Seed Saving October 29, 2007
Posted by Graham in : Food, Gardens, General , trackback
A recent trip to Madeleine McKeever, founder of Brown Envelope Seeds, down near turk Head on the south coast, provided the permaculture class with a fascinating introduction to the world of seed-saving.
Madeleine started Brown Envelope Seeds in 2004 as a way of finding a new income to supplement beef farming which was getting harder to make ends meet. She was also aware of the importance of saving seeds and breeding new varieties in order to bolster Ireland’s food security. As the only small company in Ireland that is saving seeds on any scale apart from the ISSA, Madeleine has done an impressive job, and, ably assisted by office manager Ruth Bullough, and provides an invaluable service to growers and gardeners both locally and around the country.
Below: Painted Mountain corn, bred by Dave Christiansen
*Below left: Screening Thyme seeds; Right: Perennial wheat
Madeleine was growing a number of unusual and interesting plants, including a varieties of perennial wheat and rye from the Oregon plant breeder Tim Peters. Although the grain was still very soft when we were there tow weeks ago, Madeleine tells me it is still ripening. Given the global grain crises the trialling of perennial grains that do well locally may be of great importance. She had also been experimenting with creating her own varieties of potatoes by growing them from seed, selecting for blight resistance and taste, and we ended the day with a potato tasting of some of the results:
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I enjoyed having you all, what an enthusiastic group!