The Journal Of The Seed Ambassadors Project
Posted in Romania, Seed Saving, TRAVEL LOG on Mar 8th, 2008
This year, the Seed Ambassadors Project was invited to the Transylvania (Northwest) region of Romania by the Ratiu Family Foundation as part of the Ratiu Center for Democracy’s Agricultural program, Turda Fest. Turda Fest’s mission is to honor “the history of the greater Turda region and promote options for a sustainable future…. [and to] [...]
Posted in TRAVEL LOG on Jan 6th, 2008
See the Updates! Pictures have been added to the Switzerland posts and more Europe winter 2006-2007 trip posts have been made. The new posts have been backdated in the order they occurred during the trip. So check them out below and stay tuned for more!
New photos – Switzerland: Sativa part 1 and Sativa part [...]
Posted in Biodynamics, Germany, Seed Saving, TRAVEL LOG on Jan 27th, 2007
“One of the central hubs of German biodynamic plant breeding community”. We were told this by many people through our travels and we decided that we had to visit Dottenfelder-hof (translated version). After a nice hike in the morning from the train station we arrived invigorated to meet with our host [...]
Posted in Germany, Seed Saving, TRAVEL LOG on Jan 26th, 2007
From Switzerland we traveled back north up to Germany for a visit with Ulla Grall of Bio-Saatgut. The name of her company says it all: “Organic Seeds”. Ulla offers through her catalog seeds that she produces herself and those grown by several small contract growers, as well as seeds from Sativa Rheinau and a [...]
Posted in Seed Saving, Switzerland, TRAVEL LOG on Jan 25th, 2007
Pro Specie Rara (PSR) is Switzerland’s seed savers exchange. Unlike the American Seed Savers Exchange, PSR focuses solely on Swiss heirloom varieties: in order for a seed to be accepted into the PSR collection, it should have been grown in Switzerland for at least thirty years. For this reason, there are PSR listed Swiss heirloom [...]
Posted in Biodynamics, Seed Saving, Switzerland, TRAVEL LOG on Jan 24th, 2007
The folks at Sativa do a lot of work with maintaining and reinvigorating old varieties for PSR. (Pro Specie Rara, the Swiss seed saver’s organization, see next posting). Most of this work focuses on brassicas, which often suffer from inbreeding depressions, leading to sickly plants and poor yields. By the time inbreeding depression is recognized [...]
Posted in Biodynamics, Seed Saving, Switzerland, TRAVEL LOG on Jan 23rd, 2007
From Gerhard and Susanne’s we traveled by train south to Sativa Rheinau, a biodynamic seed company in Switzerland near the border town of Schaffhausen, home to the largest waterfall in Europe. Set in a seventeenth century monastery on an island in the Rheine, Sativa is blessed with being one of the most beautiful places we [...]
Posted in Germany, Seed Saving, TRAVEL LOG on Jan 19th, 2007
After another pre-dawn start, we left the company of the kind folks at Bingenheimer and headed south towards Nuremberg and beyond. Our next stop: Gerhard Bohl’s home and gardens in the hamlet of Rednitzenbach. Gerhard and his wife Susanne are the brains, braun, and brilliance behind Das Sortenbuch (= the variety handbook), a mail-order [...]