Seeds of Change: Seed Saving Workshop

Did you know when you save seeds from your garden that you are helping to preserve history?

On Saturday, August 13, Mark Haskell of Friends and Foods taught the Cottage City Gardeners about Seed Saving.

Traditional American foods are a hybrid of African, South American, European, and North American plants. Yams, okra, chilies, peanuts, and black eyed peas all arrived to the US through industrialized farming. Seed saving is a millennia long phenomena that has helped allow the food that we eat today survive through generations.

Saving seeds from your own garden and reusing them in your garden is best. Seeds become genetically stronger plant because they get more familiar with the environment. This allows them to ward off diseases, pests, faster and allows them adapt to changes in climate.

Additionally, some seeds can be harvested and reused from the food that we purchase at the grocery store. Non-GMO black eyed peas, potatoes, and cucumbers can all saved and replanted for future growing seasons.

Mark also introduced gardeners to the Slow Food Movement that works to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds and livestock. Slow Food USA also produces an Ark of Taste is designed to preserve at-risk foods that are sustainably produced, unique in taste, and part of a distinct ecoregion.

View the Ark of Taste Food List Here