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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: "homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Homestead] Baker Creek Spring Festival 2006 report
  • Date: Tue, 02 May 2006 11:09:39 -0500

The story of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds is the story of Jere Gettle, who started it at the age of seventeen or eighteen. He is watchable. He is young--mid-twenties, thin, tall, favors flashy cowboy costumes, focused and in a hurry. Each time I saw him he was either walking very fast, with a pretty young woman racing alongside and looking adoringly up at him as he talked, or he was taking close-up photos of musicians. He is unabashedly a strong self-promoter.

About the only thing I found lacking at his place of rolling green hills and forests were gardens. Apparently, unlike Seed Savers Exchange, he buys all his seeds from growers. Considering what he has done, what he is doing and what he has accomplished in eight years, my impression is that he is sincere about heirloom seeds and he makes pragmatic, successful business decisions about selling them.

The Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds operation consists of an old Ozarks farmhouse in good repair and several new pole-framed, metal-roofed, board 'n' batten buildings: the seed house, a barn full of folding chairs with a sound system, and a concessions building where we bought veggie burgers for lunch. Erected for the festival there was a large tent housing some of the vendors. We have had a sustained series of thunderstorms and heavy rains--my stream is way up--and each day had more predictions of thunderstorms, so it was impressive, on this Monday, that so many people showed up; I would guess maybe two thousand. Our friends who went with us have gone to each festival since inception and they said the crowd was about half-size, but they have always attended on Sunday, so Mondays may always have a smaller crowd. Worked for me.

I was surprised that the crowd included many school-age children. One suspects that the same Ozarkers who favor heirloom seeds also favor home schooling or non-schooling.

We got lucky. It didn't rain. And the sodden, heavily grassed pasture parking area held up all the cars.

There were perhaps thirty vendors selling seedlings, books, antiques and, oh, yeah, strawberries by a couple who know how to get them ripe very early. Two musicians' areas presented constant music. We ate lunch sitting on strawbales near an old-timey couple playing and singing hillbilly songs; only thirty days from Phoenix, Chris expressed culture shock. She does not quite share my enthusiasm for old songs sung by amateur musicians.

We bought some plants from growers and some seeds--one dollar per packet, tax included, collected by a young woman who wrote the amount of each transaction on a pad of paper but did not offer sales slips. The seed house has a forest of long, multi-tiered bins made of shelves and dividers. A sign tells which of the bin sections contains seeds of which plants.

I will keep supporting Gettle's operation. I think he deserves it. Info on Baker Creek is at:
http://www.rareseeds.com/index.php?page=indexpage





  • [Homestead] Baker Creek Spring Festival 2006 report, Gene GeRue, 05/02/2006

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