Seeds

Seeds have been on the table, quite literally, lately, and very much on our minds as well.  We just put in our big seed order, which will cover most of what we plan to grow this coming (rapidly coming!) spring and summer.  It's the largest seed order I've ever placed, by a long shot.  We're hoping we got everything, and enough of the right things....we'll kind of have to see how it all plays out.  

We went to an interesting event last night, too, sponsored by the Organic Seed Alliance, the Native Seed Search, and a few other local non-profits, focused on seed security.  The speaker from the Native Seed Search (http://www.nativeseeds.org) spoke passionately about the importance of maintaining viable seeds as a public, natural, resource, and the importance of having regional exchanges and seed banks/ libraries to serve as sources for locally well-adapted seed stocks.  It was inspiring, especially after having just ordered our seeds from Vermont....after looking, unsucessfully, for seed sources more locally.   

Missoula is working now to start a seed library, for exchanging, trading, and stewarding varieties of seed that are locally successful.  We're excited to be a part of that, not just to reduce how much seed we need to buy next year, but to participate in that fundamental aspect of agriculture, which really got us all the diversity of crops we have today, of slowly selecting and changing varieties to match our climate, desires, and needs.  As Bill said last night, of saving, selecting, and sharing regional seeds "..that way, we are creating a better world, one that tastes better!"   

The first thing we did on that beautiful new barnwood table we built was to spread out a donation of 75 seed packets from High Mowing Seeds, to see what we had.  It's a ridiculous wealth!  Most of of these packets will go to farmers that we work with on courses, as a gift from the students that they host in their homes.  Farmers in a lot of areas (here as well, not just the tropics) often struggle with getting access to affordable and appropriate seeds.  All the varieties we'll share are open-pollinated, and non-GMO, so farmers can save seeds from one crop for the next year.