Seed Catalog Review: Seed Savers Exchange

Every summer in the middle of the summer, when you can't remember any more what it feels like to be cold, an audience gathers on a grassy hill. Limestone bluffs guard rows of asparagus and hollyhock. Kids wander between coolers and lawn chairs.

The annual Greg Brown concert is the only time I've been to Seed Savers Exchange farm in northern Iowa, and it was close to ten years ago, but my cells remember the flavor of the place. Maybe this is why I buy almost all of my seeds, and all my potatoes and garlic, from Seed Savers. Maybe it's because it's the only seed catalog I get that's for a non-profit organization, founded in 1975 with the premise that folks should pool their precious heirloom seeds. Seed Savers strikes the same chord in my heart as The Penny Song, a ritual in the kindergarten room at my Unitarian church; imagine eight cherubic faces chanting, "Love is something if you give it away, you end up having more." Heirloom seeds are something if you give them away, you end up having more.

I'm not a member, so I don't get access to the 20,733 varieties of veggies, flowers, and fruits traded by the in crowd. I don't have any family heirloom seeds and don't know much about saving seeds, so it seems silly to join. And yet, Seed Savers is mine and I belong to them. Every spring I order too many varieties of basil. Summers I swoon into the embrace of Nyagous tomatoes. In the fall, I celebrate when my miniature bell peppers succeed. Winters I eat potatoes grown from their potatoes. Where else could I order The Joy of Rhubarb, essays by Wendell Barry, and huckleberry seeds all in one go?