UK gardening - Re: U.S. seed saver's convention pictures

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Re: U.S. seed saver's convention pictures

Hazel

2005-07-30, 12:21 pm

"Gary Woods" <garyusenet@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:3d1ne1dtjdmclvmdbm2p9v1b3frbv9mlmg@4ax.com...
> Not yet linked to my main page as seen in the .sig, but here's the
> index/pictures from the Seed Saver's Exchange annual convention in
> Decorah,
> Iowa, with a few from a side trip to Spillville, just down the road:
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~garygarl...images/SSE2005/
>
>
> Summary of the meeting for background:
>
> They no longer call it a "campout convention," because more people stay in
> motels than camp in the lovely meadow across the dry stream bed. More
> about _that_ later! The meet was July 22-24th.
>
> In a technical seminar in beautiful downtown Camden, New Jersey, our
> instructor said "I believe more learning happens in the coffee breaks than
> in the classes." That's true at the Seed Saver's Exchange annual meet at
> Heritage Farm near Decorah, Iowa. There are tours, nature walks,
> speakers,
> and even a barn dance (what the heck _is_ a Schottische?), but the best
> part for me is the cross pollination that happens when the members from
> all
> over the country get together and shoot the breeze. I met some old
> friends
> from the past few conventions, and met a lot of new ones, all nice folks,
> and all obsessed with heirloom vegetables. You couldn't get a bunch of
> loonies like that together anywhere else!
>
> There's a new visitor's center/gift shop, donated by Melon Maven Amy
> Goldman- built by Amish barn builders from massive oak beams, all
> mortised,
> pegged, and woodworking terms I can't comprehend. Absolutely beautiful,
> and
> air conditioned! There were a lot of us in there "just browsing" on a hot
> Iowa afternoon...
>
> Speakers:
>
> Will Bonsall, head of the Scatterseed Project in Maine. Amazing guy,
> excellent talk... some of us chatted with him before and after the
> official
> speechifying. Knows so much about seed saving methods and the politics of
> world food production it scares me. Literally.
>
> Ken Krotz spoke on the "Classics of Vegetable Literature." Sounds deadly
> dull. Absolutely wasn't. A lot of what we modern gardeners have learned
> the hard way was well known and documented a hundred and more years ago.
>
> Amy Goldman gave the keynote speech, mainly around her particular passion:
> Melons and squash. Very good, lovely pictures, but written and read. I
> prefer extemporaneous, but academia and I have never gotten along.
> ("Dean's _other_ list...").
>
> Glenn Drowns, of Sandy Hill Preservation farm spoke on poultry genetics
> and
> the issues of almost forgotten breeds, like turkeys that have flavor and
> can mate on their own, unlike those big-breasted supermarket types.
> Again,
> I had misgivings, but Glenn really knows his stuff, and it's contagious.
> Don't think I'm ready for a flock of heirloom chickens just yet, but you
> never know.
>
> I went to a talk of seed processing given by Matt Barthel, the garden
> manager. They've got a monster that can remove the seeds from a truckload
> of tomatoes as fast as two people can dump them in the chute. Now,
> _that's_ my kind of power tool! Again, a good exchange of ideas and
> tricks
> I can use: seeds tied up in a sock in a clothes dryer (air fluff only)?
> You bet!
>
> Garlic talk with Joel Grading and John Swanson. I thought I knew
> something
> about garlic... and like everybody there, no "ivory tower" junk... you can
> just walk up and ask questions. Boy, did I!
>
> Now, about that campsite: I got there early Friday afternoon and pitched
> tent on "my" spot, which is a couple of feet higher than the rest, then
> drive my Subaru across the dry streambed and parked in a lot on the other
> side. I thought the thunderstorm Friday night was impressive. It wasn't.
> Six tenths of an inch of rain, and nothing in the streambed to ford the
> next morning. Weather fine over the weekend, and a bit cloudier and
> cooler
> than predicted. A few of us stayed over Sunday night to shoot the
> breeze,
> wander around Heritage Farm, and get a planned early start Monday morning.
> Matt suggested the folks with the camper move it across the stream, since
> they were predicting thundershowers that night.
> Well, boys and girls, we got a thunderstorm of biblical proportions!
> Continuous lightning that made strobe effects like a Grateful Dead
> concert,
> and rain that did me the favor of finding out what parts of the tent
> needed
> a fresh coat of sealer. At dawn's early light, I wondered why I couldn't
> hear any rain hitting the tent, but still heard a continuous roar of
> water.
> Yep, that little dry creek bed was now a torrent perhaps 20 feet wide and
> eight feet deep with enough flow to carry off a good-sized pickup truck.
> The neat thing was a waterfall coming right out of the limestone cliff
> that
> backs up to the meadow; a spring brought to life by the four inches of
> rain
> that fell between midnight and 4 AM. Another camper who had her 4X4 on
> the
> "wrong" side offered to ferry me across when the stream subsided, and we
> spent the morning waving to SSE Staff people on the other side who said,
> "Yep, sometimes that stream will do that!" At 1PM, the water had slowed
> and dropped enough that we made it across.
>
> Would I do it again?
> Are you a turtle?
>
>
>
> Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at
> home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
> Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

I am very interested in seed saveing, I have my mini seed bank, a sealed
poly box in the freezer.

What I would like to know is of more techniques of seed cleaning. I have
searched the web for what I could find, but found no one I could talk to
about it on a "kitchen sink" basis. I am able to construct simpler machines.
Is there a web site that I have missed, a person/group I can contact ?

Regards

Hazel

Gary Woods

2005-07-30, 12:21 pm

"Hazel" <ann@garbage.net> wrote:

>I have
>searched the web for what I could find, but found no one I could talk to
>about it on a "kitchen sink" basis. I am able to construct simpler machines.

Disclaimer: My knowledge is necessarily Amerocentric. And yes, I know
that "United States" is merely a subset of "America." I have no desire to
be beaten about head and shoulders with a hockey stick, for instance...

A good starting point for me was Suzanne Ashworth's "Seed to Seed." On a
small scale, you can do just fine with many things in the kitchen sink.
Tomato, cucumber, squash, etc, all clean nicely by just fermenting the pulp
with some added water for a few days, floating off the junk, and drying on
a screen. I'm off right now to harvest a bunch of Rutabaga seeds; I'm just
going to strip the pods into a paper grocery bag for now. When I'm bored
in the fall or winter, I'll crumble everything with my hands, screen out
the big chunks (I have a set of screens of different meshes), and wait for
a breezy day to pour the rest between a couple of pails to winnow. Result:
nice clean seed at next to no effort.

You may find www.seedsavers.org helpful. Although U.S. based, there is a
growing international membership. Last summer, there were a couple from Oz
there!

I'm sure you have a lot of people in the U.K who do things like this, and
with the growing trend for specialized patented seed available only from
big conglomerates, it's a right and necessary thing to do.
(This could easily turn into a rant; I'm trying to behave...)

Cheers!

Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

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