Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Lynn Montgomery" <sunfarm@toast.net>]

Dear Paul,

    Its refreshing to get beyond dirt. There are so many other aspects to farming and gardening. One is seeds. Two weeks ago, for the first time in centuries, Traditional Hispanic acequia parciantes, (farmers that have been growing crops here before the Pilgrims arrived), and Native Americans, especially local Pueblo ones, but from all over the Americas  The purpose was to exchange seeds, perform ceremony to bless them, and sign a Declaration of Seed Sovereignty in Alcalde, NM. Alcalde is the site of a gathering in 1598 of Spanish settlers from the Oñate expedition and Pueblos to negotiate settlement sites, etc. Oñate went on to commit hideous acts against the Pueblos, which has bred bad blood since. The sacredness of our seeds brought us all together in solidarity.

    Kent Wealey, the founder of the largest seed bank in the world, Seed Savers Exchange, encourages us to develop our own personal landraces, or strains, or genotypes. Most of us call them heirlooms. These heirlooms don't come about by accident. A well refined sense of observation is required, one that comes from close connection to the land and nature. Kent suggests that we plant hybrids and develop our own custom strains to fit our micro-environments and to select from the resulting chaos of the next generation. This might sound like blasphemy to some, but this is actually most insightful. Civilization is founded on such observations, Wheat, corn, and most modern cultivars had their beginnings here, and we can all benefit from practicing this most venerable of human traditions.

Regards, Lynn

 

"All we are given is possibilities - to make of ourselves one thing or another."
  - Ortega y Gasset