Heirloom Seeds Turned into Cash for Pandemic Victims
Written by:
May 15, 2021
The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is expanding its response to the current COVID-19 outbreak in India thanks to the generous support of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, a Missouri-based business, that donated more than $430,000 to help bolster ADRA’s emergency operations in India. For weeks, the South Asian nation has been struggling with an unprecedented second outbreak that has overwhelmed hospitals and health facilities killing more than 254,000 people and causing daily cases to surpass 400,000 ( Numbers subject to change daily).
Seeing the headlines coming out of India with increasing concern, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds founder Jere Gettle felt compelled to respond to the growing crisis by donating all the proceeds of a recent four-day sale to help ADRA supply life-saving oxygen generation systems and essential medical equipment to Adventist hospitals caring for critical COVID-19 pat
How to Test Saved Garden Seeds
Q: I saved seeds from several of my garden plants last year, including pumpkins, peppers, and peas. I want to store more again this fall, but I wanted to start with a few and see how they worked. Besides just planting them and seeing what comes up, how can I be sure the seeds are still good?
A: Congratulations, you are becoming a better gardener by growing your own crops. You started with some good, easy-to-collect seeds that should grow well this year. Collecting seeds is easy; the hard part for many gardeners is keeping them over the winter. The seeds may be tiny, but they are alive. They can die quickly if they dry out.
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It seems that a similar mental switch to the one that caused those skirmishes to break out in the toilet paper aisle got flipped in those inclined to garden.
The pandemic planted seeds of curiosity in many people who wanted to take some control over their own food security, just in case. In others, the seeds were already planted, and the pandemic simply added water. Either way, seed companies were deluged.
My seeds were slow to arrive, but at least the order got filled. Many in the stampede of gardeners and garden-curious were not so lucky.