Varieties of Vegetable Seeds I Believe Should Be Saved

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!

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