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Stewardship Stories
The stories of our passionate Community Science Program ( formerly known as Citizen Science Program ) volunteers are as varied and interesting as those of the seeds that they grow . In celebration of Citizen Science Month , we are deal three firsthand accounts written by 2019 Community Science participant that spill light on what inspires them to ill-use up to the plate to help SSE steward its collection for future generation through the ADAPT and RENEW political platform . We launched the serial publication with Tiffany Traverse of British Columbia , Canada . Next up ? Dorene Pasekoff of Pottstown , Pennsylvania .
Dorene Pasekoff
I ’ve been garden since I could follow my Pennsylvania Dutch maternal granddad through his own garden . After 20 years of run a community garden , my husband and I decide to make the saltation to farm with Hill Creek Farm in Pottstown , Pennsylvania , an hour northwestward of Philadelphia .
Being part of the ADAPT broadcast is a continuation of garden with my grandfather . He start seeded player for both of us , and , while we had our favorite — like ‘ Aunt Molly ’s ’ ground cerise — he was always attempt out Modern varieties to see what would grow well for us and , more significantly , what we would like . I develop a tomato through the RENEW programme every year because my grandfather loved tomatoes , and he was always indisputable that there was a good one out there that he just did n’t bed about yet . The ADAPT computer programme , meanwhile , has introduced me to new favorites such as‘Tony Scavo ’ Basil the Great , ‘ Red Milan ’ turnip,‘Swenson Swedish ’ pea , ‘ Brinker Carrier ’ perch noggin , and‘Drotts Yellow ’ ground cherry . While my grandfather is no longer with us , I ’m able to share these discoveries with area chef who love bring forth almost as much as he did .
While I ’ve been a grower most of my lifetime , becoming a seed recoverer was a long outgrowth . At the residential district garden , my friends and I grew heirloom and commercial hybrid tomato side by side and discovered that we opt the flavor of heirloom tomato . In the mid-1990s , on a local wireless call - in show , William Woys Weaver and I scram into a detailed and het up disputation about whether ‘ Pruden ’s Purple ’ or‘Brandywine’was the better Lycopersicon esculentum ; the server finally kicked us both off the air .
Dorene Pasekoff displays tomatoes she grew at her home in Pennslyvania.
Then , in 1997 , the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society get off me to Penn State University to attend the Northeast SARE Conference , “ Preserving Crop Biodiversity and Saving Seed in the Northeast , ” because I had involve more genetics courses than anyone else they could send . As it turned out , most everyone who was serious about seminal fluid saving was at this conference . The workshops were technological , yet inspiring , and I absorbed the selective information demonstrate in all of them . I left the group discussion with seed to grow out from William Woys Weaver and a Seed Savers Exchange rank from Kent Whealy ( SSE ’s co - founder ) .
I ’ve been a seed saver and a test player ever since because biodiversity and sustainable agriculture affair , and I consider that when we match the right seeds with the correct environment , magic and sustainable living happen . People eat for tang , and if their solid food tastes good , they will pay their local James Leonard Farmer to grow more . And if that intellectual nourishment comes from plants that are unfeignedly adapted to local condition , it will be easy for growers to create that food and stay in husbandry .
I ’ve love plants all my life . While I do n’t find a new variety I screw every year , ADAPT gives me the space and ejaculate to seek to make a difference for my fellow growers .
‘Tony Scavo’ basil is just one of the varieties Dorene Pasekoff has trialed through the Community Scientist ADAPT program. Seed Savers Exchange introduced the variety in its 2018 catalog.
to begin with published on April 24 , 2020 . Edited January 30 , 2025 .
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