The Plowboy Interview Kent Whealy

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PLOWBOY: The worth of the Seed Savers Exchange seems pretty obvious . . . but what can your program do for the individual gardener? As long as a person's favorite varieties are still offered in a seed catalog, why should he or she take the trouble to save and exchange seed?

WHEALY: The ability to save seed is probably one of the most valuable tools for self-sufficiency that I know of. In fact, it's a logical next step for anyone who's honed his or her gardening skills to a high degree . . . and another way that people can "unplug" themselves from our economic system. As I've said, in many cases gardeners don't know their favorite vegetables won't be available anymore until they receive their seed catalogs and can't find a particular variety for sale. But folks who save their own garden seed can avoid such disappointments.

People need to understand that it's not at all difficult to harvest and store seed. Lots of the supply houses would have you think that homesaved seed is inferior or unreliable, but that simply isn't true. In each of the SSE yearbooks, I print an article on the techniques of saving seeds . . . including instructions for storing them—by drying and freezing—to maintain their vitality.

PLOWBOY: Isn't it also true that some gardeners simply enjoy raising rare, antique crops?

WHEALY: I think most people would like to grow vegetables that represent pieces of our past. There can be great satisfaction in doing so . . . especially when you know who grew a particular vegetable in years gone by, and what it may have meant to them. I mean, anyone can plant Top Crop beans year after year, but it's a rare privilege to be able to raise Lina Sisco's Bird Egg bean.

On the other hand, I know that a lot of people are put off by the term "heirloom". They think it implies something exotic that's hard to grow . . . but, in most cases, antique varieties are no more difficult to care for than are the standard supermarket-type vegetables. Heirlooms are simply good, nonhybrid vegetable varieties that have been passed down and improved through generations. You know, much of the experimental breeding that's going on now is done with only business interests in mind, with the goal—for instance—of producing tough, thick-skinned vegetables that can withstand machine harvesting and cross-country shipping. Home gardeners, obviously, have to "ship" most of their produce only from the back yard to the kitchen . . . so they don't have any need for those particular super-hybrid varieties. And this is where my exchange can help the average gardener. Our type of preservation program—in which hundreds of private horticulturists are finding old varieties and exchanging seeds for thousands of vegetables that aren't otherwise available—is doing at least as much good, I think, as are any of the commercial breeding programs.

PLOWBOY: Let's talk about the mechanics of your organization. How does a person become a member and begin exchanging seeds with fellow gardeners?

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