Ask any farmer or gardener—the right tools and the right people can transform the work. Thanks to generous support from a longtime donor, our farm team gained both: skilled year-round…
Read More
Russ Crow’s earliest gardening memories are with his father, planting tomatoes. Inspired, Russ convinced his father to build a 2×2 foot plot in the yard to cultivate. “I planted it entirely in radishes. Solid radishes,” laughed Russ, nostalgically.
Read More
Ron Thuma has spent a lifetime serving his community as a civic leader, an educator, a firefighter, and a model gardener.
Read More
Kathleen Plunkett-Black grew up in Vermont, gardening with her father. One year, he decided to let Kathleen and her two siblings each have their own small plots planted with anything they wanted. “I picked celery, my brother picked peanuts, and my sister picked Brussels sprouts,” she remembers, laughing.
Read More
John Swenson’s successful career in law translates seamlessly into every aspect of his life including his passion for alliums (the genus that includes garlic, onions, and leeks).
Read More
John Coykendall was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee by his mother and father—a school teacher and a banker, respectively. John’s grandfather owned a farm and was a congressman by profession. In 1954, when John was 11, his father taught him to plant potatoes and corn. It was then that John found his love of gardening. “I still get the same thrill out of digging new potatoes that I did the first year!” remembers John.
Read More
Jim Tjepkema, like many seed savers, gardened as a child with his parents. “My dad always had a garden as I was growing up. I helped some with planting it,” he remembers, “You know, my mother liked to do canning too, so we always had canned vegetables and some frozen as well, so that started me out in gardening.”
Read More
Even though George McLaughlin’s academic and professional background is in theology rather than biology or agriculture, George has been playing in the dirt for as long as he can remember.
Read More
Over 26 years, Bill Minkey has donated nearly 500 varieties of tomatoes, beans, lettuce, and peas to the Seed Savers Exchange seed bank collection, and in 2017, Bill listed 1,011 varieties in the Exchange.
Read More