Sebastopol’s Community Seed Exchange plays key role in food sustainability

Colorful kernels of corn noisily bounce against a wooden crate as Marissa Mommaerts and Jeremiah Garcia crank a small metal machine that methodically and efficiently separates seed from the cob. The Community Seed Exchange volunteers simultaneously collect and admire the rare variety of red, brown and pink Oaxacan corn called “painted mountain.” This seed-saving act is one tiny piece of the puzzle of a larger movement to create a “resilient” community, said Mommaerts.

“The seed library is quietly political,” she said.

Tucked away in a tranquil corner behind St. Stephen’s Church in Sebastopol, the Community Seed Exchange is unobtrusively chugging away, making a quiet but significant impact on the local food system.

Started almost seven years ago by a core group of gardeners, the Seed Exchange is a seed-saving garden, a classroom and a seed library that specializes in endangered varieties, with a focus on high calorie crops like corn, beans and squash. It was born out of Transition Sebastopol, the local branch of the Transition Network, a group that strives to “rebuild resilience” in plants and reduce CO2 emissions in communities all over the world. It’s one of the only seed libraries in the country that is 100 percent locally grown.

Sara McCamant, a founding member of the Seed Exchange and gardener for the Ceres Community Project, said a few Transition members realized there was a real need for local seeds, but no programs (or businesses) that were formally collecting and preserving seed grown in Sonoma County. She said seed saving is a natural next step for a longtime gardener like herself. It completes the loop of a sustainable food system and creates a “sense of abundance.”

“When you save seed, you get huge quantities,” McCamant said. “Twenty chard plants can give you 20 gallons of seed. Do you dump it, or have a seed library?”

But seed saving isn’t just about not wasting food. Over the past 20 years, smaller seed companies have been consolidated by larger corporate interests, said master gardener Electra de Peyster, another founding member of the Seed Exchange. There are notable exceptions, like Missouri-based Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, which has a retail store in Petaluma. But, as she explained, most of the larger seed companies are not in the business of protecting rare varieties that aren’t big sellers.

“If someone in the community hasn’t headed the effort to save certain seeds, you’ve lost that variety,” she said.

And less diversity in the seed gene pool can make communities more dependent on seed breeders and distributors who might not have the appropriate seed for local microclimates, she added. Ultimately, this would force people to look outside their own communities for sources of seed and food. Sonoma County has not yet encountered this extreme, de Peyster said, but saving seed could theoretically become more critical with climate change and unpredictable weather patterns.

“Because we don’t know what the weather will be, we need to plant different seeds for different conditions and hope that one will work,” she said. “We need everyone to be saving seeds.”

The Community Seed Exchange accepts saved seed from community members and has its own seed-saving garden. As even experts will attest, seed-saving can be tricky. McCamant suggests novice seed-savers start with the “easy” seeds that don’t cross pollinate, like lettuce, beans, peas and tomatoes - and let more experienced practitioners save the more difficult seeds, like squash and corn. There are certain guidelines to follow as well, like saving seed from healthy plants and taking into consideration plant populations (larger, more diverse crops are usually preferable). If you’re really trying to preserve a specific variety to share, de Peyster said, it’s best to grow out your seeds for another season or two to confirm they haven’t hybridized.

“Once you take that seed and share it and call it spaghetti squash,” she said, “you should take the time and effort to make sure it hasn’t crossed.”

The Community Exchange, however, tries hard not to turn anyone away. They institute a “dot system” that identifies seed from experienced seed savers that is likely to be “true” to variety and seed that was grown or pollinated with more uncertainty. McCamant said some people prefer a level of experimentation, especially if they’re just saving for their own gardens.

“You can let (seeds) cross and come up with some new weird thing,” she said.

These technical difficulties are not the only obstacles local seed libraries face. McCamant is involved in an ongoing national campaign spearheaded by the Sustainable Economies Law Center to stop government agencies from applying commercial seed sales regulations to community seed libraries, expensive and burdensome laws that could potentially shut them down.

Despite these challenges, the Community Seed Exchange is thriving. St. Stephen’s church has invited them to permanently stay on the property and they are now expanding the garden by 25 feet. They are also gearing up for the fourth annual Seed Swap at the Sebastopol Grange on Feb. 10 and expecting a bigger turnout this year than ever before.

For more information on the Community Seed Exchange, visit their website at www.CommunitySeedExchange.org.