Cooperative Living August 2021 - 25

FarmLife | by Margaret Buranen, Contributing Writer
Saving a Seed for the Future
Virginia's Southern Exposure Seed Exchange is a lifeline
B
etsy Trice has been saving seeds
from one year's garden for her next
year's garden since she was a child.
Trice grew up on a farm and learned the
value of saving seeds from her mother.
Seed saving brings " a level of selfsufficiency, "
Trice explains. " It makes
me feel safe. During the pandemic, seed
companies were inundated with orders
and were running out. "
She adds, " Another reason I love saving seeds is that
seeds are life - like eggs -waiting to happen. When the
pandemic hit in the spring, it was a frightening time, but
I was [still] hopeful because I had seeds to plant. "
Trice notes that saving seeds saves money. " For example,
if you let just one head of lettuce bolt [stay unpicked], you'll
have enough lettuce seeds for a good number of years. "
Trice and her husband, Chris, are members of Central
Virginia Electric Cooperative. They own Peacemeal Farm in
Louisa, Va., where Trice grows seeds for herself and several
seed companies.
She also teaches sustainable agriculture classes at Reynolds
Community College in Goochland. Some of her students
work in the college's garden. They learn how to collect and
preserve seeds for a seed library at the college.
SEED SWAP
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange is one of Trice's seed
buyers. Mineral, Va.-based Acorn Community, a nonprofit in
the service territory of Rappahannock Electric Cooperative,
owns and operates the exchange.
SESE focuses on obtaining seeds for heirloom and rare
plant varieties that thrive in mid-Atlantic and southeastern
states. Some people who grow seeds for the exchange are
backyard gardeners with a little extra space. Other seed
growers have large farms and grow several crops.
" We have about 70 farms growing seeds for us in any
given year. Some farms grow only every other year [or so], "
says Ira Wallace, SESE's spokesperson and Acorn Community
member.
Growing seeds for SESE means discovering new produce
varieties. After Trice grew Vinson Watts tomatoes for SESE,
they became a favorite.
CONTRIBUTOR QUEST
Wallace encourages anyone who has even a small amount
of an unusual seed to email or call SESE. " We'll ask if the
plant is drought-resistant, " she says. " If [the produce it yields]
is flavorful. If it is of interest, we'll ask for some seeds to plant
in our trial gardens. "
co-opliving.com
4
1
2
3
Turkey Craw pole
bean seed
Cucumber seeds
Collard seed
threshed from the
plant with chaff
Bowl of finely
cleaned Collard
seed
1
2
Wallace describes SESE's trial gardens as " a whole lot
of small amounts of a whole lot of stuff. We may start with
only four to six plants, collect their seeds and grow 20 plants
the next year. "
She adds, " Our job amounts to quality control, to see
what kind of production we get. "
SESE often grows new seeds for two or three years before
offering contracts to farmers like Trice to grow them in larger
quantities. Then, if the seeds pass a germination rate test,
the farmer gets paid and SESE gets enough seeds to sell to
customers through its catalog, online or at retail outlets.
Wallace, who also works on educational projects for the
seed exchange, describes SESE's selection of seeds by saying,
" Our sweet spot is seeds that do well in our region. " 
Betsy Trice with
a freshly dug
crop of peanuts.
3
4
For gardening advice or buying seeds, see southernexposure.com.
August 2021 | Cooperative Living | 23
PHOTOS COURTESY SOUTHERN EXPOSURE SEED EXCHANGE
PHOTOS COURTESY IRA WALLACE
http://www.southernexposure.com http://www.co-opliving.com
Cooperative Living August 2021

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