food sovereignty starts with seed SOVEREIGNTY
Our story with the gardens and plants actually started with a story about seeds. And I’d love to share with you this story. Many years ago, one of my cousins got sick. He caught a cold and was coughing very badly. A friend of his made him a herbal tea and he instantly felt better. When he asked his friend what he gave him, he said Basil! My cousin asked if he could have some of that basil with him. So he brought the basil home, and it still had some seeds in it. My mother wrapped the seeds in a piece of a plastic and tied the plastic to the rope of our tent. She wanted to get back to it, but she forgot to do so. The sun had eaten away the piece of plastic and it fell down. The seeds spread on the ground everywhere. We didn’t notice anything. About a year later, it rained a bit. A few days after the rain, green sprouts were popping out everywhere around our tent. We were very surprised to see these little plants that we haven’t planted and have never seen before. The neighbors also got interested, the basil had a beautiful smell. Everyone started to ask. What’s this amazing smell that you have around your tent? From that moment, we took care of basil and started to grow it. Seeds from the first basil collection still pop up every now and then in different areas around our tent. We were surprised how resilient basil can be because it made it through the crazy heat during the summer. It’s now our symbol of resilience. We grow it every year in our garden, and we use it for food and medicine.