Working Together To Build The California Seed Network

Please note: the list of our seeds for sale is on the blog entry made just before this one, entitled 2015 Seed List. Most varieties are still available.

Working Together To Build The California Seed Network

Seed rEvolution Now and Organic Seed Alliance make a great team! A lot of work has been happening over the past year, as we empower farmers and educate people about open-pollinated seeds. Here are some of the highlights of that effort. You'll see that Steve and his allies have been very busy!

EcoFarm Conference at Asilomar

This past January, at the EcoFarm Conference at Asilomar in Carmel, California, Steve had the opportunity to put together a presentation to lay out his dream of a coordinated network of organic seed growers.

Steve Peters of Organic Seed Alliance and Seed rEvolution Now

The Pre-Conference, entitled Cultivating Organic Seed Stewardship, was well attended, and the participants hungry for information. The expert panel was happy to oblige.

Jared Zystro of the Organic Seed Alliance

Rowen White of the Sierra Seed Cooperative

Tim Van Wagner of First Rain Farm

Don Tipping of Siskiyou Seeds and Family Farmers Seed Cooperative

Aaron Dinwoodie of Tunitas Creek Ranch

Permaculturist Benjamin Fahrer

Our friend Benjamin served as scribe for the meeting.

The day sped by, as the group delved deep into the complex issues around protecting, preserving, and improving our genetic crop heritage.

Even the breaks were filled with lively discussions!

We are so grateful to our dear friend Ken Dickerson (at left, with Benjamin Fahrer). As Executive Director of the Ecological Farming Association, which presents the EcoFarm Conference each year, his encouragement and support of the seed work is invaluable. Everything comes down to the people who get the vision and do the work!

During the Conference, Steve was interviewed by Greenhorns; another opportunity to get the message out. 

Later during the three-day conference, OSA presented a California Seed Stakeholders meeting, attended by folks both new to and old hands at seed saving. 

Jared Zystro organized the meeting to maximize participation, with each person placing post-its of their main concerns in different areas. Yes, that's eco-warrior Gary Nabhan in attendance. He has a long history of involvement with traditional seeds, and was one of the founders of Native Seeds/SEARCH.

California Seed Summit in Sacramento

Continuing the momentum from EcoFarm, in February OSA organized the first California Organic Seed Summit. This event was organized by Jared Zystro, Steve Peters, Rowen White, Kalan Redwood, Benjamin Fahrer, and Leyla Cabugos.

This was a two day gathering of over 30 seed enthusiasts, growers and small seed companies, sharing their common passion for seed with the intention of strengthening our local and diverse seed systems. 

Held at the beautiful Rudolf Steiner College near Sacramento, the venue helped to inspire a successful meeting. Wonderful participants inspire hope for a fertile future! The take-home action points include:

1) Creating a crop and seed database

2) Marketing with an emphasis on education

3) Developing a code of ethics, including transparency

4) Establishing connections, including field days

Sierra Seed Seva Workshops on San Juan Ridge

Dynamic seedster Rowen White has created a model of bioregional seed sovereignty with the Sierra Seed Cooperative. Steve was invited to bring some of his experience to the budding seed sevas. It is always wonderful to help inspire young, energetic farmers...they inspire us!

Fundamentals of On-Farm Seed Production in Sebastapol

Steve and Jared taught a class on seed production in Sebastapol which was very enthusiastically received. This was an all-day, somewhat more advanced workshop. A group there, headed by Sara McCamant, maintains a seed garden on the grounds of a local church. This is the town where Luther Burbank did his seed work, and folks there still understand how important it is to maintain the legacy.

Beet Seed Security in Pescadero  

Stripping seed from mature beet plants, done over 1/4" hardware screen for rough cleaning.

When our friends at Fifth Crow Farm couldn't find seed for their favorite beet variety, Steve helped them learn to use their last harvest to produce fresh seed.

Seed drying in greenhouse after preliminary field cleaning (scalping).

 Seventy-five roots produced about 60 lbs. of clean seed; enough to market as well as plant. Now they know how to have seed forever!

Corn Freedom in Solano County

 Restauranteur Matthew Engelhart contracted Steve to find a suitable corn for making tortillas and tamales for his successful Gracias Madres restaurant in San Francisco. He grows much of the produce used in the Cafe Gratitude chain of vegan eateries owned by his wife Terces and him.

Along with this photo, Matthew sent an urgent text message: "Houston, we have a problem!" Happily, the plants' ascent peaked at 15 feet. They produced abundant ears of large white kernels prized by the Mexican chefs.

Now Be Love Farm can produce their own great corn for Gracias Madres' great tamales...and over time, select for the attributes that make it even better suited to their specific needs.

Trialing Carrots in Gilroy

Nash and Patty Huber, long-time organic seed growers from the Olympic Peninsula, were in California for the EcoFarm Conference. While here they visited one of Ronald Welten's fields to see (and taste!) how their Rumba carrot stacks up against other Nantes varieties in an OSA trial Steve and Jared ran.

Comparing Colored Carrots in Panoche

Seedsman Grant Brians at his family's farm in Hollister. Grant owns Gourmet Seeds International, as well as running an organic produce business. He also farms acreage in the Panoche Valley, in the wilds of southern San Benito County.

USDA carrot breeder Phil Simon was thrilled to see how his varieties of orange, yellow, purple and red carrots performed in an OSA trial held at this isolated commercial vegetable farm. 

More Carrot Trials in Panoche

Carrots thrive in sandy loams like this, but hot, dry, and windy conditions can be challenging. The combination makes this an ideal place to run a trial. Plants that do well here exhibit the qualities farmers will need to cope with climate change.

Seed Grow-Outs in From the Coast

Commercial cauliflower seed production, snap pea seed increase, and a garbanzo trial are being conducted by enterprising farmer Ryan Casey and his good dog Lucky of Blue House Farm in the lovely Pescadero Valley. Steve is trying to find growers within about 100 miles of San Francisco with whom he can work. The range of climates within that area is staggering!

Sharing Seeds in Sunol

Krysten, a farmer at the Ag Park at the Sunol Water Temple, will be making a seed selection for heat tolerance of Steve's Tender Early Green Broccoli. She can still use it as a market crop, which makes the project doable for this small-scale grower.

Preserving Heirlooms in Corralitos

Steve shows off valued open-pollinated seeds to Zea Sonnabend and Shane Murphy of Fruitilicious Farm. They will be growing rare snap beans for evaluation and seed increase, and trialing several bunching carrot varieties.

Trials, Multiplication, and Commercial Production in Aromas

Farmer Robert Brunet is an enthusiastic seedsman who worked for the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association in Monterey County (ALBA) before starting his own farm. He's growing broccoli seed to sell, Swiss chard and snap peas to increase seed stocks, and trialing snap beans and various brassicas.

Extensive Trials and Seed increase at Sunol

Seedsman Aaron Dinwoodie will be growing out and fresh-marketing almost the entire Seed rEvolution Now inventory (please see our previous post for the list). He's growing these along with other rare, yet promising, open-pollinated crop varieties at the Ag Park. The warmer conditions in Sunol will give us an idea of how these crops perform away from the coast. It is also an ideal place to increase okra and beans.

Breeding For Climate Change in Shively

Hidden away behind the Redwood Curtain, a fortuitous bend in the Eel River has created the fertile Shively Flats. Farmer Bill Reynolds settled here over thirty years ago.

 Bill has worked with OSA plant breeders and with seedsman Steve Peters for much of that time, developing plant varieties which must have strong root systems in order to thrive on his unirrigated land. Dark Star Zucchini, which he bred, clearly demonstrates the value of a keen eye and careful stewardship in mass selections.

 At Full Belly Farm, Steve brings seed grower Bill Reynolds together with farmers to discuss how their agronomic needs  may be met.

Steve and Bill have been working on plant breeding together for well over twenty year. With several successful projects already accomplished (see our earlier blog entries on Shiraz Tall-Top Beet and Dark Star Zucchini for more details), they are looking ahead to make new selections of stronger, more drought tolerant crops to help organic famers thrive in an uncertain climatic future.

For more information about any of these on-going projects, or to learn about how you might work with Seed rEvolution Now, please call Steve Peters at 505-660-3933, or email him at stevegrows@gmail.com

Red Ruffled Pimiento

This little known culinary treasure deserves some limelight. It is high time for cooks and foodists to try it and see just how delicious a ripe red pepper can be!

Believed to be derived from a Spanish paprika pimiento. this squat, lobed fruit is far and away the most flavorful, aromatic, and rich sweet pepper ever. We were giving out samples at Hoes Down Festival this fall at Full Belly Farm in the Capay Valley, and everyone was in agreement: best tasting pepper they'd ever tried!

We've loved this variety for over twenty years. Steve worked professionally with organic seed growers around the country. He has kept up many of those connections, who have become good friends. One of them was John Finley of the Garberville Community Farm. 

John and his wife Lisa have been growing produce and saving seed for many years. They received the Red Ruffled Pimiento seed from grower Bill Reynolds, grew it out and made some improvement selections on it.

One of the improvements made was to the size of the fruits. They run 3-4" in diameter, and about 2" high. The walls are over 1/4" thick; much thicker than the familiar Bell Pepper.

The seed then went back to Bill's farm, Eel River Produce. We visited this past March. The photo above shows a cover crop waiting to be plowed in on this beautiful certified organic land. 

In March Bill was transplanting Red Ruffled seedlings.

By the time Steve returned, in late September, each plant held from 6-15 fully ripe peppers, and a number of ripening ones. You can easily ripen twenty fruits per plant with an extended growing season.

I love how Bill made use of his resources: he took advantage of a weed problem, datura, to provide shade for the pimientos. Peppers are by nature understory plants, and the taller Jimson Weed prevented sun scald on the peppers.

September 30th was harvest day, Steve single-handedly picked 300 gallons of ripe fruit. How many pecks of perfect pimientos can Steve Peters pick? You do the math. Pretty good for an old timer! Just part of the personal service from Seed rEvolution Now!

One of Bill's thrills is finding ways to use the bamboo that thrives on his farm. Here's a handmade seed drying screen, which was pressed into service as a pepper ripening rack. Very aesthetic!

To process the seeds, Bill ran the fruit through a Millet Wet Seed Separator. This first chops the fruit, and then passes it over a shaking tray through which water is sprayed, pushing the seed through the screen and into the sluice box. The seed-free flesh is saved for food.

Bill in his waterproof pants rubs the seed through the screen by hand.

The seed and fine pulp go down the homemade redwood sluice. 

Check dams catch all but the heavier, viable seeds.

These are caught in a mesh screen at the bottom.

Nice small-scale, low-cost operation for the on-farm seed saver!

After the seed dries, it will go through a final winnowing to blow away the flecks of dried flesh. Then it's ready to go off to farmers and seed companies. Steve is representing Bill and several other trusted organic seed producers through Seed rEvolution Now. The price is $125 per quarter pound, although he is willing to sell smaller lots as well. You can email him at stevegrows@gmail.com, or call him at 505-660-3933.

Here's some shots of the fruit soon after it came to our home in San Mateo. I just can't say enough about the fantastic fresh eating quality of these peppers! But I'll try...

Thick, meaty, sweet, juicy, aromatic, rich and delicious!

And they make wonderful stuffers! Unlike Bell and Relleno type peppers, these have a tender skin and do not require peeling. Toothsome stuffed pimientos!

One last point in favor of these beauties: Here's a photo I just took today, October 27th, of a Red Ruffled Pimiento kept nearly a month without refrigeration! Pretty amazing, considering it was picked fully ripe! So hurry and get some of this seed to offer in your catalog or grow for your customers. Try it in your kitchen, give your kids a slice. It is just too good to pass up!