Our Team
Julia Aguilar
Julia is a lifelong Philadelphian herbalist, visual artist, and gardener. They deeply enjoy studying cultural histories of plant use, city ecologies, and being on the river. They have an eternal soft spot for non-flowering plants. Instagram: @cryptogam_.
Julia's favorites:
- Passionflower - seeds / dried herb
- Clary Sage
- Uvilla/Cape Gooseberry
Althea Baird
Althea Baird is a farmer, bartender, herbal medicine maker, and mom. She is learning to farm in ways that support human bodies (nervous system, digestive system, endocrine system, etc.) to connect with plant, ecosystem, and planetary frequencies and rhythms. Please contact me if you have knowledge about these things, science and magic alike! For example, botany and plant-human hormone interactions, gardening as therapy, plant-sky connections in mythology, moon viewing gardens, plant spirit medicine, etc. althea.baird[at]gmail[dot]com. Instagram: @mill.hollow.
Althea's favorites:
- Crambi Maratimis aka Selchi Sea Kale
- Elmer's Blue Fingerling Potato
- Cosmos
- Passionflower - seeds / dried herb
- Hannah Freeman Bean
Christopher Bolden-Newsome
Chris Bolden-Newsome, originally from the Mississippi Delta, is the oldest son of farmers and justice workers Demalda Bolden Newsome and Rufus Newsome Sr., and a fourth generation free farmer since emancipation in 1865. In 2010, Chris joined Ty Holmberg in creating the Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram's Garden where Chris co-directs a three-acre crop field, orchard, and 60-bed community garden. Sankofa Farm is a spiritually rooted, African Diaspora urban-centered farm and youth development program. Following Natural Agriculture practices, Chris focuses on cultivating healthy soil for life-giving crops while learning and teaching Pan-African practices in farming and foodways. In 2012, Chris married seed farmer Owen Smith Taylor with whom he co-founded the cultural preservation and rematriation focused seed company Truelove Seeds.
Chris' favorites:
- Mississippi Silver Hull Crowder Pea
- White Velvet Okra
- Coral Sorghum
- Seven Top Turnip Greens
- Buena Mulata Pepper
- Fatali Congolese Pepper
- Vardaman Sweet Potato
Amirah Mitchell
Amirah Mitchell has been working in agriculture and the food movement for over a dozen years, initially as a teen farm intern, team leader and board member at The Food Project in Boston, MA. She has since worked on urban farms in Massachusetts, Georgia and Pennsylvania, and delivers various agroecology workshops, including agroforestry, soil ecology, urban gardening, seed-keeping and more. Amirah is a practicing seed keeper of over two years, focusing on food crops of the African diaspora. Currently she is studying horticulture at Temple University and is spending her third season working at Truelove Seeds.
Amirah's favorites:
- Green Striped Cushaw Squash
- Besobela (Ethiopian Basil) - seeds / dried herb
- Hill Country Red Okra
- Bambara Groundnuts Mix
- Sea Island Red Pea
- Cypriot Amaranth
- Risser Sickle Pea
- Green Glaze Collards (coming in 2021)
Owen Taylor
Owen is a seed nerd who loves growing Southern Italian and Irish heirlooms and supporting the community food sovereignty movement through seed keeping. Instagram: @seedkeeping.
Owen's favorites:
- Mikado Tomato
- Delaway Cabbage
- San Marzano Tomato
- Peperone Friariello (Italian Frying Pepper)
- Cocoxochitl Chingonxs: A Dahlia Diva Mix (Seeds)
- Passionflower - seeds / dried herb
- Risser Sickle Pea
Sara Taylor
Sara is the webmaster (webkeeper!) and graphic designer behind Truelove Seeds. She also provides some administrative support. This year, 2020, she started her very first vegetable garden and will have some favorites to share after the harvest. Instagram: @sarastaylor.
Hannah Thompson
Bio coming soon!
2020 Apprentices
Grimaldi Baez
Grimaldi Baez is an interdisciplinary artist, sazón brujo, and aspiring herbalist. He is inspired by the community Truelove brings together.
Grimaldi's favorites:
- Ruda
- Cundeamor (Smooth Bitter Melon)
- Ají Dulce
- Yanten (Broadleaf Plantain)
- Anisé Hyssop
- Recao (Culantro)
- Tulsi - seeds / dried herb
- Altamisa
Kai Delgado Pfeifer
Kai Delgado Pfeifer was born and raised in Jersey City, NJ. Their ancestors' roots spread to the Philippines, China, Ireland, and Lithuania. Kai's dream is to create healing and liberation between the earth and our communities, especially the children who will inherit the land. This year they are stewarding medicinal ancestral foods and herbs from the Philippines. In the future, they hope to build a seed collection of medicinal plants from their ancestral lineages as a path towards personal and collective healing with the land.
Kai's favorites:
- Saluyot - Palestinian Molokhia / Francois Syrian Molokhia
- Ampalaya (Smooth Bitter Melon)
- Hill Country Red Okra
- Lá Tía Tô (Vietnamese Perilla)
- Long Bean
Sarah Kim
Sarah Kim is an artist, critic, and arts organizer raised in Los Angeles and based in West Philadephia for the last six years.
Sarah's favorites:
- 38N Kkaennip (Korean Perilla)
- Korean Pepper
- Greater Burdock
- Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower)
- Transylvanian Giant Sunflower
- Lemon Balm
- Great Mullein
Tania María Ríos Marrero
Tania María Ríos Marrero is an herbal medicine maker, sporadic writer, aspiring farmer and librarian-in-training. This year she is growing ajíes dulces with her partner for the Truelove Seeds catalog. She is grateful to be learning and deepening her relationship to Puerto Rican foodways and medicine traditions through this seed keeping project. She is an apprentice at Truelove and is humbled by the community and the knowledge that is shared there. Instagram: @nochecita_.
Tania's favorites:
- Ají Dulce
- Gandules
- Ruda
- Motherwort - seeds / dried herb
- Marshmallow
Zainab Muhammad
Bio coming soon!
2019 Apprentices
Julia Aguilar
Julia is now staff! See above.
Althea Baird
Althea is now staff! See above.
Zoe Jeka
Zoe is finding it hard to put into words how important seeds are to her. Over the past few years, they have become some of her closest family members and biggest teachers. She spends so much time growing Polish and German heirlooms that she didn't know who Gumby was until 2018. Even though her time in Philly has come to a close, she knows her seedkeeping work and relationship to Truelove will be lifelong. Instagram: @zoejeka.
Zoe's favorites:
Christian Brooks Keeve
Chris is a geographer who likes to write about the things people may or may not do with seeds and the things that seeds may or may not do on their own. Instagram: @c.keeve.
Chris' favorites:
- Paul Robeson Tomato
- Celosia
- Spilanthes - seeds / dried herb
- Golden Red Amaranth
- Glass Gem Popcorn
Amirah Mitchell
Amirah is now staff! See above.
2018 Apprentices
Althea Baird
Althea apprenticed for a second year in 2019 and is now staff! See above.
Zoe Jeka
Zoe apprenticed for a second year in 2019! See above.
Simone Johnson
Instagram: @hibiscus__flower.
Simone's favorites:
- Coral Sorghum
- Fagiolina del Trasimeno - cream-colored / multi-colored
- Petit Marseillais
Amirah Mitchell
Amirah apprenticed for a second year in 2019 and is now staff! See above.