The Power of Telling a Good Story

Sean Sherman, decorated chef and Seed Savers Exchange board member, shares his story at SSE’s Seed to Table Benefit Dinner.

There are two main ways to communicate in the collective human language—prose and poetry. Prose tells it exactly how it is, no minced words, metaphors, similes, sarcasm, or hidden messages. Prose gets the job done, but it doesn’t convey emotion because simple facts can’t inspire empathy or create feelings. This is where poetry, or storytelling, makes its mark.

And as I found out during my time as the membership and development intern at Heritage Farm, Seed Savers Exchange is all about stories. About one week into my internship, I was invited to be part of a meeting with a longtime friend and donor to the organization. Michael Washburn, SSE preservation director, was also there, and when it was his turn to speak about why SSE was important, he didn’t use any facts, figures, or little-known statistics. He began, instead, with a story. He told us about one type of pea, a small pea, with a history. The ‘Washday’ pea was cooked at the end of wash day in the southern United States, and because of its smaller size, it could be cooked in the same time it took to make a pone of cornbread. He explained how this pea was part of a special history and culture, how it was so much more than “just a pea.” It is a collective memory, he said, connected to the story of washday in the south. 

Then he told us that SSE stewards this pea in our collection, and no more needed to be said. Without talking about it directly, he had described SSE’s mission—and not just the mission but the “why” behind the mission as well, why the work we do is about so much more than “just seeds.” 

This summer, SSE hosted its first in-person event since 2019: the Seed to Table Benefit Farm Dinner, planned and hosted by the membership and development team After hearing about the ‘Washday’ pea, I knew that what the event needed was stories like this, ones that conveyed the mission of SSE beyond just the numbers and the science. The rest of our team agreed, so we decided to have speakers tell their stories throughout the night.

Stories are most powerful when they are personal, and the first person to speak shared  her very own story. Diane Ott Whealy, co-founder of SSE, recounted the story that began this organization, the story about the two seeds that emigrated with her ancestors overseas and ended up in her stewardship––the ‘German Pink’ tomato and ‘Grandpa Ott’s’ morning glory. 

Diane Ott Whealy, SSE co-founder, tells the story of Seed Savers Exchange at the recent farm dinner.

Next, we had the pleasure of hearing from Sean Sherman, decorated chef and SSE board member, who shared not only his story but also the story of people in the Dakota and Minnesota territories, and what seeds mean to them. The Indigenous American story reflects pain and tragedy, but also rich history and culture. Sean told his story of working as a chef and how he revived the forgotten history of Indigenous food by gathering stories and recipes from before his land and people were colonized. 

Our last two speakers were current SSE staff members. Michael Washburn told a story about a different seed, the ‘Maupin’ pea, which belongs to a variety of peas originally from West Africa that have a history of stewardship in the southern United States. Michael was on the team that saved the ‘Maupin’ pea from extinction through SSE’s RENEW program, and later when he came to work here at Heritage Farm, made a connection that led the pea through a seed donation back to the south, in Florida, where record of its stewardship can first be found. 

Executive Director Mike Bollinger closed out the night with his own SSE story, sharing why he came to work here before also sharing words from another staff member, Brianna Burke, about the valuable gift that seeds give us of “having power and agency over the feeding and nourishing of ourselves, our families, and our communities.”

Attendees swap their stories at the recent farm dinner at SSE’s Heritage Farm.

Telling a good story is about more than just the facts; it's about emotion and feelings that inspire us to do amazing things. So the next time that I have a job interview, the chance to give a speech, or the opportunity to give someone advice, I’m not going to spout facts or qualifications. Instead, I’m going to tell a story from my own life, maybe even one from my time here at Seed Savers Exchange, and I would encourage you to do the same.