Sadly what is most scarce to procure to do organic or natural farming is good indigenous seeds. Organic farmers are struggling to get good seeds and so it is very important that each of us collects, grows, propagates and shares. This is also vital because:
1. The farmers don’t have to buy seeds every year. They can seed save and use the seed stock for the next planting. This gives them seed freedom.
2. This helps in the preservation of beautiful native varieties of seeds. Nature intended diversity and so there are hundreds of varieties of every vegetable. However chemical farming and monocropping and laboratory intervention has spelt the death of these beautiful native varieties. The market is flooded with hybrid varieties of seeds that assure yield but need more chemicals to grow. These seed varieties cannot be propagated and therefore the cost to the farmer is high and it is unsustainable.
3. Native varieties of vegetables and other crops also bring more colour, nutrition, taste and immense diversity to the plate. It’s so wonderful.
Spending time just now sorting the year's collection of seeds for planting. This has been painstakingly collected by us over the years from across India from wonderful experienced seed collectors whose life mission is to save native seed varieties. So humbled by their efforts. Building a seed bank is like penance. A long journey but with rewards that cannot be quantified.
While the harvest is in progress and fields are emptying slowly and seasons change we are continuously planting the vegetables in seed trays in phases. Really hope most of them germinate and the weather supports the season. It's not all easy as it looks and neither is it impossible. Just a lot of persistence and patience.
We hope we will soon have enough and more to be able to share much more.