Eastern Agricultural Complex with Natalie G. Mueller

Explicit content warning

09/01/22 • 76 min

In this episode we talk with Natalie G. Mueller about the Eastern Agricultural Complex. The EAC was a group of plants independently domesticated by Indigenous people of Eastern Turtle Island (aka North America) starting 7,000-8,000 years ago. Some of these plants, like the Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) we still know and love, but others are no longer commonly cultivated and are generally unfamiliar, like Sumpweed (Iva annua). Natalie mentions some of these resources in the interview: Lost Crops Grower’s Guides , Her paper on the differences between domestication/breeding/GMO work and Gayle’s paper on evidence of Sumpweed cultivation in the 1500s

Previous Episode

Cornelion Cherries with Little John

In this episode we chat with Little John about his favorite plant obsession, Cornelian Cherries (Cornus mas). We cover propagation, maintenance, harvest and a few of the hundreds of uses for the fruit (and other parts of the plant!). After a few heavy topics, it’s nice to take a little break and just shoot the shit about a fascinating plant.

Little John is a prolific maker of memes, which you can find at https://tinyurl.com/cornusmemes

He is also the founder of North American Scion Exchange Facebook Group and a admin of the Cornelian Cherry Growers group.

If you are looking to purchase Cornelian Cherry trees you might try: One Green World, Fedco Trees, Cricket Hill Garden, Whitman Farms or Hidden Spring Nursery

Propagating by cuttings: Jay Grace has had very good rates of success rooting dormant cuttings in the fall with mist and bottom heat. He says rooting hormone is not needed

Next Episode

Chestnuts w/ Sandy Anognostakis

In todays episode of Propaganda By The Seed we speak with “Dr Sandy” aka Sandra Anagnostakis. Dr. Sandy is a past-president of the Northern Nut Growers Alliance. She has been working on breeding blight resistant chestnuts since 1968 at the Connecticut Agricultural Station and has selected and named many of the cultivars currently in use. Her areas of expertise include Fungal genetics and physiology, Plant genetics and breeding, and Host-parasite interactions. We have a long ranging conversation speaking about growing, harvesting, and breeding chestnuts. Sandy talks about her experience working with chestnuts for over 40 years, all the challenges and benefits of this incredible plant and tons of fascinating historic anecdotes from her work over the years.

For more information on Dr Sandy and her work, check out her bio page on the Connecticut Agricultural Station or look her up on Google Scholar.

(Note: this podcast was recorded around March/April 2022)