Rowen White elected to Seed Savers Exchange Board of Directors

Decorah, Iowa —Seed Savers Exchange, Inc. is pleased to announce the election of Rowen White to its board of directors.  The election was approved at a special meeting of the board on Friday, February 7, 2014, bringing the total number of board members to nine directors. Rowen White is a seed saver, farmer and educator.  She is from the Mohawk community of Akwesasne and curates an extensive collection of rare northeast native seeds. She is the co-founder of Sierra Seed Cooperative in Nevada City, CA, focusing on local seed production and education.

White is a seed educator with Native Seed/Search Seed School in Tucson, AZ and has had a long standing relationship with Seed Savers Exchange (SSE).  She is the author, along with Bryan Connolly, of Breeding Organic Vegetables:  A Step by Step Guide for Growers.

“It is a great honor to have been selected to serve on the Board of Directors at Seed Savers Exchange,” White said.  “SSE is maintaining over 20,000 accessions of seed in a public access seed bank, while also honoring the cultural memory that seeds carry with them. What a valuable contribution towards the ethical stewardship of our precious collective inheritance of seeds. I have followed SSE's work on preservation of heirloom seeds with great admiration over these many years. “

SSE board chair Keith Crotz called the addition of Rowen White an important step in the organization fulfilling its goal to conserve and promote America's agricultural biodiversity.

“Rowen is an exceptional person who is committed to our non-profit mission,” Crotz said. “She will bring valuable experience to our education programs and help Seed Savers Exchange connect with the next generation of seed savers.”  White was elected to a three-year term.

For more information, contact: John Torgrimson, Executive Director john@seedsavers.org (563) 382-5631

Founded in 1975, Seed Savers Exchange operates an 890-acre farm in northeast Iowa where thousands of rare fruit, vegetable, and other plant varieties are regenerated and preserved in a central collection. Its mission is 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. SSE also facilitates the world's largest grassroots seed exchange. For information visit www.seedsavers.org

Decorah Native Appointed Deputy Director of Seed Savers Exchange

Decorah, IA— Seed Savers Exchange (SSE), the nation’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds, is pleased to announce the appointment of Lynne Rilling as the nonprofit’s Deputy Director - Administration. This is a new position created by the Board of Directors to respond to the growth the organization has achieved over the last few years. A Certified Public Accountant, Rilling received her B.A. at Upper Iowa University.  She has extensive business and management experience, having served as controller/General Manager of Hotel Winneshiek as well as an accountant with Hacker Nelson & Co. Hired by Seed Savers Exchange in October 2011 as the chief financial officer, serving both as corporate treasurer and chief accountant, Rilling’s additional responsibilities will include management of human resources and the operation of the Lillian Goldman Visitor Center.

“Lynne’s skills, hard work and professional demeanor are a perfect match for our growing organization,” SSE’s Executive Director John Torgrimson said.  “She is a delight to work with and is highly regarded by her colleagues and peers.”

While at Hacker Nelson & Co. around 1999-2000, Rilling was assigned to handle the accounting contract at Seed Savers Exchange. “I always thought if there was an opening that was a fit for me [at Seed Savers Exchange] I would take it. I love the mission, vision, and values of the organization. It’s a fantastic place to work,” Rilling commented.

Rilling also has an interesting connection with SSE’s Heritage Farm, located six miles north of Decorah. The land where the iconic barn and Lillian Goldman Visitor’s Center now sits was once owned by Phillip and Clara Halse in the late 1800’s - they are Lynne’s great-great grandparents on her father Earl’s side of the family.

Rilling was born and raised in rural Decorah and is a graduate of North Winneshiek High School.  She is active in the community, serving as a board member on the Decorah Chamber’s Downtown Decorah Betterment Association.  Lynne and her husband Donald Rilling have three grown children, Justin, Jesse and Morgan.

About Seed Savers Exchange (SSE): Located six miles north of Decorah, Iowa, 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.

Hope Shand, Marty Teitel elected to Seed Savers Exchange Board of Directors

Decorah, Iowa — Seed Savers Exchange, Inc. is pleased to announce the election of Hope Shand and Marty Teitel to its board of directors.  The two nominations were approved at a special meeting of the board on Wednesday, April 24, 2013, bringing the total number of board members to nine directors.

Shand and Teitel both have extensive experience as advocates for agricultural biodiversity and have had long standing relationships with Seed Savers Exchange (SSE).

Hope Shand, of Durham, North Carolina, is an author, researcher and consultant who has conducted extensive research and written on the topics of agricultural biodiversity and intellectual property, as well as the social and economic impacts of new biotechnologies. Her most recent consultancies were with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the Canadian-based civil society organizations, ETC Group and USC Canada.

Based in Sheepscot, Maine, Marty Teitel is an author, editor, and genetic diversity advocate. He has authored numerous articles and books, including “Genetically Engineered Food: Changing the Nature of Nature.” Marty has extensive experience with international development and foundation work, having devoted the entirety of his career to nonprofit organizations focused on a wide range of humanitarian and environmental causes. He is the author of the Safe Seed Pledge, a standard many seed companies have signed stating that they do not knowingly sell or grow genetically engineered seeds and plants.

SSE board chair Keith Crotz called the addition of Shand and Teitel an important step in SSE fulfilling its goal to conserve and promote America's agricultural biodiversity.

“Marty and Hope are extraordinary people who are committed to our mission,” Crotz said. “The two of them will bring valuable experience and expertise to our board.”  Shand and Teitel were both elected to three-year terms.

For more information, contact: John Torgrimson, Executive Director john@seedsavers.org (563) 382-5631

Founded in 1975, Seed Savers Exchange operates an 890-acre farm in northeast Iowa where thousands of rare fruit, vegetable, and other plant varieties are regenerated and preserved in a central collection. Its mission is conserving and promoting America’s culturally diverse but endangered food crop heritage for future generations by collecting, growing, and sharing heirloom seeds and plants. For information visit www.seedsavers.org

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Cow Art. Talking Trees. Rare Plants.

Seed Savers Exchange will host two month-long outdoor art exhibits at Heritage Farm beginning in May.

•  “Grassfed,” by artist Valerie Miller of Steel Cow studio in Waukon, Iowa, features larger than life outdoor portraits of the Ancient White Park Cattle living at Heritage Farm.
• “Talking Trees,” a sound installation by Brooke Joyce from Luther College in Decorah, mixes the sounds of nature with composed music.

Both exhibits will run concurrently through May and are free to the public. These events will premiere on Saturday, May 4, 2013 (10 a.m. - 5 p.m.).  In conjunction with the exhibit opening, Seed Savers Exchange will be offering unique vegetable transplants from the preservation seed bank for sale to the public, on May 4 only. Local chef Justin Scardina from La Rana Bistro will be on site preparing food that day.

Rare Plants

The preservation plant sale, which will consist of hard to find vegetable varieties, will include staff favorites like the deep maroon amaranth ‘Kerala Red,’ a nearly black lettuce ‘Revolution-Evolution,’ a classic mustard known as ‘Myers’ Family Heirloom, and the relentlessly fruitful tomato ‘Tiny Tim Yellow.’  Transplants will be sold for $3 for 3 inch pots, and $4 for 4-packs, available in limited quantities.  SSE staff will also be on hand during the event to answer gardening and seed saving questions.

Cow Art

“Grassfed” is an outdoor exhibition of larger than life canvases by Waukon artist Valerie Miller of Steel Cow Gallery. The exhibit shows Valerie's Ancient White Park 'girls' and 12 of their closest bovine friends. Walk along the trails to view these jumbo prints placed in the pastures at SSE's Heritage Farm. The Ancient White Park cattle, a threatened heritage breed, roamed the British Isles over 2,000 years ago.

Kids of all ages are invited to help Valerie paint an outdoor mural on May 4th.

What is Steel Cow? With a camera around her neck and sketch pad in hand, Valerie Miller stomps around fields and farms all over the world searching out the perfect cows to become one of "the girls” in the Steel Cow collection. Each has her own whimsy, wit and personality, and is branded with either their farm given name or the names of family and friends.  The end result is an image that has the spirit and sweetness of each cow rarely seen by anybody other than the farmer.

Talking Trees

The Iowa Arts Council has awarded a major grant to Luther College associate professor of music Brooke Joyce.  Professor Joyce is using the money to create an outdoor sound installation at Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah.

On May 4^th, and throughout the month of May, all ages will be invited to travel to Seed Savers Exchange to experience the outdoor sound installation, "Talking Trees," in which the sounds of nature mingle with music created by composers Brooke Joyce and University of California-San Diego composer-in residence Harvey Sollberger.

The project will provide a walk through the forest that mixes composed music with the natural sounds like rushing water and birds chirping. The type of music and sounds being played will vary according to the time of day and atmospheric conditions.

There will be four or five canopies placed along a trail at Seed Savers Exchange, each equipped with four speakers.  Joyce and Sollberger will power these canopies with solar panels and battery energy.

Both “Grassfed” and “Talking Trees” will be on display at Seed Savers Exchange throughout the month of May.  The Lillian Goldman Visitors Center is open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Weekends 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Directions here.

View, print, and share the May 4 Event Poster.

For more information, contact: Shannon Carmody Seed Savers Exchange shannon@seedsavers.org 563-387-5630

To schedule interviews with the artists or SSE staff, contact: Steve Carlson Seed Savers Exchange steve@seedsavers.org 563-387-5686

Located six miles north of Decorah, 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

Seed Savers Exchange Ships Two More Crates to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Untouchable by hurricanes, impervious to tectonic movement, protected by polar bears, and reachable only through methods worthy of reality television - the Svalbard Global Seed Vault provides the ultimate in long term storage for seed. On February 14^th, Seed Savers Exchange sent its sixth shipment of seed to the vault, located on a remote archipelago in arctic Norway. This vault serves as a global gene bank for the world’s food crops, and will provide long-term back up for Seed Saver Exchange’s preservation collections. To date, Seed Savers Exchange has deposited a total of 2,248 unique varieties, and continues to deposit seeds of several hundred varieties every year.

To prepare the seeds for long-term storage, seeds are dried until they have approximately 5% moisture content, and are then heat sealed into air-tight packets. Once inside the vault, the packets will be kept at 0°F (-17°C) and will remain viable for a very long time. Similar to a safe deposit box at the bank, only Seed Savers Exchange has access to the materials deposited. This ‘Black Box’ agreement is made with each depositor, and ensures that only the depositor can access their own seeds in the vault.

The Svalbard seed vault was built deep into mountainous permafrost, which keeps the vault at below freezing temperatures even without a cooling system. Furthermore, its treacherous and remote location protects the vault from possible harm due to natural disasters and human powered calamities like a nuclear bomb strike. This kind of protection ensures Seed Savers Exchanges’ seeds will be safe for many years to come.

“As one of 1400 seed banks in the world, Seed Savers Exchange is proud to deposit an additional 366 varieties in the Svalbard Global Seed Bank in Norway, bringing our total deposits to more than 2,000 varieties. The global seed bank, with 725,000 total deposits, represents man’s best efforts to ensure that today's seed varieties are available for future generations.” – John Torgimson, Seed Savers Exchange president.

Read more about the genetic resources preservation efforts at Seed Savers Exchange here.

Seed Savers Exchange Distributes 2013 Yearbook

Annual publication makes available more than 12,000 heirloom and open-pollinated varieties of seed.

Decorah, IA. For the past 38 years, the Yearbook, which is distributed to Seed Savers Exchange’s 13,000 members, has grown into one of the largest private seed indexes in the United States. The Yearbook was created in 1975 in an effort to involve gardeners in the preservation of America’s garden heritage.

A non-profit grassroots organization, Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) asks its members, most of whom are home gardeners, to play a vital role as participatory conservationists in collecting, maintaining and sharing heirloom and open-pollinated seeds. Unlike hybrid seeds, the seeds of heirloom and open-pollinated varieties can be saved and grown again and will produce fruit true to the parent plant, a process used for thousands of years. The annual Yearbook is the preservation tool that fosters the sharing of seeds between SSE members.

“The Yearbook first started out as a mimeographed list of seeds shared by a handful of Seed Savers Exchange supporters back in 1975,” recalled Diane Ott Whealy, co-founder and Vice President of SSE. “Today, it is a 500 page compilation with almost 20,000 listings, ranging from Amaranth to Watermelon.”

This year SSE members have the opportunity to choose from 12,495 unique varieties from 694 listed members found across all 50 states and 12 countries. A listed member is a gardener or farmer who saves seed and offers them for exchange in the Yearbook. Each of these listed members provides an answer to what varieties perform well in their specific location: ‘Luther Hill’ corn in Ontario, ‘Speckled Butter’ bean in Mississippi, ‘Wenk’s Yellow Hots’ pepper in California, ‘Green Nutmeg’ muskmelon in Indiana, to name a few. Each variety offered in the Yearbook provides a connection between seed saver and grower.

“With the potential for climate change, the genetic variability of heirloom and open pollinated seeds has never been more important to safeguarding our future,” Whealy noted. “And the role the Yearbook and the Exchange plays is critical to providing alternatives for gardeners in an ever changing environment.” Learn more about the Yearbook and becoming a Seed Savers Exchange member here.

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

For More Information, Contact:

Steve Carlson Seed Savers Exchange 563-387-5686 newsroom@seedsavers.org