Colleen Carroll, Ed.D., Director and C.E.O. of NatureTalks writes a monthly blog on Gardens and Gardeners and recently converted one of her books It’s About More Than Trees into an ebook for the kindle! Go to It’s About More Than Trees to see a sample!

Seeds from selected fruits are carefully prepared for storage.

In the not so distant past, seeds were one of the most valuable currencies one could have. Just imagine for a moment no home depot, no Internet, and no seed catalogue sales.  Where would we get our seeds? In years past, seeds were a strong commodity, and special varieties would be handed down from generation to generation, moving across time and across countries.  Auntie’s beans, Uncle’s tatsoi, the yam from my grandmother’s garden, and the basil from my family in Italy. The first settlers to Hawaii brought with them canoes filled with vegetative propagation materials for bananas, kalo, and sweet potatoes.

Seeds are the heart of the garden and once you grow a plant that is extraordinary—good to eat; vibrant; and disease resistant; you will want to grow it again and again.  My success story is with snow peas. Yum. You know they can cost $6.00/pound in season and they are not even organic! I’ve grown them many times over the years—placed them carefully in good soil, used organic seed, planted them during cool weather and even then the plants were weak with very small yields. Well, four years ago, I planted my snow peas and they filled the fence-line with happy vigorous plants just busting with crisp pea pods. I was so excited I marked seeds off for saving very early on—selecting the best during the mid crop—not too early or late and hoped for more. One day I even came home to see my neighbors leaning on the fence happily chomping on peas without even putting a dent in my harvest. Now, it’s my fourth year of saving and sharing this seed and I am hooked.

Establishing a network of trained seed savers is one goal of the Hawaii Public Seed Initiative.

If you have even the tiniest interest in learning about saving seeds, growing plants suited for your microclimate, and gardening you won’t want to miss this workshop when it comes to your island. It doesn’t matter if you are brand new to gardening or an old pro. The Kohala Center received funding from The Ceres Trust for a statewide Public Seed Initiative designed to help Hawaii’s farmers and gardeners to select, grow, harvest, store, and improve seed varieties that will thrive in Hawaii. The Ceres Trust, whose name pays homage to the ancient Roman goddess of agriculture, has as its main focus the support and promotion of organic and sustainable agriculture.

The Public Seed Initiative will consist of workshops on each of the five main Hawaiian Islands, with two workshops scheduled on each island over the course of the next two years. The goals of the project are to increase the community’s knowledge of and practical experience with seed production. Partnering in this effort are The Kohala Center, the University of Hawaii at Manoa Extension Service, Regenerations Botanical Garden, and multiple farms and organizations throughout the state. Contact Lyn Howe, Workshop Coordinator, to learn more about this workshop and when it will be coming to your island!

The speakers are smart, funny, informative, and absolutely passionate about what they do whether it is perfecting lettuce or tomato strains suited for Hawaii or learning how to grow more disease resistant plants. Here on Kauai we had the honor of hosting the first workshop on November 6, and 7, 2011, at the Kauai Community College and the Kilauea Community Garden. The leaders and organizers were Regenerations Botanical Garden with Paul Massey, Jill Richardson, and Marshall Paul and Big Island Counterparts with Lyn Howe and Nancy Redfeather from the Kohala Center. Food by Chef Keli Ranke was local and delicious: taro enchiladas, breadfruit lasagna, and a chocolate coconut dessert complemented by passion fruit dressings, and Roselle mint teas. Other local plant celebrities such as Jeri Di Pietro of GMO Free Kauai and Waioli taro farmers Chris Kobayashi and Dimi Rivera joined in.

The journey into the how, why, and when of saving your seed starts with our favorite Nancy Redfeather, Director of the Hawaii Island School Garden Network.  You’ll learn from Nancy not only about the history of seed but also about the huge changes in the diversity available today. You’ll also get a glimpse into the economics of seed and the large conglomerates that own much of the seed. Then, Paul Massey and Jill Richardson, joined by Glenn Teves, Russell Nagata, and Hector Valenzuela of the Hawaii Cooperative Extension Service, bring to the table information on how to grow seed that is climatized for our unique island microclimates and how to save it for use in years to come.

The days are filled with a wealth of information—following are a few of my favorite quotes.

Beautiful image from the Organic Seed Alliance entitled Seed Dreaming

If you don’t plant you won’t harvest. Glenn

We grew plants and saved seed because without doing this we would go hungry. Ruth

Always know the name of the plant. This is so important in knowing the lineage and for some plants, like taro, represents an essential part of Hawaiian culture. Chris

Only save seed from disease free plants. Learn some of the common indicators and keep your plants healthy. Hector

Think about the characteristics you are looking for—such as drought tolerance, good flavor, and early harvest, and select for those. Russell

In addition to the nuts and bolts of saving seeds, the workshop offers a glimpse into what it might look like if we were to recreate the ancient pathways of seed saving carved out for us by our ancestors. Following their lead, we can use observation and careful selection to share disease-free materials and grow out stabilized seeds, creating food security on our islands.

Imagine planting your garden five years from now with seed you have helped create. Growing seed in a small backyard garden is fun and satisfying. But the idea of selecting, tasting, harvesting, saving, and then growing seed from crops that you have fine-tuned with your community for your unique neighborhood conditions is quite another story. It transfers that power of growing our own food right into our own hands, which is at the heart of food security. Meeting all the local gardeners, great speakers, and making a new set of friends and relationships was an important take away from the two-day workshop. Visit The Kohala Center Seed Saving Initiative to Learn More!

All images used with permission of the Kohala Center.