About this episode

An interview discussing the preservation of seeds and farming traditions in 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…

People in this episode

Hosts: Owen Taylor, Chris Bolden-Newsome

Guests: Hassan Muamer, Hannan, Fatimah

Topics covered

• seeds
• culture
• farming traditions
• Palestine
• environmental advocacy

Keywords

• Yakteen gourds
• tomatoes
• UNESCO World Heritage
• Palestine Heirloom Seed Library
• molokhia

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Yakteen, Yakteen gourds, tomatoes, molokhia

Places: Battir, Palestine, Philadelphia, US

More episodes of Seeds And Their People

• EP. 40: Lana Mustafa's Roots of Resilience in Palestine and the Diaspora · January 30, 2026 · 1h 4m
• EP. 39: Mountain Farmers from Burma in Thailand and Philadelphia · January 9, 2026 · 1h 11m
• EP. 38: Vivien Sansour on Palestinian Seeds, Longing, and Love · December 4, 2025 · 1h 6m
• EP. 37: Cempaxochitl, Papalo, and more tastes of Mexico with Maria Hernandez of Cruz Family Little Farm · November 14, 2025 · 1h 9m
• EP. 35: Growing Sabzi from Iran in the San Francisco Bay Area with Reyhan Herb Farm · August 27, 2025 · 1h 4m
• EP. 34: Sankofa Community Farm and the African Diaspora - Go Back and Bring Forward What You Left Behind · March 28, 2025 · 1h 2m

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