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Agriculture and Food "When the planes still swoop down and aerial spray a field in order to kill a predator insect with pesticides, we are in the Dark Ages of commerce. ~ Paul Hawken Saving Seeds, Sowing Food Security: Gardeners Reclaim Their Seed Heritage NW Farms & Food http://nwfarmsandfood.com/index.php/saving-seeds For consumers concerned about what is in their food and how far it travels before reaching the dinner table, this past year's surge in vegetable gardening has highlighted the wisdom of saving seeds. Seed companies and nurseries selling vegetable starts reported record buying and some shortages as gardeners planted their own to save on food bills. Yet, as homegrown, local vegetables filled household refrigerators, concerns about the safety and reliability of mass-produced seed and starter plants has cropped up. In 2009, when an early and virulent tomato blight spread through crops and home gardens in the Northeastern United States, wet weather could not explain everything. According to the New York Times, plant pathologists traced the blight to tomato starter plants. Industrial breeding operations in the South produced starters which big box retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's, Kmart and Wal-mart sold widely throughout the Northeast. By buying plant starts from only a few centralized industrial producers, home gardeners and food locavores, with all the best intentions, may be inadvertently setting the stage for more such regional crop vulnerabilities. Gardeners face the same choice when they purchase seeds. Giant multinational seed corporations concentrate their production on mass-distribution hybrids rather than regionally-adapted seeds. Hybrids, developed for such qualities as disease resistance and hardiness in shipping, often sacrifice flavor and other unique characteristics in the process. To create a hybrid, commercial companies cross-pollinate or genetically engineer two varieties to produce a new one, which they then patent. Hybrids are profitable because seeds from their first generation will not produce true to type copies, thereby ensuring that gardeners have to buy new seeds each season. Evening primrose seeds As the production of seeds and plant starts becomes ever more centralized, however, a new breed a home gardener is reclaiming the gardening traditions of past generations. With such advocates as the Organic Seed Alliance and Seed Savers Exchange, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving garden biodiversity by passing on samples of rare open-pollinated (non hybrid) seeds, gardeners are planting and preserving unique varieties. Heirlooms (seeds passed down from generation to generation within families or communities) often have varied shapes and deep flavors. Some have a delicate, but deliciously short shelf life unsuited to long distance travel, but intensely flavorful for the gardener who can pick them at the peak of ripeness. By preserving heirloom and open-pollinated plants of many varieties, seed savers promote a food system that more closely resembles the diversity of nature. They also save money and ensure their own source of food. Saving lettuce seeds "What's really wonderful about saving your own seed is that you always have lots," said Celt Schira, a Bellingham, Washington seed saver and year-round gardener. Schira began saving seeds by chance in the fall of 2001, after spending a summer away from her garden. "When I left in May, I had a garden of lettuce, kale, broccoli, and onions," she said. "When I got back in September, I had a garden full of seeds." That fall she pulled out the tall, dead plants, added compost, and turned over the soil. What came up was a beautiful winter garden of hardy vegetables. "I said, ‘This is wonderful. This is not so hard!'" Stored winter vegetables Since then, Schira has saved seeds from a wide range of vegetables, herbs and flowers in her garden. She focuses on breeding (saving seeds from plants with the most desirable size, appearance and flavor for her environment) hardy vegetables that are the staples of the Northwest Maritime fall and spring "shoulder seasons." For Schira it's an economic boon as well as a question of freshness. "If you plant a garden at the end of August, it will carry you until next May when you start your summer garden. That's where you really save in this climate," she said. "If you try to buy fresh food during those off seasons, you pay a lot of money." Her winter larder is filled with produce from seeds she saved and planted. "If you're willing to eat what you grow, you can have sprouts, leeks, kale, chard, beet leaves, stored pumpkins, carrots, onions, cabbages and the occasional Brussels sprouts." she said. "And you can have that all winter when organic lettuce is three bucks a head."