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Stewardship tale
Sand Hill Preservation Center
Glenn Drowns ’ passion for gardening started when he was two and a one-half years sure-enough . “ I used to crawl through the fencing to our neighbors ’ to escape from my mammy , and help [ Evelyn , the neighbor ] plant her garden , ” recalls Glenn , lovingly . Although Glenn ’s home afterward moved across town , Glenn and Evelyn Armstrong stayed unspoiled friends , and Evelyn even teach him to carry through his first seeds at seven years of eld .
Ten years after , Glenn Drowns stumbled upon a magazine blurb about Seed Savers Exchange while researching a fourth-year course project . “ When I found that , it opened up a whole connection of people ! ” remember Glenn . “ All my very tight friends started as connections with the Seed Exchange . ”
“ ’ Blacktail [ Mountain ] ’ is the gilded standard by which my Daughter and I judge all other watermelons . ”-Amy Goldman in Melons for the Passionate GrowerAfter long time of searching for a watermelon that would mature in his short Idaho acquire season , Glenn decided to breed one himself . By the metre he was 20 old age old , Glenn had stabilize the ‘ Blacktail Mountain ’ watermelon vine . It has since become an SSE favorite and has been list in the Exchange / Yearbook almost every year since he put in it in 1983 .
In 1999, the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy awarded Glenn Drowns the Bixby-Sponenberg Breed Conservation Award for his notable contributions to the conservation of rare turkeys and of important poultry genetic resources.
After calibrate from college in 1984 , Glenn assisted SSE co - founders , Kent Whealy and Diane Ott - Whealy , with the first saving garden in Decorah .
He later settled near Calamus , Iowa on the farm that ’s been his domicile and the headquarters of his seed and heritage domestic fowl troupe , Sand Hill Preservation Center , for over 30 age . “ I think it ’s my promised demesne ! ” he beams .
Since then he has held a myriad of positions : he regenerate cucurbit and corn whiskey for the SSE collection from his Calamus , Iowa farm , has given lectures and written articles , and has been on the SSE Board of Advisors . In all , Glenn has donate nearly 600 mixed bag to Seed Savers Exchange .
“’Blacktail [Mountain]’ is the gold standard by which my Daughter and I judge all other watermelons.”-Amy Goldman in Melons for the Passionate Grower
Seed Savers Exchange has led the heirloom seed drive since 1975 , inspiring a coevals of ejaculate companies to specialise in uncommon , regionally accommodate , delicious , and irreplaceable open - pollinated kind . Many of these companies were establish by our own Seed Savers Exchange members . Rather than tolerate heirloom and historical varieties to vanish or go unnoticed , these members launched an uncoordinated , organic , and persistent resistance to the disappearing of heirloom germ . This first wave of heirloom seed company did not offer up seed catalogs in reception to consumer demand . rather , they created it .
This is the story of one of nine small ejaculate companies and a few of the varieties they have maintain . While each and every one of their background is as unique and bold as the varieties they share , they all have one thing in common : the passion for sharing seeds .
Bios pen , interviews , and correspondence by Kelly Loud with helper from Sara Straate .
limited thanks to the follow multitude : Alan and Linda Kapuler , Suzanne Ashworth , Craig Dremann , Steve Sando , Mike and Denise Dunton , Tom Wagner , Joanne Ranck - Dirks , Sue Ellen Majer , Bill McDorman , andGlenn Drowns .
3094 North Winn RoadDecorah , Iowa 52101(563 ) 382 - 5990
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Seed Savers Exchange is a taxation - exempt 501(c)3 non-profit-making organization dedicated to the saving of heirloom seed .
