Gathering: Memoir of a Seed Saver
Daughter of Iowa farmers, Missouri homesteader, and mother of five, Diane Ott Whealy never anticipated that one day she would become a leader in a grass-roots movement to preserve our agricultural biodiversity. The love for the land and the respect for heirloom seeds that Diane shared with her husband, Kent Whealy, led to their starting Seed Savers Exchange in 1975.Seed Savers Exchange, the nation’s premier nonprofit seed-saving organization, began humbly as a simple exchange of seeds among pass
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The Seeds of a Grassroots Cultural Revolution,
By telling her adventurous story about the places where she lived, gardened, raised five children,and came to know fellow gardeners, many of them old timers,Diane Ott Whealy has done an important service to our country and to the world, and in a natural voice that makes this book charming not preachy. Because of her organic relationships, and the abundant goodwill of others, Diane and her husband Kent were encouraged to follow their conviction that genetic diversity must be preserved for all the people and not come into the exclusive control of the five seed corporations. This led to the founding of The Seed Savers Exchange in rural Decorah,Iowa, now an internationally recognized garden crop research, seed bank, and public education facility. As you read, you will feel as though Diane were your best friend, revealing to you her most memorable moments with the home-grown humor of an Iowa farm girl, who, no matter what the crisis, just does what needs to be done, even in the midst of a muddle when, on short notice, Martha Stewart herself decides to come calling! Her gentle acceptance, beyond all expectation, of her increasing responsibilities and roles in a growing family and a burgeoning movement kept me reading. Diane is a standard bearer for the quiet, grassroots, cultural revolution on which in part our survival as a species depends. This book will bring you hope.
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|Very Good Read,
If you’re at all interested in heirloom veggies and, in particular, the birth of Seed Savers Exchange, the wonderful repository of heirloom seeds in Decorah, IA, this book is for you. I thought Ms. Ott Whealy did a commendable job of weaving the story of her marriage to Seed Savers’ co-founder with the birth and growth of the Exchange. Her descriptions of the land (IA, MO, KS) and its people and all the individuals who have contributed to the success of the Exchange were especially well done. I liked this book.
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