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Landis Valley ’s Heirloom Seed Project has over 50 volunteers who help to sustain their collection of historical Pennsylvania Dutch seeds . This includes several that they first found in the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbooks . Featured photo above courtesy of Landis Valley .
TheLandis Valley Village & Farm Museumin Lancaster , Pennsylvania first started as a means to preserve historic Pennsylvania Dutch farming equipment , but it quickly branch out its scope . “ Somewhere along the line in the 1980s [ we ] say , ‘ If we ’re a farm museum , we should be talking about not just the equipment that people use , but what are they really produce here , ’ ” say Joanne Ranck - Dirks , the Landis Valley Heirloom Seed Project coordinator . “ We welcome donations from local people whose families would have been growing these vegetable and passing them down from genesis to generation . ”
Wayne Fortna as a baby with his cousin Annie and his aunt Carrie, who raised him.
One of the varieties that stands out to Joanne , is the beautiful ‘ Fortna clean ’ pumpkin . This family heirloom traces back to Wayne Fortna of Gettysburg , Pennsylvania . “ [ He ] went to World War II and came back with like PTSD , ” recalls his daughter , Sue Ellen Majer . “ He could n’t go back to teaching , and ended up gardening . That sustain him back into the soil and got him back into nature and that really helped his nerves . ”
When she attend his aptitude for gardening , Wayne ’s aunty , Carrie Stayman , gave him a sample of the ‘ Fortna White ’ pumpkin seeds . For nearly forty class , Wayne spring up his family heirloom with particular care , ensuring there would always be a white pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving .
After her father go on away in 1990 , Sue Ellen realise how significant it was for her family to save the seed . “ I had gotten a aviator from the [ Landis Valley ] come catalog and I said “ Maybe they will serve me maintain this ! ”
Wayne Fortna as a baby with his cousin Annie and his aunt Carrie, who raised him.
25 eld later , Joanne received an ordination for the Fortna blanched pumpkin that piqued her sake . “ Lo - and - behold , the individual ordering it , is the same mortal who donate it 25 eld before ! ” she remembers .
Sue Ellen write in say , “ Last twelvemonth I countenance my seeds mold … If it had n’t been for Landis Valley our pumpkin would be extinct ! ”
With the assistance of Landis Valley ’s Heirloom Seed Project , Sue reignite her kin ’s passion of their own heirloom .
5-year-old Wayne with Jack the Dog.
Seed Savers Exchange has led the heirloom seed motion since 1975 , inspiring a generation of ejaculate companies to particularise in rare , regionally conform , delicious , and unreplaceable open - pollinated varieties . Many of these companies were founded by our own Seed Savers Exchange member . Rather than allow heirloom and historic varieties to fly or go unnoticed , these members launch an uncoordinated , organic , and dour resistance to the disappearance of heirloom seed . This first undulation of heirloom seed companies did not offer seed catalogs in response to consumer demand . Instead , they produce it .
This is the story of one of nine small seed company and a few of the kind they have preserve . While each and every one of their backgrounds is as unequalled and bluff as the variety they share , they all have one thing in vulgar : the passion for share seeds .
Bios written , interviews , and correspondence by Kelly Loud with help from Sara Straate .
Wayne Fortna in his 1941 WWII commander portrait.Family photos courtesy of Sue Ellen Majer.
Special thanks to the follow 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 revenue enhancement - exempt 501(c)3 non-profit-making governance consecrate to the conservation of heirloom seeds .
