Seeds are magic. If you hold a seed in your hand and imagine the plant it will become, you can glimpse the hidden forces of growth that lie dormant inside, until exposed to the right conditions…kind of like us, right?
Sometimes the gifts we receive from our Kūpuna lie undeveloped until just the right moment comes along and we are awakened by the forces or the people around us.
Seed is like that also.
Seed is another kind of gift.
There are so many kinds of “seed.” There are hard seeds from plants that flower and then produce seed from those flowers. There are tubers, roots & corms that begin life for taro and comfrey, and slips and stems from plants like sweet potato and the plants that grow from cuttings. We even air-layer and graft trees and plants to start new ones.
There are so many ways to think about “seed.”
Seed is connected to place by geography, weather, season & climate, cultural traditions, local history and food traditions, and migration. Seed can move from place to place through the forces of wind and water or with the help of animals and by people.
Seed migrates - it's required for its survival.
In Hawai'i, and many other places in the world, there are creation stories of how seeds, plants, and people are connected to place. In Hawaii, the Kumulipo tells the story of Haloanakalaukapalili.
In this creation story, a stillborn child is born to the deities Wākea (sky father) and Hoʻohokūkalani (star mother). When the child is buried in the earth with his mothers tears providing water, a heart shaped sprout begins to grow as the baby grows into first kalo plant - making Hāloa the progenitor of life on the islands and one of the Hawaiian’s earliest ancestors.
In these creation stories first came the “seed”, and then the people.
People, seed, and place share a common history. For the past 15,000 years at least, people gathered wild seed and plants & domesticated them. Some of the plants and seed were eaten, some were replanted, and the best seed was selected and saved for the next planting.
ALL of our food crops were once wild right? Seeds moved from place to place with the people that observed them, tasted them, gathered them, ate them, saved them, and eventually replanted them.
ALL of our Kūpuna were seed savers and planters at one time or another.
Growing and saving seed reconnects us through those ancient pathways of caring for and preserving our nutritious food crops and other kinds of plants. Throughout all of history seed has helped to create villages and culture and still does today.
For the past 12,000-15,000 years, growers across Planet Earth have been growing food and saving the best seed for the next planting. It’s only in the past 70 years or so, that we gave this important job up to seed companies, universities, and the 4 giant bio-life companies.
Did you know that by 2005, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 93% of all agricultural seed varieties that were grown in 1900 were either gone or unavailable? That is hard to imagine, and that was almost 20 years ago!
Those are the varieties that our Kūpuna grew to feed their families!
We have lost a huge amount of diversity in seed and food crops, diversity that we will need as we grapple with climate change and begin developing a more local food system. The more diverse your garden is, the more chance you have of finding balance in your ecosystem, and having something to eat!
For more information from National Geographic on the loss of seed diversity, follow this link.
As we plant, observe, and learn to save seed wonders will unfold.
· Seed is the foundation of our community food system and because we have a unique subtropical environment, variety and where it is grown really matters!
· Seed is intelligent and can adapt over time to the changing climate. When seed is grown in a particular place that has unique environmental conditions, the seed engineers itself, turning on genes and turning off others to respond to the environment in which it finds itself. Seed can help us secure our future food system.
· Seed correctly stored will last for years and can be successfully replanted increasing our food security needs.
· Seed knowledge and skill that has been passed on from generation to generation is alive and well.
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The Hawai’i Seed Growers Network grows locally adapted quality garden seed for Hawaii’s home growers and has a gift for you this year.
On December 4, the Hawai’i Seed Growers Network will host a Zoom Informational Meeting and will share details of their first Seed Production Course for experienced growers “Seeding the Future” that begins on January 15, 2025. You can learn more about this online course by visiting our website.
In this Season of Magic let’s dream together of a future filled with locally grown seed and abundant gardens everywhere! If you’ve always wanted to expand your growing knowledge, consider joining us for our Informational Zoom Meeting on December 4, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. Click here to Register.
From all of us at the Hawai’i Seed Growers Network,
Wishing you many Season’s Blessings for a healthy and bountiful New Year.
May abundance grow and be shared in the coming year.
Yorumlar