EP. 36: Preserving Seeds, Culture, and Farming Traditions of Battir, Palestine

This episode features an interview with our friends Hassan Muamer, a seed keeper and environmental advocate and engineer, his wife Hannan, and mother-in-law Fatimah. They had been visiting Philadelphia from Battir, Palestine for an extended stay and we were able to build a friendship through a shared love of seeds and land over a couple of years. For this interview, we made a fire at our farm, harvested young Yakteen gourds and tomatoes, and they cooked a delicious stew while we talked about Palestinian vegetables back home and in diaspora, Hassan's work to establish his farming village of Battir as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the work of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library - which is how we first met. In early 2024, our friend Vivien Sansour, the founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, came to speak at Bartram’s Garden and introduced us. 

Hassan, Hannan, Fatimah and their family began visiting our farm and with some of our other Palestinian friends, they helped us cultivate molokhia there for their family and for a big molokhia feast at the farm. We have also been working with the PHSL the past couple of years as one of their many US based seed protector sites, increasing several varieties of seeds from their collection here in the diaspora, and it has been such an honor. This year Hassan and his family grew many traditional crops at our farm, which you will hear about in this interview.

SEED STORIES: (some links take you to our friends at Hudson Valley Seed Company and Experimental Farm Network, who work closely with PHSL)

• Molokhia

• Battiri Eggplant

• Yakteen Gourd

• Faqus

• White Cucumber

• Kusa

• Farfahina / Purslane

LINKS:

• Palestine Heirloom Seed Project

• Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines – Cultural Landscape of Southern Jerusalem, Battir - UNESCO World Heritage Centre

THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY:

• • YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds
  • Scribe Video Center and WPEB, West Philly Community Radio

ABOUT:

Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden.

trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio

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Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden