[Scpg] Going to seed in Ojai By Lisa McKinnon Ventura Star/ Feb 25 Seed Swap 1pm Ojai

Sun Feb 19 12:11:33 PST 2012

Going to seed in Ojai
By Lisa McKinnon
Posted February 18, 2012 at 3 p.m.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/feb/18/going-to-seed-in-ojai/

PHOTO BY TROY HARVEY, VENTURA COUNTY STAR // BUY THIS PHOTO

Katie Osediacz (left) and Laura Mailander work to thin a row of kale and 
collard seedlings at Mano Farm in Ojai Valley recently. The farm grows 
organic herbs and vegetables for a community supported agriculture 
program in addition to producing seeds for All Good Things Organic Seeds.
If you go
A seed swap organized by the Ojai Valley Green Coalition and All Good 
Things Organic Seeds will start at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Chaparral 
Auditorium, 414 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai.

Members of the public who have seeds to share are asked to arrive by 
12:45 p.m. to claim table space.

The event will start with a discussion by Justin Huhn of AGTOS on the 
how-tos of basic seed saving.

For information, call 758-3184, send email to agtoseeds at gmail.com or 
visit the website at http://www.agtoseeds.com.

Going to seed in Ojai

A seed swap organized by the Ojai Valley Green Coalition and All Good 
Things Organic Seeds will start at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Chaparral 
Auditorium, 414 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai.

Members of the public who have seeds to share are asked to arrive by 
12:45 p.m. to claim table space.

The event will start with a discussion by Justin Huhn of AGTOS on the 
how-tos of basic seed saving.

For information, call 758-3184, send email to agtoseeds at gmail.com or 
visit the website at http://www.agtoseeds.com.

For Ojai Valley farmers Justin Huhn and Quin Shakra, the triumph of 
organic over genetically modified crops can be told in the story of a 
zucchini named Dark Star.

Plantings of the squash, which was bred via open-pollination trials in 
California and Baja California were well under way in February 2011, 
when a hard freeze hit Mexico. The tomato crop in Sinaloa was decimated. 
Buds were nipped on more than 3 million metric tons of corn.

"And it killed all of the zucchini, except for Dark Star," said Huhn.

"It took seven years to develop Dark Star, and nearly 20 years to make 
one genetically modified corn variety. One produces an organic food that 
is safe and sustainable. The corn I'm not so sure about," said Shakra.

Bred for market-quality fruit on open, drought-tolerant plants with few 
spines to prick the fingers of harvesters, the squash continues to 
deliver those qualities in subsequent plantings. That's "because it had 
intentional stewardship" by seedsman Bill Reynolds in collaboration with 
the Organic Seed Alliance, said Huhn.

The stewarding continues under Huhn and Shakra at Mano Farm, their 
1.3-acre property near Meiners Oaks.

Using seed obtained from Seeds of Change, they have grown and harvested 
Dark Star for members of the Mano Farm CSA, or community supported 
agriculture, program.

Seeds from the healthiest, most productive plants, meanwhile, were saved 
for sowing in another season — and to be sold via All Good Things 
Organic Seeds, the company Huhn and Shakra started last fall.

"Our focus is on producing organic seeds for open-pollinated varieties 
that have adapted to this bioregion — to the soils, the climate, the 
pests that may or may not be present," said Huhn.

"When gardeners or farmers use seed that was produced in this climate, 
they will see drastic improvements in the vigor of the plants and in the 
flavor of the food," he added.

The idea of region-specific seeds will be emphasized on Saturday, when 
All Good Things Organic Seeds teams with the Ojai Valley Green Coalition 
to present a community seed swap at the Chaparral Auditorium in Ojai.

Huhn will offer basic tips for saving seeds and discuss why doing so is 
important, he said.

The act of saving and sharing seeds is as old as agriculture itself, but 
has taken on increasingly political overtones in recent years, Huhn added.

Spearheading the change, he said, are efforts by companies like Monsanto 
to create patented seeds for crops that have been genetically modified 
to offer new characteristics and/or to resist certain herbicides — 
making it easier to use said herbicides in their presence.

Detractors have given one such crop the nickname Agent Orange Corn, 
because it was genetically engineered by Dow, Inc. to be resistant to 
the herbicide 2,4-D, an ingredient found in the defoliant used by the 
U.S. military during the Vietnam War.

Proponents counter that such crops help feed a hungry world by 
increasing yields and benefiting farmers.

Members of the public, meanwhile, have until Feb. 27 to comment on USDA 
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service plans to approve non 
regulated status for both the herbicide 2,4-D-resistant corn and a 
soybean genetically engineered by Monsanto Co. to produce an omega-3 
fatty acid.

Trying to stem the tide of these and other GM seed crops from flowing 
into the food chain is a major issue for organic food producers, said 
Shakra.

In part, that's because the increased use of GM seeds for crops such as 
corn and soybeans makes it difficult if not impossible for neighboring 
organic farms to avoid contamination via airborne pollen and other 
factors. And organic crops that have somehow become crossed with GM 
varieties can no longer be labeled or sold as "organic," Shakra said.

"At the moment that threat doesn't exist here. We are able to simply 
grow our organic varieties," Shakra added as he turned to survey the 
farm, which is flanked by citrus orchards and the Los Padres National 
Forest.

"But anyone who eats food, period, is going to be affected one day, if 
they haven't been already," said Huhn.

WANNA SWAP?

The popularity of seed swaps is on the rise, said Margie Bushman of 
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, a nonprofit educational organization 
devoted to ecological issues.

When the network presented its fourth annual Santa Barbara community 
seed swap last month, more than 400 people showed up. An estimated 300 
attended in 2011.

"We're all of us trying to grow our own gardens, but that can get 
expensive," said Bushman.

"When you learn how to save seeds and share them, you're not only 
cutting down on the expense. By saving seed from the most vibrantly 
alive plants in your garden, the ones that are doing the best, you are 
helping them naturalize to the site," Bushman said.

The organization's members hope to start a local seed library, similar 
to programs created by Native Seeds/SEARCH in Tucson, Ariz., and the 
Richmond Grows Seed Lending Library in Richmond, Calif., she added.

Until then, community seed swaps and the efforts of producers like All 
Good Things Organic Seeds and the Kusa Seed Research Foundation — also 
located in the Ojai Valley and focused on ancient grains — are crucial 
to maintaining heirloom and site-specific varieties, said Bushman.

Huhn and Shakra started Mano Farm on leased land nearly three years ago. 
The farm earned its organic certification from Oregon Tilth in 
September, the same month they launched the seed company.

Their first seed crop was Fizz, a jagged-leafed kale that produced dark 
round seeds that Huhn described as surprisingly heavy for their size.

They now count 50 varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers that range 
from amaranth to winter squash. Lettuces and tomatoes are included; all 
are open-pollinated, which means that any saved seeds will produce 
plants similar to the parent plants.

With careful timing to avoid cross-pollination, many of the for-seed 
plants are tested and grown alongside those intended for consumption by 
the 25 members of the farm's CSA. In some cases, they are one and the same.

"We might pick for the CSA and then allow the plant to bolt," Shakra 
said, pointing to a 6-foot-tall stalk of Dinosaur kale with a cluster of 
yellow flowers on top.

The resulting seeds will be available via the seed company's website, 
http://www.agtoseeds.com. Packets of existing seeds, $3.50 each, also 
can be found in Ojai at Flora Gardens and Rainbow Bridge Natural Foods.

Shakra is working to address another gardening tradition that is almost 
as old as sharing seeds: paging through seed catalogs and circling all 
the things you want to order.

"We already design and print our own seed packets, and I'm designing an 
in-print catalog in time for the seed swap," he said. "We have a lot of 
information on our website, but what we're learning about gardeners is 
that they like to hold something in their hands."

Read more: 
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/feb/18/going-to-seed-in-ojai/#ixzz1mrOrTEHu
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