Loretta Sandoval, from Zulu’s Petals Farm and Nursery, was interviewed by The Reporter for their article Seed Memory: How saving and cultivating seeds preserves and protects the future of food. Loretta, a former chemist, gives scientific testament and weight to the durability and superiority of heritage seeds.
From the article:
After working in a laboratory and pursuing more education in that field, she changed course and dove into farming. About six months after moving to New Mexico, she met Mary Campbell, a retired Los Alamos scientist who owns certified organic fields. Working with Campbell, Sandoval encountered regional seeds for the first time. They happened to be about 200 years old. Campbell acquired the landraces from an old Hispanic family who owned the farm for generations before she purchased it. They gave her a jar of chile seeds that had grown on the property for centuries. “They said they belonged to the field,” she says.
“Sandoval plays her part in both the connectivity of the seed community and sending seeds out of New Mexico from her stand at the Santa Fe Farmers Market, where she sells landraces and crops from her farm. She’s also sent the seeds to a few fellow scientists.”
