Stewardship Stories: John Swenson
John Swenson’s successful career in law translates seamlessly into every aspect of his life including his passion for alliums (the genus that includes garlic, onions, and leeks).
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Stewardship Stories: John Coykendall
John Coykendall was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee by his mother and father—a school teacher and a banker, respectively. John’s grandfather owned a farm and was a congressman by profession. In 1954, when John was 11, his father taught him to plant potatoes and corn. It was then that John found his love of gardening. “I still get the same thrill out of digging new potatoes that I did the first year!” remembers John.
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Stewardship Stories: Jim Tjepkema
Jim Tjepkema, like many seed savers, gardened as a child with his parents. “My dad always had a garden as I was growing up. I helped some with planting it,” he remembers, “You know, my mother liked to do canning too, so we always had canned vegetables and some frozen as well, so that started me out in gardening.”
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Stewardship Stories: George McLaughlin
Even though George McLaughlin’s academic and professional background is in theology rather than biology or agriculture, George has been playing in the dirt for as long as he can remember.
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Stewardship Stories: Bill Minkey
Over 26 years, Bill Minkey has donated nearly 500 varieties of tomatoes, beans, lettuce, and peas to the Seed Savers Exchange seed bank collection, and in 2017, Bill listed 1,011 varieties in the Exchange.
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Stewardship Stories: Garden Favorites
As these intrepid visionaries demonstrate, seeds are all about community. Like-minded gardeners and seed savers build this community on the Exchange, a network for sharing and swapping seeds.
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Stewardship Stories: Mike Dunton
Some of Mike Dunton’s earliest childhood memories are of being out in the garden with his mother or grandparents.
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Stewardship Stories: Steve Sando
In the late 1990s, Steve found Seed Savers Exchange, and the tomatoes he craved, but he also discovered what ultimately became the passion of a lifetime: heirloom beans.
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Stewardship Stories: Glenn Drowns
Glenn Drowns’ passion for gardening started when he was two and a half years old. “I used to crawl through the fence to our neighbors’ to escape from my mom, and help [Evelyn, the neighbor] plant her garden,” recalls Glenn, fondly.
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Stewardship Stories: Bill McDorman
Bill McDorman started High Altitude Garden Seeds (which later became Seeds Trust) in 1984 while living in a small mountain town in Idaho. He hoped to offer varieties best suited to the cold, short-growing season of the area.
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