Several years ago I began saving heirloom and open-pollinated seeds and networking with others in my region who are doing the same. It has been such an exciting adventure! I feel like every step of the way has been guided and blessed by Life. Whether I was driving down the back roads of the Allegheny mountains, talking with folks at a potluck, or browsing the internet, I was gifted with brilliant souls who love life and want to hand me seeds that have been carefully preserved by other lovers of life for generations.
On one such occasion, a farmer handed me 3 ears of dent corn (feed corn) and told me they were developed by a Dr. Walter Goldstein who is dedicated to using open-pollinated native varieties to develop strong and useful strains. for more information about this endeavor, visit:
this was so encouraging to me, because I had given up hope of there being large-scale corn production outside of the GMO/roundup ready model. I do not have the capacity for large-scale production, but I finally decided this year that I needed to get those seeds out of the freezer and into the ground for multiplication purposes before they lost viability to germinate. Around May 1, I started chomping at the bit to plant my corn. My wife laughed, "It's still two weeks before last frost! you plant now and you'll lose them all." I could not shake the feeling that I needed to plant them ASAP. I think I planted around May 8. My 20 month old son, Judah helped me by dumping handfuls of seed in the rows and saying "Some! Some!"
Good thing we planted as soon as we did! Over the next 6 weeks we got 24 inches of rain. Everything was so swamped, there was running water in our driveway for weeks, and most people didn't even get their fields and gardens tilled up at all! Everyone was joking "Shoulda planted rice...."
We live on the side of a mountain with red clay and rocks, so I like to cover the soil with plenty of leaves, grass, woodchips, hay, and whatever biomass I can get my hands on. Fortunately a friend of mine was cleaning out his haymow and had baled up all the loose junk on the floor and offered me first dibs on it. I brought over twenty or so bales of junk hay and left them out in the monsoon for a few weeks. By the time i came to spread the mulch, it was black and slimy, growing mushrooms, mold, and all kinds of good stuff.
(Pixabay image)
My brother-in-law brought us dozens of big lawn bags full of leaves last fall, and I added them to the mix between the rows. now whenever we mow the grass we dump the clippings between the rows.
When the sprouts were young, the deer were nibbling on them pretty hard so every night I would spread urine on the edges of the patch so they knew it was someone else's territory. Then I ignored the patch for 3 weeks, no weeding, no fertilizing, no spray, and look at it now!
I feel absolutely fine about letting my little man run around barefoot, helping us pull weeds and mulch, playing in the leaves and grass. I know that there are no carcinogenic poisons in my corn patch. I have taken the "Safe Seed Pledge" which means I use seed that has been produced by open-pollination and agree to use the same method. Also, I do not own copyright to the seed. the Safe Seed Pledge is a creation of the Open Source Seed Initiative, which I highly recommend you check out:
I am far enough out in the woods that I am not worried about cross-pollination with conventional ag corn, but just in case I will keep a close eye on them when they come to tassel and give them a daily shake to make sure they self-pollinate. once a pollen touches a tassel (fallopian tube), that seed is fertilized and will not accept another pollen (sperm).
I have no grand schemes of changing the world by myself, but I do hope that in a few years we may have grown enough corn to feed someone's hogs or chickens a good meal, and save some seed to plant again next year so that Life may continue.
Peace.