On 1.7 acres of land in Roxborough, next to The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Owen Taylor spends his days growing and harvesting seeds from more than 230 types of plants.

As co-founder of the farm-based seed company Truelove Seeds (along with his partner Christopher Bolden-Newsome), Taylor is passionate about his work, which focuses on several core tenets: food sovereignty, cultural preservation, and sustainable agriculture. In fact, even the name of the company is an act of preservation — Letitia Truelove was Taylor’s great-great-grandmother.

“We say that keeping seeds is an act of ‘true love’ for our ancestors and our collective future,” Taylor said.

Taylor is eager to share his excitement for this work with others. On Sept. 19, he is hosting a public workshop at the Schuylkill Center from 1-4 p.m. to give a firsthand look at why seed keeping is important for a garden, the changing climate, and preserving cultural legacies.

Stories behind the seeds

In 2012, Taylor got a job with William Woys Weaver, a renowned food historian. Weaver’s grandfather had started an heirloom seed collection in a freezer in the 1930s, and by the time Taylor got involved, the collection had about 4,000 varieties.

“I just fell totally in love with the stories behind these seeds, and the ways they connect us to where we come from, but also to each other,” Taylor said.

In 2017, Taylor decided to start his own seed project and Truelove Seeds was born. Now in its 10th growing season, the company has an office in Germantown in addition to the Roxborough farm. In the office, staff members fulfill seed orders and conduct germination sample tests, in addition to administrative work. There are five full-time employees, who remain on staff year-round, unlike many other farms.

Truelove Seeds collaborates with approximately 70 small-scale urban and rural farms across the country to grow seeds for the company’s catalog. Half of the seeds come from the Roxborough farm, while the other half come from these other farms. Farmers receive 30% of the entire sale for the seeds they grow.

“[It’s] at the very top end of what the seed industry will compensate growers for,” Taylor said. “We wanted to still be offering as much as we possibly could to honor all of their cultural work, all of their physical work, and make it appealing year after year for them to contribute to our seed catalog. So it’s like a fair trade model.”

Truelove Seeds’ model

According to Taylor, as a small-scale seed company, Truelove Seeds uses a “radically different model” than large corporations that patent seeds, such as Monsanto and Bayer.

Their seeds “are created in labs with a lot of financial support and they don’t want farmers saving those seeds, which they consider intellectual property theft,” Taylor said. “We’re the opposite. We want people to save the seeds they get from our catalog. We want these seeds to be more available to the communities that love them. We’re kind of just apples and oranges.”

Rather than orient themselves toward grant providers and foundations, Truelove Seeds is a for-profit company, almost entirely funded by seed sales. Taylor said the business is now starting to do more fundraising through a GoFundMe and reaching out to individual donors.

The company puts on plenty of public programming through organizations such as the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and public libraries. Truelove Seeds also receives interns from W.B. Saul Agricultural High School and Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School.

As an additional way to educate the public, Taylor also puts out a podcast, entitled “Seeds and Their People.”

Growing a deeper appreciation

Spending all day with seeds has not led Taylor to grow bored with them. In fact, he only grows a greater appreciation. For example, take the pigeon peas he is currently growing.

“We are growing nine or 10 different types of pigeon peas, so I spend hours a week just observing every little detail about them,” Taylor said. “I’m just falling deeper in love with them.”

Although he grows seeds from various cultures throughout the world, Taylor’s work is also personal.

“I grow a lot of Italian and Irish varieties, which are my favorites because that’s my particular background and I’m deepening my relationship with all those,” Taylor said. “[We’re trying to] make sure we save those seeds that are so important and those flavors that remind us of our grandparents’ kitchens.”

Learn more at trueloveseeds.com. Sign up for the Sept. 19 workshop at schuylkillcenter.org.

Maggie Dougherty can be reached at Margaret@chestnuthilllocal.com.