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High Altitude Garden Seeds/Seeds Trust
Bill McDorman started High Altitude Garden Seeds ( which later becameSeeds Trust ) in 1984 while living in a little mountain townspeople in Idaho . He hoped to offer salmagundi well suited to the inhuman , short - growing time of year of the field .
After five years of searching the globe for sort that would develop well in his backyard , Bill embarked on a journey behind the Iron Curtain to Siberia . There he hoped to find the perfect inadequate - season tomato .
While there , Bill and his then - wife , Barbi , stop at the Institute of Horticulture in Barnaul , Russia . The institute employ 20 full - clock time PhD staff members who bred vegetable varieties uniquely for Siberia ’s limited growing time of year and harsh climate . “ I call for if I could get some seeds … the rather stern theatre director , this charwoman said ‘ Nyet , no ! ’ that I had to have permission from Leningrad and St Petersburg , which was 5,000 km out . ”
Bill McDorman stands in his corn grex patch outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. Photo courtesy of Bill McDorman.
Bill toyed with the idea of sneaking seed out of the adroitness , but decided against it , realizing that if he was capture , he might be sent to a KGB work refugee camp . After their tour of the deftness was complete and Bill had board the bus topology to leave , he heard a bash on the bus window . Outside stomach one of the Ph.D. breeders named Galina , who motioned for him to slide open his windowpane . Bill did , and as soon as the windowpane was opened , Galina murder a package from under her smock and passed it to him .
“ I look down and she ’s gone , ” withdraw Bill . Not trusted of the number of laws that had just been broken in the exchange , Bill seat on the package until the bus was cast . Only then did he dare peep inside , and find that the clandestine package hold samples and science laboratory notes for 60 dissimilar varieties of tomatoes from the breeding body of work at the adeptness . “ It was a gift of unbelievable courage I will call it . ”
Almost all of those varieties sound on to strengthen Bill ’s business organisation . They include varieties like ‘ Olga ’s Round Yellow Chicken , ’ ‘ Mother Russia , ’ and ‘ Galina ’s Cherry ’ tomatoes . Bill sold High Altitude Seeds in 2011 and now tours the land with his married woman , Belle , teachingSeed Schools . Seed Savers Exchange preserves over 40 miscellanea of vegetables that are from Bill and High Altitude Garden Seeds .
Bill McDorman stands in his corn grex patch outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. Photo courtesy of Bill McDorman.
Seed Savers Exchange has led the heirloom seed movement since 1975 , enliven a propagation of seed companies to specialize in rarefied , regionally adapt , yummy , and irreplaceable open - pollinated variety show . Many of these companies were founded by our own Seed Savers Exchange member . Rather than leave heirloom and historical varieties to vanish or go unnoticed , these appendage launched an uncoordinated , constitutional , and unyielding opposition to the disappearance of heirloom seeds . This first wafture of heirloom source companies did not offer seed catalogs in reply to consumer requirement . rather , they created it .
This is the taradiddle of one of nine modest seed companies and a few of the varieties they have preserved . While each and every one of their screen background is as unique and bold as the varieties they share , they all have one affair in plebeian : the passion for sharing seeds .
Bios written , interview , and correspondence by Kelly Loud with assistance from Sara Straate .
Bill McDorman (in green) with a group of plant breeders from Novosibirsk, Siberia in 1989. Photo courtesy of Bill McDorman.
peculiar thanks to the following people : 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 tax - exempt 501(c)3 nonprofit organization give to the preservation of heirloom seeds .
