What does your garden have to do with seed saving?
Clallam County has a long history of Brassica seed production because of our unique climate. Biennial Brassica seed crops need a winter cold enough to trigger bolting, but not so cold the plants are killed. Western Washington is one of the few places in the United States where these seed crops can be grown.
For seed production, the overwintered plants are left to bud and bloom, allowing for spring pollination followed by seed formation and seed harvest. When you go to the garden centers in spring to purchase seed packets, you are partaking of that harvest. To ensure accuracy with all the different varieties that are out there, the pollination needs controls. The seed must be accurately pollinated and this takes planning because pollen travels with bees, other pollinators and winds over miles.
June 7th at the County Courthouse, the annual “Pinning” meeting hosted by WSU Extension Director, Clea Rome took place. Maps, rulers and markers were on the table, the seed growers sat overlooking areas on the map where they hoped to grow. The map was dabbed with colors that correlate to specific farms and their growing locations. The dabs are the “pins.”
The ruler had ticks scaled to miles for this map of Clallam County, the focus is on Sequim. It is ideal to have a minimum of two miles between seed crops. When you purchase your favorite variety of vegetable it needs to have those favored genetics without fail. What determines the purity is the pollen. An acre of short curly purple kale flowers needs to be pollinated by the correct genetic material to be pure.
Pins were placed on the map and measurements were taken and retaken between them. Discussion regarding newer farms where purple sprouting broccoli is grown were noted for concerns of cross pollination when it flowers. Talk also circled around a disease that effects Brassica’s called black leg, a serious threat if not managed, to seed and crop production. We all agreed public awareness is needed. Gardeners can help by removing plants before they flower or age, becoming hosts for detrimental fungus.
Seed grown in Sequim is part of the global food system. Transnational seed companies have long come and contracted our local farmers to grow seed in Clallam because of our climate. Crops such as beets, chard, spinach, radish are also popularly grown for seed here, as well as the other Brassicas mentioned above.
A 2019 Civil Eats articles shares that four seed companies control over 60% of the global market on seeds. One is Syngenta, their regional representative Jonathan Roozen was at the table with yellow slips being feverishly filled in at the end. Also at the table was Salt Water Seed Company’s Katie Miller, co-owner of a brand new seed company based out of Chimacum making first steps in establishing pinned locations.
The farmers and the seed company representative sat side by side, casually determining what would go where and placing pins. In our county, this is low key, discussion was needed and decisions were made. In Skagit or Whatcom County this process is formal and done by lottery on electronic maps because the number of seed producers is much greater, the farms are shoulder to shoulder with fewer forests and rivers as natural barriers between them to reduce risks of cross-pollinating. Clallam values the farmer-to-farmer decision making, discussion and collaboration.
Here’s the math to help you understand the magnitude of seed production. One acre of cabbage grown to produce hybrid seeds yields about 2,000 pounds of seed, which would produce 10,000 acres of cabbage when planted, which would produce 50 million pounds of cabbage. In 2019, Skagit Farmers produced 189 acres of cabbage seed, that could grow 9,450,000,000 pounds of cabbage. Seed production equals food security.
If you garden, chances are that you have forgotten to pull up a broccoli and found it turned into a tall fountain of cute yellow flowers buzzing with honey bees. It’s fun to create that habitat and color. What you may not know is that you are creating a potential pollutant for seed growers by letting your vegetables go to seed. In Skagit Valley it is considered a “public nuisance” to let your vegetables go to flower because of the delicate nature of seed growing, and even more so in Skagit where there are less natural barriers.
If you would pull out your vegetables before they flower, that is a great way to help support the seed growers in our area. It is a great service because within a two mile radius there may be a seed grower you didn’t know about. So please pull your vegetables and grow pollinator habitat that doesn’t cross with vegetable seed. Also the threat of black rot can be thwarted this way.
At the end of the meeting the slips for growing red curly kale, Brussel sprouts, radish, beets, chard, spinach and parsley seed were filed. One farmer was still working on a contract with a seed distributor so will follow up. The meeting proved to be informative for the seed company who noted a new farm that was allowing a crop to go to bloom and stated he would share that with his contracted farmer not to grow his seed on any nearby fields. We wondered at the end about when a lottery format might be needed, not yet anyway.