Sunroot Gardens

On Saturday, three of us went to a Seventh Day Adventist Church in Newberg. We had been contacted by someone there interested in learning how to save seeds for vegetables and other crops. She said they had a lot of land to plant on, so perhaps we could work out something where we share the seed that is produced.

I am open to working with anyone at all on agricultural projects, and was intrigued by the offer. This is the first time in the history of Sunroot Gardens that we have been approached by a group with significant resources seeking to collaborate and share. A lot of people like to TALK about farming and seed saving, and think these things are “cool” (whatever that means), but few are serious when it comes to action.

Our sister Abby drove us and our brother Pete came along for the ride. Wow, Newberg was further away than we thought. Out in the Yamhill Valley, which was a place mist-clung hlls and verdant moist fields that day. We arrived late but seemed forgiven for the offense.

The expectation of the dozen-plus people in the room was that I was to “teach a class on seed saving”. The first thing I said was that an afternoon was not enough time for them to learn or me to teach seed saving, and that I was presuming this would be an ongoing educational experience for all of us over the course of the season, most of it field work, in the field on their land. There being no official agreement yet, I felt it best to just put out my ideas like that, up front, so everyone could consider them.

I started the instruction with basic botany: the difference between annuals, perennials, and biennials; and, Linnean scientific classification, specifically with regards to Family, Genus & Species. All this was to explain about what-can-cross-with-what when it comes to vegetables. We looked closely at the family “Brassicaceae”. In that family, the following vegetables are all varieties of the species “Brassica oleracea”: Kale, Cabbage, Collards, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflauer, and Kohlrabi. Any of these, if left to flower at the same time within a certain distance of each other, might cross-pollinate, which could result in seeds that produce children much different than the parents. A kohlrabi that crosses with kale might have smaller roots, for example, or produce different foliage. Knowing that these are the same species, it becomes more obvious that collards are essentially non-heading cabbage (or that cabbage are heading collards).

“Brassica rapa” includes turnips, mizuna and Chinese cabbage.

“Brassica napus” is Siberian Kale. So, one can expect that what’s called Italian Kale (Brassica oleracea) will not cross with what’s called Red Russian.(Brassica napus). Rutabagas are also B. napus.

Radishes (Raphanus sativus) and Arugula (Eruca sativa) are their own thing entirely, but are still in the family “Brassicaceae”. Any kind of radish can cross with any other kind of radish, however. I have seen crosses of this kind lead to poorer quality radishes in the progeny, but that could also be due to my selection of which plants to let go to seed. Perhaps they weren’t good specimens to begin with. So many factors….

Squash is the family to watch the closest for whether you want to let varieties cross. If any of you have ever let a squash that volunteered from the compost go, you might have gotten a result that was too tough at the summer squash stage and too bland at the winter squash stage. Here, you just have to take note of which varieties you are planting and what species they are, and make your choices accordingly. You can also hand-pollinate squash flowers if you want near surety.

We also talked about how letting vegetable varieties cross is not necessarily something to avoid. Many mustards that we grow for greens are in the species “Brassica juncea” and I have personally seen, in my gardens, crosses of Green Wave and Purple Osaka that combine the frilly leaves of the first with purple streaks from the second. In some cases, I have admired beds where each plant was visibly unique in its particular mix of characteristics. Just beautiful.

We talked about annuals and biennials because with the former you get seed the first year, and with the latter you need to wait until the second year. As illustration, and to give them a headstart on their project. I brought a big waxed produce box of kale and collards that had overwintered at the ‘Chiens Garden (home of the Winter Palace), and a grocery bag full of parsnips that had overwintered at the Firepit Garden (after getting moved from Monas when the folks there got evicted).

We took these out to the field and I showed them how far apart to plant them. We did no actual physical labor on the project that day because it was their Sabbath and they don’t do that on that day.

I greatly enjoyed the day. They seem serious and dedicated, and are quite interested in growing out some quinoa. (Seventh Day Adventists are vegetarian in their diet, so appreciate the high protein content of quinoa.) I expect we’ll be working together more throughout the season.