Every year, Pikeville’s Appalachian Seed Swap begins with a ritual that pays homage to the event’s origins and its cultural importance. Organizers choose an honored guest—usually a regular attendee or an expert seed saver, but it’s also been a re-enactor portraying Abraham Lincoln. In the front of the room, with all attendees looking on, the chosen one carefully wields a knife and commences with the ceremonious Cutting of the Cushaw. Once the squash is sliced and venerated, the event can begin.
The cushaw, a large bulbous sweet winter squash, has been grown for generations in Eastern Kentucky. As with many heirloom crops, varieties often are passed down and cared for by individual families in local hollers. A major flood swept through Harless Creek in 2010 and nearly wiped out the local Farmer Brown Cushaw forever. The event awakened local gardeners to the vulnerability of this hyper-local seed stock and spurred the creation of the Appalachian Seed Swap.
In the face of increasing disasters such as floods, organizers of the seed swap hope to increase the chances that individual strains live on. Sharing seeds across larger geographies increases crop resiliency and creates a fall-back plan. That hope already has come to fruition at the seed swap.
A couple of years back, a local woman shared her family bean seeds with a dedicated seed saver from Michigan at the swap. Later, she lost her crop in a flash flood and feared the heirloom might be lost. Then, she attended the next seed swap and approached the same farmer from Michigan. Upon discovering he had grown out her family seeds and could share them with her, she was so moved that all she could do was stand in the aisle and cry.
Heirlooms
Swap co-founder Joyce Pinson, proprietor of Friends Drift Inn Farm and Kitchen in Pikeville, has family and personal connections to heirloom cushaws. She grew up eating the squash in pie, pudding and soup. When she married and began her own gardening tradition, she realized they were a specialty crop, and seeds were not readily available in standard catalogs. Her mother mentioned Appalachian heirloom seed expert Bill Best, 90, of Berea, who connected her to the seeds she desired.
Heirlooms are deeply tied to familial traditions and Appalachian culture. Pinson refers to Eastern Kentucky and East Tennessee as “the bean nation,” where generations of Appalachians have guarded their own variety of cut shorts, greasies and limas. She is astonished by each seed’s history and its journey to her garden. Her favorite butter bean has a mix of speckled, black and red seeds. The Civil War-era story about this bean is that a Union soldier was fighting in the South and grabbed some seeds on his way home.
From a biodiversity standpoint, preserving heirlooms increases global and regional resilience. Saving seeds allows gardeners to more quickly recover from floods. And while heirloom seeds don’t usually produce as prolifically as modern hybrid seeds, proponents like Pinson believe the taste is far superior.
“We save seeds, not because we are paranoid [doomsday] preppers, but because it’s a way of life here,” Pinson said. “I love that foods we have been cooking for hundreds of years and think of as common, like black-eyed peas, become trendy in the hands of chefs. It’s just fun.”
Buy, Sell, Trade
The Pike County event is one of the largest seed swaps east of the Mississippi. It regularly welcomes 200-300 people, but the numbers wax and wane. The largest had more than 1,000 participants. Attendees hail from Louisiana, Mississippi, New York and as far away as California.
It is a buy/sell/trade event, so people need not bring seeds to participate—or even money. Kentucky State University and University of Kentucky Extension agents and Pike County Master Gardeners hand out free seeds, and the local conservation district distributes small trees. Often, some seed-saving old-timers bring 5-gallon buckets of unusual corn or bean seeds to trade or give away. They are committed to preserving these rare heirlooms by getting them out to gardeners across the community.
Many among the who’s who of seed savers participate in the Appalachian Seed Swap. Jim Wyant, known as “Tomato Jim,” travels every year from his home in Indiana to share obscure and unusual Appalachian tomato seeds. Rodger Winn has saved seeds and gardened since he was a child. He now is an heirloom evangelist of sorts, writing articles and teaching seminars from his home in South Carolina.
For Ben Cohen of Michigan, the passions for seed saving, herbalism, book writing and podcasting all grew out of his family homestead, Small House Farm. John Coykendall is the celebrated master gardener at Tennessee’s Blackberry Farm. Sporting a plaid shirt and overalls, he spins tall tales and takes copious notes in his field-guide notebooks. Pinson said he collects background information about the seeds he gathers along with cultural peculiarities and quirks about the Appalachian region.
There are plenty of swap participants close to home. Bill Best founded an heirloom seed company, Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center, and has written several books about Appalachian heirlooms. One young man from Whitley County drives over every year in his custom-painted car. The hood sports a farming and seed saving scene.
Regular Pikeville Farmers Market vendors bring their seed-adjacent wares, such as baked goods, jams and jellies. Craft participants create toys from dried gourds and gardening books from recycled seed packets. Retiree-aged gardeners mingle with young people learning about the land and families wanting their children to experience growing their own food.
A Growing Event
The Pike County Cooperative Extension office has been a partner since the beginning—its parking lot hosted the first seed swap. Extension Agent Emily Davis has been involved the last couple of years and is excited to expand educational opportunities for attendees. A flood event preceded last year’s swap, and Davis handed out research-based flood-relief information.
“We emphasized building back seed collections after disasters,” she said. “I want people to learn something about seed saving and gardening that they can take home with them.”
At past events, the Family Consumer Science agent conducted cooking classes; Pinson explained seed saving; and one of Pinson’s co-founders spoke on beekeeping. Davis is growing a partnership with the University of Kentucky to include additional experts and to receive a grant to purchase seeds to give away. Locally, connections with universities and master gardener programs also are increasing.
Davis loves heirloom seeds because they bring all kinds of people together—farmers, gardeners, historians and families. She sees more young people getting into traditional ways of doing things, learning skills that their grandparents knew decades ago. In addition, saving and sharing seeds reduces costs and helps build resilience in tough times.
“Families in Appalachia have been passing down seeds for generations,” Davis said. “Saving seeds protects rare and heirloom plants. It’s helping farmers and gardeners grow food suited to our climate and terrain and keeping our Appalachian traditions alive for years to come.”
Appalachian Seed Swap
Pike County Central High School
100 Winners Circle Drive, Pikeville
April 4
9 a.m.-1 p.m.