Moving to a new home is a chore. Now imagine relocating an entire farm.
That’s what the folks at Truelove Seeds did in March — for the third time in nine years — when they moved to a two-acre plot at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Roxborough.
Owen Taylor, cofounder of the Philadelphia-based seed company, on a hot morning in mid-July, says that until now, the seed growers had “never felt permanent anywhere,” but this new farm could finally be a long-term home. Truelove Seeds signed a 10-year lease on the land, with a five-year renewal option. Taylor says one of the best parts of the move is that this site is a 15-minute drive from Truelove’s Germantown office, significantly closer than any of their previous farms.
A footpath leads from a small parking cutout on the side of Hagys Mill Road to an open plot of gently sloping land. Rows of vegetables run across the field in symmetrical patterns — a crop layout designed largely by Miki Palchick, the farm manager. The scents of herbs and flowers mix together to create a sweet and spicy aroma.
Unlike produce farms, crops on a seed farm are not grown to be picked at peak ripeness. Instead, everything stays in the ground until it has gone to seed. Sheil Grandhi, Truelove’s seed farm and office assistant, describes this process as one that requires the growers to “actively steward everything throughout the growing season.” It necessitates patience.
Before the move to Roxborough, the crew farmed a plot in western Delaware County on a seven-year lease. During that time, they were always on the lookout for a setup that could last longer.
They nearly signed a lease with Temple University Ambler as the first tenant in a farm-incubator program, before the double whammy of the COVID-19 pandemic and a destructive tornado resulted in the plan being scrapped.
We felt like we could invest in this space in a way we couldn’t with the previous spaces.”
— Owen Taylor, Truelove Seeds
Looking out over the farm, Taylor says, “We felt like we could invest in this space in a way we couldn’t with the previous spaces.”
The willingness to invest is evident in the infrastructure they’ve already built, including a 10-foot deer fence, a hoop house for drying seeds and, maybe most crucially, a deep well. “The well wasn’t finished until, I think, early June,” Taylor says with a grin. “So, we were planting without knowing if we had anything to water with. We were filling buckets with rainwater, and luckily it rained consistently enough that we didn’t ever have to use them.”
While the generous rains have mostly been a blessing, Taylor explains that in certain spots on the farm where the soil has high clay content, pooling water has hurt some plants. “Some of the tomatoes seem particularly unhappy,” he says.
Still, most of the crops are doing well. The first seeds sown in spring were planted on a sunny mid-April day with the Pennsylvania Flax Project, an organization working to revitalize the state’s use of the once-common fiber crop. As I wrap up my visit, I overhear Taylor and Grandhi talking with Bill Shick, the PA Flax Project’s director of agriculture. They hold bundles of yellow-green stalks in their hands, inspecting the dried flowers. The crop is ready for seed harvest.
“We’re not just this company producing seeds for sale,” Taylor explains. “We’re part of a robust network of seed keepers.” Truelove sells — in addition to what they produce at the Schuylkill Center — seeds grown by more than 70 farmers from across the country.
Back on the home farm, Truelove is growing seed for the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, the Iraqi Seed Collective, the Italian Garden Project, a local community of Burmese Karen farmers (who, until recently, grew at Novick Urban Farm) and the Norris Square Neighborhood Project, among other partners. Currently, the farmers are building a relationship with the nearby Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School.
The two-acre plot at the Schuylkill Center has been used for various farming programs and tenants with varied success over the years, according to Erin Mooney, the center’s executive director. “Knowing Owen and the incredible work that Truelove carries out through its mission, having Truelove bring the farm to our location was a winning solution for us both,” Mooney says. “We look forward to a long partnership together.”
To read more about Truelove Seeds’ work in food sovereignty and heirloom seed keeping, read Grid’s March 2020 (#130) profile of the company.
