SFC Museum creates new seed library for residents

The St. Francis County Museum has opened its new seed library. SFC Museum Curator Jason Ring said the facility was able to begin the seed library program after receiving a grant from the SFC Community Foundation this year. "We are starting our seed library or seed bank, people have heard it said either of those ways," said Ring. "We received a grant through the St. Francis County Community Foundation and we finally have the rack and seeds in to begin this process. It is better saving the past for the future as Southern Seed Exposure says." Ring explained that a lot of the seeds currently available at the museum are of the heirloom and heritage variety, similar to what older generations have grown. "What we are kind of doing is helping bring the past to the present and the future," said Ring. "We are saving seeds for future generations. A lot of these seed varieties that we have are heirloom or heritage varieties that our parents or grandparents may have grown. We are trying to preserve the past, and that something that I thought the museum could do." According to Ring, this is something he has wanted to do with the museum for the past 10 or 15 years and now that he is curator, his plans are coming to fruition. "This will allow the museum to not only preserve history, but also save it for the future and growing it, helping people with food insecurities," said Ring. "That would allow the museum to not only be a place that holds things, but also a place where we can preserve something living that we can take with us as we go on." Ring said workshops will be offered on how to save seeds to be donated to the museum, however, the first few years of workshops will be virtual. "We are going to offer workshops so that when people come and get seeds, they can leave us their information so that when the growing season is coming to a close, we can inform them of sessions that we have scheduled," said Ring. "The first year or two will probably be virtual workshops, but then Seed Saver Exchange has said they will send someone down if we have enough interest and it grows, for a small fee of course. "We can do that with virtual workshops or I can direct people to Southern Seed Exposure,” he added. According to Ring, Seed Saver Exchange has sent seeds to the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway to be stored for future generations. "Seed Saver Exchange was, at one point, the only private or the only one I know of, seed library that the United States had," said Ring. "They even have seed that they sent to Svalbard, the Global Seed Vault, in Norway. I have been to Iowa to see their facilities. It was awesome to go there and see what they are doing." Ring said he is hopeful to get a handmade wooden rack for the seed library. "I was hoping to get a wooden rack for our seed library but we ended up with a metal wire rack," said Ring. "The place we got the rack from makes the wooden racks by hand, but sadly, someone set fire to their shop and they lost all of their inventory. They have a waiting list that would be several years long after the fire. This will work perfectly, but I will still be on the lookout for an old library card catalog as I feel that would be the perfect fit for our seed library." According to Ring, the museum will gladly accept seeds as donations as well as funds for future use to further expand the seed library. "Those who live in the county can have seeds mailed to them," said Ring. "Right now, it is only two to three packets of seeds until we really get up and going. We do have some additional funds, so if we ever were just totally wiped out, we can reorder and get some more. If people want to donate seeds or funds to the seed library, we would gladly take those as well."

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