SSE 2016 Yearbook Released
/
Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) has released their 2016 Yearbook, a listing of fruit, vegetable, grain, flower, and herb seeds that SSE members have harvested and would like to share with others. The 2016 Yearbook has over 16,422 unique varieties of plants listed; many of them are available nowhere else in the United States.
Members offer these seeds to other members through the the Yearbook and online seed exchange (exchange.seedsavers.org). This member to member seed swap has been the backbone of SSE’s participatory conservation methods for over 40 years.
The Yearbook also contains information collected through our Member-Grower-Evaluation Network (M-GEN). M-GEN participants grow out varieties from the SSE collection and document the the plant performance and taste in diverse growing conditions across North America. The M-GEN program is a form of ‘citizen research’ to document the adaptations and taste profiles of the unique varieties in the SSE collection. The more people who participate in M-GEN, the better SSE can identify trends in regional performance.
To access the SSE Yearbook, one must be a member of the organization. Memberships start at $25 per year and include numerous other benefits.
SSE stores its entire seed collection in a genebank at Heritage Farm, near Decorah, IA, and backs it up at the USDA in Ft. Collins, CO, and the Svalbard global seed vault in Norway; maintaining the plants in gardens across the U.S. helps to keep the seed collection alive, growing, and vital. The annual Yearbook is a resilient tool for preserving rare garden varieties and stopping the loss of plant diversity.
Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit organization located in Decorah, Iowa, with a mission to conserve and promote America's culturally diverse but endangered garden and food crop heritage for future generations by collecting, growing, and sharing heirloom seeds and plants.
