Saving Seeds, Preserving Taste: Heirloom Seed Savers in Appalachia

Keepers and Distributors of the Seeds

130 Keepers and Distributors of the Seeds In addition to the thousands of individuals in the Southern Appalachians who dutifully plant, tend, harvest, eat, preserve, and save seeds of the heirloom and heritage varieties of vegetables , grains, and fruits of the region, there are many who have taken upon themselves the additional responsibility of saving our edi-ble plant genetic heritage for future generations. The following pages honor a few who have passed on recently, as well as some of those still at work, many who have been seed savers for most of their lives. My mother collected seeds all her life, as her mother and grandmothers had done before her. When in her early Wfties she Wnally got a freezer, seed saving became much easier, and saving seeds from each variety each year was no longer necessary. She I Keepers and Distributors of the Seeds 131 freely and rapidly began to acquire even more varieties from extended family members who lived in other western North Carolina counties. Although nearly everyone by that time received gardening catalogues through the mail, she and most of our extended family and neighbors continued to save seeds because quality was “still job one” when it came to food preparation and preservation. As I entered adulthood, I encountered many other dedicated keepers and distributors of heirloom and heritage seeds. I met many of them at the new Western North Carolina Farmers Market in Asheville, where the beans of my youth were a big hit among local people and travelers to the mountains as well. At the farmers’ market, I found myself always headed to one vendor in particular. That vendor was Clive Whitt. Clive Whitt—the Dean of Beans On my Wrst visit to the farmers’ market, I walked up and down the aisles to check out what most of the vendors were selling. Several were selling heirloom beans, primarily diVerent varieties of greasy beans, but not all vendors were completely familiar with the fruits and vegetables they were selling; they could not really give good answers to my questions about their beans and tomatoes. Clive Whitt stood out from the crowd. Whitt was retired from a distinguished educational career in Madison County, North Carolina, but he had no intention of sitting around twiddling his thumbs during retirement. He opened one of the Wrst stalls at the new farmers’ market and was quite familiar with the products he sold. When I asked him questions, he did not send me somewhere else to Wnd an answer. He spoke very authoritatively, especially about beans. When I told him I was raised in adjoining Haywood County and had an experience of many years with heirloom beans, he Seed Savers 132 invited me to sort through the beans he had available and buy those that were close to being ready for seed, what we both called “shelly beans.” I would spend a half hour or so picking out the yellow-hulled beans from several crates to save for seed. He would then weigh them up; I would buy them and be on my way with still another greasy bean variety to add to my growing collection. Each time I visited the market in subsequent years I would visit his stand; often I would Wnd still another variety I had not previously seen. I would go through the same process of picking out the most mature bean pods, talk with him for a while about where the bean was grown and by whom, and then be on my way once again to dry out the pods, shell out the seeds, put them in airtight containers, document where they came from, and stick them into one of my freezers. He occasionally would mention varieties that he rarely had for sale and tell me where in surrounding counties those varieties might be found. One variety he mentioned was the Lazy Wife Greasy from his home county of Madison. The following year, at the March 1998 funeral of my uncle John, I was introduced by his daughter, Linda, to her Wrst cousin on her mother’s side, Mary Metcalf. Mary said that she knew where to Wnd the Lazy Wife Greasy and would get some for me. She soon sent me about three hundred seeds through the mail, followed not long afterward by another packet of a smaller version of the Lazy Wife Greasy. The two beans are clearly among the...