy staff who work hard to lift up the voices of our community to give life to the historic and modern specimens in their collections.

Our son (and his friends!) loves the Academy too. He’s of course enjoyed the exhibitions and programs. He is sad it’s closing. I wish we could join tomorrow, but here’s hoping and praying we will have more chances to engage with this important Philly science resource. If you know ways we can help, please post in comments!

Ps this first photo is of me in the Academy’s herbarium holding a seed of the Coco de Mer (Lodoicea maldivica), a rare palm tree native only to the islands of Praslin and Curieuse in the Seychelles that produces the largest and heaviest seed in the plant kingdom.

Academy of Natural Sciences

09/23/2026

Newly restocked for Fall: Garlic Bulbs!!✨🧄🧄

Truelove Seeds is thrilled to offer two gorgeous garlic varieties grown by our friend, Farmer Sasha Moghadam, for the second year in a row. Sasha shares, “The origins of these garlic varieties are largely unknown. What we do know is that it was stewarded in the backyard of Iranian American gardener Jamshid Moghadam, in the Roaring Fork River Valley of Colorado, from the early 1990’s. In 2017, before his passing, Jamshid passed this variety on to his farmer son Sasha, who has been expanding on the collection for the better part of the last decade. Thus, we have these Moghadam’s selections: Moghadam Rocambole and Moghadam Marbled Purple Stripe. Grown on Joon Farm, in the White Salmon River Valley, WA.”

Get yours today for fall planting at the link in our bio! ✨✨✨🧄🧄🧄

Final Photo: Jamshid Moghadam in his garden, dated 9/26/1998. All photos courtesy of Sasha Moghadam.

09/20/2026

Thanks to all who joined us yesterday afternoon for our Seed Keeping workshop at the farm! People came with great questions, great advice, and so much energy and good spirit. Looking forward to hosting more workshops like this in the future. Thanks to the Schuylkill Center for advertising and handling registration and communications!

09/20/2026

This was our tenth year gathering with the members of Karen Community Association of Philadelphia to clean seeds and feast together, and it was wonderful as ever. As I've said before, we've learned so much about threshing and winnowing and generally handling seeds, about farming, cultural preservation, and so many delicious crops and dishes from this beautiful community. This coming year, Karen Community Association of Philadelphia will have their own farm in West Philadelphia, and we are so excited for our next 10 years together :)

09/14/2026

Join H2F and Truelove Seeds for a special afternoon of molokhiyah harvesting, cooking, and community 🌿

Sunday, 9.27.26 at 3pm at Truelove Seeds in Philadelphia

When Ms. Fatimah recently arrived from Palestine to the Philadelphia area, Truelove Seeds met her through the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library and welcomed her and her family to the farm to grow and harvest molokhiyah, a familiar tradition and a small taste of home, far from home.

Now, Ms. Fatimah will share that tradition with us. Together, we’ll harvest fresh molokhiyah, learn how she prepares it the Palestinian way, and gather to taste the finished dish served with chicken and rice.
Molokhiyah is loved and prepared in many different ways across cultures and communities, and this workshop is a celebration of the memories, stories, and traditions carried through food.

🌿 Ticketed workshop at Truelove Seeds farm
🍲 Harvesting + Palestinian cooking demonstration + tasting
🌱 Take home your harvested molokhiyah
🤍 Proceeds will support H2F’s work, Ms. Fatimah, and Truelove Seeds.

Come celebrate the seeds we preserve, the traditions we carry, and the tastes that keep us connected to home.

Find registration link in Truelove Seeds’ Linktree and at Healing Hands Fund - H2F website.

More about us:
H2F is a volunteer-run group dedicated to providing life-sustaining support to those in need in Gaza, the West Bank, Venezuela, Sudan, and beyond. H2F supports healthcare workers and organizations in these resourced-constrained communities with essential resources to help save lives and deliver compassionate care.

Truelove Seeds is dedicated to preserving ancestral seeds and the stories they carry, working with farmers and communities to grow varieties that connect people in the diaspora to the tastes, traditions, and memories of home. This gathering brings that mission to life in a particularly meaningful way.

09/14/2026

This Saturday afternoon, please join us for a hands-on seed keeping workshop at our farm in Roxborough at Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. https://schuylkillcenter.org/event/seed-keeping-with-truelove-seeds/

seed keeping with truelove seeds
September 19 @ 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
$20

As summer begins to turn to autumn and we start thinking of harvesting the bounty of our gardens, now is the perfect time to learn how to collect and store seeds.

Join Truelove Seeds co-founder Owen Taylor at Truelove Seeds’ farm at the Schuylkill Center, and get a firsthand look at why saving seed, or seed keeping, is important for the garden, the changing climate, and for preserving cultural legacies. At the farm, explore plant selection, seed keeping techniques, and how careful attention can help adapt seeds to your garden and to your tastes. You’ll get a chance to try your hand at seed collection during class.

Thank you to Schuylkill Center for helping promote and handling registration for this event, and of course for sharing their beautiful property with Truelove! Participants will meet at the Schuylkill Center Visitor Center before making their way to the farm on the property. Registration required. Link in bio.

This is the only public workshop we are offering onsite this year, so please sign up and share with your friends!