Catching up with one of our favorite store partners, Rochester Running Company, at the annual Run Summit conference in St. Louis!By Bryan The Botanist,

In Episode 12 of Sneaker Impact News, Bryan the Botanist interviews Kiera Smalls, the first Executive Director of the Running Industry Diversity Coalition (RIDC). Based in Philadelphia, Kiera discusses her journey from a non-runner to a marathon finisher, despite her asthma. She highlights her work with the RIDC, focusing on improving inclusion, vi…

Join us and 15 of Karen Washington's dear friends, family, mentees, and collaborators in wishing her a very happy 70th birthday with this episode featuring food and plant stories about our Farmy Godmother. Karen has been instrumental in the creation and guidance of neighborhood organizations such as Garden of Happiness, La Familia Verde Coalition a…

In this episode of Sneaker Impact News, host Bryan the Botanist interviews Harry Chandler, a prominent figure in the running industry co-owner of the Charlotte Running Company, vice president of the Running Industry Association, and chair of the Running Industry Diversity Coalition. The discussion covers Harry's personal journey from Michigan to be…

Meet Lucien Boulet aka Hot Chocolate aka the Peoples Champ! OooooWeeeee! In this episode of Sneaker Impact News, host Bryan the Botanist welcomes Lucien Boulet, also known as Hot Chocolate, in their brand new studio, marking Lucien as the first in-person guest. Lucien, an ultra runner, entrepreneur, and father, shares his inspiring journey from sta…

In Episode 10 of Sneaker Impact News, host Bryan the Botanist interviews Valeria Rodriguez, an inspiring figure with a multifaceted life as a runner, mom, illustrator, teacher, and survivor. Valeria shares her journey from a physically challenging childhood to becoming a state-champion runner and securing a college scholarship. Despite pressure and…

This episode is a compilation of recordings by seed geographer Chris Keeve and Truelove Seeds' business manager (and Owen's sister) Sara Taylor at our annual growers gathering at our Truelove Seeds farm in November 2023. They recruited party goers to their table where they mapped seed stories with strings and notes on a world map, and where they as…

In this heart-warming episode of Sneaker Impact News, we dive into an inspiring conversation with Nadia Ruiz, also known as Iron Girl Nadia. Raised in Los Angeles by Ecuadorian immigrant parents, Nadia shares her rich background in running, which spans 26 years and includes over 650 races. From struggling with team sports to discovering her talent …

Sneaker Impact News Episode 8 features an extensive interview with Charles Van Schaik, a professional with over 30 years of experience in the retail and footwear industry, who collaborated with Sneaker Impact, a social enterprise focused on sneaker recycling for the European market. Charles highlights his experiences working with international bran…

This episode features an interview with Zee Lilani at Kula Nursery in West Oakland, California in January 2024. Zee grows Doodhi (Lauki/Bottle Gourd) and Kalonji (Black Seed/Nigella) seeds for our Truelove Seeds catalog as well as many varieties for Second Generation Seeds at her farm in Petaluma, California. In this episode, we hear how Zee left h…

In this episode of Sneaker Impact News, host Bryan the Botanist interviews Terry Schalow, the Executive Director of the Running Industry Association (RIA). Schalow shares his career journey, from his start at ASICS to his current role at RIA. He discusses the organization's mission, highlighting its focus on supporting brick-and-mortar retail runni…

In this episode of Sneaker Impact News, Bryan the Botanist interviews Elliott Mason, the founder of RunAdic, a creative app solution aimed at building communities and promoting health through technology and support. Elliott shares his motivation behind creating RunAdic, a tool that geo-localizes running clubs and runners. This feature allows users …

In this interview, Bryan the Botanist, host of Sneaker Impact News, talks to David Kilgore, a successful ultra-endurance athlete and the global head of trail and ultra athletes at On Running. They discuss David's successful running career—highlighting his exceptional record and achievements—including winning the World Marathon Challenge and setting…

In this episode of Sneaker Impact News, host Bryan the Botanist sits down with Calista Ariel, a sustainability advocate and coordinator for the Better Bins recycling program at the Low Impact Alliance (LIA). They discuss LIA's mission to encourage sustainability in the running industry, the Better Bins initiative, which provides recycling centers f…

In Episode 1 of Sneaker Impact News, host Bryan the botanist conducts an in-depth interview with Frankie Ruiz, the founder of the Miami Marathon. Apart from being a significant figure in South Florida's running scene, Frankie holds positions like Chief Running Officer at Lifetime and Chief Wellness Officer for City of Miami. As an advocate for well…

Sneaker Impact News Episode 2 features Louisa Hoyes from TOMRA, a global company leading the way in material recovery. Join host Bryan the botanist and Louisa for an in-depth conversation about the challenges and future prospects of textile recycling. Louisa, with her extensive background in environmental science and resource management, shares ins…

Bryan O'Hara speaks about wholistic reasons for seed production on his vegetable farm, including working with natural processes such as growing winter annual crops for seed from summer to summer for better pest control and better flavor. He also discusses hybrid vigor and how to achieve this with genetically diverse populations of open pollinated p…

Dr. Bryan Connolly is a botanist, horticulturalist, and professor of Biology at Eastern Connecticut University in Willimantic, CT, my (Owen's) hometown. His research interests include rare plants of New England, the nightshade family, the rose family, and cannabis. Before Eastern, Professor Connolly was a faculty member at Framingham State Universi…

While visiting Greenville, Mississippi, we asked farmer and food justice elder Mama D (our mother, Ms. Demalda Newsome) to co-produce an episode about the farmers of the Delta. This is the first of multiple episodes about Black Farming Vibes in the Delta, we hope! FEATURING: 7:26 - Ms. Demalda Newsome interviews Kevion Devanté Young, CTE Diversifie…

Mary Menniti grew up with her Italian immigrant grandfather growing vegetables, figs, and tending sheep in her family's backyard. She created The Italian Garden Project to celebrate the joy and wisdom inherent in the traditional Italian American vegetable garden, preserving this heritage and demonstrating its relevance for reconnecting to our food,…

Dr. William Woys Weaver is an internationally known food historian and author of 22 books including: Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener’s Guide to Planting Seed Saving, and Cultural History; 100 Vegetables and Where They Came From, and As American As Shoofly Pie: The Foodlore and Fakelore of Pennsylvania Dutch Cuisine Dr. Weaver lives …

This episode features Nital Vadalia-Kakadia. Originally from the state of Gujarat in Western India, Nital has been fascinated by farming and food since she was a child on her family’s farm in India. These days, she tends to beautiful gardens filled with her ancestral Indian vegetables and herbs, as well as lush native pollinator plants, fruit trees…

In the first week of June 2023, I finally visited Haiqal's Garden in South Philadelphia to speak with Hani White and Syarif Syaifulloh about their beloved Indonesian food plants, food culture, and life stories. We met five years ago at Sky Cafe, an Indonesian restaurant where Hani curated a storied vegetarian meal for our group, and then took us a …

In late February 2023, Annabel Rabiyah and Amanda Chin of the Iraqi Seed Collective visited the Truelove Seeds office to help fill the first packets of Iraqi Seed Collective seeds (Iraqi Reehan Basil, grown by Experimental Farm Network), and prepare some of their other collectively-grown seeds for germination testing. We took the opportunity to rec…

In November 2022, we visited Father Tom Mullaly at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Greenville, Mississippi. Chris's mother Mrs. Demalda Bolden Newsome grew up in this church, as did her family going back three generations. Chris was born and baptized there as well. Father Tom grew up on his Slovak family's farm in the summers, raising food for thei…

Heidi Ratanavanich invited their mom, Mae Sue, and aunties Na Na, Na Urm, and Na Toy from Thailand and Chicago to cook traditional Thai foods together for their Philadelphia friends and family and to visit their traditional foods growing at our farm. We were also able to talk about the family hotdog stand, Al's Drive-In, which serves hotdogs and Th…

Chris Keeve is a former Truelove Seeds apprentice and current seed grower in Kentucky who drove out for our annual Truelove growers gathering at our farm on October 22nd, 2022 to deliver seeds and conduct interviews for their dissertation: the Truelove Seeds Listening Project. With Truelove business manager and web wizard Sara Taylor recording the …

Akoth Ambugo spends part of her year back home in her family's rural villages in Kenya and part of her year in the United States as a nurse and gardener. While in the US, she is learning to keep seeds, grow nutritious food, and feed the soil. She hopes to revive traditional indigenous crop varieties and farming practices that are more in tune with …

In this fifteenth episode, Amirah Mitchell of Sistah Seeds gives us a tour of the African Diasporic seed crops on her farm in Emmaus, PA. She also describes her work to preserve seeds and stories of African-American, West African, and Afro-Caribbean foodways, how she got to this point, and where she is headed. Amirah worked for four years as an app…

In this episode, we hear from Señora Iris Brown of Loíza, Puerto Rico, who grew up learning to cook and use herbs from her grandmother and the strong women of her hometown. She came to New York in 1967 for economic reasons, and moved to Philadelphia in 1970 when she fell in love with the back yards here. She said “I saw the possibilities of plantin…

This episode features Halima Salizar and Dria Price of Justevia Teas in Watervalley, Mississippi with a focus on their beloved food and medicine plants, their work, and the ways the food cultures of West Africa and the Southern US mirror each other. They grow, harvest, dry, and package their tea blends at their farm, and they host pop-ups with loca…

This interview overflows with deep wisdom, rough experience and a heapin’ side of humor all in Ms. Pearl’s pecan smooth Mississippi cadence and style. It is uncharacteristically long for our conversations and we know you will be BLESSED by every minute! Ms. Pearl is a daughter of the delta and migrated north. She was born and raised in what would t…

In this episode, we hear from former Truelove Seeds apprentice Kai Delgado Pfeifer in an interview from last fall 2021 when they visited our office and seed room in Philadelphia. There is also a short update from this week so we can hear the awesome things Kai is up to now and in the near future. This is the second of two back-to-back episodes feat…

In this episode, we hear from former Truelove Seeds apprentice and current Truelove Seeds seed producer and collaborator Chris Keeve in an interview from last fall 2021 when they visited during our annual growers gathering at our farm outside of Philadelphia, PA. There is also a short clip from the summer of 2019 while a group of us harvested peas …

In this episode, Palestinian chef Anan Jardali Zahr describes her beloved foodways and ingredients, including Molokhia, Kusa, and Zaatar. Anan was born in Akka, Palestine and came to California at age 11, after the Six-Day War of 1967. She graduated from University of California at Berkeley’s Department of Near Eastern Studies and attended Graduate…

Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed in Philomath, Oregon visited our Truelove Seeds farm during a cross-country road trip in July, 2019. Frank began in the early 1980s as a salad grower providing greens for grocery stores throughout the country. As you will hear in this episode, an accidental hybrid between two of his lettuces sparked a deep passion f…

This episode features four interviews with Karen farmers from the mountains of the Karen state of Burma (Myanmar) who spent roughly a decade in Thai refugee camps before resettling in South Philadelphia. They now grow their traditional crops at Novick Urban Farm. The Karen way with food plants was key to their survival and joy while living in the c…

This episode is all about the Fish Pepper, an extremely flavorful, productive, and decorative variety that makes an excellent hot sauce. The white unripe fruit were used to flavor seafood dishes in the Black catering community of Baltimore in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Horace Pippin, the now-famed painter, shared this variety (and many others)…

This episode is all about one plant with countless names: Molokhia (Corchorus olitorius). You may know it as Jute, Jew's Mallow, Egyptian Spinach, any of the names in the title of this episode, or as something else altogether! This plant is beloved throughout the world and so we talked to people whose roots are in Vietnam, Haiti, Philippines, Niger…

In this fourth episode, we talk with Chris’s parents Rufus and Demalda Newsome of Newsome Community Farms in Greenville, Mississippi at Christmas. While Rufus pulls seeds from cotton he talks about growing up at ten years old working in the cotton fields as a weed chopper, a hoe filer, and a water boy. While Demalda chops vegetables for the Christm…

In this third episode, Ira Wallace from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange talks about her faves: collards and roselle. She also describes her life growing up, her work with southern and African Diasporic seeds and stories, and takes questions from Truelove Seeds apprentices (and adoring fans) Amirah Mitchell and Chris Keeve and from a visitor named M…

Welcome back to Seeds And Their People! In this second episode, Owen interviews his seed friend Kristyn about her Korean seed stories, her food, farming, and activist community, and our mutual love for Jewel in the Palace. SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE: Mugwort and Ungnyeo (Bear Woman) Better Chamoe Korean Melon 38N Kkaennip (Korean Perilla) MO…

Welcome to Seeds And Their People! In our first episode, we share some seed stories that are important to us, our ancestors, and our story as partners in life and love. You'll hear about the Irish Lumper potato, the field pea, the Borlotto bean, and okra. We also share how cotton and apples helped bring us together. ----more---- SEED STORIES TOLD I…