Why Seed School

David King receives his Seed School
diploma with obvious pride...

SLOLA's Board has agreed to host Seed School in Los Angeles in February 2014.  Before asking people to sign up for Seed School, we elected to come up with some reasons attending seed school was important. I was priviledged to attend seed school back in 2011 in Tucson.  It was one of the best experiences I've had with groups of people.  If I were listing reasons to attend, I think first of the list would be "The people you'll meet."  I met Bill McDorman and Belle Star, the couple who started seed school before Native Seeds/SEARCH picked it up and who were the principle instructor and facilitator, respectively.  I would list fellow students - all of them - as being reasons unto themselves - I correspond with many of them frequently - as well as students in the other classes - we have a Facebook group and questions and inspirations and learning on seeds is exchanged frequently among those folks.  I've also met some of the other students around at different events - and we are instantly able to find ourselves on the same page.

But these are the reasons compiled by former seed school attendees for you to consider as February 2014 approaches:

• It makes you a better teacher. My experience with Seed School reminds me of that Albert Einstein quote, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it." At least it's popularly attributed to Einstein.  
• Gain a greater understanding of the genetics, qualities and magic inherent in seeds as well as learn more insight on how to work with Nature.  
• You will discover the incredible inspirational potential a single seed holds, which will allow you to discard feelings of being overwhelmed and powerless in the struggle against Big Ag. You will leave Seed School full of wonder and supercharged!
• Learn how to start and grow your own seed library or exchange.
• Grasp the idea of seed sheds and their vital importance.
• Understand the political issues around growing seeds today – the crises that face open pollinated seeds and why they are the most important seeds in the world now. Become conversant in the main concepts around seed sovereignty, patenting, genetic diversity and hybrids
• Make contact with some of the foremost experts in seed saving and form working relationships with them and your fellow students.
• Hands on harvesting, winnowing and storing of seeds with supervision that ensures you are getting it right – not learning in a vacuum.
• Make connections with other seed school attendees – networking with like minded folks from across the world!
• Learn first hand from some of the best seed teachers on the planet about the heritage that is being squandered and diluted by governments and multinational corporations.
• Gain confidence in your own seed saving ability and knowledge so you can present this information to those around you.
• Become a leader in the solution to save open-pollinated seeds; bringing home a new understanding and action plan.
• Be relevant in solving the seed/food crises without getting into politics or fighting it out with “bad guys.”
• Be a part of a seed/agricultural revolution! Tell your grandchildren what you did in the battle to save open-pollinated seeds.
• Become aware of traditional societies' seed beliefs; embracing seeds as sacred to all life and translating those ideas into our modern society.

And this is probably only some of the reasons.  

Mark your calendars to attend Seed School LA February 9 through the 14th, 2014!  We'll see you in Los Angeles.  

david  

Size Matters

Tremendous amount of diversity is in
evidence in one generation of corn.

When teaching seed saving, I often rely on allusions to animal reproduction because most of my students have some experience with that and it helps make the point easily. However, one concept that doesn't lend itself well to such conversion is the need for population size in seed saving.

In the inventory that SLOLA has garnered over the last several years, we have enormous variety of seeds, many different beans, some different corn, a ton of squash varieties and so on. This is wonderful and I'm sure we need to consider saving all these varieties locally. But I don't think we can and the reason is population size.

The genetics of open pollinated seeds are very different from hybrid seeds or animals. The seed we call Yugoslavian Red Lettuce is not 'pure' like we think of when we think of genetic purity (like we sit around and contemplate that on a weekly basis). The genes in open pollinated seeds have a certain amount of 'flex' in them. You get the typical Yugoslavian Red Lettuce from the vast majority of your plants, but lurking under those frilly red leaves is a foundation of other genetic code. You don’t see it normally, but every so often a 'one off' pops up. If you are saving seeds for Yugoslavian Red, you don't collect seeds from the one off – if you like the one off, you save seeds of it separately from the Yugo Red and label it Yugo Not Red or Hungarian Red, just something different.

This variability is a great strength for seeds. It allows for adaptation to meet threats from insects or disease – or even drought. Perhaps from a garden full of Yugoslavian Red only a few plants survive the drought, but that's better than none. Or perhaps only one or two don't get the disease, but that's better than losing everything – and this is part of our desire to save these varieties: they survive under less than ideal conditions and they can meet threats to our food security better than any lab-created hybrid – especially GMOs.

However, our seed library – and I would imagine MOST seed libraries – are in danger of compromising this variability in our open pollinated varieties. They are not doing it intentionally, but it might well be happening despite their best intentions. I do believe SLOLA has inadvertently gone down this path somewhat and I hope we can refocus our efforts.

Back in the beginning I asked us to consider saving only seeds of some 150 varieties of vegetables. No more. I did this because I wondered at the time if we could really save seeds for several hundred different varieties for a period of time. I asked several times for folks to list the seeds they wanted saved – the varieties in their gardens they couldn't live without and got very little response. I went along with the flow and we allowed SLOLA's inventory to bulge with varieties from donations and gifts. Now I am convinced we cannot save all these different varieties of seed and we must return to a figure nearer 150 varieties. The reason is population size

The variability shown in open-pollinated seeds means to have a viable representation of all the different traits that make Yugoslavian Red Yugoslavian Red means there must be many plants each year from which the seeds are saved in order to keep that variety as viable as it has been for all these many different generations.

To save seeds from one plant for several years stands to lose some of those unseen genetic traits that make it such a good competitor against insects and disease in our gardens – might even result in a poorer quality lettuce over time. To save seeds and ensure the viability of our varieties over time, we must adopt policies that encourage larger population size of each variety. This might mean limiting our offerings to three lettuces, several tomatoes and so on.

I am going to ask our Best Practices committee for a list of varieties we on which we can focus and narrow our offerings towards those varieties. We still need knowledgeable gardeners create lists of the best varieties for Los Angeles and we must strive to have seeds from many more plants per variety to keep the diverse genetics present.

Here are a few guidelines, followed by simple definitions, towards which we need to work:

Breeding Style	Minimum Populations	Examples (but not complete!)
Severe inbreeders	10	tomatoes, lettuce and regular beans for the most part
Moderate inbreeders	40	all the other night shades, including eggplants and peppers; other bean family members like peas and other beans
Outbreeders in general	80	the cabbage family
Sensitive Outbreeders	200	corn, carrots and onions, these are 'sensitive' to a phenomena called 'inbreeding depression' which causes a severe reduction in plant performance in just a few generations – corn is considered the most sensitive of all
Insensitive Outbreeders	10 to 20	not sensitive to inbreeding depression, specifically Cucurbits, including squashes, cucumbers and melons

Inbreeding is a term applied to plants that will pollinate themselves (male and female flower parts exist in each flower of the plant and can self-pollinate before the flower even opens). Outbreeding apples to plants that must be pollinated by other plants to produce viable seed. These definitions are much simplified for this discussion only. If you like to learn more about this, Carol Deppe's book “Breed Your Own Vegetables” offers one of the most thorough and easily digestible definitions of these terms.

I am not proposing a drastic change. For the library, this means we will be less diligent about the return of seed for some varieties than for others – we are on a learning curve anyway, so we will need to realize there are some varieties that will be lost from our inventory and we will not be concerned with them. Over time, the varieties that are truly SLOLA varieties will change into an inventory we can manage more effectively. Some of this will be through natural attrition. Others will be actively cultivated into predominance by the Best Practices Committee and other active members.

What we need to do most of all is educate members about the minimum populations we are trying to achieve. Remember, it is the collective total of all the seed returned that make minimum population size – so if Megan grows Nutribud Broccoli (one of my favorites) and collects seeds from 6 plants, Linda does the same collecting from 4 plants, Albert collects from 7 plants and I collect from 3 we've met our minimum population of 20. All seed goes together to make the minimum population.

This concept is very important and central to our mission. Thank you for taking the time to read this.  I hope it makes sense to you.  If not, please let me know as I wish this to be clear; it is important to the long-term viability of the seed library and our seeds.

david

Garden Talk with David King Recap from 6-1-13

Juane Flamme Tomatoes were our first crop
this year.

Plants that thrive together in your garden was the topic of the 1st Saturday "Garden Talk" at the Learning Garden with David King sharing his wealth of plant knowledge.

Along with hands on in the garden we received a Companion Planting Chart for Veggies, a guide that will come in handy with the prefers and the unfers, that you'll need when welcoming new varieties into your garden.  Some advantages of companion planting is that you can discourage pests with certain plants and you won't drain the soil of nutrients when you plant two or more companions plants with different needs.

It's that time, to finish harvesting the "cool season crops" like broccoli & cabbage. Did you plant garlic last Sept/Oct? it's time to harvest, when all the tops have turned brown. 

The "hot season crops" like tomatoes & squash should already be planted. The natural balance of all things Mother Nature has created, brings us in touch with the patience we need to let things happen naturally and remain flexible, by following our senses. Our taste buds know the natural sweetness when you pick that first ripe tomato off the vine and it doesn't even make it to the table.
We all received an heirloom tomato plant for our garden today.

For more info and to sign up for How To Grow Food in Southern CA. http://tinyurl.com/cogrzt9

Seeds for Life

Millions March Against Monsanto Worldwide

(Fighting Monsanto's GMO technology is one of the most powerful motivating factors to forming a seed library.  The Seed Library Of Los Angeles holds as a core belief that our way of life and open pollinated seed are at risk as long as GMO plants are allowed to corrupt our plants with GMO pollen.  We believe that Los Angeles needs to be declared a GMO Free Zone that outlaws the planting of any GMO crop that might pollinate our crops. In keeping that in mind, we support this March against Monsanto.)

Every major city in the World is demonstrating against the deceit and coverups that chemical companies have been committing during the last 20 years regarding GMO's in our food supply. 

Monsanto & associates spent multi-millions to stop Prop 37 in California 

by lying to consumers and convincing the public that they don't need labeling of GMO's.

Vote with your dollars and eliminate these companies from your shopping list.

http://www.dailypaul.com/256053/list-of-companies-against-gmo-labeling-prop-37-california-right-to-know-act

Monsanto has Congress in their pocket, recently passing HR 933 with section 735, referred

to as the Monsanto Protection act,

that puts Monsanto above Federal courts.  

http://www.workers.org/2013/04/07/monsanto-protection-act-chemical-monopoly-writes-its-own-law/

It's time to take back what is naturally ours and that is our right to clean, fresh, wholesome foods without GMO's.

Show the world how important this issue is to you and your family.

United we are stronger!

Saturday May 25th

Los Angeles

Start gathering between 9 - 11 am

Pershing Square

532 S Olive St

Los Angeles, California 90013

Then we march to Spring Street and the Rally 

Sign up Today!

https://m.facebook.com/#!/events/450802781654427/

Get your local media personalities involved via Facebook

Spread the word . . . . 

Living in another city?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0Ah7h2ApbBPnpdGhOMElaSVg1QUQtRlJQWm1FaUZISlE&usp=sharing

david

Recap: How To Grow The Best Food Gardens with David King May 4th

Here's something you don't see everyday: flowers
on a potato plant in The Learning Garden!

The excitement of warmer temperatures and David King's 1st Saturday of the month, "How to Grow the Best Food Gardens in Southern California," is so inspiring. May 4th, also held the distinction of being the 10th annual World Naked Gardening Day!  People around the world were encouraged to garden ‘au natural’.

We celebrated the final call for planting our best summer garden. The winter crops of lettuce, beets, carrots, broccoli & kale are now making room for the summer garden you envision. Planting all your choices by the end of May will cultivate the best results for tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, peppers, melons, zucchini, squash, green beans, eggplants and okra.

Learning how to arrange the garden, depending on whether the plant is wind pollinated (corn), bee pollinated (peppers) or self pollinating (beans) is so beneficial.. 

Transplanting your seedlings to the garden now  that the soil is getting warner, can have issues with air pockets. Watching the demonstration on how to push the air out and solidify the soil around the plant, makes the plant's root system strong.

Another issue that pops up, is watering too much or too little. This causes most of the brown and yellow leaves you see. David's tried and true testing, shows how to know for sure.

Finding our balance with nature and nurture starts with, soil rich in nutrients, proper pollination, direct sunlight or shade as needed by the particular plant and correct watering. Each plant variety has it's requirements and David shares his knowledge that helps take the guess work out and increases your garden's productivity.

Join us next month on Saturday Jun 1st at 10am, as we work together with Mother Nature in The Learning Garden, adding wonderment and enjoyment to your beautiful garden.

For More Information 

http://tinyurl.com/cogrzt9

Always Au natural'

Seeds for Life

SLOLA And The Concept of A Seedshed

The idea of a 'seedshed' first came to my attention via Cris Franco, founder of the Rio Salado Seedshed Library (and of www.sewapermaculture.com) in Phoenix. To me, it was easy to grasp the significance of a 'seedshed' and quickly see that SLOLA's seed library model was in direct contrast to a seedshed.

Cris Franco tabling at her Rio
Salado Seedshed Library

The term 'seedshed' takes it's cue from a 'watershed.' You also see the concept showing up these days in the term, 'foodshed.' They all come from the concept of trying to define what is local and what's not. A watershed denotes a commonality in water resources. Water draining the same direction, along a given slope, is a watershed. There is commonality therefore a case can be made that water conditions within a watershed are similar and consequently 'local.' Seeds grown in common weather, rainfall and soil would comprise a given seedshed and therefore be local to one another.

In contrast, the Seed Library Of Los Angeles embraces the entire greater Los Angeles area and a quick glimpse at the Sunset Western Garden Guide's Zone map shows we cover several seedsheds with some fairly different seedsheds included. Never mind that they are only a few miles apart, conditions from one to the other can be different enough to not allow for local adaptability which is a hallmark of being a seed saving gardener.

I'm sure Sunset would have a cow if I reprinted the LA map here, but the book is ubiquitous enough you can find it at a library or pick up a copy locally or on Amazon. Their website has this representation, although before you go there, please be advised the pop-up ads are more than just annoying.  Even though Sunset is primarily concerned with growing ornamentals, the book is a valuable resource for all west coast gardeners if only for the information it gives on the 24 zones delineated along the west coast.

Los Angeles, running between Zones 18 to 24, with each zone constituting what Cris would consider it's own seedshed. Zones 18 and 19 are interior climates, having less ocean influence, while Zones 20 and 21 are influenced by the ocean as well as the interior climate. Zone 22 is the cold winter portion of our area, while zone 23 is the thermal belt of the coast. Then there is Zone 24, in which the actual library itself is located, which Sunset defines as almost completely dominated by the ocean.

Each one of these zones, then, is its own seedshed and should save seeds for itself; in fact, there are probably different seedsheds within some of the larger areas of the zones. Zone 24 extends along the coast North past Santa Barbara and south beyond San Diego. While there is a lot of commonality between Santa Barbara and San Diego, I don't know if we can put them in the same seedshed. Zone 23 around Whittier might have a lot in common with Zone 23 at the Pacific Palisades, but I can handily see they might comprise different seedsheds.

I see a lot of diversity in these areas and a lot of compromising of seedsheds. But SLOLA has an answer and already we are moving to implement a system of 'branch libraries' under the SLOLA umbrella. The San Fernando Valley Branch of SLOLA will open this Friday (on International Seed Day, by the way) and will begin to steward seeds that will be most at home in their 18, 19 and 21 zones. Their initial inventory will be the same as the original library, but over time will diverge and each library's inventory will take on different characteristics, adapting to the different climate and soils. The two will not be totally dissimilar, but will diverge somewhat over time. Seeds, left to their own devices, will always be local to the place they are grown over time. This is one of the ways that open pollinated seeds and not nationally produced hybrids adapt and are therefore better for the grower. Remember, seeds are local and many of the open pollinated heirloom seeds are local to the east coast or the mid-western states and therefore are often a disappointment to Los Angeles gardeners. If we want a local tomato, it will be up to us to grow it!

The two inventories provide a duplication we have always wanted. It has never been our intent to store all our seeds at one location – any disaster could wipe out our entire stock of seed, setting SLOLA back years. So having two inventories near each other is a valuable asset. Of course, we hope to do more – Long Beach and Eagle Rock have both expressed interest in having a branch and we hope to accomplish that this year or next.

On International Seed Day, residents of the Valley can gather to inaugurate their own library. The first meeting of the San Fernando Valley branch of the Seed Library Of Los Angeles will take place on Friday, April 26th, at 1 pm at the Sepulveda Garden Center, 16633 Magnolia Blvd, Encino, CA 91436.

No need to RSVP. Just come on out and take home a seed to steward into a truly local seed to feed your family and the families of those warmer Sunset Zones!

david

And In Breaking News

Self replicating little parcels of carrots ready to be planted.

There is a case that has been heard by the US Supreme Court, Bowman vs. Monsanto and we are awaiting their decision. I, for one, am not hopeful that they will take the correct stance, which, of course would be to eviscerate the patent on seeds altogether. The patent on seeds is immoral and unethical and sets a horrid precedent: the forces in favor of patents on seeds have no idea of the line they have crossed in this matter.

In fact, neither do the Supreme Court Justices and most of the American public, but it is clear to those of us whose life's work is with seeds, this is a horrible transgression onto the patenting of life. In fact, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asked,"Why in the world, would anybody spend any money to try to improve the seed if as soon as they sold the first one anybody could grow more and have as many of those seeds as they want?" leaving me to hope he was just having a momentary loss of memory and doesn't really believe that people did exactly that since agriculture began!

I had the opportunity to be with Vandana Shiva this last week and hear her cogent answers, marveling at her ability to synthesize answers that not only answered the question, but enlightened the listener to points they had not yet considered in the question. She told us about the 200,000 varieties of rice in India – all bred by peasants, different rice varieties for different fields for example. But an observant rice farmer, peasant or not, sees a lot of rice and a keen observer will find different varieties – in fact, it was Luther Burbank's keen eye (not magical genius) that gave the world the Burbank Potato, still the most popular baking potato in the world today over 100 years later. He spotted one potato plant with some flowers that produced some seeds (not a common thing, potatoes are almost always propagated by cutting the tubers into chunks and planting them, rarely by seed). He harvested the seeds and a seedling from those seeds became the famous potato that keeps Idaho on the map.

Prior to the 1950's, almost all plant breeding in the US was done by farmers – with the expectation that they would profit very little from the improvement of seed except by better crops. The idea of patenting life was abhorrent to them, even if they wished to make more profit on their new line of seeds. The lack of patents did not slow down the process of finding new and better plants - and this is an important point the bio-tech corporations wish to ignore - we never needed patents before them and their derelict technology!

But business empires are not built on 'what we used to do,' so once the chemical company decided it wanted to control the food supply, they moved aggressively to get our government to protect their seed varieties with patents. This is the genesis of our current situation. It wasn't enough that chemical companies wanted to make money, they wanted guarantees that they could make money on a scale not seen in agriculture since the beginning of agriculture. The old saw, “How do you make a million dollars farming? Start with two million,” could be amended to, “How do you make a million dollars farming? Start as a chemical company and buy yourself a government.”

Even intelligent people argue for patent enforcement because if they let replication occur in seeds, then what happens to software, recording and so on. This is not a valid question and the questioner is not thinking the thing through. Rolling the law back on seed patenting would not in any way be applicable to these other patents – the difference is obvious. The question really should be, if we allow patents on seed, does this mean that a man should patent his own sperm and a woman her eggs before a bio-tech company does it? Sperm and eggs are more closely similar to a seed than a recording! A seed is LIFE. A recording is NOT. Software is NOT.

In fact, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a case about patenting human genetic material April 5^th. Now I can see scenarios happening that just a few years ago would have been seen as crazy. What if I am given a genetically modified cure for Alzheimer’s. Is my body now a bio-tech company property? What if I have children and they, of course, inherit the cure? Are they owned by the bio-tech company? Do they have to buy a license? After all, like seeds, people are self-replicating!

Let us be clear: a life cannot be patented regardless if that has a deleterious effect on commerce. It does not matter.

Mind you, only those who do not see the difference between a baby and a recording or a seed and a software program imagine that one has anything to do with another.

Patenting life – any life – is a line we should NEVER have crossed. Now that we've done it, we need to undo it as quickly as possible. It is morally offensive and moves us towards re-establishing human slavery.

You'll never get that with software or a recording.

david