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Seeds & Stories
Seed Saving
“Inherent in the seeds is a whole set of social relationships, responsibilities, cultural understandings, and a collective wisdom about how to manage and live well in a particular place.” Laura DeLind, Interview with Nora Flaherty.
"I like to talk of seeds with a face, a place and a taste. These heirloom varieties each have a wonderful story to tell - a story which usually includes geographical origin and travels, people who were important in their development and most significant, their flavor, and best usage, the reasons they have lasted through the years and come down to us intact." CR Lawn, Keynote address at National CSA Conference, 2004.
Visit the Community Farm Website's "Extras" section to view CR Lawn's keynote address at the 2004 CSA Conference, in which he discusses the future of CSA and seed saving.
Nora Flaherty’s radio story, entitled “Heirloom Seeds Preserved in Gardens,” covers heirloom seeds and seed saving in Michigan. In the report, she interviews Royer Held, who offers classes in Ann Arbor, Michigan. on the importance of heirloom seeds, seed saving, and gardening. He states, “People are giving up the cultivation of these varieties (of seeds) they’ve maintained over centuries and millennia. We’re basically at risk of losing a lot of very unique agricultural material.” He encourages people to use heirloom seeds and to share them with their friends and family. Another interviewee, Jim Johnson, works at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. He explains in the report that the historic village uses heirloom seeds, the same seeds that would have been used in Michigan in the 19th century. He explains that even though the appearance of the produce from these seeds is “lumpy and bumpy”, that they “have a taste that cannot be compared to the things you can find on the supermarket shelves today.” The broadcast can be accessed at the Michigan Radio Website. The transcript from the broadcast is available on the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Website.
The mission of the Seed Viability and Storage Research Unit, National Seed Storage Laboratory, is to effectively document, preserve, and maintain viable seed and propagules of diverse plant germplasm in long-term storage, to develop and evaluate procedures for determining seed quality of accessions, and to provide administrative support to allow for effective operation of this Unit. The mission also includes the distribution of seed, when not available from the active collections, for crop improvement throughout the world.
Online Resources:
- Seed Savers Exchange
- Seedsaving and Seedsavers’ Resourses
- Eastern Native Seed Conservancy
- Garden State Heirloom Seed Society
- Online Articles
- Native Seeds/SEARCH
- Michigan Native Plant and Seeds Guide
- Victory Horticultural Library
- GardenWeb's Seedsaving Forum
References
Ashworth, Suzzanne, and Kent Whealy. 2002. Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners. Seed Savers Exchange.
Ausubel, Kenny. 1994. Seeds of Change : The Living Treasure - The Passionate Story of The Growing Movement To Restore Biodiversity and Revolutionize The Way We Think About Food. San Francisco: Harper.
"Going to Seed: The Seed Industry and Industrious Farmers." The Community Farm Autumn 2001:15.
Miller, Crow. September/October 2000. "Seed Saving Techniques." Countryside and Small Stock Journal 84/ 5:68-71.
Navazio, John. October/November 2003. "Grow Your Own Seeds." Mother Earth News 200:56-61.
Weaver, Biliam Woys. 1997. Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener’s Guide to Planting, Seed Saving, and Cultural History. Henry Holt and Company.