Seed Saving Savvy for the Eager or Uninformed
- By Derrick Gentry
“Even anarchists need ground rules. It is understood that the Exchange is a place for sharing heirloom, open-pollinated varieties that members have grown themselves… ”
The political season is now upon us, and there has never been a better time to be outside in the garden. Or, if the cold Spring rain forces you out of the idyllic and apolitical bliss of the garden bed, there is always the indoor option of retreating to a comfy chair with a hot cup of tea and a stack of seed catalogs—those harbingers of the growing season that have been forming a stack on the kitchen table since long before the New Hampshire primaries.
I have spent many pleasant hours in recent weeks leafing through the latest catalog from the Seed Saver’s Exchange. “The Exchange 2020 Yearbook” is surely the least glossy and the least glamorous of all seed catalogs. It also stands out every year as the thickest and heaviest among the pile, resembling a telephone directory more than a commercial seed catalog. This year’s edition comes out to 508 pages. Not a single one of them features a black and white illustration, let alone a glossy photo of a luscious bright-red tomato. It is “text heavy,” as the people in advertising like to say. But it is also great fun to read and an excellent way to lose track of the time. (My copy, which is dog-eared and underlined throughout, bears ample traces of that happy loss.)
The international party of seed savers is founded upon the political philosophy of the 19th-century anarchist Johnny Appleseed. Anyone, inside or outside the United States, can become a member. And to become a member is to feel like you have joined a movement.
The Seed Savers Exchange was formed in 1975 by Diane Ott Whealy and Kent Whealy (who passed away in 2018) along with 29 other backyard gardeners who came together over concerns about the rapid loss of seed biodiversity – an existential issue and human-interest story that, if anything, is even more urgent than it was 50 years ago. The central headquarters of the Exchange is Heritage Farm, which is located nearly the Whealys’ home town of Decorah, Iowa. Heritage Farm has been described as “the most diverse farm in the world.” It is also the physical site of one of the largest non-governmental seed banks, with more than 25,000 rare fruit, vegetable, and other plant varieties preserved in some form (often by vigilant planting and replanting every season).
Their central mission, however, is highly decentralized. The Exchange has grown in membership since 1975, and it is still comprised of a widely distributed network of small-scale growers. Their mission is expressed in the words of Diane Ott Whealy that appear as an epigraph at the beginning of each catalog: “We can only preserve heirloom seeds through active stewardship. If we don’t allow them to grow again, they become lost.” In Whealy’s annual letter to members, she also quotes Margaret Mead’s variation upon “think globally, act locally”: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
The bulk of the catalog consists of members’ descriptive accounts of their serendipitous adventures in biodiversity. The listings are grouped by type and arranged alphabetically. Under “vegetables,” the first up is a section for Adzuki beans (five varieties, offered by four members in four different states). There are 57 pages devoted to various other beans, each listing printed in tiny font size. The listings for tomato seeds extend from page 267 to page 440.
Some of the entries are brief and matter-of-fact, while many of them are longer and richly laden with anecdote and social history. Reading through
them often feels like following a conversation thread. In the section on “Black Shackamaxon,” a dry pole bean, Allison Berg of Jamestown, NY (NY BE A3) writes:
“I obtained this from Will Woys Weaver (PA WE W). This stock originated from Mary Thomas who received the beans from her mother Rebecca, who in turn had gotten the seed at Pennsbury Manor abt. 1906 from Mahlon Moon, a Quaker interested in horticulture and local history. Will Weaver lists this as a different variety from Blue Shackamaxon, but to me they seem very identical.”
Let’s hope that Will and Allison will be able to work out their differences sometime before next season’s Yearbook…
Allison is one of several members who offer the bean that has come to be known as “indian Hannah.” Here is the story behind it, as reported on page 63:
“Named for Hannah Freeman (Indian Hannah) one of the last Lenape indians [sic] in Chester County … Hannah was the last of the Lenape to remain in her part of Bucks County Pennsylvania (near Downington); she gave this bean to the Quaker farm family who provided her a home in the last years of her life.”
(Yes, the “indian” is in lower case. Seed savers do not always have a passion for proofreading, but you can be sure that no error in the catalog is a sign of disrespect.)
Some of the entries cross the threshold from anecdote and oral tradition to archaeology. In the beans section, not far from the stories of Hannah Freeman and Mahlon Moon, there is a hard-to-ignore listing for the “1500 Year Old Cave Bean,” which is believed to have been found in a clay pot sealed with pitch in a cave in New Mexico. It is the only seed listed in the catalog that includes information on carbon dating along with the zone hardiness. The anonymous and perhaps absent-minded individual who saved the seed in ca. 500 A.D. is the oldest honorary member of the Exchange.
On page 477, under “misc herbs,” there is a short listing by member NY BE C for “Huacatay,” a marigold “that stands taller than me or you.”
After a few seasons of reading the Seed Savers catalog, you begin to realize that some of these stories (like the 1500-Year-Old Cave Bean) have been re-circulated year after year, like the same story told by an absent-minded relative at every Thanksgiving meal. As is the case with the seeds themselves, the active stewardship of the storyteller – the telling and retelling – is what keeps the story alive.
Strangely, the entries on the seeds themselves often sound more personal than the entries in the opening “Listers Section” where members are given the space to profile themselves. Some profiles are garrulous and even confessional; in some, the USDA growing zone is the most intimate piece of shared information.
In addition to the post-seasonal accounts of past floods and drought and disease pressure, there are stories about making due without a tractor that has been out of service since the Spring rains. Seed saving is a profitless endeavor; many of the Seed Savers sound like gardeners who are former farmers. Some members, in the space given to talk of themselves, open up about the struggle to make ends meet, of their concern not only to preserve biodiversity but also to hold on to the farmstead property that has been in the family for generations. There are sometimes touching stories of co-adaptation, such as a grower who is interested in trellis-friendly varieties on account of bad knees and difficulty bending over. None of this seems petty or self-absorbed; it’s simply the kind of report that you might expect in response to the broad question of how things have gone this past year.
Even anarchists need ground rules. It is understood that the Exchange is a place for sharing heirloom, open-pollinated varieties that members have grown themselves – not GMO seeds or unstable F1 hybrids, or seeds that were purchased and are being resold. Members who share seeds are expected to be completely honest about the observed traits of this new variety: hence, we read qualifiers like “moderately productive,” “taller than me or you, but slow to germinate,” “beautifully colored, but really an acquired taste,” etc..
The old-fashioned honor system is the basic ground rule with regard to transactions. Some members accept Paypal, others prefer check or cash or money order, and most are open to or openly prefer barter. In Sleetmute, Alaska “AK CA B” writes that she will take orders year round, but may not be able to get to the post office during break up and freeze up on the river. Some international members caution against sending cash in envelopes to countries where the system – or the postal system, at least – is broken.
In spite of all the talk among Seed Savers about selecting resilient varieties and adapting to newly unstable climates, what they do is fundamentally premised on abundance rather than scarcity. That is only natural: As anyone knows who has saved seeds from overwintered kale, a single plant gone to seed can produce enough seed to feed scores of people … so long as the seeds are saved and shared and replanted. Stewardship is a year-round job, and far more of a social activity than we sometimes appreciate. There is also an optimism implicit in the activity. The Seed Savers combine a fear of loss with a love of surprise and an embrace of future possibility (which, come to think of it, is a pretty good description of the unnamed political party that I would like to join…).
Our U.S. postal system is close to broke but not broken. In recent years, it has increasingly played the role of facilitator for a system founded upon short-term gratification and planned obsolescence – something the 18th-century anarchist sympathizer Ben Franklin probably did not envision. It is therefore comforting to think that among the stacks of bulky amazon.com boxes that are loaded up onto planes every day, there are tiny envelopes that are also on the move, flitting about like stowaway butterflies, in which are contained the seeds of the future.
[NOTE: Myself, Owl Light Editor D.E. Bentley and Owl Light “Crafting Your Own Cuisine” author Eileen Perkins—and other speakers—are scheduled to present at the Earth Dance festival hosted by Little Lakes Community Center Hemlock. Mine will be on “Amateurism and Earthcare,” and a rainy-day, text-heavy version of what (I think) I have to say will be published in the online version of the Owl Light…] *Visit Little Lakes Community Center on facebook for updates on this and all future events at the center.
