Decorah Seed Savers Exchange Spring SWAP
Last month we took a beautiful day trip to Decorah Iowa to swap seeds and stories
at the Seed Savers Exchange Spring Garden School & Seed Swap.
Greeted by a host of amazingly welcoming seed workers, we quickly came to find that SSE is not only filling gardens with great seeds, but also cultivating an incredible crop of bright young agri-Culture workers- new and experienced growers eager to get involved in seed production, and to examine more deeply the relationships between food and social customs, cultural histories, anthropological developments, and throguh these various lenses, create new ways to build networks among seed savers.
With backgrounds ranging from market growing to grad school, horticulture to anthropology, studio arts to literary studies, from a lab full of Chinese medicinal herbs, to Appalachia- the number of perspectives on the importance of seed diversity at Seed Savers was exceeded only by the actual diversity of seeds in their commercial and preservation collections.
Throughout the day conversations returned to an appreciation for the aesthetic beauty of heirloom vegetables, their being "food for the soul", and to the important role interested amateurs continue to play in preserving plant biodiversity.
With backgrounds ranging from market growing to grad school, horticulture to anthropology, studio arts to literary studies, from a lab full of Chinese medicinal herbs, to Appalachia- the number of perspectives on the importance of seed diversity at Seed Savers was exceeded only by the actual diversity of seeds in their commercial and preservation collections.
Throughout the day conversations returned to an appreciation for the aesthetic beauty of heirloom vegetables, their being "food for the soul", and to the important role interested amateurs continue to play in preserving plant biodiversity.