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Stewardship narrative
Former Seed Savers Exchange member Sara McCamant of Sebastopol , California , has never met a garden plot she did n’t like . “ Gardening ’s in my blood , ” she say . “ originate up in a sept of nurseryman , I ’ve always had a love for imbed matter and digging in the grunge . ”
And she has merrily spent much of her life pursuing that passion .
“I love how much Seed Savers Exchange cares for the story of the seed,” she says. “The value placed on that is inspiring.”
As a college student in the 1980s , Sara grew her own food for thought in between attending and studying for classes in political theory . In 1992 she added come saving to her repertory when a sojourn to the noted Occidental Arts and Ecology Center garden pique her interest in the vanish artwork .
“ Doug Gosling talked about diversity , the going of diversity , and the importance of semen carry through in fighting that loss , ” she recalls . “ I was immediately cabbage — the only intellect that we have the amount of diversity available to us right now is because people before us have save seeds . ”
That feeling has guide Sara ’s body of work throughout her impressive career as a food militant and garden educator . She has run an educational garden at the Shenoa Retreat Center in Mendocino County , California ; managed the garden at Emerald Earth , an knowing community in the hills above Boonville , California ; supervise the garden at the Boonville Hotel as well as at Lynmar Estate , a winery in Sebastopol ; and developed the Community Seed internet at Seed Matters .
“I love how much Seed Savers Exchange cares for the story of the seed,” she says. “The value placed on that is inspiring.”
Currently she suffice as garden and early days programme managing director for theCeres Community Project , an organization she describe as “ bringing together all the correct ingredients to make real magic happen . ”
“ We make goodish meal for people lot with serious illness and study with youthfulness to grow and grow those meals , ” read Sara , who is on record as declare kale among her own favorite vegetable . “ I get to acquire food that goes to the great unwashed who really want nutritionally thick , making love - develop food for thought and work with awful young people to do it . Most days I come home inspire and fired up — really , how prosperous is that ? ”
In her “ free time , ” she helps make out theCommunity Seed Exchange(CSE ) , a volunteer - flow seed library and garden in Sonoma County , California , that she cofounded in 2009 . One of the oldest seeded player library in the country , the organization offers almost 200 varieties of fruits , veg , and grains .
“Every day in the garden I am amazed by the young people I get to work with and REMINDED of how much having a place to engage in helping the community gives to them,” says Sara McCamant of her work with the Ceres Community Project.
CSE also maintain a community seed garden , where members grow source for the program library , and offer up classes on how to save seed . Local ejaculate communion , saving , and swap , Sara toldCivil Eatsin 2016 , is the Francis Scott Key to increasing biodiversity not only in California but also globally : “ Just one germ subroutine library can plant a salmagundi that has almost disappeared and all of a sudden you’re able to find it everywhere … .The scale can be pocket-size , but the shock can be so large . ”
It was that belief that first barrack Sara to join Seed Savers Exchange in 1993 . “ I have always feel that Seed Savers Exchange does revolutionary oeuvre — that saving seed is not only fun but also has a large design of connect mass who are preserve varieties in danger of being lost , ” she says . “ One of the first things I offered through the Yearbook was Oca , a genus Tuber from South America that my father who was really interested in Andean crop had given me — I think I may have been the first person to pop the question Oca in the United States . ”
In 2013 , after 20 class of active membership , Sara traveled from California to the organization ’s Heritage Farm home office in Decorah to go the “ Building a Community Seed Movement ” shop at the annual Conference and Campout .
“ What a natural endowment it was to be able-bodied to see Heritage Farm after all those years , ” she says . “ I was so impressed by the care and conceive that was hold up into the collection . I glimpsed the bigger picture of Seed Savers Exchange ’s work and gain it was so much more than the Yearbook….and I listen to Gary Nabhan deal how he watch the seeded player - save trend turn and how he could actually name seeds that would have been fall behind but for the work of an case-by-case come saver . That reminded me how impactful our work really is . ”
Originally published by Sara Friedl - Putnam on April 25 , 2017 . Updated March 24 , 2025 .
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