Iteration and Uniteration and Seed Library Protocols

Within the domain of what we call seed libraries, there is a great deal of deviation in protocols. On one hand, many seed libraries simply file packets of donated seed into alphabetical order and people take a whole commercial packet home. This is the normal model for seed libraries housed inside of book libraries and is probably the most common way to deal with inventory.

This paper is to look at the two basic systems of cataloging seeds in seed libraries that don't follow that model – where seed is distributed by a trained, albeit a volunteer, staff. I want to explore the practices available and show their strengths and weaknesses of both. I do not expect this to be definitive at all, but a first step towards an understanding of the pros and cons and pitfalls that might otherwise be surprises – nasty surprises at that.

I would like to illustrate with a hypothetical example that contains elements from three different problems.

We have carrots in the seed library. One of our more popular carrots is Nantes. Working with the library last Sunday, we discovered we had

Nantes Carrots from 2016 – coming close to the end of their viability

Nantes Carrots from 2020 – from Vendor A

Nantes carrots from 2020 – from Vendor B

How should we store and distribute them?

Does each iteration deserve it's own number?

Or do we keep 2016 from the 2020's and put both 2020's in the same check out – even though they are from different companies?

Because we seem to have a plethora of Nantes carrots, should we just dispose of the 2016 lot and go with the fresher seeds?

There are yeas and nays from all sides. How do you consider this? On one hand, we are all against tossing seeds! Carrots, for one are the more difficult to get to seeds (biennial – take up space in the garden for a time and often require a good chill time before flowering).

I am looking for a simple answer that is usable throughout the library – maybe I'm overshooting

What do other seed libraries do in this case?

david

SEED LIBRARY OF LOS ANGELES – VENICE - January 2020

SEED LIBRARY OF LOS ANGELES – VENICE BRANCH

JANUARY MEETING – MINUTES

1/18/2020

START TIME: 1:03 p.m. 

Attendance: Azita, David, Julie, Bridey, Kim, Toshiro SLOLA Member

Absent: Ade, Jeremy

Late: ( JP arrived after 2pm)

UC/Master Gardeners: 

REPORTS 

Secretary _ Bridey : Reads minutes

Treasurer _ Kim : Received $100 check from Shalom Institute and Camp (Shemesh organization with Davis Watson) Checking $3,582.12  Savings $1,738.50 PayPal $349.62

Membership_ Azita/David : Azita nothing to report. David cleaning his desk found two new membership applications. David will pay $20 Kim cash. Azita reminds us that when cash is given to send Paypal money immediately. 

Librarians _ Jeremy & Ade : N/A

Outreach : N/A

Vice Chair _ David : Present at Winward event. 7th graders were a hard bunch. Spoke about the 6 centers of civilizations, how and why did they become a big city -all revolves around agriculture and saving seeds. Brought cotton bolls where they removed seed from cotton, which was a high point. 

Ordered 9 different varieties of tomatoes and I also have beans that I have purchased for a project that fell through to add to library stock. 

Speaking next Thurs morning at USC for a Food & Ecology class. 

Cool Beans, is newsletter by Richmond Grows Seed Library in CA, an outlet and platform for us and others who want to write about seeds. 

Dr.  Daniela Soleri  is from Univ of Santa Barbara has two loads of different beans and wants different seed libraries around California to grow them and report back. She wants to do a study on community seed diversity and adaptation collaboration. David has accepted to participate. The seed varieties offered are, “Cherokee Trail of Tears,” and, “Jacob’s Cattle Bean.” 

Chair_ Azita : Spoke with 4 classes at Winward school. Topic: Landrace & genetics  - each class was different, we did some on the spot research about the French -- lots of pro-biotech questions and wondering about GMO’s and why they are bad if they feed more people. Lots of food justice conversation. Spoke about procedure of Seed Meetings so that they knew what to expect if they came to the meetings. Not many kids accepted seeds because they didn’t think they could take care of them. Azita shared her dream for the Seed Library is an App and the response from teachers and students was positive and supportive, will follow up with that as well as who may be interested in volunteer day. Hopefully we are invited back for more talks. 

Bridey made a SLOLA volunteer sign-up sheet that we can use at meetings to invite more hands.

Altadena report available on Transition Pasadena website. 

We need to alter how we take seed check outs and make sure we cutoff before speaker begins or say until 3:30 to allow us a chance to shut down on time. 

Julie_Parlitarian:  No report but will meet with David & Jo-anne again before the next meeting. Election talk should be brought up in September and so by July we should have the election process outlined and figured out. (July meeting date July 18th). 

JP : Want to know if you guys want me and have dialogue and communicate and when people have differences of opinions - do I get a vote to resign or to stay on the board. 

Julie mentions that he was voted in and so it’s his decision to stay. 

Bridey asks what is his role. David mentions that he has shown interest in inventory. 

JP finishes to say that he wants to talk about our misunderstandings and would like to be a voting member of the board as Technical Advisor and happy to relinquish role as Secretary. 

OLD BUSINESS

• Seed Inventory is behind, we need to spend time outside of SLOLA meeting days.
• Need to submit Orcutt Budget
• Seed of the Season : Carrot Nantes Scarlet (March we will switch to a new bean) We can also add a Seed of the Season Hard and Seed of the Season Easy for varying difficulty levels.

NEW BUSINESS 

• Online Seed order forms / inventory.
• What do we need to buy? Business cards? More merch? Hat? Envelopes with more SLOLA info to give away at events. 
• Azita will ask Jo-anne to make a SLOLA origami seed pack paper
• We need a new treasurer, also note: when leaving a position we need to have a job position written out with tasks/duties to pass on. (Should be in something in Trello)
• David proposes Jaeger as a speaker? Azita mentions that towards end of year makes sense with her.
• We need to find new speakers on Seed Saving / seed subjects : Folklore & Seed History is suggested idea. 

Upcoming SLOLA EVENTS 

01/26/2020 Volunteer Day 3-5PM

1. JULIE MOTIONS TO ACCEPT THE MINUTES. DAVID SECONDS. AZITA CALLS THE QUESTION, ALL IN FAVOR, MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. 
2. DAVID MOTIONS THAT JP IS NO LONGER THE SECRETARY BUT THAT IS THE TECHNICAL ADVISOR. JULIE SECONDS THE MOTIONS. AZITA CALLS THE QUESTION, ALL IN FAVOR, MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. 
3. DAVID MOTIONS TO ADJOURN. JULIE SECONDS THE MOTION. AZITA CALLS THE QUESTION. ALL IN FAVOR, MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. 

MEETING ENDTIME 2:17 PM

– VENICE BRANCH

JANUARY MEETING – MINUTES

1/18/2020

START TIME: 1:03 p.m. 

Attendance: Azita, David, Julie, Bridey, Kim, Toshiro SLOLA Member

Absent: Ade, Jeremy

Late: ( JP arrived after 2pm)

UC/Master Gardeners: 

REPORTS 

Secretary _ Bridey : Reads minutes

Treasurer _ Kim : Received $100 check from Shalom Institute and Camp (Shemesh organization with Davis Watson) Checking $3,582.12  Savings $1,738.50 PayPal $349.62

Membership_ Azita/David : Azita nothing to report. David cleaning his desk found two new membership applications. David will pay $20 Kim cash. Azita reminds us that when cash is given to send Paypal money immediately. 

Librarians _ Jeremy & Ade : N/A

Outreach : N/A

Vice Chair _ David : Present at Winward event. 7th graders were a hard bunch. Spoke about the 6 centers of civilizations, how and why did they become a big city -all revolves around agriculture and saving seeds. Brought cotton bolls where they removed seed from cotton, which was a high point. 

Ordered 9 different varieties of tomatoes and I also have beans that I have purchased for a project that fell through to add to library stock. 

Speaking next Thurs morning at USC for a Food & Ecology class. 

Cool Beans, is newsletter by Richmond Grows Seed Library in CA, an outlet and platform for us and others who want to write about seeds. 

Dr.  Daniela Soleri  is from Univ of Santa Barbara has two loads of different beans and wants different seed libraries around California to grow them and report back. She wants to do a study on community seed diversity and adaptation collaboration. David has accepted to participate. The seed varieties offered are, “Cherokee Trail of Tears,” and, “Jacob’s Cattle Bean.” 

Chair_ Azita : Spoke with 4 classes at Winward school. Topic: Landrace & genetics  - each class was different, we did some on the spot research about the French -- lots of pro-biotech questions and wondering about GMO’s and why they are bad if they feed more people. Lots of food justice conversation. Spoke about procedure of Seed Meetings so that they knew what to expect if they came to the meetings. Not many kids accepted seeds because they didn’t think they could take care of them. Azita shared her dream for the Seed Library is an App and the response from teachers and students was positive and supportive, will follow up with that as well as who may be interested in volunteer day. Hopefully we are invited back for more talks. 

Bridey made a SLOLA volunteer sign-up sheet that we can use at meetings to invite more hands.

Altadena report available on Transition Pasadena website. 

We need to alter how we take seed check outs and make sure we cutoff before speaker begins or say until 3:30 to allow us a chance to shut down on time. 

Julie_Parlitarian:  No report but will meet with David & Jo-anne again before the next meeting. Election talk should be brought up in September and so by July we should have the election process outlined and figured out. (July meeting date July 18th). 

JP : Want to know if you guys want me and have dialogue and communicate and when people have differences of opinions - do I get a vote to resign or to stay on the board. 

Julie mentions that he was voted in and so it’s his decision to stay. 

Bridey asks what is his role. David mentions that he has shown interest in inventory. 

JP finishes to say that he wants to talk about our misunderstandings and would like to be a voting member of the board as Technical Advisor and happy to relinquish role as Secretary. 

OLD BUSINESS

• Seed Inventory is behind, we need to spend time outside of SLOLA meeting days.
• Need to submit Orcutt Budget
• Seed of the Season : Carrot Nantes Scarlet (March we will switch to a new bean) We can also add a Seed of the Season Hard and Seed of the Season Easy for varying difficulty levels.

NEW BUSINESS 

• Online Seed order forms / inventory.
• What do we need to buy? Business cards? More merch? Hat? Envelopes with more SLOLA info to give away at events. 
• Azita will ask Jo-anne to make a SLOLA origami seed pack paper
• We need a new treasurer, also note: when leaving a position we need to have a job position written out with tasks/duties to pass on. (Should be in something in Trello)
• David proposes Jaeger as a speaker? Azita mentions that towards end of year makes sense with her.
• We need to find new speakers on Seed Saving / seed subjects : Folklore & Seed History is suggested idea. 

Upcoming SLOLA EVENTS 

01/26/2020 Volunteer Day 3-5PM

1. JULIE MOTIONS TO ACCEPT THE MINUTES. DAVID SECONDS. AZITA CALLS THE QUESTION, ALL IN FAVOR, MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. 
2. DAVID MOTIONS THAT JP IS NO LONGER THE SECRETARY BUT THAT IS THE TECHNICAL ADVISOR. JULIE SECONDS THE MOTIONS. AZITA CALLS THE QUESTION, ALL IN FAVOR, MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. 
3. DAVID MOTIONS TO ADJOURN. JULIE SECONDS THE MOTION. AZITA CALLS THE QUESTION. ALL IN FAVOR, MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. 

MEETING ENDTIME 2:17 PM

National Seed Swap Day! Jan 25, 2020!

The Seed Library of Los Angeles Invites all seed savers to join in this project. Before bean season starts, we will have an inventory of the beans discribed below, in addition to our own bean, the Pineschi Family Bean. One Seed One Community aims to strengthen our community by providing a shared experience in growing nutritious food and saving seeds. National Seed Swap Day - January 25, 2020

Sign up now! Click here. Happy New Year! CA Seed Library Network will organize a 2020 statewide CA One Seed One Community project to grow out one endangered heirloom bean variety from seed to seed so that we can save enough seeds to share abundantly and preserve the variety for future generations. New Year’s Greetings, National Seed Swap Day is almost here! It is always the last Saturday of January. This year National Seed Swap Day is on January 25, 2020. National Seed Swap Day is an excellent time to share beans with your community. 1S1C offers the following suggestions for the coming growing season, but of course you are free to save your community’s One Seed. Join One Seed One Community in Saving a Row for Diversity to share with neighbors and Seed Libraries. Home gardens are natural harbors of diversity. Saving and sharing our seeds preserves plant biodiversity and food security. This year we are suggesting two tracks.             We are suggesting Tuya Gvnagei aka Cherokee Trail of Tears beans from last year for those who would like to continue with last year’s Beans. Studies show evidence of adaptation in the common Bean within three growing seasons. We are calling this the Adaptation Track.             If you would like to try something different, we are suggesting Jacob’s Cattle Bean, a multipurpose Bush Bean. This is the Diversity Track.

Together let’s: • Educate our community to grow a bean from seed to seed • Grow one variety as a commitment to earth and food security • Inspire people to fall in love with a seed • Save our heirloom seeds and share them How will this project work? For basic details of the One Seed One Community project: http://seedlibraries.weebly.com/one-seed-one-community-project.html Cherokee Trail of Tears Beans can be purchased at Seed Savers Exchange  https://www.seedsavers.org/cherokee-trail-of-tears-bean?custcol_sca_sizeweightqty=10 Each organization will be in charge of seed distribution and forwarding informational emails to their community. Please respond to this email with your questions or readiness to sign up. California Seed Libraries and other interested groups are invited to sign up for this project and engage their community members to Save a Row for Diversity. Join us to encourage our community to save one seed together. More Seed Savers equals more Diversity! Click here to join. Together: Hillie Salo – Silicon Valley Grows Sara McCamant – Community Seed Exchange Elizabeth Johnson – SLO Seed Exchange Rebecca Newburn – Richmond Grows

Keeping The Seeds Alive

I have this quote from Martin Prechtel as a footer on my emails. It is from his book "An Uneasy 

Peace at Cuchumaquic," an amazing book which took me about a year to read. I kept fighting

with his reality when it didn't conform with mine. In the end, surrendered to what he 

was saying and I believe this message is the most important, and eye opening, message 

from the book: 

This is what is at the core of keeping the seeds alive and 

must be done physically for years to comprehend and make 

happen. It cannot be thought into reality; it can only be done 

with work. And because “seed” culture has been discarded 

from the “progress” -oriented  world, keeping this kind of seed 

consciousness alive in one's life can look somewhat like 

planting olive trees in an active warzone, a psychological war 

going on within ourselves, where like olives that don't bear for 

a long while we must nevertheless continue to cultivate with 

the faith of seeds that we are actually planting for a time 

beyond our own.  

– Martín Prechtel, An Uneasy Peace at Cuchumaquic

These last few years, with so much divisiveness in our public lives, without a common 

discourse from the Left and the Right, affirms Prechtel's words, that "we must nevertheless 

continue with the faith of seeds." 

The concept that we we are planting seeds not for us, but for future generations can be an 

intellectual exercise, but Prechtel, is concise when he says we must do the "work" of saving

seed, over and over and over again until we can know what "saving seed" means. Our little 

work in our little seed library is dwarfed by this understanding. 

It is very important that we do this. We will know we are making progress when we can hold

a seed in our hands and think of future generations, in that time beyond our own," blessed 

with the nutrition and flavors that we refused to let die.

david

A Look At The History Of The Seed Library of Los Angeles

For the sake of history, here is the initial request for folks to come out and start the Seed Library of Los Angeles. More to come!!
November 29, 2010

From: David King, greenteach@gmail.com

To those addressed:

This informal mailer is being sent to folks who have expressed interest in starting a seed library. This is not a mailing list, although we will hope to have one soon. If you are a list keeper, please circulate to anyone on your list you feel would love to be a decision maker in forming a vibrant and viable seed library for the citizens of Los Angeles.

From http://tlgdaily.blogspot.com/p/seed-library-of-los-angeles-…

Our first planning meeting will take place at The Learning Garden of Venice High School, December 4th at 2:30 PM (until about 4:00 PM) - dress warmly although we hope to be inside, all of our buildings are poorly heated!

***If you have thoughts about what should be addressed, please send them to me ASAP for consideration.****

This is a foundational meeting to lead us to an ideal seed library. What is your vision of a seed library? Do we charge for membership? We will be a not for profit under the umbrella of The Learning Garden - or do we want to be our own organization just located at The Learning Garden? Or do we have a better place to be? What items need to be a part of our database? What do we do when someone fails to return seed? We can start where we are and change things as we go... But help us get started!

What is a seed library?

A seed library is a depository of seeds for the members of that library. Members come to the library and borrow seed for their garden. They grow the plants in their garden and at the end of the season, they leave a plant or two to 'go to seed.' From those plants, they collect seeds and return the same amount of seed (or more) as they borrowed at the beginning of the growing season. No cost for seeds.

What are some of the benefits of a seed library?

1. Seed can be kept fresh by many people growing it out rather than one person who could not grow out a large variety of seeds every year.

2. Over time the plants will change slightly in response to our local climate and soil and gradually through generations will become better seeds for our area.

3. You cannot collect seeds from hybrids or Genetically Modified Organisms because they won't come true to type thus insuring a food supply that is reproducible and uncontaminated with unproved technology and is independent on non-local inputs.

4. Participants in a seed bank become more attuned to and in tune with the natural cycle of the earth and find relief from the regimentation of an industrial society that has no respect for ebb and flow of a natural life that is cyclical and not linear. We protect our seed supply from intervention from Monsanto and other large corporations who wish to control most of our food supply and we cooperate with nature in carrying on valuable genetic material for future generations. We become engaged in the full-cycle of gardening and life.

Our Seed Library of Los Angeles (SLOLA) wish list includes:

1. a computer capable of running something like Windows XP (we have a keyboard and monitor attached to a W2K computer). Breaking news: We have been donated a Netbook computer that will serve all our needs!

2. license to a viable database program - I have been using the free Open Office Base to create a database prototype, but I'm no database person and I have no idea if this is flexible and powerful enough to handle all our needs. Much gratitude to Sarah Spitz for making this happen!

3. some kind of storage cabinet (actually several) or shelving (The Learning Garden is going to provide us with our first shelves.)

4. coin envelopes

5. some one with some database experience to help set up the database

6. Volunteers to give a Saturday afternoon a month to put all of this in place.

Seeds aren't going to be a problem, The Learning Garden will supply us with many, and we will have access to many more. Our initial collections will include vegetables, California Native plants and healing herbs from several different healing traditions (Chinese, Ayurvedic, Native American and Homeopathic).

This is a very unique and exciting opportunity for our community moving it towards genuine resiliency and durability. We will need volunteers and we would like to have you!

david

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Seed Library of Los Angeles (SLOLA)

What is a seed library? A seed library is a depository of seeds held in trust for the members of that library. Members come to the libr...