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A Market Gardener's Changing Relationship with Seeds

Angie Koch

I’ve been running a market garden for seven years now, starting on two acres and working my way up to five. I’ve followed organic production methods all along, and became certified five years ago. I’ve been a strong proponent of local food systems – always selling 100% of my produce within my municipal Region. But, oddly enough, until I started working at Seeds of Diversity a few winters ago, seeds were not something I really thought of as part of our food system.  To be honest, I didn’t think about the source of my seed much about at all.

My relationship with seed has changed a lot over the years. When I was a backyard gardener, seed catalogues were like candy store menus delivered right to my home mailbox. Delightful, tantalizing… the stuff sweet summery dreams were made of. When I started gardening for profit, that relationship became a lot more pragmatic, as my January dreaming was channelled through spreadsheets and calendars. Having to balance practical factors such as price, days to maturity and storability with the more delightful characteristics of flavour and beauty made seed purchasing a bit less exciting.

In recent years, the drudgery of crop planning has been coupled with frustration as I discover that my favourite varieties are unpredictably out of stock, back-ordered, or discontinued, forcing me to lose varieties I count on. I’ve learned that much of most large seed companies’ seed is not grown on their farms – in fact, much of the seed I’ve been buying isn’t even produced in North America! Additionally, the more I learn about genetics, the more I understand that the environmental conditions in which a parent plant has been grown have a significant effect on the potential of its offspring – making me think more about the nutrition and climate conditions in which my seed was produced.

This has left me with a bit of a conundrum. Although I’m not a large-scale grower needing to choose hybrids that have been selected primarily for transportability and shelf life, I’m big enough that I want to buy seed in packages larger than most small, local seed companies offer. It turns out that bulk quantities of local, organic seeds are nearly impossible to find for most of the crops I grow.

That’s why, this year, I’ve decided it’s time to get involved beyond idly saving the few tomato and bean seeds I’ve managed in years past. I’ve joined the Vegetable Seed Producers Network to give myself some external accountability, and because I’m excited to partner with other market gardeners to produce seeds of the quality and quantity we want. I’m devoting half a day a week to seed saving tasks, integrating seed saving into my interns’ curriculum, and setting up our Seed Saving Garden right beside the u-pick flower area of my farm, so that customers will be encouraged to learn and ask questions about what we’re doing too.

In addition to continuing to grow out the Schneider pole bean given to me by my landlady 7 years ago, I’ve committed to growing and saving seed from Carouby pea, Magenta lettuce, Gardener’s Sweetheart cherry tomato, Midnight Lightning zucchini (which will involve learning hand pollination techniques) and finally – in what will be my first attempt saving seed from a biennial – Touchstone Gold beet for the Seeds of Diversity Seed Library.  I’m excited about the learning potential around what I’m beginning to understand is one of the most important skills a food producer can have. But most of all, I’m excited to be contributing a little bit to transforming our food system in a way I’m coming to realize is deeply foundational to its sustainability and our security.

Angie Koch spends her winters coordinating Seeds of Diversity's Seed Library, and her summers in the fields at her organic farm and CSA, Fertile Ground.

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