Buy Local and 'Seed What Happens'

When the Port Townsend Farmers Market hits opening day for its 20th year on Saturday, April 7, one of the member/vendors -- Steve Habersetzer of Oatsplanter Farm -- has a history that goes back to market's first day in its first year when it was originally located downtown near the Quincy Street dock.

"That very first year, I was actually getting some produce from [Sequim farmer] Nash [Huber]," Steve said. "And the second year, I was just selling stuff from here.

"I've been a member/vendor every year. We'll be going to the market this year in the spring to sell seeds and probably some over-wintered stuff that we have -- leeks, kale, and Jerusalem artichokes. Really, our focus now is seeds."

This will be the first year Habersetzer sells his seed at the market. The five-acre farm, which he runs with his partner of four years, Jadyne Reichner, produces 1-2,000 seed packets annually. Jadyne (pronounced Jay-Deen) was a co-founder of Sequim's Purple Haze Lavender Farm, and they both once served on the board of directors for the Organic Seed Alliance. Steve is currently a member of the Port Townsend Farmers Market board.

Besides the farmers market, Oatsplanter Farm seeds can be purchased at the Port Townsend Food Co-op, Chimacum Corner Farmstand, and directly from him and Jadyne, said Steve. Oatsplanter has about 21 varieties of seeds to sell, and already they're sold out of pea seeds. Lettuce seeds are going quickly.

The Oatsplanter tag line, "Seed What Happens," was conceived by someone at the Organic Seed Alliance. When you buy Oatsplanter Farm seeds, you're getting something that has already adapted to the Olympic Peninsula climate, said Jadyne.

Pollination the natural way

Oatsplanter seeds are open-pollinated and non-GMO (genetically modified organism). Open-pollinated is how seeds reproduce by themselves in a natural way. Non-GMO means that the seed's DNA has not been altered by a human being in some way.

"They haven't inserted any genes from other creatures whether they are bacteria or pigs or whatever into the reproductive genes," Jadyne said.

Are they bad for you?

"I don't think we really know. We are our own guinea pigs," said Jadyne.

"Most GMOs are made to resist herbicides," said Steve. "Herbicide resistance eventually is going to spread to the weeds also. Therefore, herbicide use actually is going to go up as opposed to go down."

"For me, it's an ethical decision," said Jadyne. "I don't think that we should be tinkering and crossing genes from one organism  to another. There's a kind of a point at which I don't think we should experiment. And the only reason [agri-business does] it is capital."

Then there are hybrid plant varieties. A hybrid is created when a farmer takes the seed of a corn variety that grows tall and crosses it with a corn that produces consistent-sized kernels, like a donkey and a horse make a mule. Like a mule, a hybrid can't produce itself consistently, Jadyne explained.

Bolero marigolds and Early Girl tomatoes are hybrids. Any seed that comes from these plants will produce something completely different. Hybrid seed packets are labeled as such. Look for "F1 Hybrid" on the package.

"GMOS and hybrids are about control," said Steve, who named the Monsanto corporation, which patents its GMO and hybrid products, specifically.

Monsanto in the news

Monsanto, the company that brought us Roundup, Agent Orange, saccharin, and DDT, has been all over the Internet lately because a former Monsanto vice president for public policy, Michael Taylor, is a senior adviser to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, appointed by President Obama in 2009. A petition calling for his ouster has been circulating online, and it reads, in part, "Taylor is the same person who was Food Safety Czar at the FDA when genetically modified organisms were allowed into the U.S. food supply without undergoing a single test to determine their safety or risks."

A month ago, that petition had 60,000 or so signers with a goal of 75,000. It has since changed its goal to 450,000 and now has over 431,000.

To learn more about Monsanto and how they treat farmers, watch the Oscar-nominated movie Food, Inc. That film (available on Netflix streaming) was so influential that Monsanto was compelled to address it on their web site.

In 2005, Monsanto bought the seed company Seminis (note that the linked article was written by Port Townsend's Matthew Dillon and has a picture of Dillon and Nash Huber). Dillon wrote: "It is estimated that Seminis controls 40 percent of the U.S. vegetable seed market and 20 percent of the world market -- supplying the genetics for 55 percent of the lettuce on U.S. supermarket shelves, 75 percent of the tomatoes, and 85 percent of the peppers, with strong holdings in beans, cucumbers, squash, melons, broccoli, cabbage, spinach and peas."

A list of Seminis vegetable varieties is included in a sidebar with Dillon's article and another one can be found here. The problem is, the lists don't match. So, rather than carry around a list or two of the plant varieties one might want to avoid, it seems easier to buy seeds from a local producer.

Spiffy root cellar

One of the highlights and most enviable parts of the Oatsplanter property is the above-ground root cellar with 12-inch thick walls that Steve built last summer with the help of a Japanese friend's son. The young man, who was on his honeymoon, traveled from Japan with his wife, and the two stayed for month at the farm so he could learn American farming and building techniques from Steve, also a well-known woodworker who teaches at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking.

Inside the root cellar are two freezers, one that once stored bait at the Port Townsend Swain's store before it closed. Wire racks hold apples, carrots, onions, garlic, and potatoes. Drawers are filled with Oatsplanter seed.

Every seed has a different life length. Brassicas, i.e. the cabbage family, can stay viable from four to five years.

“Parsnips you gotta grow every year,” said Steve.

Some seeds are harder than others to harvest such as leek and onions, they said. To harvest seeds from broccoli and spinach, they roll it up in a rug or tarp and step on it. Steve built the seed cleaning trays, of course.

"There's nothing mechanical. It's all by hand," Jadyne said.

As Steve measured out some seed, Jadyne asked him if he was leveling his measuring spoon. He wasn't, but that didn't concern him.

"He's more than generous with the seed, that's for sure," said Jadyne.

"I'd rather have a little more in there than not enough," Steve answered cheerfully. "Yeah, I do it mostly because I have fun with it."

Oatsplanter Farm has a really great local seed-sowing guide on its web site, too.