August 18th, 2020
What’s in your share?
Lacinato Kale
Head Lettuce
Sweet Italian Peppers
Shishito Peppers (mild)
Heirloom and Slicing Tomatoes
Fingerling Potatoes
Italian Tropea Onions
Carrots
“We exploit what we value, but we defend what we love.” –Wendell Berry
I’ve always thought there was a kind of magic in farming, beginning firstly, with a seed. I have never fully been able to wrap my mind around how a small seed can possess the genetic instructions and ancestral memory necessary to create life.
Since I first started farming I was introduced to the practice of seed saving. We grew out a diversity of open pollinated varieties, those that reproduce naturally, everything from lettuce, parsnips, beets, parsley, winter squash, cucumbers, sugar peas, and beans; varieties that had travelled from all over the world. Every year we saved the seeds from the first ripe tomatoes, selecting for those early characteristics and hoping next year’s crop would ripen even a little earlier than the year before. We hand pollinated the tops of our carrot flowers every morning, since insects would cross-pollinate ours with the common wild carrot, queen anne’s lace. Those seed varieties saved had an inherent resistance to disease and insects, and were naturally adapted to our climate, landscape, soil conditions, and to us.
For the last 12,000 years people have been saving seed. Only within the last 100 years or less have seeds become a commodity. Stolen from the indigenous, native communities to whom they belonged by birthright, many seeds are now genetically engineered in labs, patented and privatized, making it not only illegal, but also often impossible to save them. This is not only unjust, but also compromises our food security, biodiversity and more.
Yet we can still cultivate a culture of reverence for our seeds. Seeds with a history and culture, connected to people and stories. It is often said among native people that the wellbeing of seeds and agriculture overall is a direct reflection of the well being of the people. Similar to our current agricultural system, people are aching for connection, for culture, for history, for the lost stories and ancestral wisdom. We can heal our world in so many ways by reconnecting to our seed culture and promoting seed sovereignty, the right to save and exchange diverse, open-sourced seed. Cultivating a seed economy of abundance, rather than scarcity, by supporting seed saving and sharing initiatives on the local community level, enhances this culture of reverence and personal connection.
Here on the farm we are starting to save seeds while sourcing varieties from small independent seed companies that are committed to organic and biodynamic practices. Many of the seeds grown here, I’ve been growing out and saving for years. These seeds have a story, a connection to the land and a connection to us.