Savoring summer’s bounty was top of mind at this year’s Tomato Tasting, like it is every year, and a record number of tasters showed up to sample, vote, and enjoy a beautiful, if not a bit cloudy, afternoon at Heritage Farm.
Read MoreIt’s been used for dances and dinners, speakers and seed storage, and even, yes, a gift shop for visitors.
But behind the scenes, Heritage Farm’s historic barn—built about 1929—has also played a key role for years in one of the organization’s most important functions: processing seeds.
Read MoreIn the late 1980s, just like today, the historic barn at Heritage Farm was in need of help—lots of help. In 1987—not long after Seed Savers Exchange bought arguably one of the most beautiful farms in Iowa—Kent Whealy and Diane Ott Whealy, founders of the organization, learned that the homemade laminated bows that supported the barn’s roof were weakening, and, consequently, posed a real threat of the roof collapsing. Thus began months of restoration, conducted by Amish carpenters from Canton, Minnesota, financed with a $20,000 grant from the Ruth Mott Foundation, based in Flint, Michigan. In 2011, Diane devoted a section of her book Gathering, Memoir of a Seed Saver, to the work the Amish carpenters did to restore the barn. An excerpt of that section follows:
Barns are a part of not only the American landscape, but also our collective memory. They connect us to an agrarian tradition that defined our farming forebears, from Thomas Jefferson and Wendell Berry to Laura Ingalls Wilder and George Washington Carver.
Read MoreÅsmund Asdal—a Norwegian agronomist who serves as coordinator of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault— has most definitely seen his fair share of exquisite seeds.
Read MoreSeeds were foremost on the mind of Ahmed Amri—head of genetic resources for the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)—when civil war erupted in Syria in the spring of 2011.
Read MoreExecutive Director Lee Buttala recently traveled to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault to deliver our annual deposit of rare varieties and to participate in commemorating the Seed Vault’s 10th anniversary. Share in his journey with these photos and observations.
Read MoreThe year 2017 proved a success for Seed Savers Exchange’s new Citizen Science Corps (CSC), a revamp of the Member-Grower Evaluation Network. Myriad SSE members answered the call to participate in one (or all three) of the CSC programs—ADAPT, SHARE, and RENEW.
Read MoreScott Leddy, a habitat-restoration practitioner well known among naturalists in the Midwest, has devoted the majority of his life (more than three decades) to restoring the bluffs and prairies surrounding Rushford, Minnesota, part of the Driftless Area of the Midwest. It’s exhausting, time-intensive work—think tree removal, and controlled burning—but he will quickly tell you it is well worth the long hours and physical exertion.
Read MoreCleveland Seed Savers Exchange members Marilyn McHugh and Chris Kennedy are creating a global initiative to sustain the planet’s biological diversity and its food supply, one seed at a time.
Read MoreSeed Savers Exchange is a nonprofit, member supported organization that collects, preserves and shares heirloom seeds for our future. Since 1975, SSE and our supporters have collected the seeds and stories that would otherwise have been lost.
Seed Savers Exchange is a tax-exempt 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of heirloom seeds.
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