May 14, 2017

Today we went to the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah Iowa. The main mission of this non-profit organization is to save endangered species of plants by saving their seeds and sharing them across the globe. Seed Savers Exchange takes threats to biodiversity seriously. It maintains a collection of more than 20,000 heirloom and open-pollinated vegetable, herb, and plant varieties, including over 1,000 varieties of heritage apple trees. They also grow their select varieties every year so they have the seeds available to sell.

When we first got to the exchange, its location was breathtaking. Rolling green grass, a creek, a beautiful red barn,  and even a  small mountain which had an apple orchard on top. We first walked into the exchange itself. There were so many different varieties of seeds. One variety I found intriguing was the six different varieties of carrot seeds ready for planting. When I think of a carrot I  only think of two which are regular and baby carrots. I had no idea how many varieties there were for a same type of vegetable, fruit, or flower.

After buying seeds we all walked up the little mountain to visit the orchard and hopefully get some strudel and cider. I was lucky enough to get the last piece of strudel, unfortunately, the rest of my group was not able to get any. as the saying goes, “The early bird gets the worm” and that was me getting the last strudel! However, everyone else did have the opportunity to try the cider. While at the orchard we learned from the head man of the orchard about the 700 different kinds of apples at the orchard. I never knew there were so many different types of apples. Some of the apple varieties in the orchard date back to the 1600s.  I think it is so amazing that seed savers goes around the country to save varieties of apples about to go extinct. Overall, I learned about the many different varieties of plants, and seed savers has inspired me to plant different unconventional varieties of plants at my own home in the future.