Participating in Seed Savers Exchange!
How do we grow food in a changing climate? And how do we keep the varieties that grow well in circulation?
These are some of the fundamental questions that the Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) strives to answer. Founded in 1975, the SSE has been - you guessed it - saving seeds, as well as sharing information about seed, crop growth, and crop performance as a way to keep heirloom seeds alive and well.
Several years ago, the SSE implemented a program called ADAPT, which is a citizen science project aimed at sharing information about growing the same seeds in a variety of climates and agricultural zones. This helps them, and us, know what we can grow, best growing season, and how hardy or resilient the crops are to various weather patterns.
The Community Science ADAPT program “trial varieties from the seed bank in their own gardens and send us feedback on their performance. This information helps us better understand the adaptability of these varieties to different environments and guides our selection process for new introductions into the Seed Savers Exchange catalog”.
At the beginning of the year, Rosebud signed up to participate in the Seed Savers Exchange Community Science ADAPT Trial Program for 2025. We really connected with their mission and were excited to participate as citizen scientists. Since our sustainability mission encompasses growing our own food, keeping it local, taking care of the land, and staying curious about how a changing climate impacts our food system, we thought this felt like the perfect fit!
We signed up to grow two types of crops (radishes and kale), 3 varieties of each plant. We were sent Rosy Gem, German Red and French Golden radishes and Wild Red, Willey’s, and Hanover Salad kale. We planted the seeds on March 13 and saw some sprouts within a week!
We haven’t harvested anything yet, but our radishes are almost there! Take a look at the progress so far!
At the end of the growing season, we will report back to SSE and share how the crops performed in our region, which will help them - and us - as we plan what to grow next summer and beyond.
The Seed Savers Exchange is “a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and sharing heirloom seeds. The organization started with the sharing of seeds within a small group of people in 1975 and has continued to expand over the last 40+ years”!