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.