Seed Swapping, a New/Old Economics
We’re having a big seed swapping event on June 1 at Our Permaculture Farm with a farm tour, plant sale, children’s activities, a homesteading class, vendors and more. We hope to see you there!
Seed swapping is a very old tradition that is responsible for some of the best varieties of food that we grow. It’s been done in most cultures all over the world that farm. It allows farmers to use and share the best breeding results of the entire bioregion.
Native Americans developed cultivars of corn and other staple crops through swapping seeds in their bioregion that had incredible ability to survive in specific climate conditions. Thus, they were able to breed corn varieties that could grow in the harsh desert, or varieties that could handle the humid tropics, or very cold areas. Many tribes traded along vast trading routes, traveling great distances in some cases.
Florida Native Americans developed a number of substantial cities and trading centers, including one near Crystal River now located in Crystal River Archeological State Park.
“A National Historic Landmark, this 61-acre Native American site has burial mounds, temple platform mounds, a plaza area and a substantial midden. People traveled from great distances to celebrate events, conduct cultural and practical trade, and bury their dead.”
Along with seed trading might come celebrations, other trading and alliance building, deeper social connections and mate seeking. Trading relationships could prevent wars or skirmishes and often did. They still do and can.
Though the term seed swap implies bartering, many indigenous groups had traditions of gift giving as well. With seeds especially, the gift gives back. When more of us are growing our own food, it reduces air and water pollution, increases our local seed bank and food security, offers food for pollinating insects that can also help our gardens, and opens the door to new friendships and common interests. So no worries about having something to trade. Take some seeds, grow some plants, and bring seeds next year. Plants are so generous with their seeds. Many plants produce thousands each season - far more than any one individual can use in their garden. Nature has produced the abundance of these seeds, with our stewardship. She offers them freely to us and we can do so with each other. It’s also great to barter, or to use whatever type of exchange methods we want to use with one another. Humans have always had a variety of ways they could exchange with each other in the past, and weren’t limited to having to use a single currency like we so often are in this culture. It’s far more resilient to have a diversity of ways we can aid and support one another and exchange things of value.
Keeping money in the community helps raise up the community too and encourages people to create small businesses that provide ethical services to the community. Thus we have local vendors at the event who are of like mind. Though US local producers still do have to pay our rent, insurance, etc, and your support helps us continue our volunteer community work, the event is an opportunity to create relationships where some of these other types of mutual support can expand and deepen as well.
Homesteaders and gardeners have long engaged in seed swapping, and this is still occurring today. A revival in the use of heirloom seeds is sweeping the gardening movement with heirloom companies like Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Baker Creek Seed Company and local companies like Seed the Stars finding often rare but delicious heirloom cultivars that do well in local climates and soil conditions. We do our own experimenting with these cultivars, find the ones that do the best on our farm, and pass those seeds and that knowledge on.
We have found heirloom varieties of greens that are more heat and fungus tolerant that extend our “greens” season in Florida.
Tokyo Bekhana mustard is one of our favorite salad greens. Very mild tasting, it self seeds, slow to bolt and even tastes good once it has bolted. It’s also prolific, producing copious amounts of leaves during its lifespan that create our salad base. Easier to grow than lettuce. We extend the season by growing this in the shade when it starts getting hot.
Permaculturists have incorporated seed swaps deeply into our traditions. We incorporate them at every convergence and many other gatherings. We hold special seed swap events where that is the main function. This allows us to more rapidly find the seeds that do the best in our region, and to help each other breed the best cultivars for challenging climates. Seed swapping will increase in importance as climate change progresses. It will become more and more important for us to develop networks to exchange seeds that can adapt to changing weather conditions.
A class on plants with seed at the seed and plant swap section of a Florida Permaculture Convergence
In the spirit of this ancient practice that continues to have so much modern relevance, we’re looking forward to the upcoming seed swap and homesteading this weekend!
We’re partnering with the Hernando County Homesteading group, who have been doing this for a while now. This is their 3rd annual seed swap. We hope they will choose to do it at our farm yearly from now on. April Johnson-Spence, the driving force behind this group, will be offering an in-depth class in Homesteading from 10-noon.
We will have a number of vendors offering edible, useful and native plants, unpaper towels, jerky and dried meats, real estate, jams and jellies, elderberry products, baked goods, baby chicks and seedlings, freeze dried items, tinctures and teas, permaculture classes, and a non-profit Hernando County Homesteading merchandise table.
We’ll offer farm tours at 9:30 and 11 AM. We will offer another shortly after noon for members of the Homesteading Class if they desire to see the farm when out of class.
On our farm tour we’ll share tips and tricks for growing food in Florida
We hope as well to see old friends and meet new ones, and that this event will build more beneficial relationships in our community and the larger bioregion and watershed in addition to other benefits.
This free event lasts from 9-1 this Sat, June 1. We hope to see you there! https://www.facebook.com/events/1590990041691414/?active_tab=about
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Fantastic post Kareen! I wish I could be there.