Behind the Barn Door

Grandpa Ott’s morning glories cover the south face of the iconic barn at Heritage Farm, home of Seed Savers Exchange (SSE). But don’t be fooled by the scenery! This barn is much more than a pretty postcard – especially come harvest time.

Behind that wall of sleepy purple blossoms lies one of the busiest seed-saving operations in the country — the first hint of which is the unmistakable sweet aroma of ripe melons drifting from the open double doors. Colorful piles of ripe fruits and veggies sit waiting in buckets while fans blow gently over screens and drying racks full of tiny seeds. The colors, smells and sounds are almost as overwhelming as the neatly printed to-do list on the staff white board.

But of course it hasn’t always been like this. SSE’s seed saving operation started in a kitchen, probably much like your own, almost 40 years ago. That’s where we started the seed saving renaissance that is taking place today. If you’re reading this post, it means that you’re part of this movement, and may want to do more.

You could start by saving your own seeds this season. But even if you don’t, there is something important you can do right now to help the cause of saving biodiversity and our country’s vanishing garden heritage. And you won’t need any special tools or equipment to do it.

By making a year-end gift to Seed Savers Exchange you can help fulfill our non-profit mission to conserve and promote heirloom vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs. Your generosity will make possible the continuation and expansion of our critical preservation and outreach programs and will allow us to:

• Grow out more than 600 varieties in our collection next year, so that we can evaluate, improve germination and replenish seed stocks
• Provide educational webinars on seed saving, hand pollination and seed harvesting to serve a national audience of backyard gardeners, community gardeners and seed library members
• Facilitate the exchange of thousands of seed varieties among backyard preservationists through the SSE Yearbook and Online Seed Exchange, one of the greatest sources of heirloom varieties in the world
• Maintain thousands of varieties of open-pollinated plant types in our seed bank in keeping with genetic preservation standards
• Document valuable cultural and historical information on varieties

Thank you for your ongoing support and for making a gift to help Seed Savers Exchange do more to preserve our country’s rich agricultural diversity today! By safeguarding the seeds of our garden heritage you will ensure a healthy planet for generations to come.

PS: The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership estimates that 60,000 to 100,000 plant species today are threatened with extinction. Support us in our efforts to reverse this trend by giving a tax deductible donation today!

___________________________________________________________________

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.

Special October Membership Offer

Become a Seed Savers Exchange member during October to take advantage of these special offers:

Join Seed Savers and get a one-year subscription to Fine Gardening magazine - all for one low price of $59.99. Save $10 with this limited-time offer. Click here to join.

-Or-

Join Seed Savers and get three issues of Grow - all for one low price of $55.00. This is 38% off the cover price. Click here to join.

-Or- Click here to see our other membership offers.

Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit organization 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.

In order to fulfill our mission, we:

- Maintain thousands of varieties of different plant types in one of the largest seed banks of its kind in North America - Regenerate seed in isolation gardens and store them in ideal conditions - Document valuable cultural information on varieties and their histories - Distribute heirloom varieties to members and the public through the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook and the Seed Savers Exchange Catalog

We rely on membership to support our organization and to help sustain the diversity of heirlooms in our seed bank. Join the 13,000 other gardeners and seed savers who support our mission!

Learn more about Seed Savers Exchange in this video:

Exerpt taken from "Garden Guardians" by Alyssa Gammelgaard and Bryce Kilker.

A Seed Savers Exchange membership entitles you to a variety of benefits:

• 

  Access to the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook and online seed exchange, an exclusive network of SSE members sharing over 12,000 unique plant varieties with one another

• The Heritage Farm Companion, an award-winning quarterly membership publication
• 10% off all purchases from SSE’s catalog, website, and Visitors Center
• Discounts on registration for workshops and events
• Enrollment in the American Horticultural Society’s Reciprocal Admissions Program, offering free admission to botanical gardens, arboreta, and conservatories across the country.

Show your support for pure seed and good food by becoming a Seed Savers Exchange member today.

Forgotten Tastes

Heirloom Apple Tasting

Few people know that our garden heritage contains a rich diversity of thousands of apple varieties. The limited variety of modern commercial apples leaves little room to experience the diversity with which we were at one time endowed, with varieties grown for specific purposes like pressing cider, baking, storing, and making sauce. SSE has obtained a majority of the pre-1900 varieties still in existence for its orchards, where hundreds of different apple varieties that flourished in the 19th century and before are on display. On Sunday, October 6, Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) held Forgotten Tastes, An Heirloom Apple Event in Johnston, Iowa, at Grade A Gardens. Operated by Jordan Clasen and Thomas Burkhead, Grade A Gardens grows SSE vegetable varieties for a CSA and many progressive Des Moines restaurants.

Despite rain and cold weather, the event attracted 200 guests from Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Forgotten Tastes provided a rare opportunity to taste and enjoy over 70 heirloom apple varieties from SSE’s historic apple orchards. Guests recorded their notes as they proceeded through the apple lineup, tasting apples with whimsical-sounding names and curious histories, including Northern Spy, Sops of Wine, and Zuccalmaglio’s Reinette. Wine, artisan cheeses from The Cheese Shop, heirloom apple tarts from Tami’s Tarts, South Union Bakery bread, and cured meats from La Quercia were specially selected to pair well with the apple varieties. Two delicious versions of hard cider were available for tasting, and guests enjoyed music by members of Cousin Eddy while they mingled. Meanwhile the lecture tent was packed with eager learners enjoying talks on heirloom apples, orchard management, grafting, and cider. Speakers included SSE’s Diane Ott Whealy, Dan Bussey and Steve Carlson.

Cheese Display

Happily for Seed Savers Exchange, Kari and CJ Bienert organized a "Happy Apples" event at The Cheese Shop (Shops at Roosevelt) the following evening with SSE’s Orchard Manager Dan Bussey talking heirloom apples and CJ suggesting exquisite cheese pairings. What a perfect way to top off the apple weekend!

Slow Food Des Moines was instrumental in making the event a success, through help with planning, food, and enlisting some 30 volunteers. Also assisting were Paul and Lori Rottenberg, of Orchestrate Hospitality, the marketing partner for Gateway Market and other “fresh and local” restaurant businesses.

Forgotten Tastes was sponsored by Wells Fargo. Ticket sales provided much needed revenue to support the work of Seed Savers Exchange.

Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving and promoting America’s culturally diverse but endangered garden and food crop heritage for future generations by collecting, growing, and sharing heirloom seeds and plants.

My Internship at Seed Savers Exchange

*We are now accepting internship applications for the 2014 season.*Click here for details.

By Talinna Appling

I discovered my passion for growing plants after spending a summer working for a local nursery in Helena, MT as a teenager. Several years later I decided I wanted to continue my quest for plant knowledge, and I enrolled in the Sustainable Foods and Bioenergy Systems program at Montana State University. It wasn’t until recently, however, that I developed an interest in saving seeds and seed production after picking up a copy of Suzanne Ashworth’s book Seed to Seed. When the time came to choose an organization to satisfy the internship requirement for my degree, I looked to Seed Savers Exchange (SSE). With the help of Tim Johnson (Seed Bank Manager at SSE), the arrangements were soon made and I headed to Decorah, Iowa for a five-week immersion in seed-saving.

I arrived about a week before the annual conference—which I soon found out was a three-day gathering of dedicated seed savers from around the U.S.  It was inspiring to be among so many people who were as crazy about plants as I am. For me, the highlight of the conference was helping with Mary Ann Fox’s bean collection legacy distribution (read about it here), of which I committed to growing, saving, and sharing four of her varieties.  Needless to say the conference was an incredible experience that I was thankful to be a part of!

The main objective of my internship, however, was to learn how to hand pollinate (HP) corn and squash.

In order to save pure seed from corn, the ears have to be bagged before they push silks out to prevent cross-pollination with other varieties. These bagged ears are checked daily until the silks emerge. Once the silks emerge, the tassels get bagged so that pollen can be collected the following morning. Pollen from dozens of tassels of a single variety are sifted and combined to ensure the subsequent seeds carry the traits of multiple plants. About a teaspoon of pollen is then poured onto the exposed silks of each bagged ear. The ears are quickly re-bagged after pollination and remain covered until harvest time. In a population of 300 plants per variety, SSE’s goal is to obtain at least 200 ears of corn. Corn HP is a hard job that often left me covered in pollen and rashes, but it was rewarding to know that I was helping to preserve varieties that may otherwise be lost.

Squash HP isn’t as complicated as corn, but still requires a bit of work. The process starts in the late afternoon with the search for male and female flowers. Staff members scout for closed flowers with yellowing corollas, a sign that they will open the next day. These are pinned shut to prevent insect visitors from pollinating the flowers. To reduce the chance of spreading disease, pollination starts after the dew has dried the following morning. At SSE, three male flowers are used to pollinate each female to ensure good fertilization and a mix of genetics in the resulting seeds. The males are collected and their petals removed to pollinate the females, which are then taped shut and labeled. Trying to do all this before a bee comes along can be a challenge!

During my internship I also helped in the diversity garden, weeding and pruning plants alongside SSE Co-Founder Diane Ott Whealy (an unexpected treat!), helping with plant evaluations and taste testing (perhaps the best job at SSE!), germination testing (there’s much more to it than you’d think), and inventorying seed in the seed lab. The last week of the internship was set aside for me to reflect upon what I had learned and to develop a display for the diversity garden that communicated the techniques of squash HP.

[uds-billboard name="talinnas-squash-display"]

My internship at SSE was an invaluable learning experience. Being able to see the many different aspects of the organization was a fun and helpful way to learn about seed saving and the role that SSE has played in preserving our agricultural heritage. The staff members are all fantastic, fun, and dedicated people who were excited to help me learn everything I could while I was there. Seed production is an often overlooked aspect of agriculture and saving seeds is an important skill for anyone wanting to garden more sustainably. More importantly, seed saving and sharing is a great way to bring families and communities together and re-establish local food systems. If you are a student who is interested in sustainable agriculture, I would highly recommend learning how to save your own seeds and to consider SSE’s internship opportunities.

If you are interested in pursuing an internship with Seed Savers Exchange, contact Renata Christen at renata@seedsavers.org for more information.

Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving and promoting America’s culturally diverse but endangered garden and food crop heritage for future generations by collecting, growing, and sharing heirloom seeds and plants.

Varietal Evaluations: Carrots

The Preservation Department at Seed Savers Exchange works hard to maintain the rare collection of heirloom varieties we've acquired from farmers and gardeners over the past few decades. In order to keep this collection alive and well, our staff carefully plans and implements grow-outs to evaluate the varieties and regenerate seed stock. As part of this evaluation process, staff take meticulous notes about the characteristics of each variety when grown out. These photos document the evaluation process of a few carrot varieties (Daucus carota) after harvest, although evaluations of each variety really begin with the seed before it is planted.  

Freshly harvested and cleaned carrots.

Horticultural Technician Steffen Mirsky takes portrait photos of the harvested varieties.

Detailed information is entered into a database for each variety on such characteristics as color, shape, length, and weight, as well as other criteria.

Varieties are then scanned and archived with the collected data.

The carrots are sliced to analyze interior characteristics and for raw taste-testing (picture: 'Jaune de Doubs').

The carrots are steamed until tender. The steamed carrots are tasted and evaluated for culinary use.

Summary descriptions of each variety are written for the SSE Yearbook, with the hope that these descriptions will encourage gardeners to take the seeds from our collection and put them in their gardens and on their dinner tables (pictured: 'Amstel').

Please consider becoming a member of Seed Savers Exchange to support these preservation and evaluation efforts. Along with many other benefits, SSE members are able to access thousands of rare and unique heirloom seeds offered by other members in our annual Yearbook. Seed Savers Exchange also offers seeds from our vast collection in the Yearbook, allowing members much more diversity to choose from than what's available in the commercial catalog. In 2013, Seed Savers Exchange is offering 2,431 different varieties in the Yearbook for members to request. Join us today to help conserve and promote America's culturally diverse but endangered garden and food crop heritage.

Located six miles north of Decorah, IA, Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to the preservation and distribution of heirloom seeds.  Seed Savers maintains a collection of thousands of open pollinated varieties, making it one of the largest non-governmental seed banks in the United States.  For more information, go to seedsavers.org

Garlic Escapades

Whether blended in a soup, pickled in a mason jar or baked in an omelet, eating is the best way to utilize scapes, a farm and garden byproduct of garlic. Seed Savers Exchange is conducting its first ever evaluation of over 300 garlic varieties in its production garden this year, which means harvesting a lot of scapes for scanning, as well as to ensure the garlic bulbs are adequately plump and ready for replanting in October. Looking out across the half-acre field waving with crowns of silvery green, these several hundred varieties may appear identical to the untrained eye, but in fact differ considerably in size and shape. Many are uniform in their likeness (streaking brown leaves as some had matured early), still others display anthropomorphic qualities unique to their row: one variety like a sumo wrestler, squat and thick, while another resembles the stern form of a lawman. Taken together, the melded identities of Allium sativum are a chorus of opportunity for SSE to learn more about this species (and its flowering appendage) in the Allium genus.

[gallery columns="2" link="file" ids="3405,3404"]

Our trial field includes both hard and softneck garlics. For those of us new to garlic varieties, softneck garlic doesn’t produce scapes, and generally isn’t as hardy (hence the cognate of its opposite, the “hardneck”), but, it does store better and mature quicker. The bulb size of many hardneck varieties is improved by removing the scape—its flowering stalk which eventually produces bulbils and flowers—hence getting “plump and ready for October." Some varieties, however, don't mind if you leave their scapes on until harvest time, such as those in the Turban group. It just goes to show – the more we learn about each variety’s characteristics, from planting to harvest, the more we’ll understand their preferences, personalities, and how best to make use of them.

Here’s a quick primer on Preservation’s Field & Lab Plant Evaluation

Any characteristic that has a genetic basis is recorded in evaluations at SSE, which, specific to garlic, includes observing and measuring:

1. leaf color 2. leaf posture 3. stalk height (or pseudostem) 4. scape shape (if applicable)

Everything is recorded into Preservation’s database—the hardneck scapes are harvested and scanned into a digital format—and staff can glory in the perk of free scapes for eating!

[gallery columns="2" link="file" ids="3406,3403"]

Garlic taste tests to follow… meanwhile, check out some of these intriguing recipes, and keep us posted on your favorite uses for scapes!

• Garlic Scape yogurt sauce to plop on your Buckwheat pancakes...

• Garlic Scape pesto & pickles

• Garlic Scape vinegar

• Garlic Scape soup

 _______________________________________________________

Visit the online store to purchase our certified organic seed garlic today. Over 10 varieties to choose from-- They will sell out!

Then...

Check out this slide show and cheat sheet for planting your garlic.

Mary Ann Fox: Legacy of a Seed Saver

In my role as an inventory technician for the Preservation Collection at Heritage Farm, I encounter the mundane and meaningful in almost equal parts. There’s no reliable rhythm to it. Some days are complete numbers-data tedium, while others are full of gratifying meaning.

My work over the past few weeks has been leaning heavily (in a good way) toward the gratifyingly meaningful. We have in just the past week received at Heritage Farm a large seed collection comprising just over two hundred bean varieties. This collection came to us from Mary Ann Fox, longtime listed member of Seed Savers Exchange from Shelbyville, Indiana, who died this past February at the age of 71. Mary Ann’s relatives, realizing the worth and importance of the collection and having to confront its monumental scope, were especially anxious to identify someone who could not only take the mass of seed off their hands, but who could also find eager stewards of Mary Ann’s seed-saving legacy.

Enter Jim Kelly, SSE member and friend to Mary Ann. Not only did Jim find a temporary storage location for the collection and move the countless plastic seed-filled bottles to the location, he also began imagining ways in which the collection could be shared among seed savers. Eventually Jim contacted Heritage Farm to find out if there were a way the staff here could collaborate and assist. Together, we came up with a plan to distribute Mary Ann’s seed collection at the Seed Savers Exchange 2013 Conference and Campout.

An important step in preparing the collection for distribution is a thorough inventory and labeling of each seed sample. This has been my task over the past few days and will likely take another few days to complete. While the work may seem tedious and mundane to the outside observer, handling these artifacts of Mary Ann’s legacy—noting the care with which she filed and labeled each variety—is a profoundly meaningful “chore.”

Would you like to celebrate and honor Mary Ann’s seed-saving legacy right in your own garden? Will you be attending the July 2013 Conference and Campout? Look for the tent with racks of beautiful bean seeds in clear plastic bottles. I’ll be there with a collection catalog to help you choose the two or three (or four or more!) varieties that you want to take home to your garden. Or just come by to meet and talk with me and other seed savers. There will be great conversations about the ways in which we have all benefited from past seed savers, and you might even be inspired to get more actively involved in seed saving yourself. See you there!