Seed Saving

 I've just finished reading The Seed Saver by Diane Wilson. And it is still haunting my thoughts. The book is about so much more than seeds, about the civilization of Native Americans, and about the white settlers' thoughtless and cruel treatment of these peoples they/we displaced. It's a heart-gripping tale of generations of Lakota women who preserved their families as best they could, carrying their sacred traditions in their hearts, and their sacred seeds sewed into their clothing as they were forcefully taken from their homes and moved far across the country.  And then, as if that weren't enough, their children were grabbed and placed in boarding schools that aimed to eradicate the Indian in them. It's a very sobering chapter in our history and any remedy has been too long in coming. 

Rosie, the main character in the book, was taken from her home when her grandfather died and despite having family members who could have taken care of her, she was put in foster homes until she came of age. She too tried to preserve in her memory the world view her grandfather instilled in her, where all living things were relatives, where taking care of the natural world around her and communicating with it brought peace and wellbeing. Though Rosie's story is sad, and she had to have courage and determination to survive, one of her discoveries was the magic of seeds: sacred seeds that were saved each year by native communities, saved for the next year of planting, the next year of food. And those valued baskets or boxes of saved seeds eventually came to her from both sides of her adult family.

I was already thinking about seeds when I started reading the book. It is that time of year. I have a pile of seed catalogs waiting to be read and marked, and this morning I got comfortable in my recliner and began to explore what is available. I've always felt like seeds are magical. It is amazing to me that tiny little specks can suddenly come alive and grow into millions of different plants. So planting for spring has been a special time for me, placing little brown treasure houses in the ground and watching for the first sprout to break through. After reading The Seed Saver, seeds have suddenly become more surrounded with history and with choices for me. I've been aware for a long time that because of the selection of particular seeds deemed best, thousands or millions of varieties of plants are going extinct. OK, I thought. There seem to be lots of seeds available in catalogs, so maybe we're fine. Yet I am beginning to see in a more felt way that diversity has taken a big hit when we manipulate the varieties of seed available. For instance rice, wheat and corn are the main grains we depend upon now, and what if there were a blight affecting one or more of these? A grain pandemic. We are cutting off our escape routes when we propagate only a selected few varieties. As in so many other ways, our focus on making money and the relegation of decisions to big corporations is endangering our future. 

So as I look through the seed catalogs, I am thinking about saving more seeds this coming fall. Going through seed catalogs and depending on others to provide me with seeds is a habit I've had all my adult life, and sometimes it takes a change in deep understanding to interrupt these patterns. In a way, it is strange that I've never saved seeds from one season to the next. After all, as long as I am not planting hybrids, the seeds that form on my plants are just as good as ones I buy from a seed company hundreds of miles away. And seeds from my garden are from plants that have grown right here. The plant they come from is already acclimated to the place, the climate, the surroundings. 

I have also decided to choose seeds this year that are new to me, seeds that are not mainstream, seeds that have been saved over generations by families who kept them like treasures. I am also thinking about planting some more perennial kinds of food plants. My garden is on a slope, and this morning I'm getting excited about planting a variety of fruit-producing shrubs at the top: gooseberries, elderberry, quince, and Cornelian cherry. It is only the 4th of February, but the idea of spring has woken up my gardener soul. With the light getting longer every day, all of nature is probably already responding to the promise of change soon. Happy spring thoughts to you too!