Record of the Seed Library of Los Angeles

Garden Master & Author David King At Santa Monica College on March 27.

2012-03-12T10:57:00.002-07:00

CONTACT: Bruce Smith FORIMMEDIATE RELEASE

PublicInformation Officer DATE: March 12, 2012

(310) 434-4209 www.smc.edu

“SEEDS: LOCAL& GLOBAL” AT SMC MARCH 27

SantaMonica College is pleased to present a free lecture, “Seeds: Local andGlobal,” by garden master and author David King on Tuesday, March 27 inHumanities & Social Science Lecture Hall 165 on the main campus, 1900 PicoBlvd.

Kingis the founder of the Seed Library of Los Angeles and garden master of TheLearning Garden at Venice High School. An engaging and popular garden speaker,he is also a noted garden blogger and author of the forthcoming book,“Growing Food in Southern California: What to Do and When to Do It.”

TheSeed Library of Los Angeles was established to facilitate the growth ofopen-pollinated seeds among residents of the Los Angeles basin. The library isbuilding a seed collection and repository, educating members about the practiceof seed saving, and creating a local community of seed-saving gardeners

King’stalk is sponsored by the SMC Global Citizenship Council, SMC Center forEnvironmental Studies and SMC Club Grow.

Forinformation, please call 310-434-3911.

Money

2012-03-09T16:16:00.000-08:00

I have worked in the nonprofit world for the last ten years. I used to joke about first coming to The Learning Garden and finding out it was non-profit. I would quip, "Well then, I'm your man, I've never made a profit in my life!"

The Learning Garden has had several donors and we've been awarded a some wonderful grants that have helped us to meet our payroll and our expenses. It hasn't always been easy - there have been months that have been quite scary, but we've somehow always pulled through.

We all have to make decisions about where to put our money. I listen to public radio and I even listen through the pledge drives. Sometimes I have been able to donate, often times not. But for over ten years, I have made annual donations to two organizations for some time and I am adding a third.

I have paid for membership in Seed Savers Exchange for longer than I can remember. I used to say 'ten years' in an off-handed manner, until I realized I've been a member since sometime back in the mid-1990's. SSE has been doing seed saving work from the 1970's, predating almost every other organization's efforts in this field. They are the grand mommy organization of all seed saving ventures and their collection is probably the best in the United States. Their farm in Iowa is like Mecca for savers of heirloom seeds; a journey to their annual summer meeting with Greg Brown performing has been on my 'bucket list' for at least seven years, when I was first introduced to Greg Brown's music and found a man I can sing along with comfortably. At $45 per year, membership in SSE is more important to me than any other optional expense.

As the Seed Library of Los Angeles was being cogitated, I found the Organic Seed Alliance in Oregon and instantly felt I had found another organization whose focus lasers in on the crises I feel we are facing in food production in this nation. These are people who are doing the work to breed the plants that will be our salvation when the industrial agriculture model breaks down. It only recently dawned on me that trials for new vegetables made in our existing plant breeding environment are not good for most of our gardens because so many of us (reading this blog) are organic growers and most of the seeds are bred in agricultural stations that are saturated with pesticides of all types and chemical fertilizer. The seeds produced in that environment are not ideal for our organic lives. It's like having a Big Mac to get the energy to grow organic salad greens - something gets lost in translation. OSA is the organization leading the effort to breed the organic vegetables that are essential for an organic life. I flip them a small amount annually. If I were richer, it would be more. It is essential work!

And now that we have the Seed Library of Los Angeles, I have been making donations right down the line - a little money, some seeds, office supplies, whatever comes up because the mission of the seed library is one of the most important issues of the Los Angeles area. We are talking about being able to feed the population of Los Angeles at some time in the near future with seeds grown in Los Angeles by a cadre of trained Los Angeles gardeners who know how to grow food in Los Angeles and how to save seeds for future harvests in Los Angeles.

Take a moment right now and join Seed Savers Exchange, surf over to Organic Seed Alliance and drop them a couple of bucks, or go online to PayPal and send a tax deductible donation to SLOLA. Make your world a better place, and this blog will return to our regularly scheduled programming in the next post... You can feel good about enjoying your food knowing someone is working on keeping the food flowing no matter what the bozo's in Washington and Monsanto do in the future.

david

Svalbard - Concern Behind the Celebration...

2012-03-05T22:58:00.001-08:00

Svalbard, Seed Vault of Last Resort

Justlast week, Svalbard celebrated its fourth birthday. I admit it, Ihave mixed feelings about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault; itsintention is laudable, but, all things being equal, is it up to thetask? And, even if it is up to the task, will human avarice allow itto do what it is intended to do?

TheSvalbard Global Seed Vault is located on an island in the Svalbardarchipelago, some 1300 kilometers from the North Pole. Plant seedsfrom the world over are stored in underground vaults, dug some 340'into the permafrost of the island. The seeds in Svalbard areduplicate seeds of those stored in other seed banks through out theworld – the idea is to provide a 'backup copy' of seeds in case ofa large-scale or global calamity that affects our ability to feedourselves. Anyone who has had a computer crash will allow howimportant a back up copy can be.

Thefacility has the capacity to store some 4.5 million accessions ofseeds.

“TheSvalbard Global Seed Vault's mission is to provide a safety netagainst accidental loss of diversity in traditional genebanks. Whilethe popular press has emphasized its possible utility in the event ofa major regional or global catastrophe, it will certainly be morefrequently accessed when genebanks lose samples due to mismanagement,accident, equipment failures, funding cuts and naturaldisasters. Such events occur with some regularity. In recent years,some national genebanks have also been destroyed by war and civilstrife.” (Wikipedia)

Becausethese seeds are meant to be 'copy seeds,' as the bank is envisioned,these seeds are stored as a backstop for loss of the genetics ofimportant plant should the initial collection become lost. The famous seed bank of Russian scientist Nikolay Vavilov's seed collection was over run by the Nazis in WWII, workers in the Vavilov Institute took the seeds to their homes to save them from being destroyed or stolen. Thank God thieves rarely think to steal seeds and Vavilov's seeds, without a Svalbard back up made it through the war safely. (For more on Vavilov, which is fascinating reading, find a copy of "Where Our Food Comes From: RetracingNikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine" by Gary Paul Nabhan - it's a quick and lovely read!)

Ido not disagree with seed banks per se, I think they perform avaluable function. I worry, on the other hand that the majority offolks see articles on seed banks and think, “Well then, we've gotthis whole thing in hand, don't we?” And we don't. Seed banksonly support a part of the solution.

Seedheld in seed banks doesn't change. The mark of living is the abilityto change. Pathogens adapt; their prey adapt. Pathogens adaptagain; the prey adapts to the adaptions. And on it goes. This isthe dance of life. Plants grow. Bugs eat 'em. Plants and theirfarmers adapt. Bugs adapt. Put a seed out of circulation for acouple hundred years and the world they 'wake up' to is not the sameworld when they went to sleep. Rumpelstiltskin anyone?

Seedbanks are the back stop, the last resort, but the real way to 'save'seeds is to grow them! Grow the heirlooms, save their seeds and yourseeds adapt to your environment year after year. They become a partof your story and your life. In our small urban gardens in LosAngeles, we don't have the room to save all the valuable varieties weneed to have a robust diet, hence the need to come together in seedlibraries.

Asa part of its mission statement, the Seed Library of Los Angeles,collects seeds and holds them for members to check out. Together wecan save hundreds of varieties of seeds and you can be a part ofthat. You personally don't need to save 100 different varieties oftomatoes – you don't have the time and the room, but you can saveone or two of the one hundred and together, viola! We have saved 100varieties of tomatoes. And you helped.

Butin the case of Svalbard, some ugly juxtapositions of facts are causefor concern, if not alarm. One of the biggest cash supporters ofSvalbard is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is only so farthe only investment of that foundation that I can applaud, so much ofthe Microsoft money has gone into ventures that oppress people androb us of our genetic diversity.

Oneof which is Monsanto. The Gates own some 500,000 shares of thebio-tech giant and a former Monsanto vice-president joined the GatesFoundation as a senior program office applying technology to increasecrop yields in Africa.

Withtheir economic clout, who can definitively say there will never be atime when the purpose of Svalbard might be corrupted to help Monsantocontrol more genetic material? I won't t cast aspersions onSvalbard, but I believe that Gates' sense of right and wrong hascertain 'capitalistic' limitations. And Monsanto? I believe they haveno moral compass whatsoever and stealing the future from a baby'smouth means nothing, literally, to them if profit can be realized. The United States has the finest government Monsanto can buy. Howelse do we explain we are the only first world nation that has allowedthese suspect crops to proliferate through out our food system? And our bodies?

Oneof the side effects of a seed library is that we exclude allgenetically modified seeds. When you get seed from SLOLA, you aregetting open-pollinated seed that will produce clean, healthy food. And when you follow some simple steps, you return clean, healthy seedto the library that will be distributed next year.

Fora healthy future, for a future free of genetic modification, groworganic open pollinated seeds. For your children, join thelibrary and help save seeds for the future!

david

Avoiding Monsanto Seeds

2012-02-27T16:01:00.001-08:00

For the home gardener, avoiding Monsanto's Genetically Modified seeds is pretty easy: they are not sold in quantities a home gardener can purchase and purchasers of GM products are required to sign a contract assuring Monsanto that you won't try to replant the seeds of your crop.

However, Monsanto purchased the seed seller called 'Seminis,' itself a purchaser of a multitude of smaller seed purveyors. Seminis' purchases made them the owner of a good many patents on seeds that are among the nation's favorites. To be very clear, these are not genetically modified seeds. There is no harm in planting them except the profit made on your purchase of these seeds goes to support Monsanto's research, Monsanto's lawyers and Monsanto's mission of subjugating of those in the world who wish to eat.

Go to the Seminis website and look at the list of seeds owned by Seminis, if you want.

Some of the offending seeds are, using tomatoes as an example: Amsterdam, Beefmaster, Betterboy, Big Beef, Burpee’s Big Boy, Caramba, Celebrity, Cupid, Early Girl, Granny Smith, Health Kick, Husky Cherry Red, Jetsetter brand of Jack, Lemon Boy, Margharita, Margo, Marmande VF PS, Marmara, Patio, Phoenix, Poseidon 43, Roma VF, Royesta, Sun Sugar, Super Marzano, Sweet Baby Girl, Tiffany, Tye-Dye, Viva Italia, and Yaqui. This list was copied directly from the Seminis site. Don't confuse 'Super Marzano' with San Marzano, I did for a second and it freaked me out.

The other way of avoiding Seminis/Monsanto seeds is to simply buy only open pollinated seeds. Some of these are called 'heirloom.' But any seed packet bearing the words "Hybrid" or "F1" are suspect. Monsanto, or anyone else for that matter, cannot patent any seed that is not a hybrid or F1. By buying open pollinated seeds, you have avoided any chance of buying a seed patented by anyone, thus insuring you've avoided buying seeds that profit Monsanto/Seminis.

I would love to see some organic seed growers work to create open pollinated versions of some of these seeds... Buy one packet and work with succeeding generations to create a variety that has the 'improved' qualities of the patented seed without having to buy the seeds year in and year out. It will be incumbent on us to get open-pollinated varieties of seeds that embody some of these improvements if we are to succeed in creating a food system that is fair and equitable, and, for SLOLA, that's the bottom line. I would love to do that with 'Viva Italia' a paste tomato I grew before I was aware it was in the Monsanto lineup. It's a good tomato and its qualities should be available to anyone who wants to eat a tomato with its traits.

Join us and learn how to beat Monsanto at it's own game. This isn't just about 'not buying Monsanto' seeds and feeding the beast. SLOLA is here to help create a new viable food system available for all Americans no matter economic status. It isn't right that being poor deprives anyone of non-tainted food.

david

SLOLA Eastern Branch General Interest Meeting on Sunday

2012-02-21T18:45:00.000-08:00

SLOLA in growing every day, and we need to cover more ground in our sprawling Los Angeles metropolis. This Sunday February 26th at 2pm there will be a general interest meeting on starting an Eastern "branch" of the Seed Library of Los Angeles. Bring any seeds or other garden paraphernalia you would like to exchange--there will also be SLOLA seeds to "check-out" for members. Official membership to SLOLA is $10 for a lifetime, and if you aren't a member already you can join on Sunday. There will also be a brief how-to presentation on seed saving.

The meeting will take place in the garden in front of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute office at Occidental College: 1882 Campus Rd, LA, 90041. Ample parking on the street.

Please RSVP to the Facebook event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/324382124271900/, or to Megan at meganbomba@gmail.com. (Just so we have a sense of how many people to expect.) Please feel free to invite others to this--the more the merrier! This is just a preliminary interest meeting so if you can't make it to this one but are interested, just send an email to the address above.
--Megan Bomba

Saving a Compromised Old Favorite

2012-02-21T15:02:00.000-08:00

Luther Burbank is one of my heroes. I wrote a glowing review of his recent biography, The Garden of Invention by Jane Smith, a book I devoured in a weekend and when I toured his home in Santa Rosa, I felt like I had come to holy ground when I got to walk into his greenhouse. Luther Burbank gave us the Burbank Potato, Santa Rosa Plums, Shasta Daisies and hundreds of other plants. Luther Burbank ranks up there with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison (both of whom admired him as well). He was a genius at plant breeding and we all have eaten better because of him.

One of the annual vegetables he bred is the Burbank Red Slicing Tomato introducing it in 1915. Burbank reported his family put up shelves' full of tomato sauce every year and this was the only tomato they used. In seed catalog after seed catalog, the tomato is noted for excellent production of 'medium sized' firm fruits. A recent meeting with Terry Allan of Seeds of Change, inspired a community project for the Seed Library of Los Angeles.

Terry told me that the Burbank Slicer had been falling out of favor over the years because the fruits were getting consistently smaller, less on the 'medium' size and more on the 'cherry' size. I don't know if this is the reason the Slicer isn't in this year's selection from Seeds of Change, but it isn't. Intuitively, it became apparent that SLOLA could be instrumental in saving Luther's prized tomato variety.

What a great project for a seed library! We are, after all, learning how to grow plants out to seed and how to save that seed. Tomatoes are self fertile which means even beginners can help. It's a perfect project for a seed library and its members. Terry gave me a couple packets of seeds which were divided into envelopes of six seeds each and distributed to the SLOLA membership in last meeting. I had enough left over for my UCLA Extension class to also plant six seeds each.

The instructions for this project are to plant the seeds and grow the plants; save seed from only the biggest fruits - but try to select a fruit from the earliest fruits, one in the middle and one towards the end, so we don't inadvertently select for an early or late tomato. The only selectivity we want is larger fruit.

I don't know how many years we will need to select for larger tomatoes to make an impression on the genome, but we can do it. I am excited about this project and I hope we can find others where our seed saving expertise can be tweaked even more and we can make an impression on the seeds in the market today.

It's a great time to be on this seed saving front! And we are on the lookout for more projects like this for our membership. We can make a difference in what people have to eat too!

david

Heirlooms Protect World’s Food Supply

2012-02-14T10:41:00.000-08:00

(This is reprinted from The Nashua Telegraph, written by Maureen Gilmer. It is reprinted by permission. This brief, but very cogent, article presents the SLOLA side of things succinctly; a good read.)

Tomatoes that ripen all at once on a perfectly sized bush aid in mechanized harvesting, but that’s a short season for fresh picking.

Tomatoes that keep a long time in cold storage also please commercial farmers, but we all

know what those taste like.

If a variety produces an entire crop of fruit each pretty much the same size, they fit into packaging assembly lines but offer little diversity in the kitchen.

None of these benefits is of value to a backyard gardener, so why do we continue to grow the same modern hybrids?

Inside every modern variety are genes of earlier vegetables known as heirlooms, which were developed by farmers around the world to make plants better adapted to local conditions. Each year, growers selected the most vigorous, prolific and healthy individuals and gathered their seed to plant the next year’s crop. This process of selection dates to the dawn of agriculture.

The foundation of each heirloom variety is the culture that created it, the climate that shaped it and the culinary traditions from which it sprang.

Heirlooms are also problem solvers because we experience many of the same challenges as early farmers before the birth of agricultural chemicals.

For example, the short growing season in Russia made farmers want crops that matured in a few weeks. The fruit might ripen better when conditions are cooler than average, too. Knowing this tells a South Dakota gardener that this variety might work better in her climate than a modern one-size-fits-all tomato such as Celebrity.

The seed of that Russian tomato seed, like many other heirlooms, doesn’t live long in storage. If they stopped growing that variety altogether, the stored seed may last a few years and then it’s gone forever.

The only way to protect its unique genetic foundation is to grow plants every year and use those fresh seeds to grow it again the next year. This status of continual cultivation is vital to the Russian tomato and every other heirloom known today.

This is why there is so much interest in heirloom vegetables. Growing them is more than just cultivating a food crop, it’s a significant act that helps protect the genetic diversity of our food supply.

It was abundantly clear one year when I planted modern hybrids and a group of heirloom tomatoes. We had a cold spring. The modern hybrids languished, while the heirlooms took off despite the cool season.

This proved that the hybrids didn’t have the wide range of climatic tolerances as the heirlooms. If I hadn’t planted heirlooms, I wouldn’t have had a tomato harvest that year.

Such lessons teach us much about the value of older gene pools and why they’re so vital to our modern world.

There are a number of excellent heirloom-seed catalogs to choose from both online and in print. The Seed Savers Exchange (seedsavers.org), for example, grew out of a nonprofit that helped gardeners connect around the world and trade seed of their locally adapted heirlooms with others from similar climates halfway around the globe.

For the adventurous cook, the curious foodie and the armchair traveler, selecting heirlooms to grow is fascinating as you learn the varietal origins and characteristics.

But remember: This is far more than just shopping for plants. It’s an almost sacred act that can help save the world’s food supply one seed at a time.

Other heirloom-seed catalogs:

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds: rareseeds.com.

Native Seed/Search: nativeseeds.org.

Seeds of Change: seedsofchange.com.

Victory Seeds: victoryseeds.com.

Maureen Gilmer is an author, horticulturist and landscape designer. Learn more at www.MoPlants.com. Contact her at mogilmer@yahoo.com or P.O. Box 891, Morongo Valley, CA 92256.

david

A Collection of Seed Catalogs

2012-02-13T23:18:00.000-08:00

I have quite a collection of seed catalogs for the current year. I’ll order from some, peruse others and ignore the rest. I choose my catalogs carefully for many reasons.

Most importantly, I want to make certain that they are not listed as dealers for Seminis. Seminis is the seed selling arm of the corporate giant Monsanto and any profit Seminis makes helps to fund Monsanto's omnipresent drive to dominate the seed business. Their drive to obtain monopoly status is well-documented and makes for some depressing reading. You can find the seed companies listed as dealers for Seminis on their home page. There you'll find such home-gardener favorites like 'Burpee Seeds' and supposedly organic stalwarts like 'Gardens Alive.'

The listing of these two draws particular attention. I grew up with Burpee; as a kid, in the long winter months of northeast Kansas, I read and re-read the Burpee catalog end to end, marking it up, folding down corners to mark special notations. Honestly, I spent more time with the Burpee catalog than I did with my homework. My grades in those years can prove it. Conversely, my knowledge of seeds doesn't necessarily prove it, but I got my start there by the fire with the gardens covered in a blanket of snow. W. Atlee Burpee and Company introduced a lot of very good vegetables for home gardeners in the late 1800's and early 1900's. They were one of America's premier breeders of vegetables and flowers. Names we know and love today are part of the Burpee legacy; the Golden Beet was a Burpee creation, Fordhook Giant Chard another – anything called 'Fordhook' is a Burpee introduction, that's the name of their research farm. They did amazing work with marigolds and other plants offered primarily to home gardeners.

On the other hand, Gardens Alive has been suspect in my book for as long as they have been around – which isn't nearly as long as Burpee. Gardens Alive promotes pest solutions that are organic, but their attitude towards pests has been anything but organic. I remember one catalog series that was headed “Declare War On Aphids!” Decidedly a non-organic approach. I know, instinctively that 'declaring war' on Nature in any of Her guises is a futile project. Declaring war on nature is the Monsanto way – the concept is that we thinking human beings can out-bomb the bugs and win.

We can't. Never have. Never will.

Every time Monsanto has been out to fight Nature, it has had unexpected consequences. How about DDT in the 1950's. That was a Monsanto product. How about Agent Orange in Vietnam? Another Monsanto product. Bovine Growth Hormone, which is under suspicion as an initiator of human health problems is a current Monsanto product – it has not been tested by outside organizations (current FDA policy has the manufacturer do their own testing which is – oftentimes – rubber stamped by the agency). In addition, there are the genetically modified seeds produced by Monsanto technology. There are others, but Monsanto is the biggest by far. Their inventory of GM seeds is a catalog of what is planted by American farmers today.

Monsanto claims to be feeding the world with their technology, but such claims are bald-face lies which can be undone with very little research. A recent release of data from a 15 year USDA (gasp! the same USDA Monsanto has bought and paid for!) revealed that 'there was no appreciable yield increase' by using GM seeds! Then there is the simple fact that Monsanto does not do research to merely create a higher producing seed. It's not on their agenda. Nor do they do research for a more nutritious seed. That has no appeal to them. All of their research has been done to find a plant that will grow when dosed with the weed killer Roundup. The result is that millions of tons of seeds have been sold that ensures the sale of billions of gallons of Roundup. You have, by now of course, deduced who makes Roundup, right? Yes, Monsanto. So Monsanto's only guiding principle is find out what will make Monsanto's stockholders rich. Sick too perhaps, but hey, that's the price of true wealth, right?

The American nursery trade is a 39.6 billion dollar a year industry. With the purchase of Seminis in January of 2005, Monsanto is now estimated to control between 85 and 90 percent of the U.S. nursery market. This includes the pesticide, herbicide and fertilizer markets. By merging with or buying up the competition, dominating genetic technology, and lobbying the government to make saving seeds illegal, this monolith has positioned itself as the largest player in the gardening game.

Monsanto holds over eleven thousand U.S. seed patents. When Americans buy garden seed and supplies, most of the time they are buying from Monsanto regardless of who the retailer is.

(From an article in Countryside magazine.)

So that's why the diatribes against Monsanto. And now, back to my seed catalogs. So the Burpee and Gardens Alive catalogs are thrown out. Johnny's Selected Seeds is also on the Seminis list, but I don't automatically toss it. Why? The employee owned company has signed the safe seed pledge which declares they will not ever sell 'genetically engineered or modified seeds or plants.' So how do they end up being a Seminis dealer?

In Monsanto's drive to become the only seed company in the world, Seminis has purchased many different seed companies and along with those purchases, they got the inventory and patents of those companies. This means, Big Boy tomatoes are now one of many Seminis/Monsanto products. Profits from Big Boy feed the Monsanto beast. Johnny's gets an exemption from being tossed, but if I find I need to order from Johnny's, I scrutinize my purchases to make certain I'm not buying anything that feeds the beast. Often-times, from Johnny's I am only getting one or two seed varieties that I can't find elsewhere and that's after I've looked far and wide..

My short list of the good guys is, as follows:

BAKERCREEK HEIRLOOM SEEDS; 2278 Baker Creek Road Mansfield, MO 65704; 417.924.8917 What a catalog! Beautiful pictures of the produce – vegetable porn for sure. I have never ordered from them, but I have heard good things about them. Anyone who works this hard in putting out a beautiful seed catalog is working with a great deal of love. Drooling is hardly optional while browsing here. These are the people who perfected 'veggie porn.'

BOTANICALINTERESTS; 660 Compton Street, Broomfield, CO 80020; 720.880.7293. I 'have been dealing with these folks for only a couple of years - I have seen their seeds on seed racks here and there, but I really got to know them for the quantity of seeds they donate to Venice High School and other educational programs. Good seed. Clean. Good variety and a good price. Open pollinated and often heirloom! Great packaging!

BOUNTIFULGARDENS; 18001 Shafer Ranch Road; Willits, CA 95490; 707.459.6410 Organic seed; open-pollinated. A part of the work done by John Jeavons, a proud and active member of the population of organic and open-pollinated gardeners. If you see him, he owes me a laser pointer.

FEDCO; PO Box 520, Waterville, ME 04903 207.873.7333 They are rabidly anti-GMO, though they do carry hybrids in addition to open-pollinated seeds. A wonderful and extensive selection. Someone who writes this beautiful deserves to get some of our money!

PEACEFUL VALLEY FARM SUPPLY; PO Box 2209; Grass Valley, CA 95945; 916.272.4769 I have purchased many seeds (and a lot of other things!) from Peaceful Valley – I love their catalog. They have an excellent selection of cover crop seeds as well as a lot of organic gardening supplies and tools. I have used their catalog to teach organic gardening because they clearly explain their products and how to use them.

NATIVESEED/SEARCH; 526 N. 4th Ave. Tucson, AZ 85705; 520.622.5561 (Fax 520.622.5591) Specializing in the seeds of seeds of south western United States, concentrating on the ancient seeds of the First Nations People from amaranth to watermelon. A worthy cause for your money. And good seed – some amazing varieties found no where else.

PINETREEGARDEN SEEDS; PO Box 300, Rt. 100; New Gloucester, ME 04260; 207.926.3400 Probably the best economy for a home gardener – small packets of very current seed, a very good value. The smaller packets mean a smaller price so a person can order a lot more varieties and experiment. I have been a customer for many years. Please note that this company, even though they have a fabulous model for the home gardener, has not signed the Safe Seed Pledge so one must make certain that anything you order from them, is listed as 'open-pollinated.' If in doubt, find it from someone else. Pinetree should sign the safe seed pledge and let us all breathe easier about supporting their own gardening philosophy and outlook towards the home-gardener. (N.B. Please see the comment section for Pinetree's response to my comments. I am pleased with their response and gratified that they cared enough to respond so passionately.)

SEED SAVERS EXCHANGE; Rt. 3 Box 239; Decorah, Iowa 52101; 563.382.5990 Membership fees $40. Free brochure. Some organic, but ALL open-pollinated. There are two ways to save seeds: one is to collect them all and keep them in a huge building that protects them from everything up to (and including) nuclear holocaust. The other way is to grow 'em. You can find the chance to grow them here. I have been a member for about 10 years and believe in their work; remember a Seed Savers' purchase supports their work and their work is vital to our survival in a post-Monsanto, chemical-deluged agricultural world. They are an essential part of the battle against Monsanto.

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE SEED EXCHANGE; P.O. Box 460, Mineral, VA 23117, 540.894.9480 (Fax: 540.894.9481) A commercial venture that is somewhat similar to Seed Savers Exchange, but really isn't an exchange. They do carry seed saving supplies - nice to have if you are going to save seed.

Transnational corporations can't build communities, they can't celebrate identity. Only we can do that, and we can do it with every seed we plant. (ibid)

david

The Ghost in Your Genes - Environmental Phenomena Is 'Inheritable'

2012-01-18T23:26:00.000-08:00

This BBC video, The Ghost In Your Genes, presents the next frontier beyond mapping the human genome and envisions some chilling possibilities for future generations based on what we have done to our bodies in this era of 'better living through chemistry.'

The data show that famine in one generation can be experienced physiologically by generations that follow - they don't have to go hungry to be experience the stress of that hunger. Finally, towards the end of the film, exposure to pesticide comes into the picture.

The ramifications are chilling. If the effects of pesticides are evident into the the third and fourth generation of rats (the phenomena has yet to be studied in humans), then the effects of pesticides will be felt for the coming 60 years (at minimum) in humans.

Now translate the effects of genetically modified food into the mix. We have only a few studies that focus on GM food in our guts and so far the conclusion we are seeing is that they might not be good for us. There has to be a lot more study. Unfortunately, that study can't just come in a twinkling - we will need twenty years to show whether or not genetically modified food is bad for us and if bad, how bad. There is considerable anecdotal evidence that genetically modified corn destroys female conception in mammals like pigs. That research has not been done in humans. Yet.

However, this testing should have been forced to occur BEFORE GMO technology was unleashed on our digestive systems and on the ecosystems of this Earth. Americans, more than any other national group, will pay the most if this plays out badly because our government has been the least effective in controlling GMOs in our food. If you needed more examples of how the government should exert much more control over business, I submit this as the most egregious example of greed triumphing over reason any where in the history of the good ol' US of A.

It was, in part, frustration over the American government's unwillingness to stand up for its own people that fueled the idea of a seed library. If we, local citizens, grow our own food, we control more of what goes into our bodies and, therefore, the effects it will have on our health. Now we can also consider the effects on our children and our children's children.

Many of us have felt our responsibility to coming generations deserved more consideration; now, the facts seem to support this conclusion and we have much more reason to demand our government treat us better than a test population for rich guys to get richer. Our government must be forced back from the idiocy of 'corporations are people too.' Like the wag said, "I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one!"

It has not mattered which of the two big parties have been elected lately. I am no lover of George Bush, but even Obama put wolves in charge of the hen house picking Tom Vilsack as the Secretary of Agriculture - a former Monsanto Board member. And while the government looked the other way, Monsanto, under several administrations, has been allowed to become one of the most dominant players in the seed business in the US. This is not good. Greed and avarice are the only principles this company honors and we are allowing them to be in possession of the basis of agriculture?

So you get a seed library. No matter what laws the government passes, no matter what plant genetics are controlled by what company, we can grow our own food and eat healthy, non-GMO food and the whole corrupt system be damned. We have a seed library and no, we don't need it today, this very minute. We can still get a lot of our seeds from the few remaining companies that still care. But if they aren't around tomorrow because Monsanto has been allowed to buy them all up, we will know how to save seed already and we will be here to steward the seeds that have fed mankind for countless decades. If you join with us, you'll learn how too.

If you don't, we'll be here prepared when we absolutely have to do it this way!

But don't wait. Join with us now and be one of the ones who knows the way out of the jungle. Together, we will both be stronger.

david

Meeting This Saturday,

2012-01-12T22:16:00.000-08:00

A quick reminder that the Seed Library of Los Angeles (SLOLA) meets again this Saturday, January 14, from 2:30 to 4:00 pm, at The Learning Garden. SLOLA Chair David King will kick off the meeting with his "New Year's Resolutions for Seed Savers" -- some fun and practical tips on what (and what not) to do with seed saving in mind. And at the close of the meeting, members may again check out seeds for free from the ever-expanding library.

By the way, you might also like to know that Bill McDorman, Executive Director of Native Seed/SEARCH and the primary instructor at the seed school David King recently attended, will be giving the keynote lecture for 4th Annual Seed Swap sponsored by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network and Fairview Gardens, on Friday, January 27, from 7:00 to 9:30 pm, at the Santa Barbara Downtown Public Library Faulkner Gallery, 40 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Admission is just $5 and reservations are not required. For more information, please call (805) 962-2571 or e-mail margie@sbpermaculture.org. (McDorman will also lead the Seed School Workshop the following day.) Those interested in attending can discuss carpooling at the Saturday SLOLA meeting!

Thanks,

Tim

Tim Smith

Membership Chair

Varieties of Vegetable Seeds I Believe Should Be Saved

2011-12-11T22:59:00.000-08:00

SLOLA Volunteers Check-in Seeds

A year ago I drew up a list of seeds I thought would be the ones to save – I asked around for others to suggest varieties that I might have missed, but there haven't been a lot of responses.

I was explaining to someone the other day that SLOLA has something like 200 varieties of vegetables in our bank and how I would rather have fewer varieties with larger quantities of each. He suggested that I was postulating the same lack of diversity I decry in the world of seed today.

After thinking about it for a couple of days, I think I have an answer to that accusation: It is better to save a fewer varieties of seed and save them well than to have hundreds of different varieties and save them poorly. I would like SLOLA to save all the seeds that will grow here successfully, but that could easily be more seeds than SLOLA can handle at present.

It is more important that we start where we are (we can't really start somewhere else, can we?) and begin to learn how to save seeds of several major varieties and have them on hand. At present, there aren't that many members who are experienced at growing out to seed. Those who can reliably grow plants out to seed need to apply themselves to growing out the difficult seeds and grow enough out to insure a supply on hand for the rest of our members.

Last year, compiling my list of seeds to save, I was heading east on I-70 through Illinois on into Indiana ending up at Ft. Wayne to celebrate Christmas. I was in the back of a car with my little Netbook and using a Blackberry to be online. This year, I'm at home and surrounded by seed catalogs, including the two most often cited as 'veggie porn' catalogs (Seed Savers' Exchange and Baker Creek Heirlooms) and was able to use their listings to create the following list of seeds to save.

I'd like to hear from everyone who reads this and has suggestions for varieties of veggies to save. The Seed Savers Of Los Angeles need a list of seeds to save – a 'target' for us to shoot for. Email us via the blog or bring your list to any SLOLA meeting – I’ll be willing to add your suggestions to my list. Let's see if we can double this in the coming year!

Here are my choices:

Artichokes

Green Globe

Violetto

Beans

Aquadulce (Fava)

Broad Windsor (Fava)

Cannelini Bush Bean (Dry/Bush)

Christmas (Lima/Climbing)

Dr. Pineschi's Grandfather Bean (Vigna unguiculata)

Envy (Soybean)

Golden Wax Bean (Wax/Bush)

Henderson (Lima/Bush)

Hutterite Soup

Pencil Pod (Wax/Bush)

Royal Burgundy Bean (Purple/Early)

Scarlet Runner (Phaseolus coccineus)

Beets
Albino

Bull's Blood

Crosby's Egyptian

Burpee's Golden Beet

Chioggia Beet

Detroit Dark Red

Yellow Cylindrical

Broccoli

DiCicco

Nutribud

Brussels Sprouts

Long Island Improved

Cabbage

Copenhagen Market Cabbage

Early Jersey Wakefield

Glory of Enkhuizen

Mammoth Red Rock

Perfection Drumhead Savoy

Premium Late Flat Dutch

Winningstadt

Carrot

Scarlet Nantes

Chantenay Red Core

Danvers Half Long

White Belgian

Cauliflower

Early Snowball

Chard

Five Color Silverbeet Chard (AKA Rainbow Chard)

Fordhook Giant

Celery and Celeriac

Giant Prague (Celeriac)

Utah Tall (Celery)

Corn

Country Gentleman Corn

Golden Bantam Corn
Stowells Evergreen

Cucumber

Armenian

Eggplant

(You know, I don't really LIKE eggplant - but I'm open to listing suggestions from those of you who do!)

Grains Etc... (The library is not saving any of these seeds, but it is important to keep these in mind for the near future - I've already started to grow out the Federation Wheat trying to get a supply of seed on hand, there'll be another blog post about this one soon.)

Flax

Quinoa, Shelly 25 Black

Sesame, Light Seeded

Wheat, Federation 126

Kale

Blue Curled Scotch

Lacinato

Leek

Blue Solaise

Carentan

King Richard

Lettuce

Black Seeded Simpson

Brune d'Hiver

Cimmaron

Drunken Woman Frizzy Head Lettuce

Tango Lettuce

Merlot Lettuce

Merveille des Quatre Saison Lettuce

Parris Island Cos Lettuce

Red Romaine

Rouge d'Hiver

Rouge Grenobloise

Summertime

Tango

Tom Thumb

Webbs Wonderful

Yugoslavian Red

Melons

Charentais

Green Nutmeg

Hale's Best

Metki White Serpent (cucumber)

Tigger

Okra

Burgundy

Clemson Spineless

Star of David

Onion

Red of Florence

Parsnip

Harris Model

Peas

Alaska

Lincoln

Little Marvel

Tall Telephone

Oregon Sugar Pod

Sugar Snap

Pepper

Anaheim

Corno di Toro

Fish

Italian Pepperoncini

Jalapeno Early

Jimmy Nardello Italian

Red Marconi

Squash – Summer

Lebanese White Bush Marrow

Zucchini – Lungo Bianco

Squash - Winter

Black Futsu

Chersonskaya

Delicata

Marina di Chioggia

Queensland Blue Squash

Sweet Meat

Tomato

Amish Paste

Big Rainbow

Black Cherry

Black From Tula

Black Icicle

Cherokee Purple Copia

Cream Sausage

Federle

Flammé

Orange Banana

Orange Icicle

Roman Candle

Rutgers

San Marzano

San Remo

Striped Roman

Thessaloniki

Wapsipinicon Peach

Turnip

Purple Top White Globe

That totals 113, this year. Maybe we'll top 200 next year! Let us know which ones are missing and help us to find those really good varieties to save!

david

The Seed Library of Los Angeles Turns One Year Old!

2011-12-06T22:54:00.000-08:00

Many of the original Board of Directors braved the cold.

It was probably one of the coldest days of December 2010. About 35 people met at 1:00 on the patio of The Learning Garden at Venice High School. By the time we'd all said hello and established the purpose of the meeting, we had dwindled down to about 20 people (and by the time all was said and done, we were even fewer).

Those that stayed that December 4th agreed to create a thing called the Seed Library of Los Angeles and began to form the organization to save and store seeds for loaning out to members. The members agreed to grow them out to preserve the genetic integrity of the seeds and subscribed to the Safe Seed Pledge. Then a portion of the harvested seeds would be returned to the seed bank for future gardeners to check out. We settled on a lifetime membership fee of $10, making it affordable to everyone. Most of us there that paid our $10 and SLOLA was on its way!

As I write this now, the Seed Library of Los Angeles (SLOLA) has about 250 members with about 280 varieties of seeds available to loan. We have a web page (slola.org) and email addresses for our officers. We have won the South Bay Business Environmental Coalition's SEED Award for Preservation of Natural Resources. We have sent speakers all over the Greater Los Angeles area to speak on saving seeds - not just how, but why. We have at least four good qualified speakers available and we've sent them to Covina and Orange County to speak about the world of seed saving. At our November meeting, we voted in a basic bylaws - in this upcoming, December meeting, we will elect our first officers under those bylaws.

We have had a heady first year. But this is just the beginning. With the lofty goals we have put our sights on, we have much to do. The first thing to do will be to find officers to serve for the coming year. We need more organization, more bylaws and more of that work that makes an organization viable. Our next meeting will be December 17th. Please take a few minutes out of your holiday schedule to come on down and lend your hand to our plow.

It's not only important work - it's exciting work. It's work knowing you are making a tangible difference and fighting the spectre of all seeds being GMO or all commercially available seed being owned by just a few multi-national corporations.

Come, be a part of the legacy of 'those who fought back!'

david
Inaugural Chair

Monsanto: The Devil Isn't Dead Yet

2011-11-29T22:40:00.001-08:00

From Centro de Periodismo Investigativo comes a disturbing story about Monsanto's apparent abrogation of the laws of Puerto Rico in order to produce seeds for their North American market, "'I am not opposed in principle to experiments done with transgenics,' said an agronomist close to the seed business. 'What bothers me is that they are subsidized to produce a product that is not for here, that does not contribute to the local agricultural economy and does not support better wages for farmers who are experiencing a difficult situation, such as coffee farmers.'"

It is a puzzlement, at least to me, that Monsanto breaks the law because they seem to have paid off enough politicians on the mainland that the law conforms to Monsanto's needs. Why break it - just buy yourself some more politicians and have them change it in favor of their needs?

The More we learn about Monsanto, their business practices, their complete preoccupation with making profits at the expense of human health, the environment and any sense of decency, it amazes me that they are allowed to continue to operate with such impunity. The fallacy that genetically modified seeds produce anything more than misery and environmental degradation are now documented and that they don't feed anyone any better than non-modified seeds is a matter of USDA record. Time has come to roll back their pollution of the environment - the sooner the better. We may never be able to recover some of the genetic losses caused by the indiscriminate pollution of their Frankengenes.

Our work in saving seeds is not done and will not be done. Monsanto has proven we cannot put our trust in corporations and government to do the right thing as far as our food supply is concerned. We must continue to be vigilant and responsible for our food supply and that means our seeds.

david

I'm Already Thinking 'Tomatoes'...

2011-11-28T11:46:00.001-08:00

Aren't you? The day is not far off when seed starters will be starting seeds of tomatoes (my first seeding out is in January!) and, because I order my tomato seeds online, yes, it is the beginning of tomato season for sure.

I don't count on getting tomatoes like these at The Learning Garden...

Seed Savers Exchange posted a link on Facebook which lead me to another link where I found Tomato Fest online, listing the Top Ten Tomatoes for 2011, based on their sales last year. Before you go there, let me warn you, if you are gardening along the coast (Sunset Zones 22 and 24) you can drool over the beefsteak tomatoes all you want, but be advised, they can be dicey in our ocean influenced climate. Even though I have proven this wrong once, I have proven it right more than once and I still hold to the thought that large tomatoes do not set fruit well in our climate because they need 85° over a 24 hour period to set fruit. That is hard to count on when the ocean flow in the evening often chills us down into the 60's. Having said that, you can now go and lust over these varieties. Hey, buy the seeds and give them to a friend in Pasadena for Christmas. How thoughtful! Then show up in harvest season... Heh heh...

Also note, along with this post at Tomato Fest, there is also a sale on tomato seeds. How convenient! Yes, give tomato seeds for Christmas to everyone (well, at least the locals) and enjoy the excess from several friends and neighbors - take note of what was grown and attend SLOLA meetings (next one December 17th!) and let us show you how to save the seeds for yourself and the library!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and all are looking forward to a warm and loving December holiday season. For all who want to enjoy a stress free moment in December, The Learning Garden hosts a Winter Solstice celebration, starting 6:30 PM on the 22nd until the fire goes out. Bring something warm to drink (we'll have tea and coffee for those who bring their own cup) and maybe a sweet treat, we'll have a fireplace and a ceremony to enjoy. No gifts, no cards, nothing special to wear (but something warm is a must!), and no stress. Just come out and observe this important end/beginning on the calendar with peace and reflection.

What a concept!

david

Another Blow to Monsanto: Roundup Pesticide Linked to Serious Soil Damage

2011-11-25T23:05:00.001-08:00

It's hard not to gloat (so pardon me while I gloat). This bit of news comes from the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), one of the most dedicated apologists for Monsanto and proponents of the myth of 'get big or get out' and all the mega-argri-business model of farming that has wrecked the environment, destroyed the economy of middle America, de-populated the small towns and allowed genetic modification to be marketed as a safe and sane way to create more food for Americans to throw away.

As an organic grower from the early '70's when the organic movement didn't have the science to back it up, I assure one and all that this is but the very beginning of the avalanche of damning reports Monsanto will have to face in the coming years. It doesn't take a brilliant mind to understand that the methodology employed by Monsanto and their claims ran counter to the ways and means of nature - and if humans have learned anything since they started running around on two legs and began waving the other two in the air, the one sure thing you can't do is fight Mother Nature. Any thing running counter to Mother Nature will be an expensive and destructive proposition. And guess what? Genetic engineering is an expensive and destructive proposition.

The destruction of the soil and the critters in the soil alone make the use of Roundup a practice that should never have been tolerated. To join that with 'genetic engineering' that was essential to make a 'working' scheme, was merely a marketing project undertaken by Monsanto to sell more and more Roundup. There was no thought as to what this would do to the people who used these products, no thought of the damage inflicted on the environment, no consideration of what might happen to the people who consumed these products, no thought about economic consequences for anyone else but Monsanto - the evidence is in the lack of study undertaken on these ramifications BEFORE the marketing of their poisons.

SLOLA came into being when we began to realize that we could not trust our government to tell us the truth about genetic engineering. After Vice-president Dan Quayle signed off on the agreement that our government would not regulate GMO crops itself, but would rely on Monsanto and the other companies involved in GMO research would tell us if their products were not as advertised.

The wolf was put in charge of the hen house.

SLOLA exists to ensure that the population of Los Angeles can have a source of untainted seeds, seeds that are grown organically and without genetic modifications. No matter what the ethics of Monsanto or the number of government officials they climb in bed with, as long as SLOLA can, SLOLA will guarantee a modicum of insurance that we can eat GMO free food.

Monsanto's profits are piled high on the misery of mankind and our country embraced these thieves and liars like no other; now here is that same government admitting that Monsanto's products are destroying the soil. Soil cannot be made in a factory. Soil takes time to be made - a long time. Destroying the topsoil ought to be a crime that equates with treason or murder. It causes more destruction and grief in a country than any act of espionage can ever. Our society is compromised in many ways by the lies of Monsanto and their allies, including the support of our own USDA for Monsanto and the concept of agri-business. Both of these have been nothing less than a cancer on our country and our way of life. I wont even try to NOT gloat.

You simply cannot trust a company (or a government supporting that company) who made (and STILL makes) DDT and Agent Orange, to be responsible or ethical.

david

The Heirloom Life Gardener

2011-10-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

On Friday, Oct. 7, NPR's Morning Edition ran a nice interview that you should read about or listen to by the founder of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds about his new book, The Heirloom Life Gardener. He's the force behind the National Heirloom Expo, which Linda Preuss (SLOLA's Database Chair) will be talking to us about at our Oct. 15th meeting. Please come -- you'll also learn how to save Rhubarb and other Polygonaceae seeds (buckwheat, sorrel, more).

"As a child growing up on his family's farm in the 1980s, Jere Gettle didn't spend his evenings watching TV; instead, he read seed catalogs. To him, the endless varieties of seeds with exotic sounding names were full of possibility. He loved the idea of planting them in the ground, tending the crops that grew from them and preparing the harvested vegetables for a family meal.

Gettle and his wife. Emilee, have built a thriving business off that early fascination. The Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company carries a large selection of seeds from the 19th century and the Gettle's new book, The Heirloom Life Gardener, offers advice on how to save and grow heirloom vegetables." (read the complete article and listen at the link)

The Food Movement: Its Power and Possibilities

2011-09-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

"The number of hungry people has soared to nearly 1 billion, despite strong global harvests. And for even more people, sustenance has become a health hazard—with the US diet implicated in four out of our top ten deadly diseases. Power over soil, seeds and food sales is ever more tightly held, and farmland in the global South is being snatched away from indigenous people by speculators set to profit on climbing food prices," from an essay by Frances Moore Lappé, titled, "The Food Movement: Its Power andPossibilities" featured in The Nation. Read his essay, then follow with the responses from Raj Patel, Vandana Shiva, EricSchlosser, and Michael Pollan. They are all make fascinating reading! It's a breath of cleansing air to read the thoughts of these seminal thinkers in such days of almost uniformly bad agricultural news.

david

MINUTES OF THE 9th MEETING, 9/10/11

2011-09-27T13:38:00.000-07:00

MINUTES OF THE 9th MEETING OF
SLOLA: SEED LIBRARY OF LOS ANGELES

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

Executive committee members present: David King, Sarah Spitz, Linda Preuss, Albert Chang, Patty Kestin, Timothy Smith

David King called the meeting to order, and did a presentation on lettuce seed saving.

LETTUCE SEED SAVING

We care about cross pollination because if we are saving seed that is "true," we don't want contamination from other varieties. In the case of squash it's more critical: if a zucchini and butternut cross, the seed it produces will be neither one nor the other, nor potentially will it be edible once the offspring from that crossed seed grows out. We engage in certain practices to keep this from happening.

In the case of lettuce, this is not really a problem, even if you grow several varieties near one another. Just choose one of the varieties and let that one go to seed.

Typically, lettuce takes up to 60 days to produce leaves; in cool weather, leaves can last a long time before the plant bolts. Once lettuce bolts, it can take months to get to the point where you can harvest the seed. Helpful garden hint: in winter months, keep six packs of seedlings nearby to pop in the ground whenever you remove a lettuce plant.

Lettuce goes to seed when the central stalk shoots up (bolts) and creates flowers (goodfor attracting beneficial pests). A single hot day can cause the lettuce tobolt. It's a very long time between seed setting and seed saving.

Stop watering the plant after it bolts (the leaves will grow increasingly bitter as they grow up the stalk more sparsely) and after it has flowered, there'll be a lot of"fuzz" on top of each flower as they die back. The flowers don't die back all at once, and the order in which they do dry out seems somewhat random,it's not all “up the stalk” or “down the stalk.” This means making several visits to the plant to find the seeds that have matured – you can differentiate the really ripe ones from the immature ones after a few tries, the mature ones are darker and larger. Instead of looking for individual flowers that are ripe,you can also allow most of the seed to dry on the plant and then you can cover it with a paper bag, cut the stalk, tie off the bottom of the bag, turn it upside down and allow the seed (and a good deal of chaff) to accumulate in the bag. Blow off the chaff (delicately because lettuce seeds are not that heavy themselves) allow to dry in a warm place until they are not moist, store in a cool and dark place until ready to plant again!

BUSINESS MEETING

The Best Practices Committee is seeking new active members, who will be involved with teaching members how to save seed from a specific "portfolio,"for which you will become "the expert" for SLOLA. This committee meets at NOON on the day of regular meetings (3rd Saturday of the month).

Sarah Spitz (secretary) shared news about the SEED Award ceremony: SLOLA was awarded the"Resource Preservation Award" by the South Bay Business Environmental Coalition; and the award is given on September 22 in Hawthorne. All members are invited to attend this free event at 3 pm at the Ayres Hotel.

Also:Thank yous were offered to KCRW's Gregg Lewis and PACE Lithographers for donating their services to create and print business cards, which Linda Preuss (chair of Database Committee) and Albert Chang (co chair of Best Practices) were able to put to use at the National Heirloom Expo in Santa Rosa in September.

A"Food for Thought" dinner is being held to raise funds for SLOLA, courtesy of Large Marge Sustainables, a catering company that sources locally and seasonally, and CitySip LA which arranges the liquid refreshments for these intimate dinners. They are held at the Green Beacon Foundation, in a privatehome, and they raise money for good environmental and sustainable, eco causes. SLOLA was adopted for the September 24th dinner.

Davidappeared at the Hollywood Farmers Market's Peak of the Season Tomato Festivaland talked about tomato seed saving. He appeared at the Good FoodFestival at Santa Monica High School on September 17to give a general introduction to Seed Saving and SLOLA. Megan Bomba also spokeat a community garden exchange meeting at Milagro Allegro on August 25th, atwhich 8 new members signed up.

David is launching a new "Essentials of Seed Saving" seminar on three Thursdays, October 20, October 27 and November 3. He will also present "Growing Food in Southern California" on October 1, and another series of certificated classes in the Grow LA Victory Garden series, presented by the UCCE/LA County Master Gardener Common Ground program on October 1, 8, 15 and 29, 1 pm to 4 pm. All classes are held at The Learning Garden.

Special thanks to our volunteer librarians Lucia Burke, Lucinda Zimmerman, Linda Preuss, Azita and Keianna Jolaei,Veronika Gillliland, Sara Meric, Ade Anaolapo and Sharon Weiner who've helped distribute seed and bring the inventory up to date. Also special thanks to Master Gardener Julie Strnad, who has been at two SLOLA meetings answering general gardening questions for our members.

David announced that he purchased seeds that he is donating to SLOLA from Pine Tree seeds and he spoke about Landreth Seed Company, which may go out of business unless they are able to sell 250,000 of their catalogs at $5by October 1st. It is America's oldest seed company, and David bought a catalog and seeds for SLOLA.

The next meeting will be held on Saturday, October 15th at 2:30pm, with an executive committee meeting at 1 pm at The Learning Garden.

Submitted by Sarah Spitz, Secretary

A Guide to Saving Seeds

2011-09-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Kathryn Brown for permission to repost this article, originally posted by Kathryn Brown in Backyard Farmer.

Maybe it was the unbelievably tasty heirloom tomato you ate at brunch, or an herb whose scent reminds you of childhood. Or maybe you want to take a stand against the constrictive grip of global seed & chemical companies who dictate the world’s daily diet while threatening biodiversity and human health. You might want to save money and grow plants from seeds you know have not been treated with pesticides and so are safe for your family to eat. Saving seeds from most plants is quite easy, and can provide a never-ending stream of future food or beauty in return for some organization on the front end. Why not give it a try?
Getting Started
This is a project in which a little organization goes a long way. Label your seeds at every step of the way. Ideally, this means labeling the plant which is the source of seed, the harvested seeds as they dry, the storage containers in which they lay dormant, and the seedlings when you grow them again. When labeling plants, you will want to include at least the following information: name of variety, where or who you got it from, when you got it, any defining characteristics like drought tolerance or unusual color, and any special care instructions such as early planting date or soil preparation. It may seem like a lot of information, but it will help you down the road!
Certain plants pollinate themselves, and others are cross-pollinated by insects and/or wind. When cross-pollination happens between varieties, a hybrid is produced. This is undesirable to seed savers because hybrids often don’t produce “true to type”, meaning that the child plants will not look like the parent plant and may even be sterile. So take note of where other plants of the same species are located near your growing space and attempt to isolate plants from being cross pollinated by wind or insects. It’s a good idea to consult a written growing guide or expert familiar with your area when establishing safe isolation distances for a particular plant.
Harvest
Seeds can generally be harvested once the plant completes its growth cycle. Select seed only from plants that performed strongly and are disease free. Flowers are usually ready about a month after flowering, when the plant begins to dry and petals drop. For fruits and vegetables, this means leaving them on the plant about a week past normal harvest ripeness. Harvest before it starts to rot on the plant, as this creates heat that may kill the seed embryo. Some plants forcefully eject seeds from the parent plant. With these types, you will have to watch closely as harvest time approaches so you don’t literally lose your seed to the wind!
Certain plants, like tomatoes and squashes, have germination-inhibiting chemicals in their flesh which must be removed before the seed is stored. This is, luckily, a pretty easy task. For seed encased in flesh, scoop the seeds into a bowl of water and stir occasionally. After a couple days, the healthy seeds will settle to the bottom and the flesh and non-viable seeds will float to the top. Simply skim the plant matter off the top, drain the now-clean seeds, and lay out on a paper towel to dry completely. Drying seeds completely before storage is essential, so no matter what type of seed or harvest process you use, allow at least a week of drying; more if necessary. One general way to tell if seeds are dry is if they break rather than bending flexibly.
Once dry, seeds should be stored immediately so that they don’t reabsorb water from the surrounding air and possibly trigger germination. A popular method for storing seeds is in small paper envelopes, which are easy to label and stack in a jar. This larger jar should be secured to prevent moisture from getting in, but not completely airtight, or it will prevent seeds from transferring necessary gasses while in dormancy. Seeds stored like this in a freezer can remain viable for many years. Alternately, they may be stored in a refrigerator for a somewhat shorter time, perhaps a few seasons. The goal is that they be held at a constant temperature in cool dry conditions which mimic those of winter.
Community
The perpetual cycle of pollinating, harvesting, storing, and growing different seeds is something that gardeners may find daunting to take on alone. It is for this reason, among others, that a new storage model, the seed library, was born. By dividing the duties of maintaining viability between many members, seed libraries allow a variety of seed types to be preserved which would be impossible for the individual gardener. Growing seed within a community also strengthens the seed for local conditions and allows a potential grower to benefit from the collective knowledge of all who have grown that variety. The Seed Library of Los Angeles (SLOLA), which recently was awarded the prestigious 2011 SEED Resource Preservation Award, is a repository for vegetable and other food seeds adapted to Los Angeles’ many micro-climates, and is a source of quality seed and growing information. For more about SLOLA, incuding a calendar of upcoming meetings, visit www.slola.org. Expert advice can also be obtained via the Master Gardener program, a network of growers certified by the county to assist residents with cultivation information. Most area community gardens are run by or have contacts with local Master Gardeners, and this can be another valuable resource for those interested in saving seeds.
By nurturing plants through the entire cycle of life and rebirth, it is possible that the one tasty heirloom tomato you plant today could still be feeding the families of your grandchildren. And wouldn’t that be a lovely gift for their future?
(photos by Kathryn Brown)

david

Spirit of Venice Award To Be Presented to David King

2011-09-19T13:29:00.000-07:00

Just three days after accepting the "SEED" Award from the South Bay Business Environmental Coalition on September 22, DAVID KING will be honored with the "Spirit of Venice" Award at the Abbot Kinney Festival!

Comeout and celebrate with us as David -- the Founder and Chair of SLOLA andGardenmaster of The Learning Garden at Venice High School -- receives this award at the annual Abbot Kinney Festival on Sunday, September 25.

The awardsceremony takes place on the Andalusia Stage (across the street fromIntelligentsia) beginning at around 3:15 pm. Winners of The Spirit of VeniceAwards are nominatedby the community for their contributions to the heart and soul of Venice. David King'snomination was unanimously agreed upon by the committee members!

Oneof Southern California’s most popularcommunity events, the 27th annual Abbot Kinney Festival will be held on Sunday,September 25, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Held on the last Sunday of September since1984, the FREE community festival features local artisans, live music, greatfood, family entertainment, and lots more.

Checkout the indie band line-up at the Andalusia Stage produced by Milkmade. Headover to the Brooks Stage for live music and deejay tunes curated by L.A. Recordand dublab. The Palms Stage at The Brig will showcase popular deejays fromdublab.

Organizedby the Abbot Kinney Festival Association (AKFA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, theannual Abbot Kinney Festival has grown in size and popularity to become one ofthe largest of its kind in the country, attracting nearly 150,000 people.Proceeds from sponsorships, booth exhibitor fees, official merchandise, andevent concessions benefit youth and families through the AKFA Community GrantsProgram.

Duringthis year’s Abbot Kinney Festival, beginning at 3:15 PM on the Andalusia Stage,the AKFA board of directors will award grants to the following Venice nonprofits: 826LA, Beyond Baroque,Inside Out Community Arts, Venice Arts, Venice Oceanarium, and A Window BetweenWorlds.

Inaddition, the 2011 recipients of the AKFA’s Spirit of Venice Awards will berecognized. Nominated by the community for their contributions to the heart andsoul of Venice,they include the following:

•David King, Garden Master of Venice High School LearningGarden and Founder & Chair of theSeed Library of Los Angeles(SLOLA)

•Venice Art Crawl (accepted by co-foundersDaniel Samakow, Edizen Stowell, Mark Rojas)

•Yo! Venice! (accepted by co-founder Bret)

•Teresa Skinner, Sr. Lead Officer atLos Angeles Police Department

Parking& Transportation: Ride your bike, carpool with friends, or use publictransportation such as Metro (www.metro.net),Santa Monica Big Blue Bus (www.bigbluebus.com),and Playa Vista Beach Shuttle. Venice Beach has public parkinglots, but spaces fill early. Several parking lots are located near Windward andon Electric Ave., Washington Blvd. near Venice Pier, and inMarina del Rey. Look for spaces along Venice Blvd. west of Lincoln Blvd. and along Main St.

NOTE:The Abbot Kinney Festival and Los Angeles Triathlon have worked together tominimize early-morning inconveniences that any street closures from both eventsmay cause. Festival organizers have been informed that the westbound lanes of Venice Blvd. willbe kept open at all times and that the eastbound lanes of Venice Blvd. are expected to be open nolater than 11 AM.

A New Seed Saving Seminar With David King!

2011-09-12T14:27:00.000-07:00

It's about time. Last January we had a seed saving seminar with SLOLA Chair and Founder, David King that was thoroughly enjoyed by every one. We have finally pinned the dates down and are very pleased to announce our next offering:

Essentials of Seed Saving

Generations before us understood the importance of saving seeds. It was an essential part of the lives of all our ancestors. This vital connection was lost as we began to purchase our seeds from seed sellers. In recent times, the specter of GMOs and monster corporations controlling the seeds they created and the very real prospect of seed corporations having control over our food supply.

October 20, 27 and November 3, 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM, at

The Learning Garden,

SE corner of Walgrove Avenue and Venice Blvd.

310.722.3656 or greenteach@gmail.com

Saving our own vegetable biodiversity today provides us

those old open pollinated varieties that taste good.
a wider range of vegetable varieties and more control over what we can have.
a closer participation in the cycle of life. In our gardens.
a hedge against personal financial misfortune.
a safeguard against food shortages.
our own way to mitigate against climate change and it's impact on agriculture.
the means to fight our shrinking biodiversity.

Upon completing this short course, participants will know why we urgently need to learn how to save seeds, the basics of saving most vegetable seeds, optimum conditions for seed preservation, how to preserve the genetic lines of different types of seed and short-cuts and tips from someone steeped in the seed saving ethic.

David King began his time in the garden at his Grandfather's knee back in northeast Kansas. He has been an avid gardener for most of his life and has taught gardening and horticulture at UCLA Extension and UC Cooperative Extension. He has been with The Learning Garden at Venice High School for over ten years and is the Chair of the Seed Library of Los Angeles. He has written the LA Garden Blog for over three years as well as several columns for periodical publication. A course of information, delivered with passion and humor is guaranteed.

We have limited seating, reserve your space now!

SLOLA members get a $10 discount - email David for enrollment procedures.

Prices: $40 before October 13; $45 October 13 to 19; $50 at the door

The First Publication of Proposed Bylaws for SLOLA

2011-09-08T20:09:00.000-07:00

This comprises the first publications of our proposed bylaws. If you are a member of SLOLA, you are invited to read these bylaws and comment on them, either via the blog or in the next few meetings. Bylaws will be amended in committee for the next month and then submitted to the membership at the October meeting for a vote. If conclusive, the bylaws will be adopted and elections held to establish officers for the coming two years. If not conclusive, amendments or other work will take place to allow them to be adopted. It is the intent of the current board to begin to operate under a set of established bylaws as soon as possible, creating a legal framework to become a recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Please read this document and make comments, pro or con, as you see fit. Thank you, David King, Chair

Bylaws

Seed Library of Los Angeles

Article I – Name

The name of this organization shall be Seed Library of Los Angeles, hereinafter referred to as SLOLA.

Article II – Mission

Our mission is to facilitate the growth of open-pollinated seeds among residents of the Los Angeles Basin. We are building and maintaining a seed collection and repository, educating members about the practice of seed-saving, and creating a local community of seed-saving gardeners. We seek to preserve genetic diversity, increase food security and food justice in our region, safeguard alternatives to GMOs, and empower all members through a deeper connection with nature and the experience of self-reliance. We will strive for excellence in all that we do, knowing the preservation of seed is a sacred trust.

Article III – Members

Section 1. Eligibility for membership

All persons who are interested in growing and/or saving seeds AND sign the Safe Seed Pledge (To wit, Agriculture and seeds provide the basis upon which our lives depend. We must protect this foundation as a safe and genetically stable source for future generations. For the benefit of all farmers, gardeners and consumers who want an alternative. We pledge that we do not knowingly buy or sell genetically engineered seeds or plants. The mechanical transfer of genetic material outside of natural reproductive methods and between genera, families or kingdoms, poses great biological risks as well as economic, political, and cultural threats. We feel that genetically engineered varieties have been insufficiently tested prior to public release. More research and testing is necessary to further assess the potential risks of genetically engineered seeds. Further, we wish to support agricultural progress that leads to healthier soils, genetically diverse agricultural ecosystems and ultimately healthy people and communities.) are eligible for membership.

Section 2. Dues

A lifetime membership of $10 is due upon completing the membership form and signing the Safe Seed Pledge.

Section 3. Fines/Fees

Fines/Fees may be imposed as needed. The Board of Directors may add new fees as required for continued operation of SLOLA.

Section 4. Resignation

Members may resign by sending a letter to the Membership Committee.

Section 5. Voting

All members in attendance and in good standing are entitled to one vote.

Article IV – Officers

Section 1. Officers

A. The officers of the board shall consist of a Chair, Vice Chair, past Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and Chair of each standing committee elected by the members or appointed by the Chair if an election is not possible in the time frame needed to fill the chair of a standing committee.

Section 2. Duties

The duties shall be as follows:

A. The Chair shall preside at all Board meetings, appoint committee members, and perform other duties as associated with the office.

B. The Vice-Chair shall assume the duties of the Chair in case of the Chair’s absence.

C. The Secretary shall be responsible for the minutes of the Board, keep all approved minutes in a minute book, and post the minutes on the SLOLA website or mail them to members without internet access by request.

D. The Treasurer shall keep record of the organization’s budget and prepare financial reports as needed and make these reports publicly available to the membership.

Article V – Elections

Section1. Election & Nominations

A. Elected officers (Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer) will serve a term of two years beginning January 1^st.

B. Elections will take place in October or November.

C. Nominations will be called for in an open meeting.

D. Only members in good standing may nominate for positions.

E. Each member is limited to two terms per position.

Article VI – Committees

Section 1. Standing Committees. The standing committees shall be: Best Practices; Membership & Education; Database & Catalog; Publicity & Outreach; and Organization.

A. Best Practices. This committee is responsible for setting and reviewing seed qualifications to be included in the library.

B. Membership & Education. This committee is responsible for keeping an accurate and updated membership list. This committee is responsible for sending membership-wide announcements and updates.

C. Database & Catalog. This committee is responsible for creating and maintaining an accurate and up-to-date list of all seeds in the library.

D. Publicity & Outreach. This committee is responsible for creating and maintaining a SLOLA website. This committee is also responsible for coordinating the marketing of public outreach events.

E. Organization. The organization committee is responsible for reviewing the bylaws and submitting amendments for review by the membership. This committee is also responsible for setting procedures for the checking out and returning of seeds.

Section 2. Special Committees

Special committees may be appointed by the Chair, the board, or the membership.

Article VI – Meetings

Section 1. Regular meetings

Regular Meetings will be held no less than 2 times per calendar year. The Board shall set the date of all general meetings.

Section 2. Special Meetings

Special meetings may be called at any time by the Chair or a majority of the board.

Section 3. Agendas

Agendas shall be available at least one (1) day in advance, if requested.

Article VII – Voting

Section 1. Quorum

A majority of the board constitutes a quorum. In absence of a quorum, no formal action shall be taken except to adjourn the meeting to a subsequent date.

Section 2. Motions

Passage of a motion requires a simple majority (i.e., one more than half the members present).

Article VIII – Fiscal Policies

Section 1. Fiscal Year

The fiscal year of the board shall be January 1^st to December 31^st.

Section 2. Expenditures

The Board must approve all expenses over $50.00

Section 3. Petty Cash

The Chair is authorized to keep $50 in Petty Cash. Receipts should be given to the Treasurer for accounting purposes.

Section 4. Guidelines

No part of the net earnings of SLOLA shall inure to the benefit of, or be distributed to, its members, trustees, officers, or other private persons, except that the organization shall be authorized and empowered to pay reasonable compensation for services rendered and to make payments and distributions in furtherance of the purposes set forth in the mission statement. No substantial part of the activities of SLOLA shall be the carrying on of propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation, and SLOLA shall not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributions of statements) any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office. Notwithstanding any other provision of this document, SLOLA shall not carry on any other activities not permitted to be carried on (a) by an organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code, or (b) by an organization, contributions to which are deductible under section 170(c)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any further federal tax code.

Section 5. Dissolution

Upon the dissolution of the organization, assets remaining after payment of all debts shall be distributed to The Learning Garden at Venice High School for the purposes within the meaning of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code, or shall be distributed to the federal government, or to a state or local government, for public purposes. Any such assets not disposed of shall be disposed of by the Court of Common Pleas of the county in which the principal office of the organization is then located, exclusively for such purposes ot to such organization or organizations, as said Court shall determine, which are organized and operated exclusively for such purposes.

Article IX - Parliamentary Authority

Roberts’ Rules of Order (Newly Revised) shall govern unless otherwise provided for in the bylaws.

Article X – Amendments

These by-laws may be amended by a two-thirds (2/3) majority members present at any meeting, provided a quorum is present.

Article XI – Time of Taking Effect

These bylaws shall take effect immediately upon its adoption.

SLOLA SEPTEMBER 2011 EVENTS

2011-09-08T08:14:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Sep 11: At the Hollywood Farmers Market, David King joins the "Peak of the Season Tomato Festival" with a presentation on Tomato Seed Saving. Festival events begin at 8:30 a.m. and run through 12 noon.

Saturday, Sep. 17: 1 to 1:30 pm At the Good Food Festival and Conference, at Santa Monica High School, David King gives a presentation on "The Need for Seed" -- Save seeds, save the planet! In a world full of GMO plants, learn why it’s important to save your own seeds and how to do it. www.slola.org (entrance fee to Festival is $10/day)

Saturday, Sep 17, 1:30 to 3 pm David appears on a panel as part of the Good Food Festival in the Chorus Room at Santa Monica High School

School garden designers discuss how they have successfully created unique and distinctly different programs that are changing the way schools feed and teach children. Presented by Marika Bergsund, Growing Great; Laurie Dill, Herb Project – 24th Street Garden; David King, The Learning Garden at Venice High School; Roger Lowenstein, Los Angeles Leadership Academy; Johann Hampton-Walker, Larchmont Charter School (Edible School Yard Program). Moderated by Yvonne Savio, University of California Cooperative Extension, Los Angeles County Common Ground Garden Program Manager.

Thurs., Sep 22nd at 3 pm: SEED Award for Resource Preservation honoring SLOLA will be given at the the South Bay Business Environmental Coalition Awards at the Hawthorne Ayres Hotel located at 14400 Hindry Ave., Hawthorne, CA 90250
--

MINUTES of the 8th GENERAL MEETING 8/20/11

2011-09-07T15:27:00.000-07:00

MINUTES OF THE 8th GENERAL MEETING OF SLOLA:
SEED LIBRARY OF LOS ANGELES
AUGUST 20, 2011

Executive committee members present: David King, Sarah Spitz, Linda Preuss, Lucinda Zimmerman, Elizabeth Bowman, Patty Kestin, Timothy Smith, Albert Chang, Julie Mann

The tomato seed saving presentation was given by Albert Chang, co-chair of Best Practices committee.

Tomatoes belong to the solanaceae family (night shade) -- characteristic of this family is that the only EDIBLE parts are the fruits, not the leaves, which ca be toxic

Amusing history lesson: Technically, tomatoes are fruits, but thanks to the US Supreme Court, in a decision regarding tariffs, it is also classified as a vegetable. Albert has raised as many as 75 different varieties of tomatoes. They WILL cross pollinate; 2 to 5%, which is OKAY if you are just using it for food.

But for the sake of seed saving, you must protect them from cross pollinating. A good way to do this is similar to the presentation that David King gave on peppers: use an isolation cage, covered with a breathable fabric while the flowers are on the plant. One other way is to grow only the one variety of tomato by itself. Timing your planting is another -- so that when one flowers, the other doesn't, and you don't need to worry about cross pollination.

Spatially, if you put at least 10 feet between tomato plants, you may not have a problem. Put something between them that isn't a tomato. Cherry tomatoes are especially "promiscuous." Spacing is not the most reliable way to grow if you are collecting seed that you want to be pure, and to reproduce exactly the same variety.

Barrier method: isolation cage, as mentioned above. Prevents insects from entering and pollinating. Staple fabric that lets in air and light to a wooden cage frame, cover till the flowers drop; they'll self pollinate. Once the blossoms drop, take off the cage.

Alternative methods that are time and labor intensive: pollinate by hand. Albert grows in groups of six and gets up early to hand pollinate the earliest blossoms with a brush. Once done, cover the plant or the branch to prevent insects from cross pollinating. You can use tulle, old nylons, fine mesh screen. Once you've pollinated be sure to tie it off at the bottom of the plant so bugs don't get in and wind doesn't cross pollinate.

MARK the flowers that you've hand-pollinated with a red sharpie on the branch by the flowers you've brushed. Once barrier is removed, mark this as the branch you want to collect your seed from. Later, when you harvest, you can pick from tomatoes that are mature and green or mature and red: you can wait but they get soggier as they get more mature, and harder to save the seed. They are viable for seed once they transition from flower to fruit.

Cut the tomato across the equator, spoon out the seeds into a small dish. When tomato seeds are in the plant, they have a coating to prevent germination. Cover the dish with plastic wrap, poke some holes in it, put it someplace warm. Warning: IT WILL SMELL!

Mold and fungi break down the seed coating, in about 3 days, stir it up a bit, it will be stinky, pour through a fine sieve, and if you plan to exchange seeds, to guarantee that you kill any potential pests or diseases, mix 1 part bleach with 5 parts water(*info updated), put seeds in that bath for ONE MINUTE; RINSE; then lay them out to dry - either on paper towel, paper plate, newspaper or coffee filter. DON'T MIX YOUR SEEDS; label them and store in your refrigerator. Glass is best.

To keep them from becoming moist, use the silica packs that come in vitamin bottles or other such things that need to be kept dry. You can put these in your oven, with just pilot light on or at the lowest temp, for six hours, then put that in the jar with the seeds. Powdered milk also works.

HARVESTING TIP: Wait at least 36 hours after you LAST WATERED before harvesting.

REPORTS:
Membership committee chair Tim Smith reports that since July 10th meeting, 38 new members have joined (as of this meeting date), for a total of 161 members. You can join online or on-site. We are working on a privacy policy; input from members is welcome, especially if you have any experience with privacy policies.

The library opened for distribution on Aug 27, and four librarians volunteered their services for seed giveaways. The next step is to get the inventory up to date, with actual quantities updated after the distributions.

Other committees:
Bylaws -- these are being drafted and revised, we hope to post for member input, and in order to be a free-standing 501(c)3 non profit, we must have bylaws. We will try to finalize so we can push the paperwork forward.

Best Practices: we'd like to have a few more brave souls become experts in seed saving, especially so we can have presentations on fall and winter veggies.

General business: We're moving to a 3rd Saturday monthly meeting, except for September (due to schedule conflicts and commitments to appearances around town), which will be SEPT 10 at 2:30 pm at The Learning Garden.

David announced that SLOLA will receive an award from the South Bay Environmental Coalition, their SEED Award for Resource Preservation on September 22, and all are invited to observe. It's in Hawthorne, in the afternoon http://www.sbbec.org/seed.htm. David and Sarah are attending; we're happy to carpool, and would love to have more members come out and support this event and honor.

Also we are attempting to create relationships with other community gardens to hold seed that they grow, which we could offer to members.

We need more jars! Any size, with metal caps (not plastic) from baby food up to quarts.

The meeting was adjourned, and seed distribution took place after it ended.

Submitted by Sarah Spitz, SLOLA Secretary

Breeding Time In The Cornfield!

2011-08-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

Isn't that a lovely corn breeding apron? Only in California!

On a day when the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange 2011 Catalog arrived, I was out bagging my corn.

This is significant because it was Southern Exposure that sold the bags I put on my corn.

I noted their catalog has some things in it that one cannot find in other catalogs; they have the best selection of okra I've ever seen in a catalog, colored cotton (no shipping to California, however), a nice selection of edamame, and a good collection of open-pollinated vegetables, flowers and herbs.

But what causes my interest in Southern Exposure Seed Exchange's catalog is in their offering of seed saving supplies and especially the tools a person needs to breed corn. The white bags in the photo are 'shoot bags' - they cover corn ears and - especially - the silks, which are the female flowers of corn. The brown bags are 'tassel bags.' These cover the tassels of the corn and I hope I got them on in time to catch the pollen. Tomorrow AM, I will be at The Learning Garden sometime close to 7:30 to open the tassel bags and will pour the pollen onto the silks. The silks are then covered with the pollen bags and, if I've done my job correctly, all the kernels in these ears will have parents from this stand of corn only. This is the first year of this job that will need to be repeated for several more years before this is a stable corn.

Already noted about this corn is that each plant bears multiple ears, and it is extremely vigorous and early! Some one asked me the other day if it tasted good. I don't know. That will have to be answered later.

I'm really excited about the possibility of making a difference in how people eat. I'm really excited to be growing what will become a whole new variety of corn! And we'll eat the ones that don't conform so it isn't like anything will be lost!

Stay tuned to this station for more stories from the crib of corn sex!

david

Monsanto Corn Plant Losing Bug Resistance

2011-08-29T11:56:00.000-07:00

This article appears in the Wall Street Journal, so it's not a "lefty rag" telling us about how frightening the Monsanto plan for humanity is and how unintended consequences could be what ultimately take down our agriculture. We still don't know what we don't know.

Although I do not think the WSJ will appreciate my doing so, I am posting the entire article, in case it falls behind a paywall after today.

By SCOTT KILMAN

Widely grown corn plants that Monsanto Co. genetically modified to thwart a voracious bug are falling prey to that very pest in a few Iowa fields, the first time a major Midwest scourge has developed resistance to a genetically modified crop.

The discovery raises concerns that the way some farmers are using biotech crops could spawn superbugs.

Iowa State University entomologist Aaron Gassmann's discovery that western corn rootworms in four northeast Iowa fields have evolved to resist the natural pesticide made by Monsanto's corn plant could encourage some farmers to switch to insect-proof seeds sold by competitors of the St. Louis crop biotechnology giant, and to return to spraying harsher synthetic insecticides on their fields.

"These are isolated cases, and it isn't clear how widespread the problem will become," said Dr. Gassmann in an interview. "But it is an early warning that management practices need to change."

The finding adds fuel to the race among crop biotechnology rivals to locate the next generation of genes that can protect plants from insects. Scientists at Monsanto and Syngenta AG of Basel, Switzerland, are already researching how to use a medical breakthrough called RNA interference to, among other things, make crops deadly for insects to eat. If this works, a bug munching on such a plant could ingest genetic code that turns off one of its essential genes.

Monsanto said its rootworm-resistant corn seed lines are working as it expected "on more than 99% of the acres planted with this technology" and that it is too early to know what the Iowa State University study means for farmers.

The discovery comes amid a debate about whether the genetically modified crops that now saturate the Farm Belt are changing how some farmers operate in undesirable ways.

These insect-proof and herbicide-resistant crops make farming so much easier that many growers rely heavily on the technology, violating a basic tenet of pest management, which warns that using one method year after year gives more opportunity for pests to adapt.

Monsanto is already at the center of this issue because of its success since the 1990s marketing seeds that grow into crops that can survive exposure to its Roundup herbicide, a glyphosate-based chemical known for its ability to kill almost anything green.

These seeds made it so convenient for farmers to spray Roundup that many farmers stopped using other weedkillers. As a result, say many scientists, superweeds immune to Roundup have spread to millions of acres in more than 20 states in the South and Midwest.

Monsanto became the first company to sell rootworm-resistant biotech corn to farmers in 2003. The seed contains a gene from a common soil microorganism called Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, from which crop biotechnology has been used to mine several genes for making insecticidal proteins.

One of the genes Monsanto developed makes a crystalline protein called Cry3Bb1. It rips apart the gut of the rootworm but is harmless to mammals, birds and most beneficial insects. Competitors, which use other Bt genes to attack the rootworm, estimate that roughly one-third of the corn grown in the U.S. carries Monsanto's Cry3Bb1 gene.

Monsanto said it generated world-wide sales of $4.26 billion from corn seed and biotechnology traits, about 40% of its overall sales, in its last full year.

Until insecticide-producing corn plants arrived, Midwest farmers typically tried to keep pests like the corn borer and the rootworm in check by changing what they grew in a field each year, often rotating between corn and soybeans. That way, the offspring of corn-loving insects would starve the next year.

Some farmers began to plant corn in the same field year after year. The financial incentive to grow corn has increased in recent years in part because the ethanol-fuel industry's exploding appetite for corn has helped to lift prices to very profitable levels for growers.

According to Dr. Gassmann, the Iowa fields in which he found rootworms resistant to the Cry3Bb1 toxin had been producing Monsanto's Bt-expressing corn continuously for at least three years. Dr. Gassmann collected rootworm beetles from four Iowa cornfields with plant damage in 2009. Their larvae were then fed corn containing Monsanto's Cry3Bb1 toxin. They had a survival rate three times that of control larvae that ate the same corn.

Dr. Gassmann found that Monsanto's Bt toxin still had some lethal impact on the larvae from the problem Iowa fields, and that the bugs were still highly susceptible to a rootworm-resistant corn plant from a competitor that uses a different Bt toxin, called Cry34/35Ab1.

Scientists in other Farm Belt states are also looking for signs that Monsanto's Bt corn might be losing its effectiveness. Mike Gray, a University of Illinois entomologist, said he is studying rootworm beetles he collected in northwest Illinois earlier this month from fields where Monsanto's Bt-expressing corn had suffered extensive rootworm damage.

The government requires that farmers who plant the genetically modified corn take certain steps aimed at preventing insects from developing resistance. Farmers are told to create a refuge for the bugs by planting non-modified corn in part of their fields. The refuge, which can be as much as 20% of a farmer's field, is supposed to reduce the chances that two toxin-resistant bugs mate and pass along that trait to their offspring.

Dr. Gray said the confirmation of toxin-resistant rootworms in Iowa could force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to revisit its policy of allowing the size of these insect refuges to shrink to as little as 5% of a cornfield as crop biotechnology companies begin to sell seed for corn plants that can make two different rootworm-killing toxins.

Part of what has attracted some farmers to Monsanto's new SmartStax corn line is that it allows them to plant a smaller refuge. But one of the two anti-rootworm toxins in that variety is the Cry3Bb1 protein at the center of Dr. Gassmann's study.

The EPA said it is too early to comment on any implications arising from Dr. Gassmann's paper.

Write to Scott Kilman at scott.kilman@wsj.com

Why Urban Farms Will Save the Economy and Lives

2011-08-27T23:05:00.000-07:00

No longer are we preaching to the choir! The word is out and people are piling on the bandwagon: urban agriculture is in and will empower us to move forward into a new paradigm where food is grown within a few miles and not a few thousand miles of where it is consumed.

We are on the tipping point and our world is changing. This article sums up nicely what we've been saying for years now! We are grateful to see this kind of encouraging news in print!

david

The President And The Seed

2011-08-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

Does this look like a monopoly to you?

..."The President should know that growing economic opportunities in rural America will take confronting the concentrated market power (and thus political and legislative power) in several agricultural industries. It will take fulfilling a campaign promise to fight for family farmers and ranchers by ensuring fair and transparent markets.

The President couldn’t have picked a better spot to make this point. His venue, Seed Savers Exchange, is home to a trove of genetically diverse seed. It is the perfect counterpoint to the alarming extent to which ownership of this vital resource is privatized and concentrated. The top three firms, for example, account for more than 75 percent of U.S. corn seed sales."...

All of the above came from the Organic Seed Alliance blog and you can read the rest of it via this link.

david

Why she joined SLOLA!!!

2011-08-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

What a delightful blog post "Front Yardening" (click here to read) wrote about why she decided to join SLOLA! Here's a taste--read the whole thing at the link!

Gardening as Resistance: Why I Joined SLOLA

Posted on August 23, 2011

Part of why I decided to plant a kitchen garden was to empower myself. It has become all too clear that the corporations and government entities responsible for our food supply do not have our best interests at heart (not to mention the best interests of future generations). In addition to supporting local, sustainable farmers, I thought it made sense to educate myself about growing some of my own food. I started slowly – first just with lettuce seedlings, then a few other crops. For the past ten months, I’ve purchased almost all of my seedlings from a grower at the Culver City Farmers Market (my tomato seedlings came from Tomatomania). Lettuce, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, summer squash, tomatoes, eggplant, basil, mint, sage, parsley, cilantro, and dill: I’ve grown it all, some with great success, and some with little. I’ve learned enough to know that I have a lot more to learn, and the experience has been wonderful, though largely solitary.

Recently I’ve found myself thinking about seeds and community. As enjoyable as it is to grow a small kitchen garden in my front yard, I never intended or expected to stop there. I know that to become a better gardener, I have to learn about seeds: how to grow food from them, and how to save them. I also know that I will learn more and faster if I connect with other growers, both beginners like myself and longtime masters. (continued; go to link at top of page)

National Corn Day in Mexico

2011-08-22T19:07:00.000-07:00


The Yellow of Sunflowers Standing Tall with the Corn

Campaña Sin Maíz, No Hay País which translated to English means "Without Corn, There is No Country Campaign" is the name of a Mexican organization that works to fight climate change and GMO's in their country. Their website can be accessed in English using Google Translate and gives you the list of their organizational goals, which align, I'd say, pretty closely to SLOLA's. They are calling the 29th of September Día Nacional del Maíz; National Corn Day.

Corn, like all other plant, has no recognition of national boundaries - I'd like all Angelenos to say a prayer for corn and eat something made from corn on that day. Take a moment to read this page with it's references to the importance of corn to the historic peoples of the area we call Mexico.

Better yet, read The Story of Corn by Betty Fussell - a great read that I tore through a couple of years ago. She shows the history of corn is as much spiritual as it is gastronomic and tells a fascinating story in hard to put down kind of read!

Corn, like no other, is the plant upon which our country's economy is based and, with ever increasing genetic modification, covers thousands of acres with a uniform, not diverse, genetic population. Which means it is all susceptible to the same pathogen. All it would take is one pathogen that likes those genetics and our all dinner plates suffer. Think of the damage to our economy for one corn crop failure! Would make the bank's collapse seem like a bad day at the office. Real value is our ability to eat.

david

Right Now, Because You Don't Have To Yet

2011-08-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

Diversity Helps Prevent Disaster

The Seed Library of Los Angeles is growing by leaps and bounds! Already our membership stands just below 200 and we have a palatable cash reserve for an organization so young. We are on the verge of adopting a set of bylaws that will govern the Library and lead us towards our own non-profit status. All in all, it has been a very exciting 9 months.

We had "seed-mobile" excursion, patterned after the 'book-mobiles" of book libraries, Sunday evening to the Millagro Allegro community garden. Megan Bomba of SLOLA's Best Practices Committee gave a 45 minute talk on saving seeds and showed the easiest seeds to save. David King, SLOLA's Chair, brought out a selection of winter seeds to share with those who joined SLOLA or were already members.

We hope this is a first of many similar trips to the community garden's of Los Angeles. From the very beginning, SLOLA has considered it part of their mission to serve the entire greater LA area. Ideas abound on how to do this, but one of them is the seed-mobile. We would like to find funding to create such a thing and make economically viable. A seed mobile needn't be the big van that books are carried in - in fact, a bicycle could do the job, although not if we expect me to do the pedaling! A small vehicle with room for a 2 x 3 foot box of seeds and some paper work would do the trick.

In conjunction or not with the seed mobile, we also envision a host of neighborhood libraries that are affiliated with the library we have established at The Learning Garden. It is part and parcel to our vision that not all our seeds are stored at one location - every single variety of seed that is a part of the library's collection should be stored in at least two locations. This kind of redundancy spreads the risk of losing any particular variety.

Eventually, we believe that SLOLA will become the repository of choice for valuable heirloom seeds that exist here in the suburbs and barrios of Los Angeles. And over time, the popular varieties of seeds that we are importing from across the United States will become adapted to our Los Angeles soil and climate and will become even more productive for us here.

In addition, we encourage our members to go about creating open-pollinated varieties of vegetables that will do better here and perhaps elsewhere as well. Many of us foresee a time when the agricultural model for the modern US food production will fail and, because of the peculiar nature in which it has been structured, when it fails, it will fail massively. We would like to see agriculture in the city of Los Angeles so advanced that we can ramp up and provide food for that part of the country that is now our breadbasket. You know, those vast fields where multi-national corporations have created a vacuum of common sense and a chemically-induced sense of reality that is more warped any drug trip an individual has ever been on. Already we see super weeds that are Round Up resistant and know that Monsanto is working on Round Up 2012 to combat them. Sadly, it never ends.

While the pervasive use of Round Up and its damage to the environment is bad enough, it's not the worst of it. The varieties corn or soybeans, upon which the vast amount of our United States foods are based, are few. If a pathogen gets into one of those varieties with any kind of virulence, the damage done to our food supply could be enormous. As one author pointed out, the Irish already did this experiment (the Potato Famines of the 1800's) and it didn't turn out so well for them. Intelligent men and women are still persisting in the illusion that those rules don't apply to us.

We call that folly. Sadly, it is a folly that when realized has a devastating potential. Join the Seed Library of Los Angeles and begin to do something about saving our food crops now while we don't have to so that when (not if) this failure occurs, the damage can be mitigated by you and your little garden. It is very important what you do today because you'll be able to show others what to do when the time comes - and your little garden will be multiplied a thousand full!

That is powerful and the power is yours right now!

david

GMOs to Blame for Problems in Plants, Animals

2011-08-16T21:15:00.000-07:00

Michael McNeill doesn't look like a hippy and his credentials clearly show him as an expert in his field with a Ph.D in Quantitative Genetics and Plant Pathology from Iowa State University. So when Dr. McNeill testifies that "scientists are seeing new, alarming patterns in plants and animals due to increased use of the herbicide Roundup," it's time (past time?) to pay attention.

We found this article in the Boulder Weekly, a Boulder, CO newspaper and found it interesting.

It's the nature of progressive thinking in our society. It takes concerned citizens that become convinced something is not right with what we are being told. They are ridiculed as being activists, commies, pinkos or whatever the current insult might happen to be. Eventually, people with families begin to see things like the radicals and the ranks of dissent swell. This is the point we are now at: Finally the experts, the learned who's bread is buttered by the evil-doers, finally realize that the status quo is not just harmful, but is harmful to them and their families as well.

And then government suddenly wakes up and says, "Huh? There's something going on? I better pass a law!"

I'll leave it at that. I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about passing laws....

david

Commercial Announcement: Join David King for a Growing Food Class This Saturday

2011-08-01T13:51:00.001-07:00

This Saturday, 06 August 2011, The Learning Garden presents: Growing Food In Southern California with David King. This 9 to 12 workshop centers on what to do in the coming months as Southern California heads into our 'other Spring' and one of our best, and least understood, growing seasons! You'll learn what to plant and how to plant it, what varieties go best here and why and all about getting the best garlic you will ever have! Dress to get into the garden and get dirty, The Learning Garden can be cool even in August, so dress in layers. Coffee and garden-made mint tea will be served please bring your own cup! Email greenteach@gmail.com or call 310.722.3656 for more information. No need to RSVP – class goes on no matter what! $25 at the gate...

david

Sweet Corn Pollination

2011-07-30T22:39:00.000-07:00

Corn, Not Quite As High As An Elephant's Eye Tassels Out

Organic Seed Alliance's recent blog post, Sweet Corn Pollination Season in California, is a marvelous picture-loaded tutorial in hand pollination of corn.

Corn is a wind pollinated plant that will easily suffers from 'inbreeding.' This means, to get seeds that will grow vigorously, individual plants must be pollinated by a plant other than itself. Furthermore, especially in a small planting, the very light pollen will easily waft away, pollinating very little of the silks at hand. To insure each silk gets pollinated, and by an adjacent plant and not itself, hand pollination is the preferred method. Each kernel of corn has its own silk and that silk must be hit with at least one grain of pollen or the kernel does not develop, making it essential for good seed set to hand pollinate.

I also found this video on breeding corn - while it does extoll the praises of hybrid corn, it is a good video on corn pollination and provides some interesting details on corn breeding.

If you want to save corn seed, this is the best way to get it done. The tutorial's photos give a reader a good start on the methods and techniques. I will being doing this procedure later this year as the purple dent corn, Purple Maize, begins to tassel out. I've got my bags, a friend is sewing a pollination apron for me and I'm studying everything I can find on the hand pollination of corn.

If you like what you read from OSA, please consider sending them a couple of bucks. They are doing excellent work and, like all non-profits, could use the dough to continue the good work. Remember that Monsanto and the other mega-corporations that are trying to control our seed supply have billions of dollars. It's a David vs. Goliath scenario and OSA is one the best 'David's' in the business today.

david

Who owns the world's seeds? Chart

2011-07-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

WHO OWNS THE WORLD'S SEEDS?? http://ow.ly/5PAWF Structure of the Seed Industry follow @WithoutMonsanto on twitter

http://ow.ly/5PAWF

www.naturalnews.com

2011-07-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob287.htm

Essay of the Week

Monsanto Nation - Taking Down Goliath by Ronnie Cummins

"Living in Monsanto Nation there can be no such thing as 'coexistence.' It is impossible to coexist with a reckless industry that endangers public health, bribes public officials, corrupts scientists, manipulates the media, destroys biodiversity, kills the soil, pollutes the environment, tortures and poisons animals, destabilizes the climate, and economically enslaves the world's 1.5 billion seed-saving small farmers. It's time to take down the Biotech Behemoth, before the living web of biodiversity is terminated."

Read more and join the campaign (READ THE ENTIRE NEWSLETTER at link above, sign up to receive it, too!)

Let's help them give away free seeds!!

2011-07-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.dinnergarden.org/aboutUs.html

Hey SLOLA members and friends, let's help these folks out and maybe think of this as something we might do in the future, too - They are trying to raise money to buy fundraising software here: http://dinnergarden.blogspot.com/2011/07/help-us-out-donate.html

All about The Dinner Garden and Our Staff

www.dinnergarden.org

For several years, Holly Hirshberg's family had grown fruit and vegetables in a home garden during the summer months. She had enjoyed fresh tomato sandwiches, vine ripened cucumbers, red and yellow bell peppers, fresh herbs, like basil, thyme, and rosemary, potatoes, and watermelon. The fresh pro...(read more at the link)

Join the Millions against Monsanto Campaign

2011-07-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/action.cfm

Action Appeal

Help the Millions Against Monsanto Campaign Recruit a Million Anti-GMO Activists

http://www.facebook.com/millionsagainst

More Monstrous Monsanto-ness

2011-07-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

Monsanto's "Superweeds" Gallop Through Midwest

http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2011/07/monsanto-superweeds-roundup

Desperate farmers are resorting to the hoe and pesticide "cocktails" to fight Roundup-resistant weeds.

...What is surely the least surprising, most-anticipated major development in the history of US agriculture, farmers are discovering that when you spend years dousing land a single herbicide, ecosystems adapt. Roundup Ready crops, meet Roundup-defying weeds.... (read more at the link)

Seed Libraries Thrive Across the Nation

2011-07-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

http://eco18.com/2011/07/seed-libraries-thrive-across-the-nation/

Thanks to the folks at Eco18 for including SLOLA in this story!!

Whether living in a city, a suburb or deep in the woods, growing herbs, vegetables and other crops at home has become a passion for people all over the world. The benefit of at-home gardening doesn’t just stop with the food it produces; it’s also a hobby and source of entertainment for those who grow. And in recent years, organizations have started to recognize this large group of at-home gardeners and built up communities and resources centered around making gardening more accessible to anyone with an interest in the subject. (read more at the link)

Organic Seed Alliance (OSA) Post on Breeding Organic Vegetables

2011-07-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

Deft fingers prepare a tomato flower to be hand pollinated.

We count Organic Seed Alliance as one of the very good guys in our fight to bring clean, wholesome food to the tables of Americans; organic food that feeds the body and the soul and doesn't wreck nature or the environment. They have just put up an article on their site concerning the breeding of vegetables for organic farmers. I like their attitude and program, but I wish we could expand on it further.

Breeding of vegetables used to be done by amateurs - everyone gardened and everyone saved their own seed stocks. By the simple act of saving seeds, a gardener has selected one plant over the next and has done a little plant breeding - a little variety improvement. So, those of us who know about seed saving already have the technical skills to breed new plants. A little time polishing up Mendelian genetics (good ol' Gregor had a birthday yesterday!), which isn't too hard, gives you the basics of what you need for breeding. Carol Deppe's book, Breed Your Own Vegetables is very easy to understand and in it she gives you all the tools you need to begin to breed your own vegetables - funny how the title says something just like that..

The point is that most currnet vegetable production is for plants that will be grown in a pesticide and herbicide intensive, highly fertilized environment - not the sort of environment one finds in an organic setting, so this country need plants bred to grow organically and still produce good, tasty, abundant and nutritious food.

I believe all gardeners should be involved in this effort. Amateurs bred the best tasting tomatoes in a time when the average person didn't know the science of genetics from a flying machine. Knowing what the average gardener knows today, surely, we can do more and better! Let's get started and overwhelm the market place with home-grown, open pollinated vegetable varieties that can compete toe to toe with commercial hybrids on every count.

Not only CAN we breed better vegetables than the big guys, but we can eat our mistakes along the way and have fun doing it! Soon we can have varieties that are bred to perform in Los Angeles climate and soils and every region will have their own specialties - much like we used to have local diners until the chains came along and served the same fare to everyone losing the individual character of the different parts of the nation. Let's celebrate freedom from big ag and big chemicals and big science by moving to a new paradigm that involves many more of us in our food production.

david

Record of the Seed Library of Los Angeles

Garden Master & Author David King At Santa Monica College on March 27.

Money

Svalbard - Concern Behind the Celebration...

Avoiding Monsanto Seeds

SLOLA Eastern Branch General Interest Meeting on Sunday

Saving a Compromised Old Favorite

Heirlooms Protect World’s Food Supply

A Collection of Seed Catalogs

The Ghost in Your Genes - Environmental Phenomena Is 'Inheritable'

Meeting This Saturday,

Varieties of Vegetable Seeds I Believe Should Be Saved

The Seed Library of Los Angeles Turns One Year Old!

Monsanto: The Devil Isn't Dead Yet

I'm Already Thinking 'Tomatoes'...

Another Blow to Monsanto: Roundup Pesticide Linked to Serious Soil Damage

The Heirloom Life Gardener

The Food Movement: Its Power and Possibilities

MINUTES OF THE 9th MEETING, 9/10/11

A Guide to Saving Seeds

Spirit of Venice Award To Be Presented to David King

A New Seed Saving Seminar With David King!

The First Publication of Proposed Bylaws for SLOLA

SLOLA SEPTEMBER 2011 EVENTS

MINUTES of the 8th GENERAL MEETING 8/20/11

Breeding Time In The Cornfield!

Monsanto Corn Plant Losing Bug Resistance

By SCOTT KILMAN

Why Urban Farms Will Save the Economy and Lives

The President And The Seed

Why she joined SLOLA!!!

Gardening as Resistance: Why I Joined SLOLA

National Corn Day in Mexico

Right Now, Because You Don't Have To Yet

GMOs to Blame for Problems in Plants, Animals

Commercial Announcement: Join David King for a Growing Food Class This Saturday

Sweet Corn Pollination

Who owns the world's seeds? Chart

WHO OWNS THE WORLD'S SEEDS?? http://ow.ly/5PAWF Structure of the Seed Industry follow @WithoutMonsanto on twitter

Essay of the Week

Monsanto Nation - Taking Down Goliath by Ronnie Cummins

Let's help them give away free seeds!!

http://www.dinnergarden.org/ab​outUs.html

Hey SLOLA members and friends, let's help these folks out and maybe think of this as something we might do in the future, too - They are trying to raise money to buy fundraising software here: http://dinnergarden.blogspot.c​om/2011/07/help-us-out-donate.​html

Join the Millions against Monsanto Campaign

More Monstrous Monsanto-ness

Monsanto's "Superweeds" Gallop Through Midwest

Seed Libraries Thrive Across the Nation

Organic Seed Alliance (OSA) Post on Breeding Organic Vegetables

http://www.dinnergarden.org/aboutUs.html

Hey SLOLA members and friends, let's help these folks out and maybe think of this as something we might do in the future, too - They are trying to raise money to buy fundraising software here: http://dinnergarden.blogspot.com/2011/07/help-us-out-donate.html