Why Save Seeds?

Gardeners tend to be a thrifty lot, and saving seeds from one year to another just makes sense. It’s what the old-timers always did. But there are three good reasons to learn the techniques:

1. Saving seeds assures that you’ll always have seeds of a favorite variety.( Just because you’ve been able to order a seed variety from a commercial source in the past doesn’t mean it will always be available.)
2. Saving seeds is cost effective. It makes no sense to buy seeds that you can grow yourself. (You have to be realistic, however. If you don’t have the space or inclination for biennials (such as cabbage), just save seeds for annual vegetables.
3. Savings seeds opens a whole new world of seed trading. At least half the vegetable varieties being grown today have no commercial sources. If you’d like to try them, you have to trade seeds that you have for seeds you want.
4. Two Important Questions

When is a seed ripe?

From a plant’s point of view, ripeness is when the seeds are viable, which is not always when the plant is most edible.

• Pepper seeds are ripe when peppers are at their full color—depending on variety, this could be red, orange, yellow, purple, or black—and start to shrivel.
• Tomato seeds are ripe when tomatoes are firm but tender. If you press them, they have some give, unlike the hard feel of green ones. Like peppers, they will also have reached their full color.
• Cucumber seeds are ripe when the cuke turns fully yellow—overripe for eating. Harvest it and put it in a safe place for another 20 days.
• Winter squash seeds are ripe when the skin turns hard.
• Summer squash seeds are ripe when the squash is past the edible point, with a hard rind. Then treat the same as winter squashes.
• Watermelon seeds are ripe when the tendril directly opposite the stem turns from green to brown and becomes dry.
• Canteloupe and muskmelon seeds are ripe when the stem turns brown and dries, and the melon readily separates from it.
• Peas and beans are ready when the pods turn brown on the vine and shrink against the seeds.

When is a Seed Dry?

Proper drying is a key to saving seeds. Here’s how to test if seeds are fully dried:

• Squeeze one seed with pliers or hit it with a hammer.
• If it’s dry, it will shatter.
• If it just crushes or feels soft or spongy, then your seeds still need more air-drying before being stored away.

What Not to Save

Save seeds only from open-pollinated or heirloom varieties, never from hybrids (which are very common from local garden stores).

• An open pollinated plant is one in which the offspring replicates the parents. That is, its seeds will breed true to type.
• Modern hybrids, which are produced by crossing two or more inbred varieties to obtain specific characteristics, will not produce the same variety that you originally planted. If you save seeds from a hybrid, the next generation reverts to the various parents.
• Sources of open-pollinated vegetables seeds include Bake Creek Heirloom Seeds,  Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Seeds of Change, Seed Savers Exchange, and Territorial Seed Company.

A Couple Points to Consider

For successful seed saving, you must assure seed purity. This means that plants which readily crossbreed among their own varieties (such as cucumbers, peppers, melons, and squashes) need to be isolated from other varieties of that particular vegetable by distance, caging, or other means. If you’re a beginner, you can make life simpler by just growing one variety of these at a time.

As mentioned above, most home gardeners do not have the room to save seeds from biennials, such as cabbages, beets, carrots, cauliflower, onions, and turnips. To do so, you have to harvest the vegetable with the root when it’s ripe, store it over the winter in a root cellar, and replant the whole vegetable the following spring. Whew!

Gardeners can either plant seeds directly in the garden (direct seeding) or plant small plants (transplants). Root crops such as carrots, radishes, rutabaga, and parsnips are usually direct seeded as well as legumes such as peas and beans. Corn, cucumbers, and squash can also be direct seeded. Transplants grown in a cold frame or indoors shorten the time between planting and harvest and assure no empty spaces in rows. Vegetables usually grown from transplants include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, and lettuce.

Many melons, including watermelon, are now grown from transplants.

To determine the size of your garden, your family’s size and the kinds of vegetables you want to grow should be considered. Important in determining garden size are your physical ability, available time, and genuine interest in gardening. There is nothing more discouraging than planting more than you can handle. It is better to start small and build on success than to become discouraged and abandon the garden because it was too large and too much work. Even though the rewards of gardening are great, the work is hard.

Garden site

The ideal site for a garden is close to the house, but also out in the open where it receives full sun and is not shaded by trees or buildings. Ideally, the garden should receive full sun all day but it should receive at least 5-8 hours of full sun daily. Choose a place near a water supply that is as level as possible. On sloping land, contour planting or terracing is effective to prevent soil erosion.

Garden tools Very few tools are necessary for a small garden. The usual tools needed are a spade or spading fork, steel rake, hoe, trowel, and a sprinkler with a garden hose long enough to water all parts of the garden. If the garden is too large for hand spading, a rototiller, which can be rented at many garden centers, can be used. A fifty-foot measuring tape is also helpful in establishing straight rows and placing the plants in an orderly fashion.

What to grow

Buy seeds early in the year so you will be sure to find the varieties or cultivars you want. Think about what you and your family really like to eat before planning your garden. Select vegetables and the amount to plant by determining how you will use the vegetables and whether you will preserve the excess fresh vegetables. Available garden space should also be a factor in selecting what vegetables to grow. Some vegetables require a lot of garden space for a long time, while others take up little space or are harvested in a short time period. Melons, pumpkins, winter squash, onions, and sweet potatoes are in the garden for a long time, but they are harvested in a short time frame in the fall. Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, beans, and summer squash are also in the garden for a long time, but produce a continuous supply of food throughout the growing season. Vegetables to consider for small gardens are bush beans, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, onions, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. With a little more available space, broccoli, cauliflower, and summer squash can be grown. Vine crops like peas and cucumbers can be trellised to save ground space. Some vine crops, like squash, have short vine cultivars.

Mapping your garden

Make a map of your garden to help you visualize what it will look like and to make the best use of space. Rows should conform to the contours of the land. If space in full sun is limited, vegetables grown for their fruits and seeds, such as corn, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, and beans should occupy the sunniest spots.

Vegetables grown for their leaves or roots, such as beets, cabbage, lettuce, and spinach can grow in partial shade, but do better in direct sunlight. Perennial crops, such as asparagus and rhubarb, should be planted where they will not interfere with the cultivation of annual crops. Tall-growing crops should be planted where they will not shade or interfere with the growth of smaller crops. Make good use of your garden space by having successive plantings or growing more than one vegetable in the same space during the growing season. All early-maturing crops should be grouped so that as soon as one crop is removed, another takes its place. Empty rows simply provide places for weeds to grow. It is not always necessary to wait until the early crop is entirely removed; a later one may be interplanted between the rows of the earlier crop. It is best to follow a crop not with another of its kind, but with an unrelated crop. Early spring crops like peas, radishes, and lettuce can be followed by fall crops of rutabaga, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage. Another type of successive planting is making several small plantings of the same crop like beans, lettuce, and radishes at 2-week intervals to provide a continuous supply of fresh vegetables. Crops subject to attack by the same diseases and insects should not follow each other.

What’s next?

Now that your garden is outlined on paper, the fun begins. It is time  to go outside and get your hands dirty.

4 quarts green tomatoes

1 large head of cabbage

10 medium onions

5 medium green peppers

7 medium sweet red peppers

1/2 cup salt 15 cups vinegar

5 cups sugar 3 tablespoons dry mustard

2 teaspoons powdered ginger

1 tablespoon turmeric

4 tablespoons mustard seeds

3 tablespoons celery seed

2 tablespoons pickling spice

Preparation:
Chop all vegetables; combine in a large kettle. Stir in salt; let stand at room temperature overnight, or at least 8 hours. Drain. Combine vinegar, sugar, dry mustard, ginger, and turmeric in a large kettle. Put mustard seed, celery seed, and pickling spices in a 6-inch square of cheesecloth or cheesecloth bag. Tie ends or gather and tie string and add to the kettle. Bring the liquid to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Add vegetables and return to simmer for 30 minutes longer. Discard spice bag. Spoon chow-chow into hot sterilized jars and seal. Process for 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner, or 20 minutes for altitiudes of 1001 to 6,000 feet. Over 6,000 feet, process for 25 minutes.

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Speaking with Maine farmer Jim Gerritsen recently, just a few days before he was to appear in court, I was struck by how much this likable gentleman–proprietor, with wife Megan, of Wood Prairie Farm in Bridgewater, sounded more like an ambitious and idealistic community organizer, aiming to grow a fair and democratic agricultural system, than a man who’s spent the last few decades building a reputation for productive, delectable spuds. He’s begun to find a receptive audience. Last autumn the Utne Reader–long considered the Reader’s Digest of the alternative press–called him “one of 25 visionaries changing the world.”

A grower of All Blue, Butte, Caribe, Russian Banana and a host of other organic and heirloom seed potatoes, Gerritsen is also president of the Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association (OSGATA), lead plaintiff among 83 North American family farmers, seed businesses, and organic agriculture organizations in a potentially groundbreaking lawsuit, Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto, that’s just recently seen its first day in federal court.

This lawsuit is an “attempt to come up with a strategy to protect family farmers in this perverse situation we find ourselves in,” said Gerritsen, “Whereby our crops can become contaminated by Monsanto’s transgenic seed, and beyond losing the value of our organic or non-genetically modified (GMO) crops, we’re placed in the position of having to defend ourselves from a Monsanto-initiated patent infringement lawsuit. We need protection from the courts to prevent that injustice.”

I asked him to elaborate.

“It’s a preemptive lawsuit filed under the Declaratory Judgement Act, which allows people who are fearful of sometime in the future being sued, to petition the court for protection, in this case from their GMO contamination. We want them to keep their pollution on their side of the fence…we shouldn’t have to defend ourselves in court because of their trespass,” he said.

According to the complaint against Monsanto filed by the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), a non-profit, public interest legal group representing the plaintiffs in this case, the biotechnology behemoth’s aggressive, litigious behavior in protecting its seed patents over the years has forced the plaintiffs to take legal action.

The suit states that “roughly 500 farmers are investigated [by Monsanto] for patent infringement each year. Between 1997 and April 2010, Monsanto filed 144 lawsuits against farmers in at least 27 different states” for alleged patent infringement and/or the breach of its license to those patents. Additionally, the complaint documents Monsanto’s pattern of “investigation, accusation, and litigation” against other farmers who neither wished to possess, nor be contaminated by Monsanto’s GMO seed.

One case cited in the lawsuit and presented by the plaintiffs as indicative of Monsanto’s hyperactive legal strategy involved Indiana farmers, David and Dawn Runyon.  The Runyons became widely known after being featured in a CBS Evening News report in 2008, and then again in the popular documentary released the summer of 2009, Food Inc. In their case, according to a CBS transcript, “The Runyons charge bio-tech giant Monsanto sent investigators to their home unannounced, demanded years of farming records, and later threatened to sue them for patent infringement.”

The only problem was the Runyons never purchased Monsanto seed, never signed any agreement to grow the company’s GMO soybeans, and never gave permission to anyone from Monsanto to take samples of the Runyons’ soybean crop. Monsanto at one point sent the family a letter claiming to have an agreement with the Indiana Department of Agriculture allowing the corporation to take samples from the Runyon farm, although the agency did not exist at the time the letter was sent. Monsanto now states it has declared the Runyons “ineligible to purchase our technology.”

On January 31, lawyers for both sides of the Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto case presented oral arguments before the court on a pre-trial motion by Monsanto to dismiss the lawsuit. The attorney for Monsanto, Seth Waxman, argued the farmers and other plaintiffs lacked a valid reason to fear being sued, as it was not a “ubiquitous threat,” ignoring the “intimidation effect” of the corporation’s litigiousness, according to the plaintiff’s attorney, Dan Ravicher of PUBPAT.

Farmer and OSGATA chief, Jim Gerritsen, commented after the day’s proceedings that it was that kind of intimidation which organic and non-GMO farmers needed protection from. “We have farmers who have stopped growing organic corn, organic canola, and organic soybeans because they can’t risk being sued by Monsanto. It’s not fair and it’s not right.”

In our conversation earlier, Gerritsen expressed his optimism about the case, citing a number of events worldwide which, he argued, heralded a dramatic shift in public opinion around the issue of GMO foods–a recent unanimous vote in Peru for a ten-year moratorium on GMOs; French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s public commitment to place new restrictions on GMOs in France; the Label GMOs initiative in California, for which supporters will soon begin gathering signatures; and finally the Occupy movement, which he believes has irrevocably altered the whole conversation around food and democracy.

“I think the Occupy movement has been recognized by Americans to be asking the right questions,” he said. “The polls that I’ve read suggest a majority of Americans support raising issues of corporate control over our government and economy being out of control, and that power needs to shift back to the people. I think it’s creating an atmosphere where we’re not satisfied with just maintaining a status quo that is working against the people. There is no human-created institution which can remain standing when the people stand united in opposition to it.”

Judge Naomi Buchwald has promised to rule on the motion to dismiss the lawsuit by March 31.

A lawsuit against Monsanto filed on behalf of organic farmers and independent seed businesses went before a judge Tuesday in the Southern District Court in Manhattan, as Monsanto sought to dismiss the case.

The suit, Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association (OSGATA) et al. v. Monsanto, asks the court for relief from Monsanto’s tactic of suing organic farmers whose fields become contaminated with Monsanto’s genetically engineered (GE) seeds.

You read that right. Monsanto has been suing farmers whose fields become contaminated with GE crops devised by Monsanto, even though in the vast majority, if not all, of these cases, this contamination was inadvertent and the GE seeds unwanted.

Monsanto has been suing farmers whose crops have been found to be contaminated, claiming patent infringement or the theft of intellectual property, for more than a decade. Between 1997 and April 2010, the company filed 144 lawsuits against farmers in 27 states for patent infringement or breach of license for “using” it’s GE products, according to the lawsuit.

The agribusiness giant maintains it is protecting its bio-engineered seeds and crops. But farm activists say the company is trying to kill all competition and become the sole proprietor of crop seeds.

The irony is that the organic producers who’ve faced Monsanto’s wrath want nothing to do with GE seeds or crops. But these GE seeds, which dominate farming in America, accounting for more than 80 percent of the corn, sugar beets, canola and soybeans grown in the US, drift in on the winds, or become mixed with organic seeds during seed or crop processing.

Organic farmers, whose certifications are based on running chemical-free operations, find themselves doubly threatened by Monsanto’s GE creations. The GE seeds, which are developed to be used with herbicides, contaminate organic crops by introducing foreign genetic material via cross-pollination, thereby compromising the purity of their organic crops and the organic farmer’s certification. The second threat comes when Monsanto sends lawyers in to sue the organic farmer who has unwittingly “used” its seeds.

The St. Louis-based agribusiness giant has sued and ruined dozens of farmers over this issue in recent years. Few farmers win these cases, being outgunned by the millions the St. Louis-based company has devoted to defending its GE crops.

In March 2011, organic farming activists decided to counter attack. The OSGATA, whose membership has swelled to more than 30,000, filed suit on behalf of 60 organic farmers, seed companies and organic agricultural organizations. The lawsuit asks the court to stop Monsanto from suing and bankrupting farmers who haven’t bowed to their system, and ultimately to declare Monsanto’s seed patents unenforceable and invalid.

OSGATA explains the case in the introduction to its lawsuit:

“This case is about real farmers and real seed businesses who wish to use organic and conventional seed, but who are at substantial risk of being contaminated by Monsanto’s transgenic seed and then being sued by Monsanto for patent infringement…Monsanto has undertaken one of the most aggressive patent assertion campaigns in history, including asserting its patents on transgenic seed against parties who, like Plaintiffs, never wanted to use or distribute such seed.”

“As a result each of the Plaintiffs is under constant fear of being contaminated by Monsanto’s transgenic seed and then sued by Monsanto for patent infringement. The fear is so severe for some of the complainants that they are completely forgoing growing certain crops that they could easily grow and would like to grow.”

The lawsuit chronicles the problems some of the organic farmer and seed operator plaintiffs have faced from Monsanto, whose strong-arm tactics have become legendary in the organic community. They include:

• Bryce Stephens, a Kansas farmer who grows a variety of crops on a 1,000 acre farm. He had to stop growing corn and sorghum for fear that these crops would become contaminated by Monsanto seed and then he would face a financially devastating lawsuit.

• Frederick Kirschenmann, a third-generation farmer in Windsor, ND., who operates a 3,500-acre certified organic farm. The Kirschenmanns had to give up farming organic canola because the risk of becoming contaminated by Monsanto canola was too high. This cost the family $25,000 to $50,000 per year, according to the lawsuit, and deprives them of using canola as a rotation crop in their organic production.

• Fedco Seeds, a seed cooperative in Maine, sells conventional and organic seeds, includingcorn, soybeans and alfalfa. This firm contracts others to grow its seed supply and operates in fear of inadvertent contamination, which would precipitate a Monsanto lawsuit. Protecting against contamination increasingly requires expensive testing, which reduces profit margins. As a direct Monsanto competitor, Fedco fears it will be targeted should any contaminated seed slip into its system.

While lawyers argued the case in federal court, activists gathered at Foley Square outside the Daniel Patrick Moynihan US Courthouse, chanting and providing a human megaphone, ala Occupy style, to speakers who emphasized that anyone who eats food has a stake in the debate over GE crops.

Bob St. Peter, a Maine farmer, urged the gathered crowd to recognize its shared interests as “farmers, eaters, peasant and fisher folks” and asked them to fight for GM labeling on foods, which would help consumers support non-GMO and organic growers and retailers.

He derided Monsanto for being able to “insulate themselves from any type of liability, while they contaminate our food.”

Many food activists believe that GE foods are dangerous, because the effects of the transgenic transformations have not been well studied and go beyond basic hybridization techniques.

One speaker, whose name could not be heard above the crowd, urged those attending to recognize that declining food quality has contributed to diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

“The phyto-chemicals that were in this vital food are becoming less and less prevalent as we institutionalize our farming methods,” he said. “This health issue must be presented to the courts and our politicians for us to support farmers in the maintenance of the integrity of the food supply.”

The hearing is part of a debate that is coming to life around the country, in courtrooms and Occupy sites, in boardrooms and online, with new petitions, ballot initiatives and lawsuits from California to Maine.

Last year, according to the Department of Agriculture, about 90 percent of all soybeans, corn, canola and sugar beets raised in the United States were grown from what scientists now call transgenic seed. Most processed foods (staples like breakfast cereal, granola bars, chicken nuggets and salad dressing) contain one or more transgenic ingredients, according to estimates from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, though the labels don’t reveal that. (Some, like tortilla chips, can contain dozens.)

Common ingredients like corn, vegetable oil, maltodextrin, soy protein, lecithin, monosodium glutamate, cornstarch, yeast extract, sugar and corn syrup are almost always produced from transgenic crops.

No known health risks are associated with eating transgenic foods (though many scientists say it is too soon to assess the effects), and the Food and Drug Administration classifies them as safe.

But consumer resistance to transgenic food remains high. In a nationwide telephone poll conducted in October 2010 by Thomson Reuters and National Public Radio, 93 percent said if a food has been genetically engineered or has genetically engineered ingredients, it should say so on its label — a number that has been consistent since genetically modified crops were introduced. F.D.A. guidelines say that food that contains genetically modified organisms, or G.M.O.’s, don’t have to say so and can still be labeled “all natural.”

In California, voters in November will decide on a ballot initiative requiring the labeling of such foods. In October, an online campaign called Just Label It began collecting signatures and comments on a petition to the F.D.A., requesting rules similar to those in the European Union, Japan, China, India and Australia, stating what transgenic food is in the package. (For example, an ingredients list might say “genetically engineered corn” instead of just “corn.”) Six hundred thousand Americans have commented, according to the group.

“You don’t have to be a technophobe or think corporations are evil to not want G.M.O.’s in your food,” said Ashley Russell, a college student who attended a rally sponsored by Food Democracy Now after the Manhattan court hearing.

In traditional plant breeding, plants are bred with related organisms to encourage certain naturally occurring traits. In transgenic breeding, genetic material from unrelated organisms can be introduced to create new traits, like resistance to drought, herbicides or pests. For the most part, the spread of transgenic seeds into the American food supply has been purposeful, carried out by farmers and scientists who see enormous advantages in hardier plants.

In January, Bill Gates devoted most of his annual letter on agriculture from the Gates Foundation to the need for advanced technology. He later said that most people who object to transgenic agriculture live in rich nations, responsible for climate change that he believes has caused malnutrition for the poor.

For many in the food industry, including big players like Whole Foods, the dairy collective Organic Valley and Stonyfield Farm, the inevitability of transgenic food was cemented last year, when the Agriculture Department deregulated a new alfalfa created by Monsanto, the largest producer of genetically modified seed in the United States, despite furious lobbying by the organic industry. Alfalfa, which has a strong tendency to drift from one field to another, is grown as feed for millions of dairy cows, making it one of the country’s largest crops. Transgenic alfalfa cannot be used to feed cows that produce organic milk.

“We have understood for a long time that there is potential for contamination of organic food through pollen drift,” said A. C. Gallo, co-president and chief operating officer of Whole Foods. After the “disappointing” alfalfa decision, he said, the company decided to focus more efforts on labeling transgenic food, rather than trying to stop or slow its arrival into the food supply.

The company, along with others like Nature’s Path, Eden Foods and Lundberg Family Farms, is a major funder (and customer) of the Non-GMO Project, a nonprofit verification service that does lab testing and provides certification for food producers. Organic farmers are responsible for testing their own crops for contamination, and for keeping transgenic pollen and seeds off their land. The Agriculture Department recommends that organic farmers leave a “buffer zone” between their crops and neighboring farms, but that can prove expensive and ineffective.

“Pollen and DNA do not play by the U.S.D.A.’s rules,” said Elizabeth Archerd, a director of a Minneapolis food co-op, the Wedge, that supports labeling of transgenic food.

That is why farmers like Bryce Stephens of Jennings, Kan., made the trip to New York last week.

“I don’t raise corn anymore,” he said, because the prevailing wind on his farm had contaminated his crop with transgenic seed. Without the resources to devote land to a buffer zone, he said that the alfalfa he grows to feed his herd of organic bison would soon be contaminated by his neighbors’ crops.

Like Mr. Stephens, most of the farmers in the Manhattan courtroom were plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed last year by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association against Monsanto. The plaintiffs, none of whom use Monsanto seeds, say that they are afraid that the company will take legal action against them if its patented products appear in their fields. (Monsanto has asserted its agricultural patents in hundreds of lawsuits, most of which have been settled.)

But the real issue here is not patent law; it’s contamination. The point made by the suit is that, according to the regulations that govern American agriculture, it’s these unwilling farmers who must prevent Monsanto’s products from trespassing onto their land.

The company has moved to dismiss the suit, claiming that the plaintiffs lack standing because Monsanto has taken no action against them. The judge, Naomi R. Buchwald, said she would rule on the motion to dismiss by March 31.

Increasingly, though, organic and transgenic seeds are coexisting on American farmland. Last year, the Agriculture Department said that crops would not necessarily lose their organic status if they were found to have some transgenic content.

For consumers, this means that transgenic ingredients may be present in the organic staples they pay a premium for.

“That’s absolutely not what organic buyers want, and not what they are paying for,” Ms. Archerd said.