448: Luke Allen on True Breeding Seeds.
Stewarding future crops through considerate cultivation and harvesting of seeds.
Luke was raised in a small town, then moved to Seattle where he worked doing computer graphics design. After many years there, he realized something was missing from the daily grind and went on a series of vision quests where realized that he needed to work with the land, the water, the animals and the food. Luke studied permaculture, received his permaculture design certificate and started growing food.
Sundial Seed is a small, family run regional seed company located in Willits, California to produce hand-crafted market-ready varieties. They work with seed growers to co-create delicious market-ready true-breeding varieties.Don’t miss an episode! Click here to sign up for podcast updates
In This Podcast:
In the pursuit of resetting his health, Luke Allen took a four-day fasting journey and ended up taking his life in a new direction. Eventually he resettled, started growing food, and seeds! With his experience as a seed grower, he helps break down some seed terminology for us and discusses the importance of true breeding in seeds.
Listen in and learn about:
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- Growing up with stomach problems and noticing some mental-emotional side effects
- Learning about an ancient process of fasting for health
- Participating in a native North American Sun Dance Ceremony
- Moving, growing food, and growing his family
- Starting to grow his own seed
- Permaculture Design Course and the cycles, patterns, flows, and relationships between things
- Fasting and what he learned about the science and psychology of giving up food for a period of time
- Seed terminology explained:
- open pollinated
- hybrid
- F1, F2, etc.
- True breeding
- Heirloom
- Bolting
- Tree collards – a 6 ft perennial vining giant plant that Greg thinks every gardener needs to have in their garden
- The catalog at Sundial Seeds a regional seed co-op and how they help seed growers
- What he is noticing in the world of seeds where the biodiversity is declining despite an increase in interest
- His favorite seed is the dark star zucchini
- Tips on planting the Tree Collards
As well as:
His failure – the time he forced an issue with his dad insisting he was right and problems developed
His success – his 3 ½ year old son
His drive – relaxing the mental drive and releasing into the flow
His advice – Take time to listen to the birds
Luke’s Book recommendations:
How to reach Luke:
Website: sundialseed.com
UrbanFarm.org/sundial
Special thanks to our sponsors:
Visit gemplers.com/urbanfarm (use code URBANFARM01)
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