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I’m sure we have a lot of cold days in front
of us before we’re past the last chance of frost.
It might seem a little premature to be think
ing about gardening, but it’s not, really.
You can’t plant a garden without a little
planning. And daydreaming about April gar
dening in February is a good way to take a
vacation without going anywhere. Even if you
don’t have a yard to plant in, you probably
know someone who does. Sharing the day
dreaming and the work of gardening can ac
tually be better than doing it alone.
I just got my copy of the Seeds of Change
1995 Catalog. It’s kind of like the J. Crew cata
log of the botanical world. Even though part
of me cynically sneers at the how-can-you-
get-more-multiculturally-earth-friendly-than-
this marketing of the whole thing (complete
with National Geographic-style photos of in
digenous peoples hand-hoeing earth), I can’t
help liking these folks.
Based in New Mexico, Seeds of Change
sells seeds to gardeners and garden retailers
through the mail. That’s what they do for a
living. But there are some important differ
ences between commercial garden seeds and
the seeds that Seeds of Change offers.
As farming becomes increasingly corpo
rate, fewer and fewer different varieties of veg
etables and fruits are grown. From North to
South, East to West corporate farms rely on a
few popular hybrid strains of com, wheat, to
matoes and broccoli.
Think about apples. Sometimes there are
five or six different varieties available at the
grocery store. That might seem like a good
selection but in fact, there are hundreds of
different varieties of apples and only a hand
ful ever make it to the grocer’s shelves.
There are also dozens and dozens of dif
ferent strains of com, spinach, tomatoes, on
ions, peppers, melons and squashes that are
no longer commercially grown. One of the
primary goals of Seeds of Change is to offer a
good selection of 100 percent organic variet
ies not available anywhere else.
This isn’t simply a matter of them selling you
on the exclusivity of their varieties. And it’s not
just a matter of rescuing an obscure, endangered
species variety of red pepper from the threat of
extinction. By distributing their carefully selected
and cultivated vegetable, fruit, herb and flower
seeds, they’re working to preserve agricultural
biodiversity. By offering a wide selection of seeds
to gardeners and farmers around the country they’re
helping to insure that a good variety of garden
plants will survive into the next century (to re
ally get worked up about all this, go rewatch
that quirky 1970s bio/ecological science fiction
thriller Silent Running).
It’s also about keeping alive an older tra
dition of home gardening in which backyard
farmers realize that there are as many differ
ent kinds of tomatoes as there are roses. And
it's about the network of gardeners who culti
vate and trade those arcane varieties of plants
and seeds. .
Seeds of Change is, of course, just a part
of a much larger movement. Throughout the
country local gardeners are forming a network
made up of gardening clubs, mail order seed
merchants, and specialty nurseries devoted to
preserving and cultivating off-the-beaten-
path varieties of all your favorite garden
plants. Seeds of Change buys a lot of its seeds
from these small family farms and nurseries
around the country.
Of course, Seeds of Change has no mo
nopoly on the movement to cultivate and dis
tribute a greater variety of seeds for the farm
and garden. There are plenty of good, local
— Cftbntnry, 1, 1995
nurseries where you can get a diverse variety
of herbs, veggies, fruits and flowers in the seed
packet or as young plants ready to plop intc
the soil. But Seeds of Change provides a good
window into an interesting trend in modem
gardening. If you want an armchair glimpse
into this bio-subculture you can lay your hands
on a Seeds of Change catalog by simply re
questing one through the mail. The catalog
is foil of gardening tips, recipes, feature sto
ries on topics like edible flowers, urban com
munity gardens and biological diversity in the
garden, handsome photos of their okra, com,
herbs, tomatoes, amaranth and chiles, and of
course, a big selection of gardenables you can
get through the mail.
Write them at: Seeds of Charge, P. O. Box
15700, Santa Fe, NM 87506-5700.
Matthew Greenia
• Sons of Italy (down on Lumpkin Street close to Milledge Avenue} has reopened after a remod
eling. and new owners Dimitri and Yiams have added a number of pasta specials and Greek
• items to their big Italian sub and pizza menu Now you can get eggplant drphicken parmesan,
manicotti, stuffed shells and Greek gyros, pastitsio and mousaka
. • The Athens Coffee House has a new chef and a new menu They re still serving a lot of their old
cat style favorites along with new items like a tomato, mozzarella and basil appetizer. a goat
cheese and pine nut salad, and a chicken and roasted red pepper pie They re still open for
luncFTand dinner seven days and for brunch on Saturday and Sunday
• The Classic City'General Store is open for business on Broad Street a few doorseast of Lumpkin
Street They/e starting out with a pretty basic neighborhood store" style inventory, but they plan
to offer an ever wider range of grocery items including fresh produce and as many other stan
dard groceries as they can fit into their not-really-all-that-big space They're hoping to sell beer
as well, but they have a little red tape to dance through, so it might take a few wefeks
• A Taste of Athens is Community Connection s maior annual fundraiser About 30 local restau
rants and a nandfu! of w*ne merchants will ser ve up a sampling of the culmary best of Athens at
Trumps m the Georg.an Hotel at 6 30 d m Sunaay, Feb 5 Tickets are avaiiaoie through Commu
nity Connection or a? the door the evening of the event For morennfo call 353-1313
Matthew Greenia
How Hoes Ifour Calcium
Label Measure Up?
Zucchini’s Offers Farm-Fresh Milk
which is Non-Homogenizec
Added Hormones, and contains i>u
It is bottled the day it’s milked in
reusable, returnable glass.
nofural foods morkef
1055 Gaines School Rd. • 353-8066
Open until 9 p.m. every day!
, Why drive all the way to
Atlanta just for shoes?
5. Want shoes that don't suck
ab badab ba’sH
Innovative Shoes & Clothes Roswell
WS-ebb*
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