Seed Day, 2018

SEED DAY 2018

Over thirty enthusiastic seed savers came together on SEED DAY 2018 to learn about and share seeds at the Rancho Rinconada Park&Rec Ctr in Cupertino.

Steve Peters from Seed Revolution Now!
http://seedrevolutionnow.blogspot.com/ shared with us his work with other breeders to develop good organic seed stock for small farmers growing organically. He presented a beautiful and informative slide show, introducing us to some of the crops he is working on such as the Martian Jewels Sweet Corn. The kernels are white with purple cobs and husks, contrasting with dark green, purple streaked leaves. What a beautiful addition to the garden!

He went on to give us detailed instructions on best practices in seed saving for many of the common vegetable families. Steve stressed the importance of us saving seeds, and that WE are the ones saving diversity in our seeds.

The Great Silicon Valley Bean Weigh off produced six pounds of the Yellow Indian Woman Bean that will be donated to seed libraries and community groups; with special thanks to Herb Moore and his “4 yr old Task Master”, Joyce Eden from South Bay Label GMOshttp://www.gmofreeca.org/san_jose, and Soil and Water Garden. Volunteers are always welcome at Soil and Water Garden , Wednesday and Saturday mornings at Heritage Park in Mountain View http://www.soilandwatergarden.org/

Experienced Instant Pot users and wannabees equally enjoyed Joyce Eden’s Yellow Indian Woman Bean (YIWB) recipe demonstration and came away with new ideas.

Unfortunately, there were many gardeners that expressed a troubled season for the YIWB. There can be many things that influence how a crop does in your yard. Hopefully, this does not discourage you from joining us next year. This year we will be citizen scientists and take a closer look at how our crops do.

If you were one of the lucky ones and had a surplus of seeds, please share with friends and neighbors, especially your local seed library. Seed libraries can be found in public libraries in East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Santa Clara’s Central Park Library and San Jose City Library Berryessa branch.

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