Last month I attended a seed saving seminar at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, which was most informative, as well as a seed swap afterwards. I learned a great deal and feel equipped to effectively save pure seed from the various plants that will be grown in Wright Gardens this year.
The seminar made me glad that I did not save seeds last year. Had I, seeds saved from fruit where multiple varieties were grown would not have been pure to the individual adult plants. For instance, four different varieties of tomatoes grew in the garden last year. Seeds saved from those single varieties would have actually been a natural hybrid of all four types due to cross-pollination. If those saved seeds had been planted this year, the tomatoes grown would not be the same fruit grown from pure parent seeds, and less so year after year.
Multiple varieties of one genus can be grown but some care is required to prevent cross-pollination if you want to grow and save pure seed. To this end, growing each genus a specific distance apart from another or tenting each genus are viable options.
Because I want to be a responsible seed steward, only one variety of tomato will be grown in the garden this year. The tomato chosen is Black Icicle. It's a purple pear shaped tomato with an outstanding robust flavor. Three plants will yield plenty of summer's quintessential vegetable (botanically speaking, a fruit, technically) for eatin' and saving seeds.
The seed saving seminar was led by a staff member of Seed Savers Exchange, who also donated many seeds to the seed swap held later the same day. Vegetable, flower, and herb seeds were also donated by the Chicago Botanic Gardens and Master Gardeners. Gardeners such as myself were welcome to bring saved or leftover seed packets to share at the swap. From the swap I gathered ranunculus and helichrysum flower seeds. Also, swapped personally with a Master Gardener named Don, he gave to me a packet of Penstemon digitalis "Husker Red". He was delighted to have a few of leftover vegetable and flower seed packets I had brought with me that day.
While walking around the seed swap, I noticed that a couple of experienced gardeners were using a book Seed to Seed as their reference guide. I finally asked two gentlemen, tomato connoisseurs, who were seated at the same table together, if they had copies of the book for sale. They did not but I knew immediately that if these folks, who possessed years of gardening experience each, referred to that book, it's a book that I want in my gardening library. A copy of the book sits next to me as I type. It is chock full of so much valuable information that I'm equally overwhelmed and jumping for joy.
Like I was saying...
Seed to Seed is a complete seed-saving guide that describes techniques for saving the seeds of 160 different vegetables. This book contains detailed information about each vegetable, including its botanical classification, flower structure and means of pollination, required population size, isolation distance, techniques for caging or hand-pollination, and also the proper methods for harvesting, drying, cleaning, and storing the seeds.
Seed to Seed is widely acknowledged as the best guide available for home gardeners to learn effective ways to produce and store seeds on a small scale. The author (Suzanne Ashworth) has grown seed crops for every vegetable featured in the book, and has thoroughly researched and tested all of the techniques she recommends for the home garden.
Included with my book order was a copy of the sixth edition of Garden Seed Inventory by Seed Savers Exchange. This book is a reference guide with the mission of preserving our garden heritage. Included inside the front cover: An inventory of seed catalogs listing all non-hybrid vegetable seeds available in the United States and Canada.
While waiting for these books to arrive at our doorstep, I came across some information on the Internet that resulted in close to five hours of research pertaining to GE/GMO seeds, the greedy entity known as Monsanto, the Safe Seed Pledge, and Monsanto-free companies. I'll now attempt to compile the details I found in a concise fashion, so as to allow you to read, research, and make your own informed decision about where you'll purchase your seeds and plants from in the future.
I came across The Healthy Home Economist blog; in particular, the post titled The Four Steps Required to Keep Monsanto OUT of your Garden. It is here that I learned that in 2005 (2005!) Monsanto purchased the world's largest vegetable seed company, Seminis, Inc. This means if you buy seeds from a company that otherwise sells safe seeds, including an array that are certified organic or heirloom seeds, yet are supplied to them by Seminis, you're now putting money in Monsanto's avaricious grasp. My sympathy for the companies affected by this buy-out. I cannot imagine that they're happy about being indirectly associated with Monsanto. I've also read from several different sources that these companies are receiving letters from customers who ask for a list of Seminis-supplied seeds so they can avoid buying them. Some of these are heirloom seeds that are top sellers. Some of these companies are weighing their options as to whether or not they should cease carrying any of the seeds that are supplied by Seminis. However, many of the seeds in question are irreplaceable; there is no other source for them.
The first of the four steps to keep Monsanto out of your garden is to "avoid buying from the seed companies affiliated with Monsanto." I reviewed the list of companies to avoid just two days before the Garden Seed Inventory book was delivered. Once I had opportunity to have a look inside the book, I recognized some of the companies names from the to-avoid list. One by one, each company on the to-avoid list was crossed out in the seed inventory book. Personally, I do not want to knowingly support Monsanto in any way. Monsanto also owns the DeRuiter seed brand. It's not an easy decision to make; I want to support independent seeds companies as well as do my part in preserving rapidly vanishing heirloom varieties, and these companies are truly innocent bystanders, but I want to say no to Monsanto. Heck, a part of me wants to buy the seeds only available from one or two sources, even if they are supplied by Seminis, and start my own seed library.
The second step on The Healthy Home Economist's list is to buy seeds from "companies Monsanto has not bought and are not affiliated with or do business with Seminis." The list of companies, compiled by Occupy Monsanto, happily, is lengthy. One company name, however, was strangely missing from the list - Seed Savers Exchange (SSE). How could the largest seed stewardship be omitted from such an important list? Especially since Seed Savers Exchange were one of the first to sign the Safe Seed Pledge.
I was about to submit a comment to Occupy Monsanto asking that they include Seed Savers on their Monsanto-Free Seed Companies list when I decided to utilize the 'find' feature and see if someone had done so already. Also to learn if mention was made as to why they have been omitted from the list. I quickly found my answer.
A comment made on March 1, 2013 from "NOGMONC" basically says that the list "sadly" includes SSE. The comment goes on to say that SSE has "partnered and contracted with the likes of the Gates Foundation, Syngenta, Dupont & Monsanto just to name a few on the construction [of] Svalbard Seed Vault in Norway." I am aware of the Svalbard Seed Vault and that SSE participates in seed storage there, but was not aware that Monsanto is a large financial contributor of the vault's construction.
A mere twenty-five minutes later, "Occupy Monsanto" responded to "NOGMONC" indicating that they thought they "had already removed them after finding out a couple of things many months back, they're off the list now." Occupy Monsanto has yet to reply to a query asking what else they've learned about SSE, so I'm left to wonder if it's something more than the affiliation with Monsanto and other pro-GMO entities.
"NOGMONC's" comment also includes a link to a safe seed company list compiled by Farmwars.
For anyone who is interested, the depositor guidelines for the Svalbard Seed Vault can be found here.
And then there is this letter, allegedly penned by Kent Whealy, who co-founded Seed Savers Exchange in 1975, along with his (then) wife Diane Ott Whealy. I'm not sure what to make of the letter or what Kent's agenda may be, if there is an agenda at all. For those that like to hear all sides of a story, there is this thread from the Seed Savers forums concerning Kent Whealy's speech. No matter the back story, I wholeheartedly agree with the comments below made by poster "johnny apple seed" (post #8 in the thread):
"I beleive [sic] SSE should use caution and forsight [sic] concerning Svalbard, it may be easy to say SSE seeds are safe, but after a long continuing investigation and study of Monsanto, I believe they would do most anything, especially in a covert way to get their hands on many of those seeds to patent them. lets [sic] hope that doesn't happen, and at the same time I hope SSE is very viligant [sic] in it's [sic] dealings with Svalbard. If those seeds were patented, 35 years worth of work would be seriously undermined if not destroyed."
Indeed.
The seminar made me glad that I did not save seeds last year. Had I, seeds saved from fruit where multiple varieties were grown would not have been pure to the individual adult plants. For instance, four different varieties of tomatoes grew in the garden last year. Seeds saved from those single varieties would have actually been a natural hybrid of all four types due to cross-pollination. If those saved seeds had been planted this year, the tomatoes grown would not be the same fruit grown from pure parent seeds, and less so year after year.
Multiple varieties of one genus can be grown but some care is required to prevent cross-pollination if you want to grow and save pure seed. To this end, growing each genus a specific distance apart from another or tenting each genus are viable options.
Because I want to be a responsible seed steward, only one variety of tomato will be grown in the garden this year. The tomato chosen is Black Icicle. It's a purple pear shaped tomato with an outstanding robust flavor. Three plants will yield plenty of summer's quintessential vegetable (botanically speaking, a fruit, technically) for eatin' and saving seeds.
The seed saving seminar was led by a staff member of Seed Savers Exchange, who also donated many seeds to the seed swap held later the same day. Vegetable, flower, and herb seeds were also donated by the Chicago Botanic Gardens and Master Gardeners. Gardeners such as myself were welcome to bring saved or leftover seed packets to share at the swap. From the swap I gathered ranunculus and helichrysum flower seeds. Also, swapped personally with a Master Gardener named Don, he gave to me a packet of Penstemon digitalis "Husker Red". He was delighted to have a few of leftover vegetable and flower seed packets I had brought with me that day.
While walking around the seed swap, I noticed that a couple of experienced gardeners were using a book Seed to Seed as their reference guide. I finally asked two gentlemen, tomato connoisseurs, who were seated at the same table together, if they had copies of the book for sale. They did not but I knew immediately that if these folks, who possessed years of gardening experience each, referred to that book, it's a book that I want in my gardening library. A copy of the book sits next to me as I type. It is chock full of so much valuable information that I'm equally overwhelmed and jumping for joy.
Like I was saying...
Seed to Seed is a complete seed-saving guide that describes techniques for saving the seeds of 160 different vegetables. This book contains detailed information about each vegetable, including its botanical classification, flower structure and means of pollination, required population size, isolation distance, techniques for caging or hand-pollination, and also the proper methods for harvesting, drying, cleaning, and storing the seeds.
Seed to Seed is widely acknowledged as the best guide available for home gardeners to learn effective ways to produce and store seeds on a small scale. The author (Suzanne Ashworth) has grown seed crops for every vegetable featured in the book, and has thoroughly researched and tested all of the techniques she recommends for the home garden.
Included with my book order was a copy of the sixth edition of Garden Seed Inventory by Seed Savers Exchange. This book is a reference guide with the mission of preserving our garden heritage. Included inside the front cover: An inventory of seed catalogs listing all non-hybrid vegetable seeds available in the United States and Canada.
While waiting for these books to arrive at our doorstep, I came across some information on the Internet that resulted in close to five hours of research pertaining to GE/GMO seeds, the greedy entity known as Monsanto, the Safe Seed Pledge, and Monsanto-free companies. I'll now attempt to compile the details I found in a concise fashion, so as to allow you to read, research, and make your own informed decision about where you'll purchase your seeds and plants from in the future.
I came across The Healthy Home Economist blog; in particular, the post titled The Four Steps Required to Keep Monsanto OUT of your Garden. It is here that I learned that in 2005 (2005!) Monsanto purchased the world's largest vegetable seed company, Seminis, Inc. This means if you buy seeds from a company that otherwise sells safe seeds, including an array that are certified organic or heirloom seeds, yet are supplied to them by Seminis, you're now putting money in Monsanto's avaricious grasp. My sympathy for the companies affected by this buy-out. I cannot imagine that they're happy about being indirectly associated with Monsanto. I've also read from several different sources that these companies are receiving letters from customers who ask for a list of Seminis-supplied seeds so they can avoid buying them. Some of these are heirloom seeds that are top sellers. Some of these companies are weighing their options as to whether or not they should cease carrying any of the seeds that are supplied by Seminis. However, many of the seeds in question are irreplaceable; there is no other source for them.
The first of the four steps to keep Monsanto out of your garden is to "avoid buying from the seed companies affiliated with Monsanto." I reviewed the list of companies to avoid just two days before the Garden Seed Inventory book was delivered. Once I had opportunity to have a look inside the book, I recognized some of the companies names from the to-avoid list. One by one, each company on the to-avoid list was crossed out in the seed inventory book. Personally, I do not want to knowingly support Monsanto in any way. Monsanto also owns the DeRuiter seed brand. It's not an easy decision to make; I want to support independent seeds companies as well as do my part in preserving rapidly vanishing heirloom varieties, and these companies are truly innocent bystanders, but I want to say no to Monsanto. Heck, a part of me wants to buy the seeds only available from one or two sources, even if they are supplied by Seminis, and start my own seed library.
The second step on The Healthy Home Economist's list is to buy seeds from "companies Monsanto has not bought and are not affiliated with or do business with Seminis." The list of companies, compiled by Occupy Monsanto, happily, is lengthy. One company name, however, was strangely missing from the list - Seed Savers Exchange (SSE). How could the largest seed stewardship be omitted from such an important list? Especially since Seed Savers Exchange were one of the first to sign the Safe Seed Pledge.
I was about to submit a comment to Occupy Monsanto asking that they include Seed Savers on their Monsanto-Free Seed Companies list when I decided to utilize the 'find' feature and see if someone had done so already. Also to learn if mention was made as to why they have been omitted from the list. I quickly found my answer.
A comment made on March 1, 2013 from "NOGMONC" basically says that the list "sadly" includes SSE. The comment goes on to say that SSE has "partnered and contracted with the likes of the Gates Foundation, Syngenta, Dupont & Monsanto just to name a few on the construction [of] Svalbard Seed Vault in Norway." I am aware of the Svalbard Seed Vault and that SSE participates in seed storage there, but was not aware that Monsanto is a large financial contributor of the vault's construction.
A mere twenty-five minutes later, "Occupy Monsanto" responded to "NOGMONC" indicating that they thought they "had already removed them after finding out a couple of things many months back, they're off the list now." Occupy Monsanto has yet to reply to a query asking what else they've learned about SSE, so I'm left to wonder if it's something more than the affiliation with Monsanto and other pro-GMO entities.
"NOGMONC's" comment also includes a link to a safe seed company list compiled by Farmwars.
For anyone who is interested, the depositor guidelines for the Svalbard Seed Vault can be found here.
And then there is this letter, allegedly penned by Kent Whealy, who co-founded Seed Savers Exchange in 1975, along with his (then) wife Diane Ott Whealy. I'm not sure what to make of the letter or what Kent's agenda may be, if there is an agenda at all. For those that like to hear all sides of a story, there is this thread from the Seed Savers forums concerning Kent Whealy's speech. No matter the back story, I wholeheartedly agree with the comments below made by poster "johnny apple seed" (post #8 in the thread):
"I beleive [sic] SSE should use caution and forsight [sic] concerning Svalbard, it may be easy to say SSE seeds are safe, but after a long continuing investigation and study of Monsanto, I believe they would do most anything, especially in a covert way to get their hands on many of those seeds to patent them. lets [sic] hope that doesn't happen, and at the same time I hope SSE is very viligant [sic] in it's [sic] dealings with Svalbard. If those seeds were patented, 35 years worth of work would be seriously undermined if not destroyed."
Indeed.
