Hello Gardening Friends—
The 2016 Carol Deppe/Fertile Valley Seeds Catalog is now up on my website http://www.caroldeppe.com/ and we are open for orders. I’ve expanded from 45 to 70 varieties and included color photography for half the varieties. (Go to the Fertile Valley Seeds page on the website and browse or download the pdf file of the catalog.)
New Variety Introductions for 2016. I’m especially delighted to introduce two new parching corns that I have been working toward for 15 years—Parching Red Manna and Parching Starburst Manna. I also introduce Beef-Bush Gold Resilient dry bean. Returned for 2016 are Beefy Resilient Grex dry bean and Fast Lady Northern Southern pea. There are also 18 new listings and 33 OSSI-Pledged varieties.
Open Source Seed Initiative. This is the big news for me for 2016. This is where the fight to take back our seeds is happening. (See the write-up on page 2 of my catalog.) I’m completely in with OSSI, having OSSI-Pledged all my original varieties, enrolled Fertile Valley Seeds as an OSSI Partner Seed Company, joined the Board of Directors, and volunteered to edit and contribute regularly to the upcoming OSSI quarterly e-newsletter Free the Seeds! The first issue, to be published March 24, will include stories by me, Jack Kloppenburg, CR Lawn, Joseph Lofthouse, Rose Marie Nichols McGee, Frank Morton, and others. (I’ll be doing a regular feature, “Plant Breeding Stories.”) For more information about OSSI, and to sign up for Free the Seeds!, visit http://osseeds.org/.
Open Source Seed Initiative is a 501c3 corporation. We need donations. We particularly need one or a few “founding” donors who are able to make a substantial contribution so OSSI can rent office space and hire staff. If you are interested in being one of our founding donors, please contact me at my (OSSI business only) email address carol.deppe_at_osseeds.org. (For seed company business use the email address carol_at_resilientgardener.com.) [replace _at_ with @]
Speaking Events for 2016.
February 5-7. Organic Seed Alliance Seed Grower’s Conference. Corvallis, OR. I’ll do a 1 ½ hr session on breeding for organic systems and participate in a panel “Ask the Elders.”
Feb. 23. Santiam Food Alliance. Lebanon, OR. (Public Library; 6:30 pm.)
March 13 (Sunday). Grow Organic (Corvallis organic gardening club.) Corvallis OR. South First Alternative Co-op meeting room. Vegetarian potluck 5:30. Talk 6:15. “Join the Open Source Seed Revolution.” BYO guitars.
June. Mother Earth News fair. Albany OR. (I expect to give three talks. TBA)
July. Seed Saver’s Exchange. Ames, Iowa. I’ll do a keynote and a number of workshops. TBA.
Please share this announcement with anyone who might be interested.
